Old Testament

Leviticus 4:1-12
The Sin Offering, Part I

There is an elderly gentleman who comes to 7-11 many mornings while I’m working there. He’s a really nice guy, and after seeing me working for several months, he came up and got friendly with me as many people eventually do. They realize I’m not just a bum sorting through the garbage, but rather, I’m the guy picking up and taking out the garbage.

I guess the bare feet, dirty clothes, and shaggy beard lead to the initial impression which has to be overcome through repetitive visual experience. But as I tell folks once they get to know me, “I’m not going to wear a suit and tie to take out the trash.”

Anyway, this guy eventually found out that I preach. Probably, he heard one of the people behind the counter holler out, “Good morning Pastor” when I walk in to get trash bags. I think they do this on purpose to see the reaction of the people standing in line, looking at me as if I need to be ejected from the store.

Somehow he figured it out, and since then he has come up to me and hinted at wanting to come by the church some time. Each time he does, I tell him he’s always welcome. I’ve let him know that he would be a spring chicken there – he’s only in his 80’s. I tell him this so he knows it’s not just a biker church or something.

He’s driven by, he knows where it is, and I know he’s looked into the windows… I just know it. He really wants to come by, but I think he’s afraid of something in his past which he thinks will prevent him from being accepted. Maybe he thinks hell’s fire will burn him up when he steps through the door. I just don’t know. Whatever it is, he must be ignorant of God’s grace, and he must have gone astray at some point in his life in a way which he feels is simply beyond that grace.

Text Verse: “For every high priest taken from among men is appointed for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins. ² He can have compassion on those who are ignorant and going astray, since he himself is also subject to weakness. ³ Because of this he is required as for the people, so also for himself, to offer sacrifices for sins.” Hebrews 5:1-3

My old friend at 7-11 came up to me the week I typed this sermon, and he said, “I know what you can do for me… When I die and get up to the gates, I’m hoping you will put in a good word for me.” I told him that wouldn’t do any good at all. I said that if he was hoping on me being his advocate, he had his hope in the wrong place. But I told him that Jesus would put in a good word for him if he just received Him.

He backed away, as he always does, and said, “Well, I was really just kidding, you know.” I know he wasn’t. He is truly scared of death and he sees that I am not. He wants someone he can trust to help him with the problem he knows exists. As I sat typing, I also sat praying. He needs Jesus; we all need Jesus.

Everyone of us knows that the disconnect is there. Some shun it, some ignore it, some can’t stop thinking about it, some try to earn their way around it… but we all know it is there. God took care of it for us. It’s so very simple to get it, and yet it takes the greatest act of all to receive it – put aside self and come with empty hands.

But when we do, the sin-debt is paid, and the restoration is available. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. It is all about Jesus, He is our sin-offering, and He is our place of propitiation. It’s all to be found in His superior word. And so let’s turn to that precious word once again and… May God speak to us through His word today and may His glorious name ever be praised.

I. The Sin Offering (verse 1 & 2)

Now the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,

These words form the first introductory words since Leviticus 1:1. In other words, there were the words in Leviticus 1:1 which said, “Now the Lord called to Moses, and spoke to him from the tabernacle of meeting, saying…” Since that time, there has been one continuous proclamation from the Lord. It included the Burnt Offering, the Grain Offering, and the Peace Offering.

Those were all noted in order, and their particular order was given for specific reasons which were all detailed. Each of those offerings was already known to generations past, but they were detailed again in order to given them both legal sanction under the Law of Moses, and to exactingly detail how the offerings were to be made. As we saw, they all pointed in every way to Christ.

The offerings of chapters 4 & 5 are new types of offerings which are being introduced into the Bible, and therefore they are now preceded by these offset introductory words. The first three chapters were probably all spoken at the same time as Moses penned what he was told. Now, an entirely new train of thought is being presented.

It may be that he compiled the first instructions on one day and then these new ones came on the next. Whatever is the case, Moses is in the Most Holy Place of the sanctuary where he receives the oracles of God. This is certain based on the words of Exodus 25 –

You shall put the mercy seat on top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the Testimony that I will give you. ²² And there I will meet with you, and I will speak with you from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are on the ark of the Testimony, about everything which I will give you in commandment to the children of Israel. Exodus 25:21-22

Concerning these instructions, and how they logically follow the previous offerings, Matthew Henry states the following –

“Burnt-offerings, meat-offerings, and peace-offerings, had been offered before the giving of the law upon mount Sinai; and in these the patriarchs had respect to sin, to make atonement for it. But the Jews were now put into a way of making atonement for sin, more particularly by sacrifice, as a shadow of good things to come; yet the substance is Christ, and that one offering of himself, by which he put away sin. The sins for which the sin-offerings were appointed are supposed to be open acts. They are supposed to be sins of commission, things which ought not to have been done. Omissions are sins, and must come into judgment: yet what had been omitted at one time, might be done at another; but a sin committed was past recall. They are supposed to be sins committed through ignorance.” Matthew Henry

This chapter, dealing with sin offerings, is most important. Where the previous offerings were voluntary, these are required. They must be made, and they were actually needed to be made before any of the other offerings mentioned so far could be accepted. As there is a rift between God and man because of sin, the sin had to be dealt with in order to restore a propitious relationship between the two. These sin-offerings were intended to do that.

In the atonement of sin, propitiation was restored. Because these sin offerings are mandated, it shows us that the blood of the previous sacrifices was insufficient for the purpose of full atonement. In this, we are taught an immensely important lesson.

This sin-offering looks forward to the cross of Christ Jesus. He is the true and necessary sin-offering for mankind. In Him, sin is atoned for, wrath is appeased, and propitiation is restored. Each offering looks to the cross in one way or another, but there is a logical need for them to come in a certain order. The sin must be dealt with first. Only then can the other offerings have any value. That Christ is our sin-offering is stated many times in the New Testament, such as in Hebrews 10 –

“And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. ¹² But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, ¹³ from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. ¹⁴ For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.” Hebrews 10:11-14

Christ’s cross was a one-time and for-all-time sin-offering for the people of the world. We are, as it says, “perfected forever” through His cross.

² “Speak to the children of Israel, saying:

dabber el bene yisrael. These are the exact same words that were said in Leviticus 1:2. They tell us that the instructions given to Moses are to be relayed directly to the people of Israel, and not merely to the priests who will receive the offerings which will be laid out next. This then is a corporate instruction intended for all of the covenant people.

Though the priests were intended to follow through with the instructions as well as maintain the oracles of God, the words were to be known and adhered to by the people as well. In other words, just as the word of God is intended for all people today, it was also intended for all of the people in the past as well.

It is true that there weren’t printing presses, and there wasn’t a copy of the word in every tent, but the word was not to be secreted away from the people. They were to be explained what it said and they were to pay heed to those regulations.

As these words are to the whole congregation, it is to the people who are already in a covenant relationship with God. As this is true, they are the people to whom the promise of Genesis 3:15 will come through. That is the promise that the Seed of the woman will crush the serpent’s head. Because this is so, then all of what they are required to do in the coming regulations merely look forward to Him. As we are told in Hebrews 10 –

For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect. ² For then would they not have ceased to be offered? For the worshipers, once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins. ³ But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. ⁴ For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins. Hebrews 10:1-4

In other words, everything given in these sacrifices is actually temporary and ineffective, except as it points to the coming Christ. How people miss this, even to this day, is astonishing.

^2 (con’t) ‘If a person sins

nephesh ki tekhata – “If a soul wanders away.” The word for “sin,” khata, means just that. It is to miss or go wrong. If one shoots an arrow at a mark and misses, this is the idea that is given. There is a mark, or standard, which God expects. However, man is prone to miss that mark. When this is the case, a remedy is required.

The words here apply to the entire chapter, not just what will be stated in verse 3. In other words, “If a person sins” is dealing with the priest of verse 3, of the whole congregation in verse 13, of the ruler in verse 22, and any of the common people in verse 27. Everything from verse 3 through verse 34 is included in the words we are reading now.

^2 (con’t) unintentionally

This is key to understanding much of what lies ahead. If one sins intentionally, or with a high hand, it calls for punishment. This will be explained later. What is being mandated here is a sacrifice for unintentional sin. However, exactly what it means by saying intentionally or unintentionally will take careful consideration.

The word here for “unintentionally” is shegagah. This is the first of 19 uses of it in the Bible. It signifies a mistake or inadvertent transgression such as through error, ignorance and so on.

Suffice it to say for now that the two classifications certainly refer to the relation of the conscience by the offender towards God. It cannot relate to outward action alone. In other words, if a person kills another person and is unrepentant, it is intentional sin. However, if a person kills another person and is repentant, it is not necessarily intentional. The account of King David and Uriah shows us this about as clearly as any other in Scripture.

Therefore, it logically follows that if a person refuses to bring a sacrifice for his sin which he is aware of, or if he brings a sacrifice with an uncaring conscience, meaning what he is doing is for show and not from the heart, then his sin must be considered intentional. This, for example, was the case with Cain’s offering. The rule must apply in both ways. And Scripture will bear this out. This then explains the otherwise difficult passage found in Hebrews 10:26 –

“For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins…” Hebrews 10:26

Our relationship with God always comes down to a matter of the heart. One who has sinned and has not come through Jesus has no sacrifice which is suitable to atone for what he has done. The 19^th Psalm speaks of that which is unintentional and that which is intentional –

Who can understand his errors?
Cleanse me from secret faults.
¹³ Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins;
Let them not have dominion over me.
Then I shall be blameless,
And I shall be innocent of great transgression. Psalm 19:12 13

^2 (con’t) against any of the commandments of the Lord in anything which ought not to be done, and does any of them,

Going against the commandments of the Lord include not doing that which should be done, and doing that which should not be done. When the Lord speaks, His word is law. Therefore, when one strays away from what He has spoken, it is a violation of His law. Of this, John Gill states the following –

“The Jewish writers distinguish the commandments of the Lord into affirmative and negative, and make their number to be six hundred and thirteen; two hundred and forty eight are affirmative, according to the number of bones in a man’s body, and three hundred sixty five are negative ones, according to the number of the days of the year; and they observe, it is only the transgression of negative precepts that is here meant, and for which a sin offering was to be brought.” John Gill

Like Matthew Henry’s comments earlier which say something similar, this is not correct. This cannot mean negative commandments only. To leave undone that which should be done may be correctable to some point, but not in all instances. If someone transgresses, they have sinned.

The verse doesn’t delineate between negative and positive. We cannot justify this. It would be to ignore the Lord’s command. Further, a biblical year is 360 days, not 365. Also, there are 270 bones in the body at birth, and after some fusing together, we are left with 206, not 248. The Jewish writers are wrong in all cases.

An offering for sin to restore the peace
I come to petition my God at the burnt altar
Until I do, the enmity will never cease
But knowing He will forgive, in this I will not falter

At the altar, and by the door of the tent
The animal is slain, its life ebbs away
In that exchange, God’s wrath is spent
Harmony is restored, and has come a new day

Innocent and pure, no fault of its own
The death truly touches my heart
But in this exchange, I am clearly shown
That only through death, can there be a new start

Thank God that Another can die in my place
In His death I can again look upon God’s face

II. The Sin of the High Priest (verses 3-12)

³ if the anointed priest sins,

Ha’kohen ha’mashiakh – “the priest, the anointed.” This is the high priest. This term is used only four times in the Bible. Three are in this chapter and one is in chapter 6. The provision is for him if he sins. This immediately tells us something we have already learned in earlier Exodus sermons. It shows that the high priest of the Law of Moses is a fallible person, and that he can never be made perfect by the Law of Moses.

Both are to be clearly understood from the context. Because of this, the truth of Hebrews 10:1 is made clear. The law can make none perfect. It could only anticipate the coming of Christ who would fulfill the law and set it aside in order to bring in a New Covenant in His blood. As Matthew Henry says about this –

“The law begins with the case of the anointed priest. It is evident that God never had any infallible priest in his church upon earth, when even the high priest was liable to fall into sins of ignorance.” Matthew Henry

This sin-offering is for the high priest. Each subsequent sin offering will be a grade lower. It will next be for the congregation as a whole, then the prince of the congregation, and then for the individual. The importance of the position is how these are listed.

^{3 (con’t)} bringing guilt on the people,

When the high priest sinned, the entire nation became guilty because of his sin. He was the representative of the people to God. No person could have his sins removed until the one who mediated for the people had his sins atoned for. Therefore, all who were under his authority became guilty through Him.

The opposite for us is then true. In Christ who bears no guilt, we too are deemed not guilty. God is not counting our sins against us because our perfect Mediator covers us with His perfection.

^{3 (con’t)} then let him offer to the Lord for his sin which he has sinned a young bull without blemish as a sin offering.

The sin-offering for the high priest is the same as that for sin committed by the entire congregation which is noted in verse 14. The bull thus stands for the people just as the high priest stands for the people. This will become clear in Leviticus 16. On the Day of Atonement, the high priest must sacrifice for his own sins first with a bull. After that, the sins of the congregation are dealt with by using a ram.

As this is so, the bull is typical of Christ. And this is actually pictured in the first sentence of the Bible where the middle of the seven words is spelled with two letters, an aleph and a tav. The letter aleph is represented by a bull, and the tav is represented by a cross. The bull and the tav thus picture Christ and the cross.

The par, or bull, comes from the word parar which carries the meaning of defeat, or make void, although it can be variously translated. The idea of Christ is written all over this. It is He who defeated the devil, making void that which the devil had wrought.

This required bull is to be tamim, or “without blemish.” Again as in all sacrifices it looks to Christ. Only a perfect offering could be considered an acceptable sin-offering. And as before, it looks to Christ – our perfect sin-offering. Each detail is given for this purpose, and with an eye to what is coming in Him.

⁴ He shall bring the bull to the door of the tabernacle of meeting before the Lord,

As has been seen before, presenting the offering at the door of the tent of meeting actually means that it is being offered at the altar. But it is the altar that then allows symbolic access through the door. The connection between the altar and the doorway is inseparable.

^4 (con’t) lay his hand on the bull’s head,

Here we have a man who has sinned laying his hand on a perfect bull, one without blemish. It is also an animal without the ability to reason which implies it is innocent. Each detail looks to Christ. We have the sinner in need of a Savior, and the innocent Man who is the perfect Substitute.

The high priest himself places his hands on the bull, thus he is acknowledging that this is his sacrifice. He is the offender, and it is his offering. He is asking that the offended, meaning God, will accept the bull, which looks forward to Christ, in his place. The implication is that if not accepted, then his life is lost already and would remain lost.

Further, it is implied that this sacrifice is sufficient to accomplish the mission. The Lord has mandated it, and therefore it is suitable to the task. The sin is symbolically transferred from the high priest to the bull. This is known as imputation. The bull is reckoned as receiving his sin, and he is reckoned as receiving the bull’s innocence.

However, unlike what this bull pictures, meaning Christ, any time he sins, another sacrifice must be made. Therefore it can only mean one thing, which is that this sacrifice is but a temporary stay of God’s wrath, anticipating a final, more perfect offering to come.

^4 (con’t) and kill the bull before the Lord.

It doesn’t say that the bull could be kept in a pen, separate from all other bulls for the rest of its life. Nor could it be sent to Exile Island to live out its days. As with all such offerings, the Bible says that there can be no atonement for sin without the shedding of blood. And for us, there is no other atonement for sin than that of the shed blood of Christ. He had to die in order for us to be saved.

⁵ Then the anointed priest shall take some of the bull’s blood and bring it to the tabernacle of meeting.

Something new is now done with the blood of the bull. The previous sacrifices had the blood splashed around the altar of burnt-offering. Now however, the blood must be brought to the tent of meeting itself. What was sufficient before is not sufficient here.

The reason is because it involves the mediator who stands between the people and the Lord. As he is the one to come into the holy place each day, he would be unqualified to do so unless his sin was dealt with first. His duties would be ineffective, and therefore there would be no forgiveness for the people he represented.

⁶ The priest shall dip his finger in the blood and sprinkle some of the blood seven times before the Lord, in front of the veil of the sanctuary.

With the blood of the bull, he was only to go as far as the veil. His duties as mediator prohibited him from going behind the veil except once a year, on the Day of Atonement. Therefore, for any sin committed during the year, the shed blood was needed as far as his regular duties allowed him to go.

In the Holy Place he was to dip his finger into the blood. The word gives the sense of immersion. In other words, it wasn’t just the tip of the finger, but he immersed the finger into the blood. From there he was to nazah, or sprinkle the blood seven times before the Lord who was behind the paroketh, or veil. Thus it says, “in the face of the veil.”

The word finger, or etsbah, comes from another word, tsebah, which indicates dyed material and thus one gets the idea of grasping something. Therefore, the finger is that which accomplishes a task. The creation is said to be the work of the Lord’s fingers in the 8^th Psalm. Thus in this verse, the mercy, the refuge, and the remission of the sins is granted by God, but it is accomplished by the work of the petitioner’s fingers.

This word, nazah, or sprinkle is used now for only the second time. It was first used in Exodus when the oil of ordination was called for in order to be sprinkled on Aaron and his sons. Now it is used for the second time in the atonement process for the high priest.

The reason for the seven sprinklings has met with fanciful interpretation, claiming that this is the number of times that Christ shed His blood during His time leading up to the cross. However, no such analysis is born out by the writers of the gospel. That has to be forced in order to arrive at the number.

He shed blood when He wept, He was pierced in His hands and His feet – do we count that as 1 cumulatively, 2 for the hands and for the feet, or four for the four appendages? He certainly bled when He was whipped, but the record does not say this. He probably bled when the crown of thorns was placed on His head, but the record doesn’t say that. He bled internally through bruising, but that doesn’t qualify for shed blood. In the end, we can only use what is explicit, and doing so leaves nothing which matches what is called for here.

Simply, seven is the number of spiritual perfection, and it is used countless times in Scripture to denote this. There is no reason to go beyond this basic and full explanation. As Christ Jesus is the epitome of spiritual perfection, the sprinkling of the blood is emblematic of this innate perfection which was given for the sins of His people. The seven sprinklings are done to petition the Lord’s mercy and to acknowledge the death of the innocent substitute.

That this is done before the paroketh is of great significance though. As we saw in Exodus, the word paroketh means “veil,” but it comes from the word perek which means “cruelty” or “rigor.” That then comes from an unused root meaning to “break apart” or “fracture.”

On one side is the Lord, on the other side is fallen man. The veil with cherubim woven into it is a picture of the fracture between God and man which occurred at the fall. When Adam sinned, he was cast to the east of Eden where cherubim were placed as guards. With the sin of the high priest, all access to God is lost, even to the prayers of the people. In sprinkling the blood before the veil, it is asking that the mediation would again be allowed so that He would hear the prayers of His people. This continues to be seen in the next verse…

⁷ And the priest shall put some of the blood on the horns of the altar of sweet incense before the Lord, which is in the tabernacle of meeting;

This verse corresponds somewhat to that of Exodus 29:12 which details the ordination of Aaron and His sons. The ordination made them acceptable to serve as priests, but his sin has now caused that to cease until it is atoned for.

As we saw in Exodus, the altar of incense corresponds to the Ark with its Mercy Seat. Incense signifies the prayers of the people. The incense is the only thing that would waft through the veil and into the Lord’s immediate presence each day. If the sins of the high priest were not atoned for, then the incense placed there would not be considered acceptable to the Lord. Therefore, the altar of incense had to be atoned for as well.

Putting the blood on the horns, or qarnoth, of the altar is symbolic of petitioning for mercy and safe refuge. Horns are a symbol of strength. Just as a horn grows out of the head of an animal, these likewise protrude directly from the altar. They demonstrate the intercessory power of Christ to God.

For the blood to be placed on them signifies the petitioning of mercy because wrath has already been transferred to the bull. In this application, there is a transcendence from the earthly to the heavenly realm.

^7 (con’t) and he shall pour the remaining blood of the bull at the base of the altar of the burnt offering, which is at the door of the tabernacle of meeting.

The Hebrew here says “all the blood,” but “remaining” must be implied. Any blood left after that which was sprinkled was to be poured out at the base, or “foundation” of the altar. It was not to be splashed on the altar as was to be done with the previous offerings.

The atonement within the Holy Place was sufficient, and so the remainder was to be poured out, allowing it to sink into the ground.

⁸ He shall take from it all the fat of the bull as the sin offering.

After the application and disposal of the blood, proving the death of the animal, there was now the job of handling the body of the animal. As it is a sin-offering, it could not be wholly burnt on the altar. Therefore, the fat alone was to be removed.

^{8  (con’t)} The fat that covers the entrails and all the fat which is on the entrails,

These words are almost identical to Leviticus 3:3, word for word. The same with the peace-offering, so with the sin-offering.

⁹ the two kidneys and the fat that is on them by the flanks, and the fatty lobe attached to the liver above the kidneys, he shall remove,

These words are identical, to the letter, with Leviticus 3:4, with but the addition of a single letter, yod, in the middle of the word translated as “them.”Another mystery which I have no explanation for, but from which I did obtain a large sized headache trying to figure out why the change.

¹⁰ as it was taken from the bull of the sacrifice of the peace offering; and the priest shall burn them on the altar of the burnt offering.

The same procedure is given for these parts that was given for the peace-offering with one notable difference. In verse 3:5 it said that the peace offering was to be burnt “on the altar upon the burnt sacrifice,” meaning the daily offering. However, this sin-offering would need to precede the daily offering, which could not be considered acceptable until the sin was first dealt with. It would make no sense to offer the daily offering, which would not be accepted because of the mediator’s sin. Whenever the sin was discovered, it had to take priority.

This obviously shows us that no offering to God can be acceptable until our sin is dealt with first. Above all, Christ is our sin-offering. After that, He fulfills every other type in the proper order. Though God does not exist in time, there is a logical order of sacrifices for us who do. This is seen in the many details of the offerings which are carefully laid out for us.

However, as with the parts of the peace offering, the same symbolism is seen in these parts of the sin-offering. They represent the abundance of the very deepest parts of Christ the Man. The fat is the abundance and health of life. The kidneys signify the mind and reasoning. The fat by the loins signifies where one places his confidence. And the fat lobe above the liver represents the emotions and feelings of the person.

These then were to be offered to the Lord because they symbolized His most intimate aspects. They are the very substance of who He is, and so they are returned to God by fire.

¹¹ But the bull’s hide and all its flesh, with its head and legs, its entrails and offal—

This signifies all the rest of the bull which is left. Only the blood and the items of the previous verses are excluded. Even the skin, which was normally given to the administering priest, is included here.

*¹² the whole bull he shall carry outside the camp to a clean place, where the ashes are poured out, and burn it on wood with fire; where the ashes are poured out it shall be burned.

The flesh of some sin offerings was acceptable to be eaten by the priests as will later be explained. However, Leviticus 6:30 will show why this is not the case here –

“…no sin offering from which any of the blood is brought into the tabernacle of meeting, to make atonement in the holy place, shall be eaten. It shall be burned in the fire.” Leviticus 6:30

The disposal of the animal is determined by the use of the blood. Because the blood of the bull was brought into the holy place, the animal must be burned and not consumed. Instead, the bull was to be taken outside of the camp to a clean place and burned.

The sinfulness of the sin, being of the high priest himself, is indicated in the need for the blood to be brought into the holy place, and for the remainder of the animal to be taken outside the camp. The extreme treatment of both shows us the most severe nature of the offense, and so an even greater immensity of the atonement which was provided is also seen.

The acceptance of the bull’s death as a substitute highlights the extremely merciful act of forgiveness granted to the priest. In his cleansing, the body of the bull now bore the sin of the mediator. Because of this, it needed to be purged from the camp entirely. And what a picture of Christ to finish our verses today.

I have already showed that the bull pictures Christ, but this isn’t just me making a dubious connection and then applying it to Him. Rather, the Bible explicitly shows us the connection between the two. In Hebrews 13, we see why these requirements were given here in Leviticus and what they prefigure –

The high priest carries the blood of animals into the Most Holy Place as a sin offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp. ¹² And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood. ¹³ Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore. Hebrews 13:11-13

What was given to Israel in type and shadow is realized in its fullness in Christ. There is a problem which infects man, and its source is that of the devil himself. The only way to defeat what he did was for Christ to take it away from us. We are told that He was made to be sin for us so that we could then become the righteousness of God in Him. What a bargain God has offered us!

All our misdeeds, all of our errors and failings, and our once-lost state is taken away and nailed to the cross through the death of Jesus Christ. Matthew Henry explains it in his own eloquent way –

“All pretensions to act without error are sure marks of Antichrist. The beast was to be carried without the camp, and there burned to ashes. This was a sign of the duty of repentance, which is the putting away sin as a detestable thing, which our soul hates. The sin-offering is called sin. What they did to that, we must do to our sins; the body of sin must be destroyed…” Matthew Henry

And the body of sin can be destroyed. Through faith in what Jesus did, it can be completely removed so that fellowship with God is possible once again. That is what Christ did for us by having His own life taken from Him as He suffered outside the camp. Let us go to Him there and be joined to Him through the greatest act of love ever expressed – let us go to Calvary.

Closing Verse: “Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him;
He has put Him to grief.
When You make His soul an offering for sin,
He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days,
And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand.” Isaiah 53:10

Next Week: Leviticus 4:13-35 What marvelous things are ahead for you… (The Sin-offering, Part II) (6^th Leviticus Sermon)

The Lord has you exactly where He wants you. He has a good plan and purpose for you. Even if you have a lifetime of sin heaped up behind you, He can wash it away and purify you completely and wholly. So follow Him and trust Him and He will do marvelous things for you and through you.

The Sin Offering

Now the Lord spoke to Moses, saying
These are the words He began relaying

“Speak to the children of Israel, saying:
‘If a person sins unintentionally
Against any of the commandments of the Lord
If such a thing as this comes to be

In anything which ought not to be done
And does any of them, yes any such one

If the anointed priest sins
Bringing guilt on the people, to them it is pinned
Then let him offer to the Lord for his sin
Which he has sinned

A young bull without blemish as a sin offering
Such shall be his proffering

He shall bring the bull to the door
Of the tabernacle of meeting before the Lord
Lay his hand on the bull’s head
And kill the bull before the Lord, according to this word

Then the anointed priest shall take
Some of the bull’s blood, this he shall do
And bring it to the tabernacle of meeting
As I now am instructing you

The priest shall dip his finger
In the blood and sprinkle some of the blood, so it shall be
Seven times before the Lord
In front of the veil of the sanctuary

And the priest shall put some of the blood
This task he shall be completing
On the horns of the altar of sweet incense before the Lord
Which is in the tabernacle of meeting

And he shall the remaining blood pour
Of the bull at the base of the altar of the burnt offering
Which is at the tabernacle of meeting’s door

He shall take from it all the fat
Of the bull as the sin offering, so he shall do
The fat that covers the entrails
And all the fat which is on the entrails too

The two kidneys and the fat
That is on them by the flanks as I behoove
|And the fatty lobe attached to the liver
Above the kidneys, he shall remove

As it was taken from the bull of the sacrifice
Of the peace offering
And the priest shall burn them on the altar
Of the burnt offering, such is the proffering

But the bull’s hide and all its flesh
With its head and legs, its entrails and offal, no doubt
The whole bull he shall carry outside the camp
To a clean place, where the ashes are poured out

And burn it on wood with fire, as you have learned
Where the ashes are poured out it shall be burned

Our Lord Jesus died outside the walls of the city
He died there for the sins of all men on that day
God demonstrated His merciful pity
And in that crucified body, God has opened the way

We now can come home to Him once again
We are reconciled through what He alone has done
May we be willing to share this marvel with all men
That God has given us new life through His Son

Praises to God who has done this most marvelous thing for us!
All praises to God, through our glorious Lord Jesus!

Hallelujah and Amen…

Leviticus 3:1-17
The Peace Offering

If you really want to get to know someone, you have them over for a meal. It is where the impersonal becomes personal. It is where the walls come down. And it is where real fellowship takes place. If God sent Jesus to atone for our sins and nothing else, we would be left with a void in our lives.

We could say, “I can’t wait to go back to Eden, but I’m sorry the Lord won’t be meeting us there.” And if the process ended with our sanctification, we would still have a void. “It sure is great being in paradise, and it sure is great that we aren’t living the lives we did before on earth, but it sure would be nice if the Lord would come by and spend some time with us.

But we don’t have to worry about that. We already have Him coming by, and He will be coming by in an even more intimate way some wonderful day in the future.

There has been a logical sequence of offerings so far in the book of Leviticus. First was the burnt offering where life is given up wholly to the Lord. It is our coming to Christ and being saved. Chapter 1 explained that in detail.

Next there is the pursuit of that life through the process of sanctification. The grain offering revealed that to us. Through Him, our works in the Lord are acceptable. What He did makes it so for what we do. Chapter 2 gave us insights into that.

Today we will see the peace offering. It looks to our fellowship with the Lord as occurring in a most intimate way. Each step takes us through a picture of our own redemption and life in Christ. The Israelites were given a way of having this personal fellowship with the Lord by coming to Him through the offerings we will look at. They took them to the sanctuary, offered them up, and then received back a portion of what was offered. It showed them that they were, in fact, in fellowship with God. The two partook of the same meal, symbolizing this fellowship.

But that was only a taste of a greater fellowship which lay ahead. The Jews could come and fellowship with God, but the Gentiles were left out. There was a wall of separation between the two which prohibited us from drawing near to God. But in Christ, that wall is broken down…

Text Verse: “For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, ¹⁵ having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, ¹⁶ and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. ¹⁷ And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. ¹⁸ For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father.” Ephesians 2:14-18

Now, through Christ, we have access, as Paul says, by one Spirit to the Father. But just what is the wall that Paul speaks of. Is it that we as Gentiles are granted access to the Father through observance of the law? No indeed! In fact, exactly the opposite is true.

The law did allow a type of access, but it also set up a wall all its own, restricting that access as well. They could come so far, but no further could they come. Paul explains exactly what the wall and the enmity is. He says it is “the law of commandments contained in ordinances.”

The very law which the Israelites adhered to is that wall. And that very same wall is abolished, not strengthened. It is true that we come to God through the law, but not through our observance of it. Rather, it is through Christ’s observance of it. In Him, the law is abolished and peace is restored. In Him, we now have full and unfettered access to God. This is what is seen in today’s verses. It’s all to be found in His superior word. And so let’s turn to that precious word once again and… May God speak to us through His word today and may His glorious name ever be praised.

I. An Offering of the Herd (verses 1–5)

‘When his offering is a sacrifice of a peace offering,

So far in Leviticus, we have seen the instructions for the burnt offering in Chapter 1 and then the grain offering in Chapter 2. We now turn to the shelem, or peace offering, which will take the entire chapter as well. The words of this verse correspond to the words of Leviticus 1:3. They both introduce the type of offering to be explained from then on.

The shelem is a sacrifice, and it is a voluntary offering of thanks, and for alliance and friendship. Hence, the term “peace” offering is used. Some versions call it a “fellowship” offering, but the term peace, if understood from a Hebrew perspective, describes it fully. It indicates a state of peace which speaks of harmony, prosperity, happiness, friendship, fellowship, and unity. We can sum it up with the words “wholeness & contentment.”

Whereas the burnt offering looked to a state of atonement, and the grain offering looked to the process of sanctification, the peace offering looks to a state of acceptance and interaction. This offering can be equated directly to the Lord’s Table, or communion, in the New Testament church.

In other words, with Christ as our shelem, or peace offering, we are united to Him, and thus we have fellowship and communion with God. This is what the peace offering did for Israel, and this is what Christ’s peace does for us. There is atonement, sanctification, and then true fellowship.

This particular offering was first mentioned in Exodus 20, right after the giving of the Ten Commandments and during the explanation of the Earthen Altar which would be used for offerings by the Israelites.

These offerings will be mentioned throughout the Old Testament, but the vast majority of times will be in Leviticus and Numbers. They are always spoken of in the plural with but one exception which is found in Amos 5:22.

There are actually three kinds of peace offerings which will be defined later. There is the thanksgiving, the vow, and the free-will offerings. The time allotted for the eating of the offering is the main thing which defines these subdivisions. These will be explained in Leviticus 7.

Unlike the previous two chapters, the term “most holy” is not used here. They will be called “holy” in Chapter 7, but the distinction is given to show that the people, along with the priests, could, and did, partake of the offerings.

^1 (con’t) if he offers it of the herd, whether male or female,

Here is something new concerning the offerings. Unlike those previously described, these could be either male or female. The two previous ones were solely in regard to God, being the best Being, and therefore only that which is preeminent was offered.

These peace offerings, however, stood in regard to the Lord being the Benefactor to His people, and therefore either was acceptable, male or female. This then follows through with what is stated in Galatians 3:28 –

“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

There is strength and weakness in Christ. Strength in His obedience, and weakness in His humanity and suffering. Together we fellowship with God through Christ in both our weaknesses and in our strengths. It is for this reason that either a male or female is deemed acceptable to offer.

Also, the word for “female” here is neqevah. It was first used in Genesis 1:27 to describe the female as contrasted to the male. It hasn’t been seen since Genesis 7, and it will only be found in the books of Moses with but one exception, which is in Jeremiah 31:22. Without giving blushing specifics, it is a word which is based on the form which distinguishes a male from a female.

^1 (con’t) he shall offer it without blemish before the Lord.

Again like the other two offerings, this one is to be tamim, or perfect – without spot or blemish. It again takes us to a picture of Christ who is described in this manner in 1 Peter 1:19. Nothing defiled is acceptable to the Lord, picturing the perfect and undefiled Christ.

Although not yet specified in this chapter, the peace offering is one which is shared between the Lord and the people. Matthew Henry provides his insights into what lies ahead –

“The peace-offerings had regard to God as the giver of all good things. These were divided between the altar, the priest, and the owner. They were called peace-offering, because in them God and his people did, as it were, feast together, in token of friendship. The peace-offerings were offered by way of supplication. If a man were in pursuit of any mercy, he would add a peace-offering to his prayer for it. Christ is our Peace, our Peace-offering; for through him alone it is that we can obtain an answer of peace to our prayers. Or, the peace-offering was offered by way of thanksgiving for some mercy received. We must offer to God the sacrifice of praise continually, by Christ our Peace; and then this shall please the Lord better than an ox or bullock.” Matthew Henry

² And he shall lay his hand on the head of his offering,

Like the burnt offering, hands are laid upon the head of the offering before it is slaughtered. However, in this case, it would not be for confession of sin and a request for the substitute to die in the place of the offender.

Although not explicitly stated, there would be an utterance of thanks and praise for being allowed to fellowship through the sacrifice which would take place. It is exactly what we do in the Lord’s Supper each week as is recorded in 1 Corinthians 11 –

“For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.” 1 Corinthians 11:26

Unlike the burnt offering of Chapter 1, there is nothing in these verses that corresponds to the idea of either acceptance or atonement. This offering implies that the offeror is already atoned for and accepted. Joseph Benson, citing Conradus, gives a wonderful description of the meaning of this gesture –

“This laying on of hands signifies devotion and faith, with an acknowledgment of the benefits, for which we can offer nothing of our own, but only return to God what we have received; that we may understand gratitude and thanksgiving to be the greatest sacrifices.” Conradus

^2 (con’t) and kill it at the door of the tabernacle of meeting;

The Hebrew says “tent,” not “tabernacle.” The slaying was done at or around the brazen altar, but as noted from previous sermons, the altar and the door are intricately connected as if one. By saying it is at the door of the tent, it implies that the sacrifice is what opens the access through that door.

^2 (con’t) and Aaron’s sons, the priests, shall sprinkle the blood all around on the altar.

The Hebrew here says the blood will be “splashed” or “scattered” around the altar, not sprinkled. The blood was literally cast upon the sides of it. The specificity demands attention. The purpose of this blood being splashed on the altar “expresses one’s complete, voluntary surrender, and readiness to die while yet living” (Lange).

In type, it points to Christ who poured out His blood for us, allowing us fellowship with God through Him. When we are in Christ, then that same yielding on our part is reckoned as acceptable to God. Fellowship is restored, and our thanks, vows, and offerings are deemed as acceptable to God once again.

³ Then he shall offer from the sacrifice of the peace offering an offering made by fire to the Lord.

This verse begins an even greater divergence from that of the burnt offering than we have already seen. Unlike that, which was wholly burnt up on the altar, this one is not so burnt up. Only a portion from it is to be burnt. This particular portion alone is to be by fire.

^3 (con’t) The fat that covers the entrails and all the fat that is on the entrails,

Fat in the Bible signifies abundance. The fat around the entrails then signifies specifically health of life; its abundance. This is seen, for example, from David in Psalm 63 –

“My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness,
And my mouth shall praise You with joyful lips.” Psalm 63:5

⁴ the two kidneys and the fat that is on them by the flanks,

Both kidneys with their attached fat were to be removed. The kidney’s position within the body makes them almost inaccessible. When an animal is cut up, they will be the last organs which are reached. Because of this, the kidneys symbolize the hidden parts of man, and thus the mind.

The term al ha’kesalim, or “by the flanks,” is new to Scripture. The kesel is seen just thirteen times, and it indicates the loin which is the seat of the leaf fat. The word is then elsewhere translated as both “confidence” and “foolish.” The difference is in how it is applied. It can indicate the place where one puts their hope. This is seen, for example, in Psalm 78 –

“That the generation to come might know them,
The children who would be born,
That they may arise and declare them to their children,
⁷ That they may set their hope in God,
And not forget the works of God,
But keep His commandments;” Psalm 78:6, 7

It can also indicate that which is foolish –

“This is the way of those who are foolish,
And of their posterity who approve their sayings. Selah
¹⁴ Like sheep they are laid in the grave;
Death shall feed on them;
The upright shall have dominion over them in the morning;
And their beauty shall be consumed in the grave, far from their dwelling.”

Psalm 49:13, 14

^4 (con’t) and the fatty lobe attached to the liver above the kidneys, he shall remove;

The yothereth, or lobe above the liver, was also to be removed from the animal. The liver signifies the seat of emotions and feeling. It is used synonymously with disposition and character. The fat attached to it is thus representative of the entire liver. In Lamentations, Jeremiah says –

“My eyes fail with tears; my bowels are troubled; my liver is poured upon the earth, for the destruction of the daughter of my people because the children and the sucklings faint in the streets of the city.” Lamentations 2:11 (Jubilee Bible)

All of this specificity is calling out for us to pay attention to it. We are to stop and question why certain things are demanded, and why other things are not mentioned.

⁵ and Aaron’s sons shall burn it on the altar upon the burnt sacrifice, which is on the wood that is on the fire, 

These things from verses 3 and 4 were to be burnt on the altar. The word for burn signifies incense, or a fragrant offering. All of these were, as it says, “upon the burnt sacrifice.” In other words, these were placed on top of the continual burnt offering which was the daily sacrifice of the lamb which was already on the altar.

The burnt offering signifies Christ, our Atonement. Upon that are then placed the things which represent the abundance of the very deepest parts of Christ the Man, and thus those same things in us who are in Christ Jesus. The fat is the abundance and health of life. The kidneys signify the mind and reasoning. The fat by the loins signifies where one places his confidence. And the fat lobe above the liver represents the emotions and feelings of the person.

These then were to be offered to the Lord because they symbolized His most intimate aspects, and ours as well. They are the very substance of who He is and who we are. They are returned to Him by fire. They were offered to the Lord for fellowship to take place. And this is the same symbolism that is seen in the Lord’s Supper now. Concerning our inward secrets, Paul says 1 Corinthians 11 –

“Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. ²⁸ But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. ²⁹ For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.” 1 Corinthians 11:27-29

^5 (con’t) as an offering made by fire, a sweet aroma to the Lord.

All of these things, representing the most intimate aspects of both Christ, and of us who are in Christ, are returned to God as a sweet incense to Him. This is what makes fellowship possible, and this is what is seen in the Old and in the New. It all points to Christ and our relationship with God through Him.

An offering to God; an offering for peace
One which signifies fellowship so sweet
It stems from our daily trod, and in Christ it shall never cease
Because in Him our fellowship is complete

Cleanse us in our inward parts; lead us in Your peace
May we join together with You, O precious Lord
Purify our minds and hearts; may this joy never cease
Through Christ, may we always be in one accord

Thank You for the cross from whence atonement came
Upon that offering, we can now add an offering of peace
Together they point to the same great Name
Both look to Jesus where joyous fellowship will never, never cease

II. An Offering of the Flock (verses 6–17)

⁶ ‘If his offering as a sacrifice of a peace offering to the Lord is of the flock, whether male or female, he shall offer it without blemish. 

The flock consists of both lambs and goats which will next be described separately. And again, like an animal of the herd, the offering could be either a male or a female. And also like that of the herd, the animal must be without blemish. As before, the symbolism remains the same here. All of it points to Christ.

⁷ If he offers a lamb as his offering, then he shall offer it before the Lord. 

It is argued that the word translated here as “lamb” is more rightly translated as a sheep. It signifies one full grown and in its prime. Either way, it is a word used only in the books of Moses to describe them.

⁸ And he shall lay his hand on the head of his offering, and kill it before the tabernacle of meeting; and Aaron’s sons shall sprinkle its blood all around on the altar.

The same process which was followed before with the animal of the herd is followed again here. It is generally believed that the one who is making the offering is also the one who kills the animal. After he has cut its throat, the priests would stand with a bowl to collect the blood before splashing it out. Again as before, it is the tent of meeting, not the tabernacle, and it does not say “sprinkle,” but rather “splash.”

⁹ ‘Then he shall offer from the sacrifice of the peace offering, as an offering made by fire to the Lord, its fat and the whole fat tail which he shall remove close to the backbone. 

For the sheep, there is an additional note which was not mentioned for the animal of the herd. Here it mentions the khelbo ha’alyah temimah, or “the whole fat tail.” This is only the second of five times that the fat tail will be noted in the Bible. It is described in detail for us by Jamieson-Faucett-Brown –

“There is, in Eastern countries, a species of sheep the tails of which are not less than four feet and a half in length. These tails are of a substance between fat and marrow. A sheep of this kind weighs sixty or seventy English pounds weight, of which the tail usually weighs fifteen pounds and upwards. This species is by far the most numerous in Arabia, Syria, and Palestine, and, forming probably a large portion in the flocks of the Israelites, it seems to have been the kind that usually bled on the Jewish altars. The extraordinary size and deliciousness of their tails give additional importance to this law. To command by an express law the tail of a certain sheep to be offered in sacrifice to God, might well surprise us; but the wonder ceases, when we are told of those broad-tailed Eastern sheep, and of the extreme delicacy of that part which was so particularly specified in the statute [Paxton].” JFB

When an animal was offered to the Lord, this especially marvelous part was reserved for the Lord alone, and was not to be eaten by the priests. There is further specificity concerning it. Not only was it to be the “whole” fat tail, but it then notes that it was to be removed “close to the backbone.”

This is the only time the atseh, or backbone, is seen in the Bible. It, in turn, comes from atsah, or “shut,” such as in shutting one’s eyes firmly. Thus the backbone is that which gives firmness to the body. Again, this could have simply been left unmentioned, and it wouldn’t seemingly change a thing concerning the process. And so it is asking us to consider why it is mentioned at all.

The word atsah, or shut, is used just twice in the Bible. Once it is used in Proverbs concerning a person shutting his eyes in order to devise perverse things. The other time in Isaiah it says –

“This is the purpose that is purposed against the whole earth,
And this is the hand that is stretched out over all the nations.” Isaiah 14:26

The word speaks of firm determined purpose, just as the backbone of the animal is firm and fixed. Thus the fat attached to this is being equated with the firm and fixed purposes of the Lord. It speaks of the resoluteness of Christ in completing His work and thus making our fellowship with God acceptable once again. It can be summed up in the words of Luke 9 –

“Now it came to pass, when the time had come for Him to be received up, that He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem, ⁵² and sent messengers before His face. And as they went, they entered a village of the Samaritans, to prepare for Him. ⁵³ But they did not receive Him, because His face was set for the journey to Jerusalem.” Luke 9:51-53

Each new word comes to us for a reason. Each unique word, such as this, is not intended to be skipped over, but considered. In the end, each leads us to a fuller understanding of our own fellowship with God because of the determined work of the Lord on our behalf. Along with this fat tail and all it signifies, and like the previous animal of the herd, we continue with the following…

^9 (con’t) And the fat that covers the entrails and all the fat that is on the entrails,

These directions are the same as for the previous animal.

¹⁰ the two kidneys and the fat that is on them by the flanks, and the fatty lobe attached to the liver above the kidneys, he shall remove; 

And once again, the same is true with this verse. It states essentially the same thing as was seen before. Though repetitive, it is not unnecessary. As is seen anywhere in human life, if something is not made explicit, then people will find a reason not to follow through with what is stated. The word is being minutely detailed to ensure that everything is followed precisely. Nothing is left to questioning because all of it points directly to Christ. Therefore, the specificity is not at all superfluous.

¹¹ and the priest shall burn them on the altar as food, an offering made by fire to the Lord.

Again, the word for “burn” is one which speaks of fragrance, like incense. The smell to the nose of man equates to the fragrance of Christ to God. But here an additional description is given. It is “on the altar as food.” The word is lekhem, or “bread.” Thus it is as bread to God.

This is specifically stated to show that as the part that is eaten by the offeror is his food, so the part offered to God is as food as well. In other words, there is a joining together in the meal as if the two are dining at peace with one another. Again, it anticipates the greater and more perfect table set before us because of Christ. He was, as it were, made an offering by fire to the Lord for, and on behalf of, us. It is reflective then of the words of Revelation 3:20 –

“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.”

¹² ‘And if his offering is a goat, then he shall offer it before the Lord. 

The third type of peace offering is the ez, or goat. This comes from the word azaz, which means “to be strong,” or “to prevail.” It is the strong member of the flocking animals. The instructions for the goat are the same as for the ox, and so it can be inferred that either a male or female is acceptable. The term implies the whole species, whether a he-goat, a she-goat, or a kid. The reason why it is listed separately from the sheep is because the goat does not have a fat tail like the sheep. Therefore, the specificity was needed in describing that offering.

¹³ He shall lay his hand on its head and kill it before the tabernacle of meeting; and the sons of Aaron shall sprinkle its blood all around on the altar. 

These are the same procedures as before with the same mistranslations as before. It is the tent, not tabernacle, of meeting, and the blood is splashed, not sprinkled. The most major difference between this and verse 2 is that in verse 2 it said to kill the animal at the door of the tent of meeting. Here is says, before the tent of meeting. The two mean the same thing.

¹⁴ Then he shall offer from it his offering, as an offering made by fire to the Lord. The fat that covers the entrails and all the fat that is on the entrails, 

This verse is identical to verse 3 with the exception of the word “peace offering.” Here it is understood as such and so that is not repeated.

¹⁵ the two kidneys and the fat that is on them by the flanks, and the fatty lobe attached to the liver above the kidneys, he shall remove; 

The Hebrew of this verse is exactly, letter for letter, the same as verse 4 with but one exception. An additional letter, a vav, is added into the second use of the word “kidneys” in verse 4. Despite being downright perplexing, I have no answer as to why. This happens from time to time in the Bible, and there is always a reason. This time, it escapes me.

¹⁶ and the priest shall burn them on the altar as food,

These words are almost identical to what was said in verse 11.

^{16 (con’t)} an offering made by fire for a sweet aroma;

This is closely related to the words of verse 5. As you can see, there is a pattern which is running back and forth between the three offerings, the words build upon each other and intertwine in a most exciting way. Though one verse, or a part of a verse, may differ here, it is still more closely tied over there. The entire passage then merges into one beautiful whole. Each of the three are united into one larger picture of the overall peace offering.

^{16 (con’t)} all the fat is the Lord’s.

kal khelev l’Yehovah – “All the fat to Yehovah.” These final words of verse 16 are given in anticipation of verse 17. The fat, signifying that which is best, is dedicated solely to the Lord. It is a most wonderful picture of Christ – “Only the best for the Lord.”

Understanding this, the law of the fat applies in the specifics given above, and it applies only to those animals given above. In other words, the specific named animals are included in this mandate, but others are not. This is known by other passages where other non-sacrificial animals are mentioned, but the fat is not –

 “However, you may slaughter and eat meat within all your gates, whatever your heart desires, according to the blessing of the Lord your God which He has given you; the unclean and the clean may eat of it, of the gazelle and the deer alike. ¹⁶ Only you shall not eat the blood; you shall pour it on the earth like water.” Deuteronomy 12:15, 16

Secondly, the other fat which is in the animal is not included in this mandate. This is seen in Deuteronomy 32 where the fat of sacrificial animals was eaten, meaning other than the special part reserved for the Lord –

“He made him ride in the heights of the earth,
That he might eat the produce of the fields;
He made him draw honey from the rock,
And oil from the flinty rock;
¹⁴ Curds from the cattle, and milk of the flock,
With fat of lambs;
And rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats,
With the choicest wheat;
And you drank wine, the blood of the grapes.” Deuteronomy 32:13,14

That which pictured Christ is forbidden, and nothing else. This is what we are to learn from these passages.

¹⁷ ‘This shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations in all your dwellings:

This word is given specifically for the duration of the Law of Moses. It is not to be taken as binding in this dispensation. The law of the fat portion is fulfilled in Christ; it is set aside in Christ; and it is annulled in Christ. As with all things, context is king, and the context of the Bible is that the mandates and prohibitions of the Law of Moses were only in effect until that same law was annulled in the coming of the New Covenant. This is the context, and this is therefore a statute which no longer applies to us.

*^17 (fin) you shall eat neither fat nor blood.’”

Again, this is fulfilled in Christ, and it is annulled. However, the New Testament does give continued guidelines during the early church period concerning the drinking of blood. This was for a specific reason which is defined in the Council of Jerusalem in Acts 15. Nothing is ever said of the fat prohibition in the New Testament in any way at all. Matthew Henry gives us his insights into these final words of Leviticus 3 –

“Here is a law that they should eat neither fat nor blood. As for the fat, it means the fat of the inwards, the suet. The blood was forbidden for the same reason; because it was God’s part of every sacrifice. God would not permit the blood that made atonement to be used as a common thing, Heb 10:29; nor will he allow us, though we have the comfort of the atonement made, to claim for ourselves any share in the honour of making it. This taught the Jews to observe distinction between common and sacred things; it kept them separate from idolaters. It would impress them more deeply with the belief of some important mystery in the shedding of the blood and the burning the fat of their solemn sacrifices. Christ, as the Prince of peace, made peace with the blood of his cross. Through him the believer is reconciled to God; and having the peace of God in his heart, he is disposed to follow peace with all men. May the Lord multiply grace, mercy, and peace, to all who desire to bear the Christian character.” Matthew Henry

As we have seen, this offering, like the previous two, perfectly reflects the ongoing work of Christ – His atonement, His sanctification, His allowing us fellowship with the Father through Him. Though the peace offering appears disconnected from the cross itself, it is not. It is His cross which grants us the peace we now have. Isaiah explained that for us long before the Day came –

“But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed.” Isaiah 53:5

Paul confirms that the cross is what grants us this fellowship in His words of the Lord’s Supper. In it, we “proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.” Without the cross of Christ, nothing else can bring us near to God. With His cross, all fellowship – close, personal, and even intimate, is available to us once again.

Before we finish and partake of our weekly communion then, it is necessary to take one more moment to explain how this fellowship can come about for the lost soul…

Closing Verse: “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, ² through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” Romans 5:1, 2

Next Week: Leviticus 4:1-12 It won’t be until part II that we get done… (The Sin Offering, Part I) (5^th Leviticus Sermon)

The Lord has you exactly where He wants you. He has a good plan and purpose for you. Even if you have a lifetime of sin heaped up behind you, He can wash it away and purify you completely and wholly. So follow Him and trust Him and He will do marvelous things for you and through you.

The Peace Offering

When his offering is a sacrifice of a peace offering
If he offers it of the herd
Whether male or female
He shall offer it without blemish before the Lord

And he shall lay his hand on the head of his offering
And kill it at the door of the tabernacle of meeting; so shall it be
And Aaron’s sons, the priests
Shall sprinkle the blood all around on the altar completely

Then he shall offer from the sacrifice of the peace offering
An offering made by fire to the Lord
The fat that covers the entrails
And all the fat that is on the entrails, according to this word

The two kidneys and the fat
That is on them by the flanks, you see
And the fatty lobe attached to the liver
Above the kidneys, he shall remove accordingly

And Aaron’s sons shall burn it
On the altar upon the burnt sacrifice
Which is on the wood that is on the fire
As an offering made by fire, a sweet aroma to the Lord, quite nice

If his offering as a sacrifice of a peace offering
To the Lord is of the flock whether male or female
He shall offer it without blemish
So shall it be according to each detail

If he offers a lamb as his offering
Then he shall offer it before the Lord
Yes, he shall do this thing

And he shall lay his hand on the head of his offering
And kill it before the tabernacle of meeting; so shall it be
And Aaron’s sons shall sprinkle its blood
All around on the altar accordingly

Then he shall offer from the sacrifice of the peace offering
As an offering made by fire to the Lord
Its fat and the whole fat tail
Which he shall remove close to the backbone
——-According to this word

And the fat that covers the entrails
And all the fat that is on the entrails too
The two kidneys and the fat that is on them by the flanks
Paying heed to this word, so shall he do

And the fatty lobe attached to the liver
Above the kidneys, he shall remove; according to this word
And the priest shall burn them on the altar as food
An offering made by fire to the Lord

And if his offering is a goat, as I now say
Then he shall offer it before the Lord in the following way

He shall lay his hand on its head
And kill it before the tabernacle of meeting; they shall not falter
And the sons of Aaron shall sprinkle its blood
All around on the altar

Then he shall offer from it his offering
As an offering made by fire to the Lord
The fat that covers the entrails
And all the fat that is on the entrails, according to this word

The two kidneys and the fat that is on them by the flanks
And the fatty lobe attached to the liver above the kidneys too
He shall remove; and the priest shall burn them
On the altar as food; this thing he shall do

An offering made by fire for an aroma which is sweet
All the fat is the Lord’s
Your following these directions shall be complete

This shall be a perpetual statute
Throughout your generations in all your dwellings
You shall eat neither fat nor blood
You shall not do these things

Peace with God, full and complete
Has come to us through the blood of Jesus
Once again, there is fellowship so sweet
Marvelous things He has done for us

And so, O Lord, to You we give our heartfelt praise
And to You, O God, we shall sing out for all of our days

Hallelujah and Amen…

Leviticus 2:1-16
The Grain Offering

Today we will go through 16 verses of a chapter which is often the downfall of many readers of the Bible. They quickly get through Genesis and the first half of Exodus. When they get to the repetition in Exodus, they start to simply read for the sake of reading, but without the joy of what the verses actually picture.

For us, those verses were literally filled with pictures of Christ. For the struggling reader of the final chapters of Exodus, they certainly come to Leviticus with great anticipation that a new book will bring many tasty delights, just like they saw earlier. The first chapter is read and mentally ignored, and by the time they finish the second chapter, they will turn the page and skim over what Chapter 3 might offer.

In seeing that it is basically the same as Chapters 1 & 2, they quietly close the book and put it on the shelf. “I’ll come back to this soon. I just need a break.” Many never return to this marvelous treasure again. Some walk away from it for years and years, but then they hear someone speak on the glory of what is concealed in it and they come back on fire once again.

This chapter, like the last, and like those to come, may seem irrelevant, outdated, and tedious to read on the surface, but when you’re looking for Christ, nothing is irrelevant, outdated, or tedious. We just need to look for Him. Out of 16 verses, I suppose we will draw out 50 to 100 pictures of Him.

Text Verse: “You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. ⁴⁰ But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.” John 5:39, 40

Jesus wasn’t talking about the New Testament when He said this. It didn’t exist. Rather, He was speaking to the people of Israel about their Scriptures. We call them the Old Testament. And when He said that they testify of Him, He meant that they did so wholly and completely.

This is the beauty of studying these seemingly repetitive and tedious passages. They are filled with the glory of the Lord. When the New Testament writers explain what He did, they use the same symbolism that they grew up with while hearing their writings. They came to the marvelous understanding that all of these things were about Him.

The grain offerings today follow logically after the burnt offerings of Chapter 1. The burnt offering is as a life given up wholly to the Lord. The grain offerings will look to our works in the Lord which are acceptable because of His works. Each step takes us through a picture of our own redemption and life in Christ.

Let us never grow weary of this pursuit of Christ from the Old Testament. In the end, our understanding of the New will be deepened and enriched by what we see with each new revelation of that which was hidden. Yes, it’s all to be found in His superior word. And so let’s turn to that precious word once again and… May God speak to us through His word today and may His glorious name ever be praised.

I. The Simple Grain Offering (verses 1-3)

‘When anyone offers a grain offering to the Lord,

The next offering to be laid out in Leviticus takes the entire chapter to explain. It is the grain offering. The word in Hebrew is minkhah, and it indicates that which is bestowed, or a donation. It is generally a gift made from an inferior to a superior. John Lange notes that –

“It signifies not so much resignation as giving, or a return, in the sense of childlike thankfulness, resignation of the support of life, of the enjoyment of life. Its motive is not through a divine demand as the performance of a duty or a debt, but through an instinctive desire of communion with Jehovah.”

However, despite this possibly being the case, that this is an offering of thankfulness and instinctive desire, it is still outlined and specified here in Leviticus. There are several sound reasons for this. The first is that when such an offering is to be made, it needs to be presented in a manner which is acceptable to the Lord.

The next is that each offering must prefigure Christ. As no offering apart from Christ is truly acceptable to God, then this is a logical, and even necessary, deduction. And thirdly, Lange may be a bit over-zealous in stating that it is an instinctive desire. If it is, it is one easily quenched in man. How many of us would offer an offering to God if we were not somehow taught or instructed to do so? Very few indeed! As Adam Clarke clarifies –

“It is such an offering as what is called natural religion might be reasonably expected to suggest: but alas! so far lost is man, that even thankfulness to God for the fruits of the earth must be taught by a Divine revelation; for in the heart of man even the seeds of gratitude are not found, till sown there by the hand of Divine grace.” Adam Clarke

Clark is correct in this, but there is even more. Even if the offering is mandated, and the offeror comes forward as mandated to make an offering, and he does it in accord with the specifications, it does not mean that the offering will be acceptable to the Lord. This is seen throughout the Old Testament, such as in Amos 5 –

“I hate, I despise your feast days,
And I do not savor your sacred assemblies.
²² Though you offer Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings,
I will not accept them,
Nor will I regard your fattened peace offerings.
²³ Take away from Me the noise of your songs,
For I will not hear the melody of your stringed instruments.
²⁴ But let justice run down like water,
And righteousness like a mighty stream.” Amos 5:22

An offering not made in faith and with a right heart before God is loathsome to Him. This is proven from the very first time this type of offering was seen. It was in Genesis 4 when Cain and Abel brought their minkhah, or offerings, to the Lord. Abel’s offering, according to Hebrews 11, was of faith. Cain’s was not and it was not considered acceptable to the Lord.

The next time the minkhah was seen was in the offering that Jacob used to pacify his brother Esau after his many years in exile in Padam Aram. It is also the type of offering that Joseph’s brothers made to him when they came before him as the ruler in Egypt.

Because of the use of it in this passage, it generally became common to associate the minkhah with a bloodless offering only. Here in verse 1, the offering is said to apply to “anyone.” The word is nephesh, which means “soul.” In the burnt offering of the previous chapter, an adam, or man, was to bring the offering.

^{1 (con’t)} his offering shall be of fine flour.

Here the word soleth, or “fine,” is used. It was first seen in Genesis 18:6 when the Lord and two angels appeared to Abraham at his tent. He offered to make them a meal while they waited. When they agreed, it said this –

“So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah and said, “Quickly, make ready three measures of fine meal; knead it and make cakes.” Genesis 18:6

It is from an unused root meaning to strip; flour, as chipped off; and thus fine. It is generally considered, even when not specifically stated, that wheat was the flour used in such an offering. It would be the best of things offered to the greatest of Beings, meaning the Creator. In this, it is a picture of Christ, the first and finest grain of wheat, as He alluded to Himself in John 12:24 –

“Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.”

It is a fitting emblem of Christ who is the Bread of life, and the One who thus provides everlasting life to those who partake of Him. Thus the offering is an acknowledgment of this to God.

It should be noted that the grain which is offered came from God, but it has been modified by man in the grinding process. Thus a type of work is involved in the picture. It is a confession that the works we do are to be performed in Christ, and are due only to Him. This is seen in the next words…

^{1 (con’t)} And he shall pour oil on it,

The word for “pour” is yatsaq. It means to cast, as in casting bronze in a mold. From this, the idea of pouring is seen. One pours molten metal into a cast. Here the oil is poured onto the flour. It is a picture of the anointing of the Holy Spirit, as it is throughout the Bible. The term “Messiah” signifies the Anointed One, as does “Christ” in Greek. It thus gives us the idea of divine grace.

^{1 (con’t)} and put frankincense on it.

After the oil, frankincense is added. It is an expensive and fragrant resin which exudes from a shrub and is collected for incense, perfume, and the like. In Hebrew, it is levonah. This comes from the word lavan, meaning “brick” and so it gives the idea of “white,” perhaps because of its smoke.

The concept of a brick in the Bible is one of human work. At the tower of Babel, the people made lavan, or bricks in order to work their way to heaven. In Egypt, the people were forced to make brick without straw and were unable to perform their duties. In both instances, pictures were being made of man’s futile attempt at pleasing God through works. Their brick-making was tainted and unacceptable.

Here, the levonah pictures the acceptable works of Christ which are offered to God. Therefore, we see Christ’s satisfaction through His work, and His acceptable intercession for us because of it. In other words, without Christ, the works of preparing the fine flour of the meal offering would be unacceptable to God. Only with Christ in the picture are the works acceptable.

As this will be burnt on the altar, it indeed pictures His intercession for us. There is no such thing as going to God without a mediator. In Israel, the high priest was that mediator, but he only prefigured the true Mediator, Christ, who is seen in this offering. Once the frankincense is added, it was then brought to the priests…

² He shall bring it to Aaron’s sons, the priests, one of whom shall take from it his handful of fine flour and oil with all the frankincense.

Once the offering is brought to the priests, the attending priest was to take a handful of the flour and oil, but all of the frankincense was to be gathered up in the handful. The word “handful” is qamats. It is a verb which means “grasp with the hand,” or “take a handful.” The Hebrew repeats the noun form of the word, and thus it reads, “…and take a handful from there, a full handful.” In this handful was to be all of the frankincense.

^{2 (con’t)} And the priest shall burn it as a memorial on the altar, an offering made by fire, a sweet aroma to the Lord.

This full handful, including all of the incense, was to be burnt on the brazen altar where the other offerings were burnt. The word for “burn” signifies a burning of incense. Therefore, it is more than a mere burning, but one which is to be, as is then noted, a sweet aroma to the Lord.

This portion was to be an azkarah, or a memorial offering. This is the first of seven times that the azkarah will be mentioned, all but one time will be in Leviticus. It comes from the word zakar which means “to remember.” Thus it is as a memorial.

Everything about this points us to Christ. The frankincense is His work. This is why all of it is burnt. Our works are only acceptable if they are done in Him. The oil, the grain, the words used, each aspect is to lead us to an understanding of what Christ has done for us, and which then makes our works acceptable to God. Thus, the memorial is of what Christ has done. Without it, there would not be anything worthy of remembering.

It must be noted that the word used in the Greek translation of the Old Testament for “memorial” is the same as that which is used in Acts 10:4 when speaking of the prayers and alms of Cornelius –

“Your prayers and your alms have come up for a memorial before God.”

This is not without importance in understanding that the faith of Gentiles was considered as a memorial which led them to Christ where they could then be sealed with the Holy Spirit. God is looking for faith in His faithless creatures. When that faith is united with belief in Christ, it leads to salvation.

³ The rest of the grain offering shall be Aaron’s and his sons’. 

It would make no sense for the offeror to receive back his offering, and the memorial portion was satisfactory for the picture of Christ and His work. Therefore, all that was left of the offering, was given to the priests as their portion. This is important because…

^{3 (con’t)} It is most holy of the offerings to the Lord made by fire.

What was not burnt up was still considered as wholly offered up to the Lord by the offeror. It was qodesh qadashim, or “holy of holies” to the Lord. Unlike the offerings which were completely burnt up on the altar which were not called holy of holies to the Lord, the term is necessary here.

The reason is that if it was burnt up, there could be no possibility of anything remaining being used for profane purposes. However, because this offering had something remaining, it was given this descriptor so that all would know that it was dedicated to the priests alone.

What will it take to please the Lord; how much work will do?
When will my deeds be enough?
I think I have satisfied Him through and through
But then I ponder about my life… all the bad stuff

And then I see that the bad outweighs the good
And so I do a bit more hoping it will be enough
But the nagging sensation makes it understood
That doing wrong makes the good disappear like a puff

And then I heard that He had done it all for me
Jesus’ works were perfect; God deemed it enough
Like frankincense, His life was accepted. How can it be?
His works are sufficient to cover all of my bad stuff

II. The Baked Offerings (verses 4-13)

⁴ ‘And if you bring as an offering a grain offering baked in the oven, it shall be unleavened cakes of fine flour mixed with oil,

This offering is one baked in a tannur, or oven. These are usually small firepots or even portable earthenware furnaces, but they can even be holes dug in the ground and coated with plaster. After bread was kneaded, it would be flattened out into a circular shape and hand-pressed against the inside of the oven. It would bake while adhering to the wall and then be removed.

The tannur are still used in parts of the world today. The same word for them is used to describe the smoking oven which represented the presence of God that Abraham saw in Genesis 15. In Isaiah and Malachi, the tannur represents divine judgment.

The bread is khalot matsot. Khalah, means “to pierce.” Therefore it is pierced or punctured cakes. Matsot is unleavened bread. The word comes from a root meaning sweetness. These cakes were to be mixed with oil.

Each aspect again pictures Christ. There is the divine judgment on sin which was reckoned to Him on our behalf, seen in the tannur. There is the piercing of His body, seen in the khalah. There is the sweetness of His sinless life, seen in the matsot. And the divine/human life seen in the mixing in of the oil.

^{4 (con’t)} or unleavened wafers anointed with oil.

This is another type of bread, raqiq. It comes from raqaq, which means “to spit.” So it is a thin cake, like a wafer. They are also unleavened, but are only anointed with oil. These likewise look to the offering of Christ.

In Leviticus 15:8, it will note that if a person defiled by a discharge were to spit, raqaq, on a person, they would be unclean. This bread then pictures Christ when He was spit on and beaten by the unclean Gentiles as is stated in Luke 18. This was prophesied in Isaiah, using the word roq which comes from raqaq –

“I gave My back to those who struck Me,
And My cheeks to those who plucked out the beard;
I did not hide My face from shame and spitting.” Isaiah 50:6

But, this bread is said to be unleavened, “anointed” with oil. The word is mashakh. It is the same word used to identify the coming Messiah in Isaiah 61:1 –

“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me,
Because the Lord has anointed Me
To preach good tidings to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives,
And the opening of the prison to those who are bound.” Isaiah 61:1

Thus, this pictures Christ as the sinless One anointed to fulfill the messianic pictures presented in the Old Testament.

⁵ But if your offering is a grain offering baked in a pan, it shall be of fine flour, unleavened, mixed with oil.

The next baked offering is one on a plate, or makhabath, This is the first of just five times it will be seen. The last is in Ezekiel 4:3 where it is used in an object lesson to Israel –

“Moreover take for yourself an iron plate, and set it as an iron wall between you and the city. Set your face against it, and it shall be besieged, and you shall lay siege against it. This will be a sign to the house of Israel.”

The same fine flour is used; it was to be unleavened; and it was to be mixed with oil.

⁶ You shall break it in pieces and pour oil on it; it is a grain offering.

This bread is then broken into pieces, and then oil is poured on it. The symbolism here looks to protection from judgment because of the judgment rendered on the sinless Christ. The pieces of the bread would signify many various aspects of His work, all fully mixed with the presence of the Spirit, seen in the mixing of the oil.

⁷ ‘If your offering is a grain offering baked in a covered pan, it shall be made of fine flour with oil.

The covered pan, or markhesheth, is introduced here and it will only be seen two times, both in Leviticus. It comes from the word rakhash, which means “to overflow.” It is only seen in Psalm 45 –

“My heart is overflowing with a good theme;
I recite my composition concerning the King;
My tongue is the pen of a ready writer.” Psalm 45:1

This final baked offering is also reflective of Christ where the purity of His life is literally saturated with the Spirit of God. His fully human and perfectly sinless nature, which is intricately bound to His divine nature, is that which overflows in goodness towards the objects of His affections.

⁸ You shall bring the grain offering that is made of these things to the Lord. And when it is presented to the priest, he shall bring it to the altar.

What is implied here is that whichever of the three offerings were prepared, it was done by the people before going to the sanctuary. When they were ready, they were brought to the Lord, meaning to the sanctuary. It is at that time that they were presented to the priest who then brought it to the altar. The lay people could not approach the altar because it was deemed as most holy.

Some scholars state that these offerings were also made with frankincense, but nothing it said of this. Verse 15 does seem to imply that all grain offerings would have it offered though, despite the lack of it being explicitly stated here.

⁹ Then the priest shall take from the grain offering a memorial portion, and burn it on the altar. It is an offering made by fire, a sweet aroma to the Lord.

Like the grain offering of fine flour, a memorial portion is taken out. The Hebrew uses the word rum, which indicates “to raise,” or “to exalt.” He exalts one portion above the rest as an offering which will be burned as a sweet aroma to the Lord. Again, the word for burn means more than just to consume. It indicates to be fragrant, like incense. It is again, like before, a picture of Christ who was raised on the cross and exalted before God as a memorial portion to Him.

¹⁰ And what is left of the grain offering shall be Aaron’s and his sons’. It is most holy of the offerings to the Lord made by fire.

The words are identical to Leviticus 2:3, word for word.

¹¹ ‘No grain offering which you bring to the Lord shall be made with leaven, for you shall burn no leaven nor any honey in any offering to the Lord made by fire.

Both leaven, or yeast, and honey were not to be burnt upon the altar due to fermentation, a type of putrefaction. When heated, they would swell and froth, producing an appearance which represents moral evil. This prohibition is a negative one which looks only to the positives in Christ. Matthew Henry gives us his thoughts on verses 1-11 –

“Meat-offerings may typify Christ, as presented to God for us, and as being the Bread of life to our souls; but they rather seem to denote our obligation to God for the blessings of providence, and those good works which are acceptable to God. … These meat-offerings are mentioned after the burnt-offerings: without an interest in the sacrifice of Christ, and devotedness of heart to God, such services cannot be accepted. Leaven is the emblem of pride, malice, and hypocrisy, and honey of sensual pleasure. The former are directly opposed to the graces of humility, love, and sincerity, which God approves; the latter takes men from the exercises of devotion, and the practice of good works. Christ, in his character and sacrifice, was wholly free from the things denoted by leaven; and his suffering life and agonizing death were the very opposites to worldly pleasure. His people are called to follow, and to be like him.” Matthew Henry

Every verse has thus far looked to the work of Christ. The next will in another way…

¹² As for the offering of the firstfruits, you shall offer them to the Lord,

This is a positive statement concerning the offering of leaven and/or honey. The word “them” is referring to these ingredients. When the firstfruits were offered, they would be included. This is seen, for example, in Leviticus 23 –

“You shall bring from your dwellings two wave loaves of two-tenths of an ephah. They shall be of fine flour; they shall be baked with leaven. They are the firstfruits to the Lord.” Leviticus 23:17

The honey could even be given as an offering itself, just as the yield of any crop or gathering. This is seen in 2 Chronicles 31:5 –

“As soon as the commandment was circulated, the children of Israel brought in abundance the firstfruits of grain and wine, oil and honey, and of all the produce of the field; and they brought in abundantly the tithe of everything.”

^{12 (con’t)} but they shall not be burned on the altar for a sweet aroma.

The prohibition is again stated. Repetition demands full attention to this precept. The picture of Christ is to be maintained at all costs and in all ways.

¹³ And every offering of your grain offering you shall season with salt; you shall not allow the salt of the covenant of your God to be lacking from your grain offering. With all your offerings you shall offer salt.

Salt has exactly the opposite effect of leaven or honey. Instead of corruption, it produces and signifies incorruption. It strengthens the food in which it is, and also preserves it. Thus, it is a sign of faithfulness and covenant keeping. It goes so far as to indicate the perpetual nature of the covenant. It will never be broken as long as it is in force. Jesus refers to this command in Mark 9:49, 50 –

“For everyone will be seasoned with fire, and every sacrifice will be seasoned with salt. ⁵⁰ Salt is good, but if the salt loses its flavor, how will you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and have peace with one another.”

The inclusion of salt pictures Christ’s incorruption, having never sinned before God. It represents His covenant keeping nature, and even as One who will never break the covenant He makes.

It should be noted that the use of salt is never given a set measure in Scripture. Any amount, and indeed any greater amount, was acceptable. It was to be without limit. This is, in itself, a picture of Christ Jesus who is infinitely incorrupt, and for those who come through Him they are thus infinitely acceptable to God. There is no end to His faithfulness, no end to His covenant keeping ability, and no end to His ability to preserve those who are in Him.

An offering baked in an oven, an offering to the Lord
Another baked in a flat pan, mixed with oil
Another is heated in a covered pan, according to the word
In that pan it does boil

And then they are offered to the Lord
The priest takes a portion to the altar
And with it he presents salt of the covenant
In this duty he is never to falter

The salt of the covenant, it reminds us each time
Of the covenant faithfulness of our Lord
We wait in an anticipation wonderfully sublime
For Him to come as promised in the word

Send us now, O God, send us Jesus
We await the salvation promised so long ago to us

III. The Grain of the Firstfruits (verses 14-16)

¹⁴ ‘If you offer a grain offering of your firstfruits to the Lord,

The firstfruits here are, in Hebrew, bikkurim. They signify the first fruits of a crop which ripen, and are thus the “hasty fruits.” The word comes from bakar which means “to bear new fruit,” or “to constitute as first-born.”

In the Bible, there are two symbolic uses of the firstfruits. The first is a picture of Christ, and the second is a picture of the first of those who are in Christ. These pictures will be seen more clearly as we continue through Leviticus. For now, specifically, they point to the new birth in Christ, and thus to His resurrection.

^{14 (con’t)} you shall offer for the grain offering of your firstfruits green heads of grain roasted on the fire, grain beaten from full heads.

These are words filled with new or unique thoughts in Scripture. First, the “green heads” mentioned here is the Hebrew aviv. It is from an unused root meaning to be tender, and thus green. Hence, it is a young ear of grain. From this, comes the name of the Hebrew month Aviv which is the first month of the redemptive calendar, and the time of year when these grains would be green. It is the March/April time-frame. This is the only time the word is used when speaking of the grains rather than the month named because of the grains.

The word for roasted is qalah. This is the first of four times it will be seen. It is identical to the word qalah which means dishonored or degraded. The idea is that the grains would be shriveled and wrinkled through the roasting, as a person is metaphorically when he is degraded.

And then is the word “beaten.” It is geres, and it is found only here and in verse 16 in the entire Bible. It indicates grain which is crushed.

And finally, there is the word karmel, which is translated as “full heads.” It is from the same root as kerem, or vineyard. The word gives the sense of fertile, or being fruitful. The hints and shadows of Christ are plenty here.

Aviv is the time of year when Christ was crucified, at the Passover. He was crucified at this time, but He was also resurrected at this time, thus He is the Firstfruits of the resurrection, as Paul notes explicitly in 1 Corinthians 15:20 & 23. In the time of His passion, He was degraded and dishonored, just as the grains imply.

He was also beaten, even crushed for our iniquities, just as Isaiah 53:5 states. And He came in the fullness of time, when there was a great field of harvest awaiting, just as the full heads of grain imply. He was the Firstfruits of many who would follow after. Every detail, again, points to Christ and what He has done for us.

Of this verse, Adam Clarke notes that eating parched half ripe ears is something the poor people would do. There has been a downward succession of these offerings, from the greatest to the least, just as there was in Chapter 1 with the burnt offerings. Clarke thus states –

“As God is represented as keeping a table among his people, (for the tabernacle was his house, where he had the golden table, shewbread, etc)., so he represents himself as partaking with them of all the aliments that were in use, and even sitting down with the poor to a repast on parched corn!”

This then is a beautiful picture of Christ who did not, and does not, shun any, even the poorest or basest of the people, but was and is welcoming to any and all who come to Him in faith and show faithfulness to the God who establishes His people.

¹⁵ And you shall put oil on it, and lay frankincense on it.

The offering would have oil added, and just as was stated above, it was to have levonah, or frankincense, added on it. Thus, it pictures Christ in exactly the same way as before. The oil is the presence of the Spirit, and only His works, or the works of those who are in Christ, are sufficient to please God. The symbolism shouts out the work of Christ.

^{15 (con’t)} It is a grain offering.

These words seem to indicate that all grain offerings were to have frankincense added to them. Even though several did not explicitly state this, it seems implied from these words that it is so. Regardless, this final offering explicitly states it. And the use is the same as before, just as our last verse of the chapter indicates…

*¹⁶ Then the priest shall burn the memorial portion: part of its beaten grain and part of its oil, with all the frankincense, as an offering made by fire to the Lord.

The priest would take a memorial portion of the offering and all of the frankincense, and burn it on the altar, just as was noted before. And again, the word for “burn” indicates the burning of incense, not merely the consuming of what is laid there. The offering was to be as a sweet savor when offered by fire to the Lord.

As I said at the beginning of the sermon. So many people get to the chapters we are in, and they stop reading this precious treasure; this gift of God. But it is so rich with hints of Christ, and in understanding them, we have a much, much better appreciation for what is written in the New Testament. I would hope that the next time you wind your way through these chapters, that you would stop to ponder the unusual words, used once or maybe twice in the entire Bible and say, “The Lord put that word in here just for me to know Jesus a bit better.”

A sermon about how to make your day a bit nicer is as effective as your mood is on that day. But a look into the details of the Bible is worth much more to carry you through the longer term difficulties that we all must face. We can have the firm foundation that God has blessed us with these details to tell us that for those in Christ, there is a great and wonderful future which lies ahead.

The minute attention here concerning Christ is enough to let us know that we are now, and always will be, on the right track. Let us never waiver in this, knowing that His attention to the details of Christ translate directly into His attention on us because of Christ. And finally, if you have not yet received Him, why don’t you make today the day. He looked after the poorest soul in Israel, giving them a chance to fellowship with Him intimately.

And you, if you are without Christ, you are far poorer than you might realize, but He will still fellowship with you if you will simply come with an offering of faith.

Closing Verse: “So rend your heart, and not your garments;
Return to the Lord your God,
For He is gracious and merciful,
Slow to anger, and of great kindness;
And He relents from doing harm.
¹⁴ Who knows if He will turn and relent,
And leave a blessing behind Him—
A grain offering and a drink offering
For the Lord your God?” Joel 2:13, 14

Next Week: Resurrection Day Sermon, May our thoughts about the law never be twisted or diminished… (It is Finished)

The Lord has you exactly where He wants you. He has a good plan and purpose for you. Even if you have a lifetime of sin heaped up behind you, He can wash it away and purify you completely and wholly. So follow Him and trust Him and He will do marvelous things for you and through you.

The Grain Offering

When anyone offers a grain offering to the Lord
His offering of fine flour shall it be
And he shall pour oil on it
And put frankincense on it; so it shall smell sweetly

He shall bring it to Aaron’s sons, the priests
One of whom shall take from it
His handful of fine flour and oil
With all the frankincense, as to you I now submit

And the priest shall burn it
As a memorial on the altar, according to My word
An offering made by fire
A sweet aroma to the Lord

The rest of the grain offering shall be
Aaron’s and his sons’
It is most holy of the offerings to the Lord made by fire
Thus it is for them; they the only ones

And if you bring as an offering a grain offering
Baked in the oven, yes this type of toil
It shall be unleavened cakes
Of fine flour mixed with oil

Or unleavened wafers anointed with oil
For something baked, in this you shall toil

But if your offering is a grain offering baked in a pan
It shall be of fine flour, unleavened, mixed with oil
You shall break it in pieces and pour oil on it
It is a grain offering; such is the grain offering’s toil

If your offering is a grain offering baked in a covered pan
It shall be made of fine flour with oil
Thus you are to relay to them this plan

You shall bring the grain offering that is made
Of these things to the Lord
And when it is presented to the priest
He shall bring it to the altar, according to this word

Then the priest shall take
From the grain offering a memorial portion; now you have heard
And burn it on the altar
It is an offering made by fire, a sweet aroma to the Lord

And what is left of the grain offering
Shall be Aaron’s and his sons’
It is most holy of the offerings to the Lord made by fire
It is for them; they are the only ones

No grain offering which you bring to the Lord
Shall be made with leaven according to this word
For you shall burn no leaven nor any honey
In any offering made by fire to the Lord

As for the offering of the firstfruits
You shall offer them to the Lord
But they shall not be burned on the altar
For a sweet aroma, with this you shall be in accord

And every offering of your grain offering
You shall season with salt; so shall you do
You shall not allow the salt of the covenant of your God
To be lacking from your grain offering, as I now instruct to you

With all your offerings you shall offer salt
In adhering to this, you shall not be found in fault

If you offer a grain offering of your firstfruits to the Lord
You shall offer for the grain offering
Of your firstfruits green heads of grain
Roasted on the fire, grain beaten from full heads as a proffering

And you shall put oil on it
And lay frankincense on it
It is a grain offering
So to you these details I now submit

Then the priest shall burn the memorial portion
Part of its beaten grain and part of its oil, according to this word
With all the frankincense
As an offering made by fire to the Lord

Time and time again, they came to do these things
Year after year they continued in this obligation
In anticipation of the One to whom the heart sings
They waited on the Messiah of the Hebrew nation

And He came right on time, the glorious Lord
He who was seen in each detail of the grain offering
And He fulfilled each picture according to the word
To God His life was made the final proffering

Thank You O God for what was done by Jesus
Thank You for what You did through Him for each of us

A covenant of salt, perfect and eternal
Was kept by You and fulfilled in what He alone could do
He has kept us from the pit, fiery and infernal
And so in His name, we send our praises to You

Hallelujah and Amen…