LEVITICUS
Week 2 - Chapters 1-2 General Laws of Offerings
Discuss Study Questions Week 1
As the introduction to Leviticus says in my NASB study bible, “Leviticus is God’s guidebook for His newly redeemed people, showing them how to worship, serve, and obey a holy God.” While we are no longer required to these sacrifices or do many of the other laws, the principles behind these laws are as relevant to us today as they were for the Israelites. God’s holiness has not diminished. He exhorts us today, as He did them, “Be holy for I the Lord your God am Holy.” (19:2) The word, “holy” is used 89 times in Leviticus.
It is important to preamble the discussion of offerings and sacrifices with the admonition that what God wants is our love, trust, loyalty. He wants us to hunger for the knowledge of Him. As He said in Hosea 6:6. “For I delight in loyalty rather than sacrifice, and in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.”
I. Chapters 1and 6 tell about Burnt offerings, animals. These rules hold for any of the animal sacrifices for any reasons, except for a peace offering, as we’ll see later. Read vs. 1-6
a. vs. 3 male without defect obviously represents Christ
doorway of tent of meeting. The killing and skinning were done at the
entryway. -The tent of meeting was where the ark was kept. Symbol-
Christ is at the doorway to God and His word. “No one can come to the
Father except through me.” (John 14:6)
b.vs.4 The owner lays a hand on the animal, symbolically transferring the sin
from the man, and his family, to the animal that is about to be killed. It
was and is a new idea, that God’s punishment for a sin could be
transferred. This is not to be confused with the the punishment due
someone in this life. Some of those punishments are laid out later in this
book. And this is not to be confused with restitution. As we will see later,
When the sin involves loss, the sinner must make restitution.
c. vs. 5-6 The owner himself must kill the animal. The idea is of personal
involvement. The owner must realize he is taking the life of an innocent
animal, who is without defect and has done no wrong, so the owner’s and
his family’s sin would be forgiven by God. And the owner was to skin the
animal. It was to bring home that this was the punishment he and his family
deserved. He couldn’t just drop off an animal and let the priests do the rest.
I wonder about the Israelites for whom this became mere ritual. Talk about
a heart of stone!
- Sprinkle the blood. The blood is a symbol of life itself. The blood is very
important. It is as if, as they were sprinkling the blood, they were pouring
our their own lives as a sacrifice to God, giving back to Him what He had
given them, their lives. Look at how important the blood is to God. Gen.
9:1 And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and
multiply, and fill the earth. 2“The fear of you and the terror of you will be on
every beast of the earth and on every bird of the sky; with everything that
creeps on the ground, and all the fish of the sea, into your hand they are
given. 3“Every moving thing that is alive shall be food for you; I give all to
you, as I gave the green plant. 4“Only you shall not eat flesh with its life,
that is, its blood. 5“Surely I will require your lifeblood; from every beast I
will require it. And from every man, from every man’s brother I will require
the life of man.6 “Whoever sheds man’s blood, By man his blood shall be
shed, For in the image of God He made man.
-Read. Ex. 24:6-8. Like those Israelites, we are covered by the blood,for us the blood of Christ.
-This is why orthodox Jews only eat meat that is well done. In kosher
butcher shops, the blood is drained out of the animals before they are
butchered into pieces. Vs. 17 says no blood or fat. Probably less heart
disease back then.
-The blood gets sprinkled both at the doorway and at the altar.
d. vs 6-17 Peace offerings are treated differently. For only peace offerings, all of the the fat, the 2 kidneys and the liver are burned up. The rest can be cooked and eaten by the priests and their families. Peace offerings can be calf, lambs or goats, male or female, but without defect. These offerings are described in more detail in ch. 3 and 7.
e.vs, 9 The whole animal is to be consumed. For sin offerings and guilt
offerings, this requires the sacrifice of the whole self.
Ch. 6 vs. 9 -10, The offering is to remain on the fire all night. The priest is to place his garments over the ashes and use them to carry the ashes out of the tent of meeting. The fire is to be always kept burning.
-Washing the entrails and legs - These are the dirtiest parts.
f.vs.10-11 Notice, bulls are to be killed at the door. The smaller animals are to
be killed by the side of the altar. The cattle are much larger.
Chapter 2 Grain offerings
a. God does not require wealth. If one is a farmer and does not raise animals, or if he cannot spare a calf, a lamb, a goat, or even a turtle dove or pigeon, he can bring a grain offering.
b.Several differences. Not all the grain offering is to be burnt, only a “Memorial portion”. The rest is to go to the priests.
c. No leavening, vs.4 and 11. Leavening, both literal and symbolic. 1Cor 5: 6Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough? 7Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed. 8Therefore let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
d.Fine flour. The best. It can be made into cakes and fried or not.
e. Seasoning v.1 frankincense, as in the gift a Magi brought to Jesus. (Matt.2:11) and vs. 13 salt. (read) Matt. 5: 13“You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men.
Leviticus Week 2
Study Questions
1. Read. 1Pet. 17-19 and John1:29. Has this picture of physically bringing an animal you have raised, a perfect animal and killing and skinning it with your own hands changed your wonder of the sacrifice of the Lamb of God? Describe how, if it has.
2. God describes here the sacrifices of cattle, lambs and goats, turtle doves and pigeons and grain. What does this tell you about God’s demands/expectations of us? What do you have that is a true sacrifice, one you will thankfully, repentantly be willing to sacrifice? What will that involve?
3. These chapters highlight that God pays attention to the details. Some think this is knit picky, like the child having to listen to the mother telling him/her exactly the way the bed should be made. Others are relieved that God has let us know to the last detail how we should live our lives and give our offerings. This is like someone cooking from a recipe and is relieved that the writer included exactly the amounts of the different ingredients and the products that should be used. No guess work. How does knowing God knows and pays attention to the smallest detail of your day affect the way you live? Give examples, how would you be different if you thought He didn’t know or card about the little things?