Leviticus 1

God revealed to Moses not only the design for the tabernacle, but also the laws concerning the system of worship for Israel. That worship required the ritual slaughter of animals. The story of the blood of the sacrifice runs throughout this book. God required this shedding of blood.

The Lord spoke to Moses about this from the tent of meeting. This was different than the revelation God gave to Moses on the top of Mount Sinai, but consistent with those earlier words.

The system of sacrifices, ceremonies, and ethics contained in Leviticus began with the specification that these words were for the people of Israel. In some books of the Bible God spoke to all the people of the earth. Here God gave His special people a way of worship and life that would keep them separate from others, at least until further notice.

This message from the tent of meeting began with the first offering commanded by God, the burnt offering, an offering from the herd or the flock. Instructions on the various situations where God required such an offering would come later. For now, it was enough to learn how a burnt offering was to be done. This teaching was for the whole congregation of Israel so that they would know how to make their burnt offerings to God through the Levitical priests.

An offering from the herd had these specifications. It had to be be a male, a bull, and that male had to be without blemish. The worshiper could not do the offering himself in private. He had to bring the bull to the entrance tent of meeting. That was the only place where it could be accepted before the Lord.

The worshiper was to lay his hand on the head of the sacrificial animal as an indication of his identification with this bull. This was a ceremonial reminder that it was people that God was concerned with, and that the animal was offered up as a substitute for a person, or a group of people.

This process of bringing a bull to the entrance of the tent of meeting suggested an examination by those overseeing the sacrifice. The bull had to be acceptable as a sacrifice. That bull would be used to “make atonement” for the worshiper. God was angry at the worshiper. This was not about some specific sin. Something of wholeness was lacking that God required from the fullness of a life to be lived before Him. God's anger needed to be deflected by an acceptable substitute. If that bull was approved as a sacrifice, the worshiper would move ahead toward the bronze altar, and kill the bull “before the Lord.” God would be the One who had to be satisfied by the offering.

The priests, the sons of Aaron were to bring the blood of the bull and throw it against the sides of the bronze altar located near the entrance to the tabernacle. God required these blood sacrifices. The worshiper should have been thinking about this after laying his hand on the head of the bull and seeing this blood poured on the sides of the altar. “Why does God require my blood?” “Can the blood of a bull work, when God requires something of me?”

The worshiper was not yet done. He would skin the bull and cut it up into pieces. He would also wash the bull's legs and entrails with water.

Now the priests would take over. They kept the fire going so that it was prepared for these offerings. They alone could take those cut up pieces and place them on the bronze altar outside the tent of meeting. The head, the fat, and all the pieces were arranged on the wood and burned as a burnt offering. This was to be a food offering to a God who did not need to eat. It was a “pleasing aroma to the Lord.”

These same instructions were repeated in the case of an offering from the flock, a sheep or a goat. God also specified to Moses the rules concerning offerings of turtledoves and pigeons.

What was all this slaughter about? Why would the God of heaven command such things of His people? In a book devoted to the way of Old Testament holiness, why would God start with these descriptions?

Without the shedding of blood there can be no forgiveness of sins. Since the moment that sin entered the world through Adam, we have been hearing about the suffering of a substitute. It was God who performed the first animal sacrifice, not man. See Genesis 3:21. The yield of that death was clothing for mankind. But before God killed an animal, He spoke of the suffering of the “Seed of the woman” who would be bruised.

The burnt offering was a whole and perfect offering to God. We needed someone else to stand in our place because we have not been an offering of wholeness to God without blemish.

Jesus offered up all He had to God as a living sacrifice. Nothing was lacking in His life. That living sacrifice was acceptable to God. Our hands came against Him, since it was for our sins that He died. He was pierced for our transgressions. His life and His death were the perfect and full offering to God, ascending to His throne on high as a sweet-smelling aroma. Through Him, we who are full of all our own blemishes and who are lacking in more ways than we know, have been made fully acceptable to the Father.