back to leviticus

Chapters 1-7 describe the five different types of offerings. These offerings are God's plan for dealing with our needs: Our need for love, our need for joy, our need for peace, our need for forgiveness, and our need for restoration of relationships. In each case, the picture helps us to see how Jesus Christ fills those needs.

Ryan's observation : this goes back to the fruit of the spirit:( in the form of a need, not as a form of outcome) ... the need to LOVE , the need to have JOY (by coming freeing and giving our best back to God) and the need to have PEACE in our hearts...

Chapters 8-10 describe the priesthood. We need helpers in the midst of life's difficulties, and the priests play that role. This section tells us the necessary qualifications of those helpers, giving us a picture both of Jesus as our High Priest, and each of us as a priest serving others.

Chapters 11-15 describe different aspects of holiness, while chapter 16 lays out regulations for celebrating Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. On this day, the people respond to God's provision, acknowledging their inadequacies and God's gracious provision for meeting every need.

Chapters 17 to 27 then constitute the second major section of the book, detailing God's standard for our performance. Note the order here: God's provision always precedes God's commands! God never gives us as Christians a command without providing us with the resources necessary to carry out the command. God is not saying, "This is the law: Do it or die!" Rather, God is saying, "You are weak, apart from me you can do nothing. Remember what happened at Sinai. I know your weakness and your failures, but I have made full provision for them. You now have the ability to live lives worthy of your calling. So be holy!"

Of his own free will: God did not want a coerced sacrifice; it had to be freely offered. God wants our hearts, freely given to Him.

i. This helps us to understand the reason behind the burnt offering; it was a general offering of propitiation and consecration to God. It was a way to say, "God, I freely give you my all through this animal."

b. The fact that God would accept a bull, a goat, a sheep, or a bird shows God was more interested in the heart than in the actual animal being offered. If all one could afford to bring to God was a bird, he was no less accepted by God than one wealthy enough to offer a bull.

c. At the same time, the sacrifice had to correspond with what one could afford. It would have been wrong for a rich man to only offer a bird as a burnt offering. Therefore, when God made His offering for sin, He gave the richest, most costly thing He could - Himself.