Leviticus 1

This post is a part of a series of articles looking at the book of Leviticus. The aim of these articles is fore Christians to have clarity when coming to the book of Leviticus and have the Word of God come alive for them as they see Christ in all of Scripture.

A sermon on Leviticus 1 is available by clicking here.

What is the point of the burnt offering?

1) The burnt offering is a picture of atonement.

Atonement is a funny English word. In fact, if you look up the history of the word, you find that it was coined by a Bible translator named John Wycliffe. The word roughly means “at one ment.” The idea here is reconciliation or covering up a transgression. So by offering a burnt offering, the worshipper in Leviticus is making the point that he has been at enmity with the Lord and desires reconciliation. God decreed that the way this process would be pictured was through the sacrifice of an animal called the burnt offering.

2) The burnt offering is a picture of God’s wrath being appeased

There are several steps to the burnt offering, each with significance, but the climactic point is that the burnt offering is all placed upon the altar and it is all burnt up. This shows a picture of the fact that God’s wrath is able to consume whatever has offended his holiness and his person. This is a picture of substitution, in that the animal was consumed and not the worshipper. While the wrath of God is depicted in this text, so is the mercy of God, to accept the substitute of another in place of the worshipper he is in covenant with.

3) The burnt offering points to Jesus Christ.

As Hebrews will tell us, no one was saved because they offered the burnt offering. All people who were saved under the Old Covenant were saved by the sacrifice of Christ on their behalf. By placing the bull on the altar, the Israelites had faith that one day, the Messiah would come and redeem all God’s people from their sinful ways. The burnt offering is a picture, a type, or a shadow of a far greater sacrifice, which is the Lord Jesus Christ.

Application:

Consider that the lamb God provided for you was much more costly than the animal brought by the Israelites. In fact, Jesus was the only unblemished one who could be offered in our stead. Thank God that you no longer need to bring an animal to be cleansed from your sins because the Savior Jesus was faithful to atone for your sins once and for all. Reading Leviticus 1 should cause us to rest in the perfect sacrifice of Christ and thank God for His wonderous gift to His people.