Leviticus 1: 1 – 17
The killing of the innocent
1 Now the LORD called to Moses, and spoke to him from the tabernacle of meeting, saying, 2 “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘When any one of you brings an offering to the LORD, you shall bring your offering of the livestock—of the herd and of the flock. 3 ‘If his offering is a burnt sacrifice of the herd, let him offer a male without blemish; he shall offer it of his own free will at the door of the tabernacle of meeting before the LORD. 4 Then he shall put his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it will be accepted on his behalf to make atonement for him. 5 He shall kill the bull before the LORD; and the priests, Aaron’s sons, shall bring the blood and sprinkle the blood all around on the altar that is by the door of the tabernacle of meeting. 6 And he shall skin the burnt offering and cut it into its pieces. 7 The sons of Aaron the priest shall put fire on the altar, and lay the wood in order on the fire. 8 Then the priests, Aaron’s sons, shall lay the parts, the head, and the fat in order on the wood that is on the fire upon the altar; 9 but he shall wash its entrails and its legs with water. And the priest shall burn all on the altar as a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, a sweet aroma to the LORD. 10 ‘If his offering is of the flocks—of the sheep or of the goats—as a burnt sacrifice, he shall bring a male without blemish. 11 He shall kill it on the north side of the altar before the LORD; and the priests, Aaron’s sons, shall sprinkle its blood all around on the altar. 12 And he shall cut it into its pieces, with its head and its fat; and the priest shall lay them in order on the wood that is on the fire upon the altar; 13 but he shall wash the entrails and the legs with water. Then the priest shall bring it all and burn it on the altar; it is a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, a sweet aroma to the LORD. 14 ‘And if the burnt sacrifice of his offering to the LORD is of birds, then he shall bring his offering of turtledoves or young pigeons. 15 The priest shall bring it to the altar, wring off its head, and burn it on the altar; its blood shall be drained out at the side of the altar. 16 And he shall remove its crop with its feathers and cast it beside the altar on the east side, into the place for ashes. 17 Then he shall split it at its wings, but shall not divide it completely; and the priest shall burn it on the altar, on the wood that is on the fire. It is a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, a sweet aroma to the LORD.
With the entire world caught up in brutality slaughter a question often asked is ‘Why does God desire the slaughter of innocent animals? I will get to this issue in a minute but I want to comment on a recent article I just noticed in the news.
A family abandoned their pet cat. I guess these evil people felt that they were going to give him a fair chance to survive if he could make it on his own. We have a county park nearby where I live called Core Creek Park. Evil heartless people bring their pet cats and just leave them there to exist on their own. I am so thankful that a group of good Samaritans take it upon themselves to go to the park and provide crates with blankets and food for these poor animals to exist. May our Great Creator God richly bless them?
Now back to the heartless family who abandoned their pet. After walking 12 miles to get back to the place he thought was home, Toby the cat's original family took him to a county shelter and requested that he be euthanized. This barbaric act truly points out to us the sinful evil that humans have inherited.
Luckily for the 7-year-old cat the shelter, not wanting to euthanize a seemingly healthy cat, contacted the SPCA of Wake County in Raleigh, North Carolina, for help. "The shelter called us at the SPCA to ask if we could take him in and help him find a new family," the nonprofit wrote on Face book. "Of course we said YES!"
According to Tara Lynn, SPCA of Wake County communications manager, Toby's former owners were trying to lessen their pathetic act by saying that they tried to give him away to another household, but the strong-willed feline found his way back to them.
"It's a hard concept for me to understand: somebody asking that a pet be euthanized," Lynn told TODAY.
Although it's unclear why his original family had such a strong request for the county shelter, Lynn said the shelter told the SPCA that Toby struggled to get along with the family's other cats. Toby also has feline immunodeficiency virus. Lynn speculated this condition could have been another motive for the family's decision.
FIV behaves very similarly to HIV, weakening the immune system and therefore making the cat more susceptible to illness. However, Lynn said that with proper medical treatment, FIV-positive cats can live out healthy, happy lives.
After 45 days at the SPCA of Wake County, Toby finally found his fur-ever home. He was adopted by local resident Michele Puckett and her two children on April 13.
Puckett first heard Toby's heartbreaking story from her sister in New Hampshire who read about him through celebrity animal activist Beth Stern's Instagram account.
"North Carolina friends: Ok sorry to be Debbie Downer but this just about killed me," Stern, wife of radio personality Howard Stern, wrote in the caption to her 416,000 followers. "He still needs a home as he's at the shelter - a home with someone who will not only love him, but guard him as he'd likely try to get 'home' again."
I think there was actually some debate in the family about which of the three sisters was actually going to keep Toby," joked Lynn.
Toby's adoptive family is already embracing him with open hearts (and paws). They even made him an Instagram account to document all the family fun, and it already has more than 16,000 followers. According to Lynn, Puckett said, "It's like he's always been here."
The SPCA of Wake County is holding its 2018 K9-3K Dog Walk & Woofstock on May 6 to take a stand for homeless pets and help thousands of other animals in need. They're hoping that Toby's inspiring story encourages locals to participate.
Toby's story is very special. It's resonated with a lot of people," Lynn said. "There are a lot of Toby’s out there. That's why we're asking people to walk or donate or get involved with their local rescue. We can't save them all unless we have the resources to do so.
"With people's support, we were able to say, 'Yes, we can save Toby.' There are many more animals that have been abandoned, neglected and need our help
I am sure that you are moved by the actions of the owners of Toby and the Core Creek cats yet a key question and emotional reaction many are moved by is the slaughter of innocent lambs, goats, calves, and birds as sacrifices. I have spoke to many people who tell me that they just avoid the book of Leviticus because it is too horrible in the descriptions on how to butcher innocent animals in order to offer them as sacrifices to our Holy God. Do you have the same viewpoint?
Well, even though I am an animal supporter I more importantly today I am a Holy God supporter. His book in Leviticus although brutal in its descriptions lets us all know God’s heart. For us to abhor the slaughter of innocent young animals we all need to realize how our sins are even more abhorrent, horrible and repulsive to a perfect and holy God.
We need to recognize this about our Great God. We need to understand His heart He says in the book of Hebrews chapter 10 verse 6, “In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. “. In a way He Is saying to us, ‘Yes, I also do not like the brutal slaying of an innocent little animal. Is all this repulsive to you? Then in a way you can understand how horrible and repulsive sin is to Me.
So will all of this brought forth let us look into The Lord’s Holy Word.
The Book of Leviticus takes up from where Exodus left off and deals with the covenant life of Israel. It follows a basic chiastic pattern centered on the Day of Atonement. It may be briefly summarized as follows:
• 1). The laws relating to sacrifice (chapters 1-7).
• 2). The consecration of the priests (chapters 8-10).
• 3). The laws relating to cleanness and uncleanness (chapters 11-15).
• 4). The Day of Atonement (chapter 16).
• 5). The laws relating to ritual and moral holiness (chapters 17-20).
• 6). The maintenance of the holiness of the priests (chapters 21-22).
• 7). The laws relating to times and seasons (chapters 23-25).
• 8). The blessings and curses regarding obeying or violating the covenant. (chapter 26
• 9). Postscript in respect to vows (chapter 27)
Anyone who approaches God there is no question more important than, ‘How can we get right and keep right with God so that we can walk with Him and know Him daily? How can we approach Him in worship in a way that He will accept?’ How can we offer Him worship that is pleasing to Him? Those were the questions that the Tabernacle sought to solve, for it was seen to be His earthly ‘Tabernacle’, and that required firmly established rules which Leviticus describes to us.
1 Now the LORD called to Moses, and spoke to him from the tabernacle of meeting, saying,
At this point in time the ‘tent of meeting’ has become the Tabernacle, which has replaced the smaller Tent of Meeting which had been outside the camp (Exodus 33.7-11). This one was in the middle of the camp surrounded and guarded by the tents of the priests and Levites (Numbers 1.53).
The tents of the other tribes, divided into their tribes, would then surround these on all four sides at a discreet distance (Numbers 2). It should be a notable fact that in camping out you would think the tribes just camped around The Tabernacle but that was not the case. Scriptures revealed that they camped North, South, East, and West of the Tabernacle. You might be saying right now ‘So what’s the difference?’ The difference is that those who camped out on the East went in a straight line from the Tabernacle putting their tents only East. They didn’t camp Northeast or Southeast, they parked their tents on the East. This is a great reason we learn from the book of Numbers for when you put together the numbers of the four groupings of three tribes in each direction it forms a cross.
2 “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘When any one of you brings an offering to the LORD, you shall bring your offering of the livestock—of the herd and of the flock.
This day when he approached Yahweh Moses was given instructions for when any man of Israel wished to bring God a gift or oblation. This offering is not described as being for any particular reason and is therefore clearly seen as an act of worship and love, as it was with the patriarchs. The whole of the offering goes up to God in dedication and worship. But the way it is offered confirms that it has within it an atonement aspect, a desire to be at one with God through the shedding of blood. This is in fact specifically stated. The oblation is of ‘innocent animals’, either of the herd or the flock, animals that were valuable and could supply labor, milk and clothing, and could be eaten. There had to be a cost. But the innocent animal had no choice in the matter. The choice lay with the person whose offering it was. The offering represented him and those for whom he was making the offering.
The writer to the Hebrews contrasts this fact with what was true about Christ, Whom he sees as fulfilling the reality of which the offering was a ‘type’, a foreshadowing picture. Jesus Christ too was offered at great cost, but in His case He was not led bleating to the place of sacrifice, blandly or resisting, but offered Himself voluntarily of His own free choice (Hebrews 10.9), and it was that which rendered His offering of Himself so fully efficacious. He offered Himself up to God as One Who was fully obedient, and through His blood therefore attained mercy and full reconciliation for all who would come through Him (Romans 3.24). But in His case too each person has to decide whether they will identify themselves with His offering of Himself, and respond to Him. Each of us must personally ‘lay our hand’ on Him to identify ourselves with Him.
Back in Exodus chapter 20 the people had requested that God just speak through Moses. So now our Holy Creator God spoke to them through Moses. They had already demonstrated their unwillingness to meet God face to face.
The bull-ox was the most costly of offerings, and would be made by the very wealthy or when the offering was to be of supreme importance, e.g. when it was for a priest or for the community. But God in His goodness will later make provision for lesser offerings for those who could not afford the most costly. To the poor man two birds would have an equal ‘cost’ to him, in comparison with what he owned, as the bull ox to the wealthy man.
3 ‘If his offering is a burnt sacrifice of the herd, let him offer a male without blemish; he shall offer it of his own free will at the door of the tabernacle of meeting before the LORD.
In Hebrews 9.14 this offering is pointed to as a type and shadow of Christ Jesus the Precious Lamb of God Who was also without fault ‘14 how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?’
He too was the life giver (Hebrews 10.14-17), was strong (Hebrews 2.18), and was the perfect offering. Because of what He Was, and because of His willingness and obedience, His sacrifice of Himself could accomplish what no animal sacrifice could. They were but shadows. He was the Reality.
Each one of us therefore must come to God daily, in our own personal sanctuary which we are instructed as the Gospel of Matthew 6.6 teaches, 6 But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.”
We need to offer our Savior Jesus Christ to God in prayer as our whole offering as a token of our love, our worship, our gratitude, our submission and as indicating our dependence on Him for atonement and purity.
The prophets and the psalmists would make clear; it was the reality that the offerings represented that was acceptable to God, not just the offerings blandly made. Without worship from a true heart the offerings were meaningless, without obedience the sacrifices were in vain
4 Then he shall put his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it will be accepted on his behalf to make atonement for him.
The bringer of the offering was then ‘to lay his hand’ on its head. This was the sign that he was identifying himself with the offering and was, as it were, becoming united with it. Thus it signifies being united with it in its death.
In the same way it is Christ’s Jesus our Lord’s own perfect holiness that enables the sinner to be made perfect in God’s sight as a result of His death for sin (Hebrews 10.14). For we do not come to a bull ox, but to the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot (1 Peter 1.19), and our sin is laid on Him and His righteousness is put to our account (2 Corinthians 5.21). We are declared righteous and covered with the cloak of righteousness in Him (Isaiah 53.11).
5 He shall kill the bull before the LORD; and the priests, Aaron’s sons, shall bring the blood and sprinkle the blood all around on the altar that is by the door of the tabernacle of meeting.
The person making the offering has to kill the young bull-ox. You and I even today are held responsible in the killing of the innocent Lamb. For our sins He gave His life for ours. Our Great Lord cried out to Adoni Yahweh for us as He said, ‘Father forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.”
The whole offering is then offered to God by fire, and with it the worship, love and self-dedication of the person bring the offering. To speak of it just as a substitute is to undervalue it. It is a substitute and more. It is total consecration, a total giving of them, along with a plea for reconciliation because of a death suffered.
The sprinkling (flinging the blood against all sides of the altar) is an indication of the application of the blood as something acceptable to God. It is an essential step in the making of atonement, in the making of men at one with God because sin has been dealt with. The idea may be to link it with the offering that is being offered up on the altar, without the blood itself ‘ascending up’, or indeed to surround the offering with the atoning blood. It needs to remain on the altar before Yahweh because of its atoning significance, while the remainder goes up to God.
Hebrews tells us that this is a type of what Christ did for us when He died on the cross. That He ‘through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God’, that He might cleanse and make us holy in conscience and spirit in order to make us fitted and ready for service (Hebrews 9.14). There too it speaks of full cleansing and consecration, and neutralization of sin by His holiness
And he shall skin the burnt offering and cut it into its pieces.
The offering needed to be skinned because the skin for all but the most important offerings goes to the priest. Then it was cut in pieces by the person doing the offering. If this was you doing all this, how would you feel? Would you stop and say to yourself, ‘I do not want to be constantly coming here and doing this, I will do my best to live as our Holy God has instructed in order for me to avoid this act.
7 The sons of Aaron the priest shall put fire on the altar, and lay the wood in order on the fire. 8 Then the priests, Aaron’s sons, shall lay the parts, the head, and the fat in order on the wood that is on the fire upon the altar; 9 but he shall wash its entrails and its legs with water. And the priest shall burn all on the altar as a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, a sweet aroma to the LORD.
The priests then again take over. They put the fire in place on the altar (from the perpetually burning fire maintained on a part of the altar - 6.13) and lay wood on top of it, and then they lay the pieces on the altar to be burnt up, including the head (which would have been separated in the skinning process), the fat, and the innards and the legs, but the latter two only after they have been washed by the person who brought the animal with water. The purpose of the washing with water is therefore to remove contamination and earthiness, and symbolizes the need for the inner cleansing of the person offering the sacrifice. It must be offered to God in pristine condition free from earthiness. Only then can the offering be a pleasing odor to Yahweh.
We may see from this that when we offer ourselves as living sacrifices to God (Romans 12.1-2) we must be particularly careful to do so thoroughly and totally each time we do it, ensuring full cleansing through the blood of Christ as we do so (1 John 1.7-10). No part of our lives must be left out. We are to be a whole offering and thus pleasing to God.
In the same way we must identify ourselves with Christ’s death for us, recognize that we have been crucified with Him and must therefore die to ourselves, and apply His death to each part of our lives which is displeasing to Him, seeking cleansing in His blood. He on His side, as our Priest, has already arranged for the reception and completion of our offering, which was offered once for all in Him (Hebrews 10.12), and He will now bring all that we are to God.
Much in these next three verses is summarized because it is the same procedure as for the offering of the bull-ox. The three things emphasized are the death with the offering of the blood, the offering of the remainder by burning on the altar, and the washing of the innards and legs. These were the essentials of the offering. The offering ‘at the door of the tabernacle’, the laying on of the hand, the ‘giving’ (presenting) of the blood and the building up of the fire are all assumed.
10 ‘If his offering is of the flocks—of the sheep or of the goats—as a burnt sacrifice, he shall bring a male without blemish.
Again the offering was to be a male without blemish. To offer a female would be to avoid offering the life-giver, the strength of the flock. To offer anything that was blemished would be an insult to God and would indicate the attitude of Cain rather than that of Abel (Genesis 4). For dedication to God only the best is good enough.
11 He shall kill it on the north side of the altar before the LORD; and the priests, Aaron’s sons, shall sprinkle its blood all around on the altar. 12 And he shall cut it into its pieces, with its head and its fat; and the priest shall lay them in order on the wood that is on the fire upon the altar; 13 but he shall wash the entrails and the legs with water. Then the priest shall bring it all and burn it on the altar; it is a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, a sweet aroma to the LORD. 14 ‘And if the burnt sacrifice of his offering to the LORD is of birds, then he shall bring his offering of turtledoves or young pigeons.
The types of birds that may be offered are prescribed, either two turtle-doves or two young pigeons. The dove especially was a bird of peace, thus symbolizing the prince of Peace (Isaiah 9.6)
15 The priest shall bring it to the altar, wring off its head, and burn it on the altar; its blood shall be drained out at the side of the altar. 16 And he shall remove its crop with its feathers and cast it beside the altar on the east side, into the place for ashes.
In this case the actual slaughter is carried out by the priest. This was because, in view of the smallness of the offering, the limited amount of blood was more easily dealt with in this way, and the slaughter was quick and easy.
So the unclean parts are removed before the birds are offered up, a reminder that when we offer ourselves up to God we must first ensure that any uncleanness within our hearts is dealt with by the blood of Christ (1 John 1.7) while we are making our offering.
17 Then he shall split it at its wings, but shall not divide it completely; and the priest shall burn it on the altar, on the wood that is on the fire. It is a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, a sweet aroma to the LORD.
Each dead bird was then to be ‘torn by its wings’, but not to be totally split, after which it was burned on the wood on the altar which was over the fire. The rending is presumably to reveal its innards but it is interesting that it is not to be torn in two. It is a whole offering. The purpose would seem to be in order to stress that both the inner and the outer was offered to Yahweh. It is an offering of the whole. It was laid bare before God. Nothing is to be hidden from or withheld from God.
In the same way when Jesus Christ was offered nothing was hidden. He was, as it were, torn open and laid bare before God. And He was found perfect and therefore fully satisfactory so that He could make possible our approach to God, by His righteousness being put to our account. His holiness, together with His death, neutralized our sin as He bore it on Himself. In the same way also, when we bring our lives to God, nothing must be allowed to be hidden. Our inmost hearts too must be laid bare. But in our case the crop and what is unclean must be removed by forgiveness and atonement.
The chapter ends with a special note -‘It is a whole burnt-offering, an offering made by fire, of a pleasing odor to Yahweh.’ This offering is as acceptable to Yahweh as a bull-ox, because He sees the heart of the one who offers the sacrifice. That it is a fire-offering stresses that it is purified and wholly burnt up. And if the heart is right the offering smells pleasing to Him.
