Today, I want to start a two week rabbit trail on the topic of OT sacrifice. I should warn you, up front, that this is the most complicated thing I've ever tried to work through in biblical studies. I'll do my best to explain it as simply as possible, and hide as much of the hard stuff as I can. But I'm not sure I'll be successful. The other thing I should say, is that this is going to be far more than you can remember. As always, anyone wanting a copy of my manuscript is welcome to it.
Let's start by reading Exodus 20:24, a verse from last week's sermon:
(24) An earthen altar you shall make for me,
that you will sacrifice upon it your burnt offerings and your fellowship offerings-- your small livestock and
your cattle.
In every place where I cause my name to be remembered, I will come to you and I will bless you,
In this verse, God makes an incredible offer to his people. Everywhere that Yahweh causes you to remember him, you can build him an altar, and offer him sacrifices. And when you do that, God himself will come to you, and bless you.
That's the kind of promise that should give you goose bumps. If you're an Israelite, it should make you want to get some dirt, a sheep, and a knife.
But when we read this promise, it confuses us. Why would God connect the promise of his presence to sacrifice? What is about burnt offerings, and fellowship offerings, that God desires? What do these sacrifices do? And how do these sacrifices even work?
We read this, and we have lots of questions. What I'd like to do today, is answer these questions, with regard to the burnt offering. Next week, I'll try to tackle the (much) tougher question, of how this relates to the fellowship offering.
The other thing I should say, up front, is that how Israelites offered these sacrifices changed, over the course of its history. At first, any Israelite could offer the burnt offering, pretty much anywhere. But eventually, the burnt sacrifice could only be done in approved sanctuaries, and always in partnership with priests (Deuteronomy 12:6).
And I'm going to do my best to simplify it, and avoid talking about that part of it.
So. The burnt offering. You'll see in your outline that we will focus on four things.
(1) What is a burnt offering?
(2) How do you offer a burnt offering?
(3) Why do you offer a burnt offering?
(4) What do we learn as Christians, from the burnt offering?
So, #1. What is a burnt offering?
If you're reading about this sacrifice in Hebrew, you won't find yourself saying, "burnt offering." What you'll find yourself saying, is "the going up," or "the ascending." The basic idea of the Hebrew word, is something going up. And what goes up, with a burnt offering? The smell. That's the key to the word itself (Genesis 8:21). You offer a burnt offering, and the smell goes up to God, and the smell pleases him.
We (maybe) get our translation "burnt offering" from the Greek OT, which focuses on what you do to the sacrifice. You burn the whole animal as a sacrifice to God, minus the hide/skin, which goes to the priests (if it's offered at the tabernacle/temple). Maybe, you hear this, and think that this is how sacrifices usually worked-- that you burn the whole thing. But the burnt offering is actually the exception to the rule. Most sacrifices don't work this way.
This idea, of the smoke rising up to God, is the key to the name of the sacrifice. The burnt offering, is really the "ascending offering." But I'm just going to keep calling it a burnt offering, because that's what your Bibles call it.
#2. How do you offer a burnt offering?
The clearest picture we have in the Bible of how you offer a burnt offering is found in Leviticus 1. Here, the focus is on making sure that the sacrifice is done the right way. But Leviticus 1 isn't designed to give us the whole picture. There are gaps that have to be filled in.
The other thing I should say, up front, is that as we start reading, we're going to find ourselves getting sucked into the disagreements, and uncertainties, about OT sacrifice. Based on Exodus 20, anyone can offer a burnt offering to Yahweh, anywhere. Right?
But Leviticus gives guidelines for how the burnt offering should be sacrificed, when it's done at the Tent of Meeting (the Tabernacle). How you put these two together is debated, but I'm not going to tackle that at all.
Instead, as we read, listen for the different roles that people play in the sacrifice. The one offering the sacrifice has a role. And the priest has a role. We'll just read through verse 9. Verses 1-2:
(1) And He called to Moses,
and Yahweh spoke to him from the Tent of Meeting, saying,
"(2) Speak to the sons of Israel, and tell them,
"When anyone from among you presents an offering to Yahweh, from the domestic animal, from the
cattle, and from the flock you (plural) shall present your offering.
Let's pause here. When you offer God a sacrifice, it has to be a domestic animal (This is focused in the Hebrew, so I'm focusing there). You can't kill a deer, or some wild game, and offer it as a sacrifice. Probably, because the meat you get from hunting, is free. And a sacrifice is supposed to cost you something (2 Samuel 24:24).
Verse 3:
(3) If a burnt offering, his offering [is], from the cattle an unblemished he shall offer it.
At the entrance of the Tent of the Meeting, (=Tabernacle) he shall offer it for acceptance before Yahweh,
So the idea here, is that the priest will inspect the animal, to see if it's acceptable for sacrifice. The priest will check that it's unblemished, without flaw (Leviticus 22:17-25).
Verse 4:
(4) and he shall press his hand upon the head of the burnt offering, and it shall be accepted for him to
"make atonement" for him,
Here is where we start to find huge debates among scholars.
Why do you press your hand upon the animal before you sacrifice it?
There's lots of theories about why. But (following Jacob Milgrom) probably, you press your hand on the animal to show ownership. This is your animal, that you are sacrificing to God.
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Extra Notes:
Milgrom, Leviticus 1-16, 151, notes three other theories: (1) transference of sin to the animal or of ownership to God, (2) identification, where you pass some part of you to the animal, so that when you sacrifice the animal, you are in some sense sacrificing yourself, (3) declaration, to declare why you are offering the sacrifice or to declare your innocence.
Milgrom, following Ibn Ezra, argues that the fact that one hand is used, instead of two (Leviticus 16:21), means that the transference theory should be rejected. The identification theory is speculative, and goes against the general criticism of magic in the OT. And declaration is almost certainly part of the sacrifice, and probably occurred at exactly this point, but it's not why you put your hand on the animal.
Arguably, Milgrom's explanation also makes better sense when it comes to offering birds as a burnt offering. You are already holding the bird in your hands, showing ownership, so you don't press your hand on them.
In his (Anchor Bible) commentary on Leviticus, Milgrom (somewhere) also notes the strong Hittite parallels to this, where the hand laying shows ownership. A king could put his hand "over" the sacrifice, to show it was his, while leaving the dirty work up to the priest. Not so for the Israelite.
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Verse 5-9:
(5) and he shall kill the bull before Yahweh,
and the sons of Aaron the priest shall offer the blood,
and they shall scatter the blood upon/against all the altar's sides at the opening of the Tent of Meeting,
(6) and he (=the offerer) shall skin the burnt offering,
and he shall cut it into pieces,
(7) and the sons of Aaron the priest shall make a fire upon the altar,
and they shall arrange the wood upon the fire,
(8) and the sons of Aaron the priest shall arrange the pieces-- the head, and the fat-- upon the wood that is upon the fire that is upon the altar,
(9) while its inner parts and hind legs he (the offerer) shall wash with the water,
and the priest shall turn it all into smoke upon the altar-- a burnt offering, a food gift, a pleasing fragrance for Yahweh.
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Extra Notes:
On the translation "food gift," in place of the more common "offering made by fire":
Milgrom, Leviticus, AB, 161, notes that this word is used to describe offerings that are never burned (the wine libation, Numbers 15:10), the priestly prebend from the well-being offering (Leviticus 7:30, 35-36), and the bread of display (Leviticus 24:7, 9). He also notes Numbers 15:24-25, where Moses tells the people what to do, if they accidentally burn an "isseh." Milgrom suggests it's a shortened form of 'lehem isseh' (Leviticus 3:11, 16), which means "food gift." He also argues that 'isseh' is probably closely related to a Ugaritic and/or Arabic word that mean "gift" (following Hoftijzer, Ehrlich, and Driver).
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So this is basically "how" to offer a burnt offering, at least when it's offered at the Tent of Meeting. That's the focus of the passage-- it's an explanation to priests, telling them how to divide up the work of sacrificing, and how to make sure it's offered the right way. If you were offering the sacrifice by yourself, on your own altar, I assume you'd take the same steps-- except you are responsible for doing all the work (and doing it the right way).
So we know how to sacrifice a burnt offering. But what we have here, is an incomplete picture. Leviticus 1 doesn't tell us anything about the mood, or what people said or sang during the sacrifice. You almost get the impression that the only noises are the sound of an animal dying, and the sizzle of the animal getting burned (h/t Zimmerli, OT Theology in Outline, and Goldingay). And from that, you'd maybe then decide that sacrifice is a quiet, serious, solemn act.
But most of the time, the sacrifices were something you would offer with singing, and praise, and joy. Let's turn to 2 Chronicles 29:20-30 (NRSV no reason):
20 Then King Hezekiah rose early, assembled the officials of the city, and went up to the house of the LORD. 21 They brought seven bulls, seven rams, seven lambs, and seven male goats for a sin offering for the kingdom and for the sanctuary and for Judah. He commanded the priests the descendants of Aaron to offer them on the altar of the LORD. 22 So they slaughtered the bulls, and the priests received the blood and dashed it against the altar; they slaughtered the rams and their blood was dashed against the altar; they also slaughtered the lambs and their blood was dashed against the altar. 23 Then the male goats for the sin offering were brought to the king and the assembly; they laid their hands on them, 24 and the priests slaughtered them and made a sin offering with their blood at the altar, to make atonement for all Israel. For the king commanded that the burnt offering and the sin offering should be made for all Israel.
25 He stationed the Levites in the house of the LORD with cymbals, harps, and lyres, according to the commandment of David and of Gad the king’s seer and of the prophet Nathan, for the commandment was from the LORD through his prophets. 26 The Levites stood with the instruments of David, and the priests with the trumpets. 27 Then Hezekiah commanded that the burnt offering be offered on the altar. When the burnt offering began, the song to the LORD began also, and the trumpets, accompanied by the instruments of King David of Israel. 28 The whole assembly worshiped, the singers sang, and the trumpeters sounded; all this continued until the burnt offering was finished. 29 When the offering was finished, the king and all who were present with him bowed down and worshiped. 30 King Hezekiah and the officials commanded the Levites to sing praises to the LORD with the words of David and of the seer Asaph. They sang praises with gladness, and they bowed down and worshiped.
This is the picture you should keep in mind when you think about OT sacrifice. People cheerfully, willingly, offer God a sacrifice to praise him, and thank him, and worship him. It's a celebration.
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Goldingay, Old Testament Theology: Israel's Life, volume 3, 136:
"The psalms associate offering sacrifices with shouting, singing, making music and calling on Yhwh or confessing Yhwh's name (Ps. 27:6; 64:6 [MT 8]; 107:22; 116:17). The two aspects of worship, the correlation of acts and words, appear in Psalm 54:6 (MT 8]; 'For your munificence I will sacrifice to you; I will confess your name, Yhwh, for it is good.' It involves both the symbolic action and the words testifying to what Yhwh has done."
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And with this, we find ourselves (accidentally) smoothly transitioning into question #3:
#3. Why do you offer a burnt offering? [What is its function in Israelite religion?]
Honestly, this is a question that can't be answered for sure. What you are about to hear includes a certain amount of guesswork. But what we do know is that the burnt offering was offered for lots of reasons. It was a multi-purpose sacrifice.
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Goldingay, Old Testament Theology: Israel's Life (vol. 3), 134:
"In focusing on the right way to offer sacrifices, texts leave it to offerers to let them signify what they wish to signify by them."
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So, we've already read from 2 Chronicles 29. There, Hezekiah first had the priests offer a "sin/purification offering." [Which is better understood as a purification offering]. Then, in verse 27, the priests offered a single burnt offering.
The combination of these two things, leads Hezekiah to say this, in verse 31:
31 Then Hezekiah said, “You have now consecrated yourselves to the LORD; come near, bring sacrifices and thank offerings to the house of the LORD.” The assembly brought sacrifices and thank offerings; and all who were of a willing heart brought burnt offerings.
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Extra note on "consecration":
Normally, the phrase here "to fill the hands" has the sense of ordination to priesthood. BDB: ?????? ??? ??? fig. for institute to a priestly office, consecrate Ex 28:41; 29:9, 29, 33, 35; 32:29 Lv 8:33; 16:32; 21:10 Nu 3:3 Ju 17:5, 12 1 K 13:33
But it can be used more broadly for consecration-- you can consecrate an altar (Ezekiel 43:26). And you can consecrate yourself for/by (?) giving an offering for the building of the temple (1 Chronicles 29:5). What's distinctive about this passage in 2 Chronicles, from what I can tell, is that the entire assembly has become consecrated to God through these sacrifices.
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So the combination of the purification offerings, and the burnt offering, resulted in the consecration of the entire assembly-- of all the people who have gathered at the temple. I think what this means is that God now views everyone there as committed to him. And God was now to receive their worship and sacrifice. So at this point, anyone who is willing, can offer a variety of sacrifices. Including, amusingly, burnt offerings (Complicated!). Let's keep reading from 2 Chronicles 29, verses 32-36:
32 The number of the burnt offerings that the assembly brought was seventy bulls, one hundred rams, and two hundred lambs; all these were for a burnt offering to the LORD. 33 The consecrated offerings were six hundred bulls and three thousand sheep. 34 But the priests were too few and could not skin all the burnt offerings, so, until other priests had sanctified themselves, their kindred, the Levites, helped them until the work was finished—for the Levites were more conscientious[a] than the priests in sanctifying themselves. 35 Besides the great number of burnt offerings there was the fat of the offerings of well-being, and there were the drink offerings for the burnt offerings. Thus the service of the house of the LORD was restored. 36 And Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced because of what God had done for the people; for the thing had come about suddenly.
So what we've seen so far, is that burnt offerings "do" two different things. First, they are a way to simply praise and worship God. And second, they consecrate you to God.
How do they consecrate you?
The answer, maybe, is in a verse we read earlier. Leviticus 1:3-4:
(3) If a burnt offering, his offering [is], from the cattle an unblemished he shall offer it.
At the entrance of the Tent of the Meeting, (=Tabernacle) he shall offer it for acceptance before Yahweh,
(4) and he shall press his hand upon the head of the burnt offering, and it shall be accepted for him to "make atonement" for him.
Leviticus 1:4 gives us an explanation for why you'd offer a burnt offering-- that it "makes atonement" for him.
What does this mean?
Here is another place where it gets really tricky. When we read about atonement, we think immediately in terms of sin. We want to explain it something like this: "All of us knowingly, and deliberately, sin. Our sin separates us from God, and the blood of a sacrifice "makes atonement" for us, so that we can be "at one" ("at-one-ment") with God."
We then find ourselves getting ready to talk about Jesus, and how he died on the cross to atone for our sins.
All of this is really clean, and easy. But that's not really what Leviticus is talking about (arguably).
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In the discussion that follows, I'm assuming Milgrom is right in saying that the burnt offering is earlier, and that its expiatory/purifying function was largely replaced by the purification (Leviticus 4) and reparation (Leviticus 5) offerings at a later point. I'm assuming that how it purified, and what it purified, works the same for the burnt offering. See Jacob Milgrom, A Continental Commentary: Leviticus: A Book of Ritual and Ethics (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2004), 24.
"These two sacrifices, once introduced into the sacrificial system, became the expiatory sacrifices par excellence and ultimately usurped the expiatory function of the burnt offering for the individual. That these two sacrifices are later than the burnt, cereal, and well-being offerings is shown by the fact that the latter offerings are provided with no cases. The motivations for bringing them are taken for granted. Not so for the purification and reparation offerings: their cases are spelled out in detail precisely because knowledge of them is not widespread. Thus the reference to expiation in the exposition of the burnt-offering procedure (1:4*) may reflect an early stage on the history of this offering."
Even if this is wrong, the OT assumes that willful, deliberate sins can only be forgiven by God's grace, through a plea for mercy. Sin deliberately/big, and God doesn't want your sacrifices (Psalm 51:16-17). What God wants is a broken and contrite heart:
"Yhwh does not welcome sacrifice when people have acted rebelliously in the way the psalm has acknowledged. Sacrifice is a form of worship, and it thus presupposes that the relationship between Yhwh and Israel is fundamentally in order . . . In connection with deliberate rebellion and waywardness, sacrifice will not do." (John Goldingay, OT Theology volume 3, pg. 299).
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The burnt offering isn't designed to atone for deliberate sins. It's designed to atone for two things:
(1) The first, is accidental sins (Leviticus 4:13-5:6). Let's say that you witness a crime, without realizing it, and you said nothing. If this happens, you accidentally sinned. You had a responsibility there, and you failed, and you're subject to punishment (Leviticus 5:1). The burnt offering will "atone" for your accidental sin.
If you somehow accidentally worship God in the wrong way, trespassing in the holy things of God, you can offer a burnt offering, and the sacrifice will "atone" for your transgression (Leviticus 5:14).
(2) The second, is ritual uncleanness. If you accidentally touch an unclean animal, or a dead animal, unknowingly, you've become unclean (Leviticus 5:2). This doesn't mean you're a sinner. It means you're unclean. Those are two different things. The burnt offering will "atone" for your uncleanness, by purifying you.
So the burnt offering deals with accidental sins, and accidental uncleanness. Once you've offered a burnt offering, that sacrifice "atones" for you, and you're considered consecrated to God. You've been "purified." At that point, you can offer God a fellowship offering, or libation offering, or whatever, and God will accept it. But you have to offer the burnt offering and/or a "purification/sin offering" first.
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Extra explanation:
What I'm deliberately doing is building my understanding of "atonement" from Leviticus alone. Many scholars grab this word, "atone," and look at how it's used elsewhere in the OT. And if you do that, you'll probably explain "atonement" quite differently, in terms of (1) appeasement and (2) ransom. Gordon Wenham, Leviticus, 57-58, is a good example of this. At first, I found myself being persuaded by Wenham, but I think he misunderstands atonement. What follows is an interaction with his commentary:
The word can mean "appease" and "ransom." But if you take this trail, what you end up saying looks something like this:
(1) With "appeasement," the idea becomes that the burnt offering is a way to keep God from becoming angry with you, or to mollify Him, so that He's no longer angry. Wenham lists several examples, but he 'bends' his summary of the passages to make it fit:
In Genesis 8:21, Noah offers a burnt offering, and the end result is that God promises to no longer/never again curse the ground-- but it doesn't actually say that the burnt offering appeased God, or that this is why Noah offered it (you could just as well argue it's a thanksgiving offering).
In 2 Samuel 24, after realizing he'd sinned by taking a census, David builds an altar and sacrifices on it (2 Samuel 24:25). But 2 Samuel doesn't tell us that the sacrifice appeased God; it tells us that that the burnt offering got God's attention, and led to God hearing his prayer (2 Samuel 24:10; 2 Samuel 24:25) for forgiveness. God forgave David because David asked, not because he sacrificed.
In 2 Chronicles 29:3-11, God is angry with his people, but He's angry because they've neglected the temple and the sacrifice. It's not that the sacrifices appeased him, and now He's finding himself angry because he lost his mollifier/pacifier. It's that they are disobeying, and so He's angry.
God is never talked about as being angry, anywhere in Leviticus I'm aware of (h/t Goldingay, Exodus and Leviticus for Everyone). And focusing on "appeasement" steers us in the wrong direction, from viewing sacrifice primarily as a joyful thank you, or appeal to God, to an attempt to keep God from taking out his anger on us.
(2) With ransom, the idea becomes that the sacrifice becomes a substitute-- a replacement that takes our place for sin/uncleanness. The appeal of this is obvious-- it's a great transition to Jesus. Even though this is true for the scapegoat, where you put two hands on it, that's reading a lot into a single word for the burnt offering, and I don't know of any narratives where a burnt offering serves as a substitute for someone else.
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Are you hanging in there, or have I lost you? Let's run back to the outline for just a minute. We've seen three functions of the burnt offering so far. (1) The burnt offering is a way to worship God. (2) It's a way to be purified from accidental sin, and accidental uncleanness. (3) It's a way to become consecrated to God.
(4) The fourth reason to offer a burnt offering is to get God's attention for prayer.
This one is maybe a surprise to you. It reflects a very different way of looking at prayer.
We tend to think that God always listens to us when we pray. He's always watching. His ears are always open to us. He's just waiting for us.
And that's not really biblical. There are times when God doesn't listen to his people (1 Peter 3:7; 1 Peter 3:12). There are times when God is far off, or when God is hiding, or when God ignores us.
A burnt offering is designed to break through that. The smell from the burnt offering ascends to the heavens, to God. God smells it, and his attention is drawn to you. And at that point, you are more likely to get a response to your prayer.
There's several really good examples of this. Let's just look at one, in Numbers 23:1-6 (NRSV no reason):
23 1 Then Balaam said to Balak, “Build me seven altars here, and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me.” 2 Balak did as Balaam had said; and Balak and Balaam offered a bull and a ram on each altar. 3 Then Balaam said to Balak, “Stay here beside your burnt offerings while I go aside. Perhaps the LORD will come to meet me. Whatever he shows me I will tell you.” And he went to a bare height.
4 Then God met Balaam; and Balaam said to him, “I have arranged the seven altars, and have offered a bull and a ram on each altar.” 5 The LORD put a word in Balaam’s mouth, and said, “Return to Balak, and this is what you must say.” 6 So he returned to Balak,[a] who was standing beside his burnt offerings with all the officials of Moab.
In these verses, Balaam wants to get God's attention, and have God come to meet him. What does he do, to encourage God to do this? He builds seven altars, and offers seven burnt offerings (it's like he knows Exodus 20:4). And his sacrifice is successful-- God comes to him, and gives him a word for Balak.
[Another great example is 1 Kings 18, where this is the central idea-- which God/god will show up, when his people offer burnt offerings to him. This is probably also the idea in 2 Samuel 24:10-- the sacrifice leads to God answering David's prayer, and stopping the plague. Also, in 2 Kings 3:26-27, a child is sacrificed to get a god's attention in a time of crisis. Baruch Levine, In the Presence of the Lord, focuses on this function as being the key to burnt offerings in general, but I think it's probably just one of the functions-- other examples don't fit well.]
(5) They are a way to fulfill a vow you made in a time of crisis. You would tell God, "If you rescue me from this, I will offer you a burnt offering, and publicly praise you for your help." And then you fulfill that vow at the Tabernacle/Temple (Leviticus 22:17-19; Numbers 15:3).
(6) They are a way to simply praise God, for no reason at all-- simply because God is worthy of praise-- a freewill offering (Leviticus 22:17-19; Numbers 15:3).
(7) They are a daily gift to be given to God at the Tabernacle/Temple, by the nation as a whole (Exodus 29:38-42).
So that's the burnt offering. If you're still with me, you've heard what the burnt offering was, how you offer it, and why.
And what we've seen, with the "why," is that the burnt offering was offered for lots and lots of reasons. I mentioned seven, and I'm sure I'm missing others.
(4) What do we learn, as Christians, from the burnt offering?
The main thing we need to remember, is that this sacrifice is offered to God. It's a core part of how God's people related to God. It's part of how you'd pray, and worship, and give thanks. It's part of how you'd consecrate yourself to God, and make it possible for you to enter into his presence. Sacrifice is at the heart of your relationship with God. It's not a substitute for obedience. But obedience isn't a substitute for sacrifice, either.
God wants obedience, and sacrifice.
And if we clearly see this, we will understand that the sacrificial system is a grace (John 1:16, NIV). It's a kindness on God's part, that helps us relate to God. We know that we have something better now. We know that God has offered us a greater grace, in Christ. But we can be thankful for what we have, without thinking nasty thoughts about OT sacrifice.
Now, let's circle back to where we started, and read Exodus 20:4:
(24) An earthen altar you shall make for me,
that you will sacrifice upon it your burnt offerings and your fellowship offerings-- your small livestock and
your cattle.
In every place where I cause my name to be remembered, I will come to you and I will bless you,
So sacrifices are how we, as Israelites, would've related to God. And God promises Israel, that they will be part of how He relates to you. When you offer these two sacrifices in particular, God will come to you, and He will bless you.
I'm pretty sure I said this last week, but it's worth repeating. We are going to spend a lot of time in the coming weeks talking about what God expects from his people. The commands are maybe going to seem like they're piling up. And we are maybe going to find ourselves thinking about that the Mosaic covenant is a heavy yoke God is putting on his people. But God's end goal looks a lot like Exodus 20:4-- that Israel would be a people rightly related to God, obeying him, praying to him, and worshipping him.
And that goal, is something that we can all get behind, in Christ. God wants us to be rightly related to him. He wants us to obey him, and pray to him, and worship him.
Obedience is not a substitute for prayer, and worship. But prayer and worship are not a substitute for obedience.
God wants it all.
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Another application you could make off this has to do with the burnt offering as a way of getting God's attention. I've talked about this a few times, so didn't here:
The burnt offering teaches us that sometimes we have to work, to get God's attention. Sometimes when you pray, God isn't paying attention to you. Your sin is the way. Your prayers are hindered (1 Peter 3:7). Let's read from 1 Peter 3:8, which quotes from Psalm 32 (NRSV; have to use a NT example to persuade people of this):
8 Finally, all of you, have unity of spirit, sympathy, love for one another, a tender heart, and a humble mind. 9 Do not repay evil for evil or abuse for abuse; but, on the contrary, repay with a blessing. It is for this that you were called—that you might inherit a blessing. 10 For
“Those who desire life
and desire to see good days,
let them keep their tongues from evil
and their lips from speaking deceit;
11 let them turn away from evil and do good;
let them seek peace and pursue it.
12 For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous,
and his ears are open to their prayer.
But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”
God watches the righteous. His ears are open to the righteous, when they pray (James 5:16).
There will come a time in your life, when you are doing evil, and you need God's help. That's a super awkward, uncomfortable place to be. It's horrible, and painful.
How do you get God's attention, in that circumstance? David offered the burnt offering, and then God heard his prayer. The burnt offering was a grace, given by God, to make David's prayer something God would hear.
And we no longer have that grace. So what do we do?
I think 1 Peter 3 tells us, that the first thing we do, is repent. In your moment of need, "turn away from evil" (1 Peter 3:11), confess to God what you've done, and ask for forgiveness, and cleansing.
The grace God gives you, is that He will forgive you, and cleanse you, on the basis of Jesus' sacrifice, when you confess. Then, you can go to God in prayer for the things you need.
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A third way we could apply this would be to focus on the vow (Numbers 15:1-4). I'm not sure how commonly Christians make vows to God (I do infrequently), but they often go something like this: "God, if you will answer my prayer, and get me (or someone else) out of this jam, I will publicly praise you before the assembly. I will tell everyone of your power, love, and faithfulness." We don't offer a sacrifice anymore as part of the fulfillment of a vow-- we don't promise God a cow or sheep-- but the vow aspect could be helpful. People need to hear testimonies about how God still helps his people today. And God wants people to hear these testimonies (which encourages him to help, in connection with your vow).
Translation, Leviticus 1:1-9:
(1) And He called to Moses,
and Yahweh spoke to him from the Tent of Meeting, saying,
"(2) Speak to the sons of Israel, and tell them,
"When anyone from among you presents an offering to Yahweh, from the domestic animal, from the
cattle, and from the flock you (plural) shall present your offering.
(3) If a burnt offering, his offering [is], from the cattle an unblemished he shall offer it.
At the entrance of the Tent of the Meeting, (=Tabernacle) he shall offer it for acceptance before Yahweh,
(4) and he shall press his hand upon the head of the burnt offering, and it shall be accepted for him to make
atonement for him,
(5) and he shall kill the bull before Yahweh,
and the sons of Aaron the priest shall offer the blood,
and they shall scatter the blood upon/against all the altar's sides at the opening of the Tent of Meeting,
(6) and he (=the offerer) shall skin the burnt offering,
and he shall cut it into pieces,
(7) and the sons of Aaron the priest shall make a fire upon the altar,
and they shall arrange the wood upon the fire,
(8) and the sons of Aaron the priest shall arrange the pieces-- the head, and the fat-- upon the wood that is
upon the fire that is upon the altar,
(9) while its inner parts and hind legs he (the offerer) shall wash with the water,
and the priest shall turn it all into smoke upon the altar-- a burnt offering, a food gift, a pleasing fragrance for
Yahweh.
