Skip to main content

Leviticus 1:3 - The offering that goes up in smoke

Good morning friends,

An unusual Saturday morning without Men's D.

Here we are in Leviticus.  It has been a long time since our offering was in the shape of an animal.  So we tend to overlook this book.  But the sacrificial system points to Jesus.  So we really do need to learn from ancient writings.

Blessings

Jeff

Offering - qurbān: A masculine noun meaning an offering, a gift. This is the most general term, used eighty times in the Old Testament, for offerings and gifts of all kinds.

Burnt offering -‘ōlâ; feminine active participle of 5927; a step or (collectively, stairs, as ascending); usually a holocaust (as going up in smoke): — ascent, burnt offering (sacrifice), go up to.

In English, we have noun(offering) and adjective (burnt).  But Hebrew has a word for offering and another for burnt offering. A visual term.  An offering that goes up in smoke.  

The only permissible place to make this sacrifice is the door of the tent of meeting.  It time, effort and preparation to do this the way God commands.  If there were 100,000 family units and 1% wanted to sacrifice each day, that would be 1000 animals.  And the tribes were spread out.  So the family out on the edge of the camp would have a bit of a walk just to get to the tabernacle.  Then there was going to the place where the pillar of fire and smoke was, getting close to God's presence. 

In this offering everything is burnt.  There is no tangible benefit for making this offering.  

God is giving the positive requirements of the first two commandments.  No other gods, no images or likenesses.  Know what not to do, but what is it that I am supposed to do.  

Instruction - Personal preference is not considered in offering.  Only certain animal in certain place in a certain way.  God decides what is acceptable.  I don't have to experiment to see what He wants.

Thanksgiving - The God who reveals what is pleasing and acceptable.  From what You provide for Your people, You graciously accept offerings.

Confession - Not always diligent in considering offering.  I don't have the visual concept of offering going up in smoke.

Petition - Make us aware of Your zeal for Your own worship.  We gather to meet with You, not necessarily with others.  We can rejoice in seeing the offering of others going up in smoke.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Leviticus 18:21 - Partial restoration of creation order

Dear Friends, Some times we forget that Moses wrote Genesis.  Obviously, he did not have first hand knowledge of the events of creation.  But God did and revealed them to Moses.  The "story arc" is clear to Moses despite the millenia of history between Genesis and Leviticus.  The plan for ultimate restoration is hazy, but God is at work repairing some of the damage. Blessings, Jeff What is the prohibition on child sacrifice doing in the list of prohibited sexual relations? Be fruitful and multiply - First commandment in Genesis.  God made the world to be inhabited.   Having children is how this  was to happen.  So child sacrifice was a direct violation of this first command to Adam and Eve. Marriage is one man and one woman is the creation order. Seems simple enough.  I can imagine men thinking, Yeah but God didn't say which woman.  I will do the one woman thing if she is my sister, or aunt or …..  So God gives all these examples of unlawful unions.  To this day, man stil
Post a Comment
Read more

1 Chronicles 24:1-6 How about those Levites! Day 332

Good morning friends, Good foundations are important.  Our author turns to the religious life of the returning exiles. Blessings, Jeff We have seen the emphasis on the Davidic line in the  political life of Israel.  The other area of emphasis is the Aaronic priesthood and Levitical workers. In this passage we have a quick review of the somewhat sanitized picture of the start of Aaron's line.  The returning exiles would have known that Nadab and Abihu did not just "die before their father without children".  They rebelled against God by offering unauthorized fire and were themselves consumed by fire from the Lord. Leviticus 10.  The case of Abiathar  son of Ahitub son of Ahimelech, who was faithful to David, but later rebelled with Adonijah is also not mentioned. But the passage points to the importance of the Aaronic line to the rebuilding of the temple by the exiles.  The history of the northern kingdom which was without the Levites from the beginning could not be repeat
Post a Comment
Read more

Revelation 22:3-5 Final and eternal restoration - Day 365

Dear saints in the Lord, Congratulations!  You made it.  We have been through much turmoil in the last year ('20-'21).  But God is faithful to His promises.  I trust that you have been blessed in your reading and have drawn closer to God.   Since we didn't get the blog up and running at the beginning of the challenge, I am going to go back and post entries to cover that first month or so.   Blessings, Jeff Nothing accursed in the city of God, the new Jerusalem.  The presence of sin will be gone.  I am working on memorizing Westminster Shorter Catechism and currently on question 82.  Is any man able perfectly to keep the commandments of God? No mere man since the fall is able in this life perfectly to keep the commandments of God but does daily break them in thought, word and deed. I think our passage today points to the truth of this question.  Do you notice how this answer is not exactly the same as the question. "Any man" becomes "no mere man since the fall
Post a Comment
Read more