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AGAIN, THE FIVE OFFERINGS!
In Leviticus 6:8 we read:
Then the LORD said to Moses, 9 "Give
Aaron and his sons the following instructions regarding the whole burnt offering.
Hold it right there! We just spent the past
five Sundays looking at each of the five sacrifices in detail. Now, judging
from this verse and what I can see by scanning the next few chapters, it looks
like we're going to look at them all over again. Yes, that is exactly what
the author of Leviticus has planned for us.
Why? Why the repetition? Well, there
is repetition in the sense that the next few chapters deal with the same sacrifices
- the burnt offering, the grain offering, the peace offering, the purification
offering, and the reparation offering. Though they are dealt with in a
slightly different order.
But there is a very good reason for looking at
the five offerings all over again. In the each of the initial five sections
of Leviticus the author makes it clear that he is addressing the "Israelites" in
general. Looking at the beginning of each section we read:
1:2 "Speak to the Israelites and say to them:
'When any of you brings an offering to the LORD, bring as your offering an animal
from either the herd or the flock.
2:1 "'When someone brings a grain offering
to the LORD, his offering is to be of fine flour. He is to pour oil on it, put
incense on it 2 and take it to . . .
3:1 "'If someone's offering is a fellowship
offering, and he offers an animal from the herd, whether male or female, he is
to present before the LORD an animal without defect. 2 He is to lay his
hand . . .
4:1 The LORD said to Moses, 2 "Say
to the Israelites: 'When anyone sins unintentionally and does what is forbidden
in any of the LORD's commands-
5:14 The LORD said to Moses: 15 "When
a person commits a violation and sins unintentionally in regard to any of the
LORD's holy things, he is to bring to the LORD as a penalty a ram from the flock,
one without defect and of the proper value in silver, according to the sanctuary
shekel. It is a guilt offering. 16 He must make restitution for . . .
6:1 The LORD said to Moses: 2 "If anyone
sins and is unfaithful to the LORD by deceiving his neighbor about something
entrusted to him . . .1
In contrast to how each of these sections begin
reread v. 8 of chapter 6. It reads:
Then the LORD said to Moses, 9 "Give
Aaron and his sons the following instructions regarding the whole burnt offering.
You see the difference? The first five chapters
focus on what the everyday man and woman in the pew has to do. They focus
on the worshiper. If you're in need of cleansing due to sin in your life
you reread chapter four and about half of the fifth chapter. You
then knew what you needed to do, it was then just a matter of doing it!
The material in chapters 6 & 7, however, gives
a description of the role played by the priest. If one of the priest happened
to splatter some blood on their clothing v. 27 of chapter six told them what
they needed to do about it.
In an educational environment it is the difference
between the role played by a student and the role played by the teacher. For
example, part of a student's responsibility is to be in class on time. To
underline this I tell them that I tend to spell the word "tardy" as "R-U-D-E." For
being tardy is disrespectful of me and of everyone else in the classroom. But
as a teacher, the district spells out what they expect of me. They lay
out the curriculum that I'm supposed to present to the students. And they
even tell me what I'm supposed to do when a student is absent.
In the business world it is the difference between
the role played by the customer and the role played by an employee. The
expectations for the customer are spelled out by our culture. The expectations
for an employee are spelled out in the company handbook. Also, within any
organization, there are normally a number of unwritten expectations that some
employees end up learning the hard way.
Just so within the Israelite camp! The worshipers
had an important role to play in the life of Israel and the priest had an equally
important role. Failure to play these roles properly had its consequences
as some found out the hard way! For example, in the New Testament Ananias
and Sapphira played an unauthorized role in the early church and it cost them
their lives.
But we don't have to look as far as the book of
Acts to see the consequences of one's failure to follow clear-cut instructions. Right
here in Leviticus Aaron lost two of his sons for their failure to heed the instructions
that had been spelled out in black and white - probably in chapters 6 and 7 of
Leviticus!2
The other thing we will notice in these two chapters
is that the sacrifices are listed in a slightly different order. In comparing
the order of the two sections we have:
1-
5 6
- 7
The Burnt Offering The
Burnt Offering
The Grain Offering The
Grain Offering
The Peace Offering The
Purification Offering
The Purification
Offering The
Reparation Offering
The Reparation
Offering The
Peace Offering
In chapters 6 and 7 the sacrifices are probably
arranged in order of their frequency. The regular daily sacrifices come
first - the burnt offerings and the grain offerings. This was followed
by the purification offering which was compulsory only at certain times during
the year or after someone had sinned and was willing to deal with his sin. The
reparation offering was not required to be offered on a regular basis, again
only when someone sinned and was ready to deal with his sin. The peace
offering, as far as I know, was an optional sacrifice.3
So Aaron must have said, "As employees of
the Lord the one thing you will have to deal with every single day is the burnt
offering. So here is what you must do every Saturday right through the
rest of the week. Listen up! Your life may depend on
it!" He then had them turn to chapter 6 of the employee handbook and
beginning with v. 9b he read:
The burnt offering must be left on the altar until
the next morning, and the altar fire must be kept burning all night. 10
The next morning, after dressing in his special linen clothing and undergarments,
the priest on duty must clean out the ashes of the burnt offering and put them
beside the altar. 11 Then he must change back into his normal clothing
and carry the ashes outside the camp to a place that is ceremonially clean. 12
Meanwhile, the fire on the altar must be kept burning; it must never go out.
Each morning the priest will add fresh wood to the fire and arrange the daily
whole burnt offering on it. He must then burn the fat of the peace offerings
on top of this daily whole burnt offering. 13 Remember, the fire must be
kept burning on the altar at all times. It must never go out.
So if you haven't heard anything else, what did
you just hear? Right! The fire must be kept burning on the altar
day and night. It must not go out. Whatever else you do keep the
fire on the altar going at all times. Five times in the space of five verses
the priest were told in clear Hebrew that the fire on the altar must be kept
going day and night.
But wonder if I don't feel up to keeping the fire
going while I'm on duty? Or, what happens if I fall asleep? Or, suppose
I am more interested in the women who serve at the entrance to the Tabernacle. I
mean, maybe I have something more interesting to do than stoking the fire. Isn't
it okay to simply let it die out now and then? After all, it would be easier
to clean up the ashes if I just let it die out each night.
No! First of all you better take another
look at the passage. Second, I'd suggest you jump ahead in history and
look at what happened to Eli's two sons in I Samuel 1 - 3. They may or
may not have let the fire die out, personally I think they did, but they certainly
treated the job they had been born into with contempt. What's worse is
that their father did little to restrain their wicked behavior.
Why was the perpetual fire so important? Based
on Leviticus 9:24 Calvin thought it was because it was God himself who struck
the match that initially ignited the briquettes. And ever since then the
priests had to keep the fire going so that the offerings would always be burnt
with heavenly fire. But the context of 9:24 doesn't really support this
idea.
I suspect there is a far more significant reason
for keeping the fire of the altar going at all times. Look at it
this way. Let's say that something came up in your life, or the life of
your family, such that you needed to have access to God immediately. Maybe
it's a medical emergency or perhaps you have received a piece of news that threatens
to unravel your life. Or maybe, after straying away from the Lord for years
you have hit rock bottom and at long last you are ready to return to God.
Now granted, as a believer you always have access
to God. But in your present mental state, or in your devastated emotional
state, you don't know that or if you do you're in no shape to even know what
to say to God at this time in your life. So you pick up your cell phone
and dial the church's number only to find out that there is no pastor available
to see you at this time. There is no one available, not even
an elder or a Sunday School teacher, to reassure you of God's mercy and grace. There
is no one that has time to come to the hospital and pray with you.
How do you feel now? Angry? Hurt? Beaten? You
were already bruised and beaten up by the harsh world in which we live and now
you find that the one place where you thought you could always turn to is "closed." Sure,
you've been pretty careless about paying any attention to the church up until
now but still it ought to be there when you need it.
Granted, the latter notion is a pretty selfish
one. But, it is a correct notion. Despite the waywardness of its
members the church should always be "open" to meeting the needs of
its flock. Just so with the Tabernacle. No one should ever
come and find the fire out. For through the burnt offering access
to God was shown to always be available. Nor should they find that the
priest were unavailable to them for it was the priest who helped them understand
the significance of the burnt offering.
Now picture another scenario. Let's say
you do call the church and someone is available to see you. Maybe they
agree to meet you in the emergency room of the local hospital. As you hang
up you're encouraged and thankful that your church is there for you.
Then as you set in the emergency room torn apart
by the events of the last few hours the pastor arrives and it turns out to be
one of Eli's sons. You don't know that right away, but it's not too long
into the conversation when it is apparent that he is distracted by one of the
nurses. And it isn't long before he is hitting upon her and paying absolutely
no attention to you and your needs. Far-fetched? Maybe! But
it is not so far-fetched as to be out of the realm of possibility for that it
is certainly what Eli's sons would have done.
You see, you want someone to come along side of
you other than simply a warm body. You want someone who is holy. Holy
in the sense that they are in the world but not of the world. Holy in the
sense of being set apart for God's purposes. Holy in the sense of being
of real help to you at this time in your life. Holy in the sense of being
dedicated to God's will for himself as well as for you.
The symbolism of this holiness is seen in the "linen
clothes" which in the Book of Revelation represents the righteous acts of
the saints. But in Leviticus righteousness is played out in the grain offering. It
is played out in two distinct ways. First, by eating his share of the grain
offering, the priest signified to the one who brought the sacrifice that God
had received the offering and was pleased with it. These instructions
had previously been given in 2:10 but are repeated in 6:18.4
Then in vv. 19 - 22 - 23 we discover that
the priest himself brought a grain offering to the Lord. His offering,
which was offered twice each day, was different from the commoner's offering
in that it didn't involve incense and it was burned completely rather than eaten. Nevertheless,
the significance of it was the same. It was a public expression of dedication
to the Lord. It meant that the priest on duty was indeed the one you wanted
to have beside you in your time of need. At least that is the way
it was suppose to work and that is why we have the sixth chapter of Leviticus!
1 The
section that begins with 5:14 as well as the section that begins with 6:1
both deal with the guilt offering which is better labeled as the reparation
offering.
2 As with Ananias and Sapphira, the Lord dealt swiftly and
decisively with Nadab and Abihu and perhaps for the same reason. In each
case the deviant behavior occurred in the early stages of congregational worship. Without
a swift response the corruption of the body would have been so severe as to
adversely affect the life of the body for a long time.
3 See Numbers 28 - 29 for the regularly scheduled sacrifices. There
you have a record of the daily offerings, the Sabbath offerings, the monthly
offerings, and those offerings linked to the festivals.
4 See Revelation 19:8.
LEVITICUS - GOD'S GUIDEBOOK TO WORSHIP 2/26/06 1
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