Year 7, Day 90: Leviticus 1

Theological Commentary: Click Here

The bloody sacrifices.  I’ll let you determine for yourself if I mean “bloody” with respect to the fact that it involves blood or in a more British sense of the word.

One thing that I will talk about with respect to this first chapter is that there are specific directions.  In fact, in all the cases but the bird, the directions are extraordinarily similar.  This causes me to wonder something significant.  Is it the death of the animal that matters or the manner in which it is treated?

In truth, I don’t think either is correct.  While I do believe that the sacrifices are meaningful to God, I do believe that this ritual practices are all about ingraining into the Hebrew culture how there can be no forgiveness of sin without the shedding of blood.  In other words, I believe these chapters are all about laying generations of cultural expectations so that when Christ comes and dies for our sin, there are people who understand what Christ has done.  Therefore, I don’t think that the death nor the manner of death is really what is important.  What is important is the general understanding of the precedent being sent.

Why is this important?  Well, God does want us to pay attention to the details.  There are right ways about going about God’s plan.  He wants to be obeyed because He knows what is truly best for us.

Think about this in respect to Christ.  When He came, Jesus didn’t just live any old way that He desired and die any way that He desired.  He lived underneath the direction of the Father.  He kept the Law blamelessly.  He fulfilled the Law.  He fulfilled the words of the Prophets.  There is importance in the details because in paying attention to the details we learn the true identity of Christ.

This is even true in the death of Christ.  Jesus died obediently.  He died on a cross as the Father desired.  He died rejected by His own people.  He spent three days and then conquered death as the Father desired.  I could list other examples, but I hope my point is correct.

These chapters are about pointing us to Christ.  There was an order about His death.  There was a process about His ultimate sacrifice.  These sacrifices are not done willy-nilly as anyone sees fit.  Neither was Christ’s sacrifice for us done casually.

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