The Offerings from the People’s Perspective
1:1 to 6:7
There are five different offerings connected with Isra’el’s worship of ADONAI. When viewed as a whole, they point to the one perfect offering of Messiah. When considered individually, they show the different aspects of the ministry of Yeshua, as the Sacrifice sufficient for the need of every human soul. And because Messiah can be seen in each of these offerings, it should come as no surprise to us that the gospel can also be seen.
Before we study the five different kinds of offerings, we need to look at a brief summary of the ritual for those offerings which involve blood sacrifice. There might be a slight variance in each case, but the broad outline for their offering is basically the same. The study of this ritual is important because it has a bearing on the fulfillment of the sacrificial system as recorded in the B’rit Chadashah. As Messianic believers, we acknowledge Yeshua was our ultimate sacrifice. Hebrews specifically says: For it is not possible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin (Hebrews 10:4).
These offerings merely interest only payments that temporarily “covered” sins. But for all who have put their faith in Him . . . we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Yeshua the Messiah once and for all time (Hebrews 10:10 and 12). Only the coming of Christ could do that. But it would cover the sin of the Israelite who loved God only for a short time, until he felt the deep sense of sin gnawing at him again. Then he would return to the Tabernacle, or later the Temple, with another sacrifice in hand. This happened over and over again for his entire lifetime. It was a bloody, smelly business. One can only imagine the flies in the desert around all the blood. But he would never forget that a blood sacrifice was needed for his sins to be forgiven. And once his sins were covered, he would be at peace with God.
1. The Substitute (4:3): Mankind was guilty, whether intentionally or unintentionally. Sin is sin. Missing the mark is not acceptable to a holy God. But ADONAI, out of grace and mercy, provides a substitute, that is, an acceptable sacrifice to take the guilty person’s place. The substitute represents the offender. In like manner, we are told that Yeshua was given as the sinner’s Substitute. When He died, He was the God-given acceptable One who died representing the sinner. Yeshua is the lamb unblemished and spotless . . . chosen before the foundation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for our sakes (First Peter 1:19-20).
2. Confession (4:4a): When the guilty sinner brought the animal for sacrifice, he first placed his hands on the animal’s head like the High Priest did on Yom Kippur (to see link click Al – The Purification Offering: Purified by Blood). When he was doing so, he was confessing his own personal sin and unworthiness to receive grace. In like manner, the B’rit Chadashah says: If we acknowledge our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness (First John 1:9).
3. Identification (4:4b): A second lesson from the laying on of hands is that it teaches the concept of identification. By means of this act, the animal was designated as the representative or substitute of the man or woman who brought the sacrifice. For all practical purposes, the sacrifice was now identified with the offer’s sin. In Romans, Paul wrote that it was through the Ruach Ha’Kodesh that the sinner was identified with the death of Yeshua (Romans Br – The Significance of the Messianic Mikveh). In other words, when Yeshua died, it was as if God’s Spirit took our guilty hands and placed them on Him who was the sacrifice. In that act Yeshua truly represented all sinners who believed in Him.
4. Blood Death (4:4-5): God’s Word teaches us that the life of the creature is in the blood . . . for it is the blood that makes atonement because of the life (17:11). If no blood is shed, no atonement is made; hence, the sacrifice must not only have died, but it had to be a bloody death. Many times throughout the B’rit Chadashah we are told that in Yeshua we have redemption through His blood (Ephesians 1:7). Yeshua could not have been the sinner’s sacrificial substitute unless He died a bloody death. And Hebrews teaches that Yeshua has appeared once in order to do away with sin through the sacrifice of Himself (Hebrews 9:26b). He took His own blood into the heavenly Tabernacle and placed it on the Holiest Place of all (see the commentary on Hebrews Bv – The Superiority of Messiah’s Sacrifice).
5. Exchange of Life (4:20): When the sinner slew the sacrifice, the sacrifice died bearing the sins which were confessed upon it. But the marvelous thing is that the guilty sinner lived! For that particular area of his life, the sinner could consider himself righteous. And if that is true for mere animal sacrifices, how much more it is true for the holy Messiah of Isra’el who offered Himself once and for all (Hebrews 10:10). The Bible teaches that God made Yeshua, who knew no sin, to be sin on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (Second Corinthians 5:21). Not only that, but Romans teaches us that for the sinner who has trusted Yeshua, there was a death. Our old sin nature was nailed to the cross with Yeshua. But because of the resurrection of Messiah, a new creation now lives (see the commentary on Romans Bs – The Application of the Messianic Mikveh)!17
But we must remember that all the mitzvot regarding the sacrifice of animals is only a veil (see the commentary on Exodus Fj – The Outer Veil of the Sanctuary). This book is very much like the Tabernacle. Observing it from the outside it looks very plain and ordinary, but only go past the veil and look inside, the Sh’khinah glory of God Himself is revealed. Such is the book of Leviticus.18
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