A Journey through the Bible with Tiglath

19. The Beginning of Leviticus.

Our journey through the Bible now takes us through the books of Leviticus

and Numbers, Many people tend to disregard these books as being of no

importance. Nothing could be further from the truth. Leviticus is the book of

the laws given by Yahweh (God) to Moses at Mount Sinai. You will recall that

in Chapter 19, verse 6 of Exodus God stated ‘And ye shall be unto me a

kingdom of priests and a holy nation’. Unless we study the sacrifices as set out

in Leviticus and their meaning we shall fail to understand the sacrifice of our

Lord on the cross and the meaning of atonement.

The Book of Numbers covers thirty-eight years of the history of israel. It begins

two years after the Israelites escaped from Egypt and continues unto the point

where they are about to enter Canaan, The Promised Land. I have seen the book

described as an account of the grumbling of a people, as we shall see later on.

To return to Leviticus. We must now

look closer at the concept of Sacrifice.

The word means any offering, tangible

or symbolic, to a god. In many parts of

the world people were killed as

sacrificial offerings but not by the

Israelites. The story of Abraham being

ready to kill his own son and God

preventing him from so doing

indicated that human blood should not be spilt. As the Israelites had

disobeyed God and broken His covenant

while Moses was communing with God

on Mount Sinai they were deemed worthy

of death. God, in His mercy, decreed that

He would accept a substitute ‘a perfect

and blameless animal’. As I wrote earlier,

once we understand this we understand

the wonderful message of The Cross.

Christ, pure and blameless, is sacrificed

to pay once and for all for our sins. By this sacrifice we are brought to be at

one with God — The Atonement. In Leviticus there are descriptions

and instructions of five offerings. Read them; they are very

Interesting.

I list them here — Chapter 1 and Chapter 6 vv 8-13 The Burnt Offering:

Chapter 2 and Chapter 6 vv 14-18 The Grain Offering; Chapter 3 and

Chapter 7 vv 11-36 The Peace Offering; Chapter 4:1-5 vv 13 and Chapter 6

vv 24-30 — The Sin Offering; Chapter 5 vv 14, Chapter 6 v 7 and Chapter 7

vv 1-10 — The Guilt or Repayment Offering.

It is not always understood how sacrifices were carried out by the Jews

although sacrifices are often mentioned in the Old and New Testaments. The

animal had to be as perfect as possible. Poor people could only afford doves or

pigeons. The ceremony took place in the forecourt of The Tabernacle. The

worshipper laid his hand on the animal. This was a vital part of the ritual as it

implied that the sacrificial animal represented him. He then slaughtered the

animal or bird. The blood was collected in a suitable container, given to the

priest who splashed it against the altar. Certain parts of the flesh and fat were

then burnt or, if it was a burnt offering, the whole animal. What remained was

eaten by the priests and their families. If it was a peace offering the priests and

worshippers ate the remaining flesh.

It must be noted that there was no great ceremony associated with these

sacrifices. When Aaron made the golden calf while Moses was on Mount Sinai

the people worshipped it with an orgy of music and dancing. God does not

require this kind of thing in the sacrifices. The absence of orgies, etc in the

ceremony of sacrifice contrasted strongly with what went on in nations

surrounding the Israelites. It is interesting to note that when the sacrificial meal

was eaten salt was taken with it but not honey or yeast, see Chapter 2 verse 11

and following. The blood was not eaten.

In the next stage of the journey we shall look at the Consecration of Aaron and

his Sons and examine some of the laws of daily life of the Israelites.