As you may
recall, last week’s
article ended
with a cliffhang-
er. God’s pres-
ence occupied
the biblical tab-
ernacle but no one could
approach him. The book
of Leviticus begins with
God calling to Moses
telling him to come near.
He then gives details
instructing how. Please
open your Bible and read
Leviticus chapters 1-5.
In this article, I want
to focus on the order in
which the offerings are
given.
The first offering
described is the ‘korban
olah’ — unfortunately
translated ‘burnt offer-
ing’. In Hebrew, these
words literally mean a
“bring-near-lift-up” offer-
ing. We learn the first
thing to do in approach-
ing God is to simply
desire to come near him
and completely surrender
to him as your God.
The next offering is
the grain offering. A
grain offering is always
accompanied by a drink
offering. Interestingly,
it includes unleavened
bread and wine.
Some of this offering
is eaten in the tem-
ple in the presence of
God. The one offer-
ing this sacrifice and
the priest participate
in communion with God!
Whenever we come to the
Lord’s table, we partici-
pate in this offering.
The third offering is
the peace offering. This
is offered to celebrate
with friends and family
in the presence of God.
An animal is brought for
sacrifice. The one offer-
ing lays his hand on the
animal, professes the
blessings God has pro-
vided, and the animal is
sacrificed. The celebrant’s
friends and family eat
this animal in God’s pres-
ence. This would be the
time to share God’s great
blessings with everyone.
For those of us who are
in Messiah, we lift our
hands to him and profess
the wonderful things he
has done for us. When
we give our testimony
about God’s greatness,
we participate in this
offering.
To sum up, God wants
us to give ourselves
freely and completely to
him. He wants to have
communion with us and
let us know we belong
to him and are under
his care. After that, God
wants us to be at peace
because of the blessings
he has provided. We have
absolute confidence in
our salvation because
God is in control and has
accepted us just as we
are!
Only after establishing
this relationship is God
ready to deal with sin.
Humanly, we think we
need to remove sin before
we come near to God,
but Jesus’ Bible teaches
the opposite. God tells
us that until we come to
him and are at peace, we
cannot effectively deal
with sin. Now, we can
better comprehend the
work of Jesus. When we
are at peace and in full
assurance of our salva-
tion, our sins don’t seem
so insurmountable. Noth-
ing can separate us from
God’s love. This confi-
dent approach of being at
peace with God enables
us to begin banishing
sin from our lives and to
participate in this offering
through the work of Mes-
siah Jesus.
The final offering is the
guilt offering. When deal-
ing with our sin, there
is sure to be some guilt.
That is the last thing to
deal with.
Once a relationship
with God has been estab-
lished, dealing with sin
and guilt will be repeated
over and over. Because
we are at peace with God,
we will root out sin and
need to be healed from
the guilt. It’s the process
of living a Godly life
under the control of a lov-
ing Creator.
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