In the Book of Genesis there are different offerings spoken of, perhaps all of them burnt offerings. Abel’s offering to God was of the firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof; and Noah’s offerings, when he came out of the ark, are specifically called “burnt offerings” (Gen. 8:20). When God called upon Abraham to offer up Isaac, it was as a “burnt offering,” and the ram that was offered up in the stead of Isaac was of the same character. The passover lamb had its own peculiar character, not being a sacrifice offered up to God, but slain for the protection of the firstborn in Israel, and eaten by all in the household before they set off on their journey from Egypt.
The Daily Sacrifice
In the opening chapters of Leviticus there are details of the various offerings, both voluntary and obligatory, but in Exodus 29 there are the divine instructions of what we might call the complete offering. God desired to have continually before Him what signified the perfections of His dear Son, who would come to earth to die to secure all His will and all His pleasure. This is surely set forth in the daily sacrifice. The foundation was the lamb of the burnt offering, but there were the two offerings that gave it completeness, the meat offering and the drink offering.
It is not that the burnt offering is not complete in itself, for Leviticus 1 shows this to be so, but God desired to have before Him all that Christ was as seen in the burnt offering, and, at the same time, all that is set forth of Christ in the meat offering, and what is brought to Him in Christ as the drink offering. Every morning there was to be this offering on the altar before God, and also between the two evenings, so that the precious odour of Christ, what He was in His Manhood, and what He was in His death for God, might be constantly before Him, from morning till evening, and from evening till morning.
The lamb of the burnt offering surely bespeaks all the tenderness and meekness of the lowly One who gave Himself in death for the glory of God, and, as it is written in Ephesians 5:2, “an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour.” There was in the death of Christ that which was beyond all human valuation, for the victim was God’s own Son, and in His death all His deep perfections came out before the Father in a new way, even in His obedience and perfect submission to His will, even unto death. His death was for our acceptance before the Father, but in the burnt offering, all went up to God as a sweet odour, for the Son had gone into death that the Father might be glorified, both as regards the obedience of the Son in fulfilling all His will, and in laying the basis for the accomplishment of His eternal counsels.
With the burnt offering there was also the meat offering: the fine flour that spoke of the perfections of the nature of the Son of God as Man, and the oil that speaks of the Holy Spirit as the power that actuated the Son in every step of His path on earth in the carrying out of His Father’s will. The deep perfections of the Son were seen in every step He trod, and the Father was glorified by Him in His every step, but His path led on to the cross, where, as the perfect Man He offered Himself by the eternal Spirit without spot to God (Heb. 9:14).
There was also the drink offering, which is not prescribed as an offering by itself, and for the lamb was the fourth part of an hin of wine. Wine is that which makes the heart glad (Psalm 104:15), and surely indicates to us the pleasure that has been brought to God through the death of His Son. How great was God’s pleasure in having a Man who was in all things obedient to His will, so unlike Adam who was disobedient unto death, and so unlike every one who is descended from Adam. Jesus poured out His soul unto death that God’s eternal pleasure might be secured.
The Offerings in the Land
The daily sacrifice was not a voluntary offering, it was what Jehovah demanded of Israel, and as from the whole congregation, but it served as a pattern of the fulness that God expected from His people when they entered the good land that He would give them. A nation in the land of promise would have the opportunity of rendering their thanks to their God who had so richly blessed them by offering “a burnt offering, or a sacrifice in performing a vow, or in a free-will offering, or in your solemn feasts, to make a sweet savour unto the Lord, of the herd, or of the flock” (Num. 15:3).
These offerings were to come from hearts touched with the sense of Jehovah’s goodness, from those who desired to do what gave Him pleasure as is expressed in the burnt offering. A vow would be a special mark of devotion to the will of God, and a free-will offering the simple desire to give to God something in return for His bounty and goodness. The solemn feasts prompted the hearts of God’s people as being suitable occasions for ministering to Him who constantly ministered unto them from His exhaustless resources.
Fundamentally, all were voluntary offerings, and of two classes, either burnt offerings or peace offerings. The distinction between the burnt offering and the peace offering was in Jehovah having the whole of the offering, whereas in the peace offering, the priestly family, the offering priest and the offerer shared with Jehovah what was offered in sacrifice to Him. In other words, the burnt offering was a sacrifice of worship to Jehovah, and the peace offering a sacrifice of communion. Each is perfect in its place, and both bring before us what belongs to the believer as a divine privilege. We can both be before God as worshippers, worshipping Him in spirit and in truth, and also as having fellowship with the Father and the Son. Our worship and our fellowship with God both rest on the sacrifice of His own Son upon the cross.
The Smallest Offering
Turtle doves or young pigeons could be offered as a burnt offering to Jehovah, according to what was given in Leviticus 9, and these were brought by the poor on certain occasions, as we learn in Leviticus 12:8. But when it was a voluntary offering in the land, the smallest offering required by Jehovah was a lamb or a kid (Num. 15:11). Whether the lamb was offered by one that was young, by one of the poor, or by one who had not a very deep sense of what was due to the Lord, the offering in itself represented before Jehovah what was perfect and acceptable with Him, just as did the lamb of the daily sacrifice, the sweet savour of which was constantly before Him.
As in the case of the daily sacrifice, the smallest voluntary offering in the land, whether for worship or communion, had to have its meat offering and drink offering, its tenth of fine flour mingled with the fourth part of a hin of oil, and a drink offering of a fourth part of a hin of wine. Does not this suggest that a true apprehension of the death of Christ as the One who has glorified God in all His perfections, can only be where there is a true realisation of what Christ is as the perfect Man and vessel of the Spirit of God, and who has brought pleasure to God in His life and death?
Nor can there be any real worship or communion with God save on the ground of the death of Christ. The foundation of approach to God in worship is based on what Christ was to God in death, and God will not have anything to do with worship that does not rest on this basis. It is hardly likely that the soul that is ignorant of the true ground of approach to God, even if it be not wilful ignorance, will have a proper apprehension of the true character of Christ’s Manhood, or of the divine pleasure brought to the Father by the Son in His walk on earth and as displaying all His inward perfections in death.
The Ram as a Voluntary Offering
At the consecration of the priests two rams were slain, one for a burnt offering and the other as the sacrifice of consecration. In the land, any one who desired to worship Jehovah or to have communion with Him, could bring a ram for a burnt offering or a peace offering. The ram, as a sacrificial animal, would bring before us the devotion of Christ in giving Himself up to death that a new priesthood might be secured for the worship of the Father in spirit and in truth, a holy and a royal priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices, and to set forth the praises of Him who has called them out of darkness into His marvellous light.
There was however to be a larger meat offering, and a larger drink offering with the ram than with the lamb, consisting of two tenths of fine flour mingled with the third part of a hin of beaten oil, and the third part of a hin of wine. Does not this larger offering suggest growth in apprehension of what is due to God? Growth in spiritual riches? growth toward maturity in the things of God? It seems to suggest a balanced growth, just as one would grow under the influence of the Spirit of God from being a babe in God’s family into being young man.
The Bullock as a Voluntary Offering
The patient, enduring features of the bullock, with its strength, vigour and maturity, all bring before us what marked the Lord Jesus as the true burnt offering and peace offering. As the meat offering and drink offering grew with the size of the animal offered, so with the bullock, the meat offering was to be three tenths of fine flour mingled with half a hin of oil, and the drink offering of half a hin of wine. This offering surely speaks of one who has been enriched in the things of God, bringing to God an enlarged appreciation of what Christ was to God in life and death.
Even if an Israelite offered a bullock, he had not reached the limit of devotion to God, for there is no limit set to the number of bullocks, rams or lambs that any one could offer to God. Nor is there any limit to growth in the things of God, growth in spiritual apprehension of the truth, growth in the knowledge of the Father and the Son, growth in spiritual desire and devotion. A father in the divine family who has reached maturity has not reached finality, even as we see in the Apostle Paul, who, though no doubt matured beyond any in the knowledge of Christ, could still say, “That I may know Him” (Phil. 3:10).
No special instructions are given in Numbers 15 regarding the blood of the offerings considered, but the instructions of Leviticus 1 and 3 suffice, the blood was to be sprinkled “round about upon the altar” of burnt offering, a standing and universal witness that the only way of approach to God was in the redemption secured by the blood of the victim that was received by God as a sweet smelling savour.
R. 29.2.68