Leviticus Chapter 6 Study – “The Law of the Burnt Offering” – “The Law of the Grain Offering” – “The Law of the Sin Offering” – (vv. 1-23)
Notes Leviticus 6 Study – (vv. 1-23)
6:9: The fire on the bronze altar was to burn continually … The priests were to be sure to fire never went out … Here it was a type of the perpetual offering of Christ in heaven … For Israel, it was the sign of uninterrupted worship of God, based on an animal offered to a burnt offering … In the new covenant, it is the same – the same open door for uninterrupted worship of God and fellowship with Him – but now based on the sacrifice of Christ for our sins as its fulfilled foundation …
6:12-16: The gain offering to be baked is offered as integral to the burnt offering – (see in Leviticus Chapter 2) … The daily morning and evening offerings – both the burnt and grain offerings – were offered together … This action was a type of the work of our hands being offered and made acceptable to God because of the burnt-offering offered with it … God accepts our works, done in the name of the Holy Spirit and because of the work of Christ – but never apart or disunited from His offering of Himself to God as our “burnt offering” …
6:16: The people brought their gifts to God through the priest … The priest often received a portion of what was given by the people to God – in this case the grain offering … The priest did not directly receive from the people what was theirs … He received back something prescribed by God of what had been given to God … Even when the priest eats of the offering, he partakes of something belonging to God …
In the new Covenant, that is true the clergy and of all the people of the Church – themselves members of the royal priesthood – when they partake of the food of God, the eucharist feast … The bread and the wine are given to God and given back to the people as the body and blood of Christ …
6:17-23: Instructions were given regarding specific parts of the sin offering … These were important – (1): as types of aspects of our eucharistic worship, and (2): as types of the sanctify with which the eucharistic gifts themselves are treated … At the Divine Liturgy the celebrant proclaims, “The holy things of the holy” … It is the eucharistic gifts – the body and blood of Christ- to which he is referring … In response, the people proclaim, “One is holy, One is the Lord Jesus Christ, to the glory of God the Father … Amen …” He is the ultimate holy sacrifice, and all of this is pictured in here in Leviticus …
How meticulous was the care for holy things – so important if we keep a clear sense of the holy … In the offering of Christ in the Divine Liturgy, detailed care is taken with every part of the body of Christ, with every drop of the blood of Christ … If the animal offered in the sin offering of the OT was considered so holy, how much more the offering of the Lord Jesus Christ …
6:18: Touching what is holy affects our holiness – our very sanctification … Here we see profound Biblical concept whereby contact with what is holy offers holiness – and to the unworthy, possible condemnation …
This issue deeply affects our understanding of how one is affected by the holy Eucharist, holy icons, holy water, holy oil, holy bread, and all things holy in the life of the Church … Our participation in these things is not merely a remembrance of an historical event, but in the spirit and in truth, God works through them to affect a healing within us – a reconciliation to Him and to our neighbor …
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