The Burnt Offering

Good morning, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This is where every day you and I, we get together, we have a little bit of... Milk. Milk, coffee, maybe tea. We get into God's Word and we grow in our love for the Lord together. And this year, 2023, Lord willing, we'll make it from Genesis through Leviticus. So glad to be with you today. Why don't we have some coffee? We'll pray. And milk. Milk. And we'll get into God's Word.
Uh-oh. Why don't you put your toy down? There you go. Great. Let's go ahead and pray. Father, we thank you so much for this day. We thank you for the cooling down of the weather. We thank you for your word. We thank you for giving us life today. I pray now that your spirit would teach us and help us to understand these words. In Jesus' name, amen.
Alright, so here we go. We get to start the book of Leviticus today. Alright, the book of Leviticus. So, Leviticus, do you guys know what a Levite is? That's somebody who works in the temple. Somebody who works in the temple or the tabernacle in this case. Right? And so it was called To Levitikon because it was that's the Greek word for this is like a rule book for the priests or for the Levites. Right? But you guys want to know what it's called in Hebrew?
Vayikra. Vayikra. And the Lord called up And the Lord called to Moses. That's what its title is in Hebrew. So, here we go. This is regarding the burnt offering. Okay, so the first few chapters of Leviticus that we're going to be reading are all about different types of sacrifices. So this morning it's about the burnt offering. Alright, so here we go.
Now the Lord called to Moses. Oh, I bet that's why they call it Vayikra. And the Lord called to Moses. And the Lord called to Moses, and spoke to him from the tabernacle of meeting, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, When any one of you bring an offering to the Lord, you shall bring your offering of livestock, of the herd, and of the flock.
If his offering is a burnt offering of the herd, so what type of offering? A burnt offering. Let's write a burnt offering. Let him offer a male without blemish. So what type of male? Or what type of animal? Male. A male. What do you think it means without blemish? Do you think it should have like a broken leg? No. Messed up ears? No. Missing an eye? skin disease? No, no, without blemish, right? So a boy animal without blemish, why do you think they should make sacrifices without blemish? Because they don't want to get sick and dead. They don't want to get sick and dead?
No, good guess. Because it's not clean. bit because it's not clean? Hmm. Well, yeah, because God has declared that that shouldn't happen. I think it's more that he doesn't want the cheap stuff. He doesn't want what's left over. Right? That's one of the things that they started to do and the prophet Malachi would later say, you're offering the blemished animals because you're cheap wads. But you're not offering to the Lord the good stuff, you're offering to him the cheap animals. Alright. So should somebody have to twist his arm? Force him? Nope. Of his own free will. Then he shall put his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it will be accepted on his behalf to make atonement for him. He shall kill the bull before the Lord, and the priests, Aaron's sons, shall bring the blood and sprinkle the blood all around the altar by its door and the tabernacle."
Meaning, so what were they supposed to do with the blood? Sprinkle the blood around the altar. Sprinkle the blood around the altar. Like this? Yeah, something like that. Sprinkle the blood around the altar. And he shall skin the burnt offering and cut it into pieces. Right, so he's got to butcher up the animal now. Like this animal? Yeah, here let me see this animal. I'll hold him here while we finish, okay?
The sons of Aaron, the priests, shall put fire on the altar, and lay the wood in order on the fire. Then the priests, Aaron's sons, shall lay the parts, the head and the fat in order, and the wood that is on the fire upon the altar. He shall wash its entrails and its legs with water.
Right, so the entrails are like its guts. Right, its intestines. Yeah, exactly. Right, so would you want to cook the stuff that's inside intestines? No. No, that's what poop is. Right, and so they're going to squeeze that all out and wash them out, and then also wash the legs to make sure there's no filth on the legs of the animal that's being sacrificed too. Is that... If you wanna do it, do it as a cat. As a what? As a cat. As a what? As a cat. A cat?
A cow would be bad. Well, the cow's dead. Yeah, they killed the cow. And they sprinkled its blood all around. Not because it's a dirty animal? Nope, God says it's a ritually clean animal. They're not to sacrifice unclean animals. Like pigs. Yep, but we'll talk about the difference between clean and unclean later.
Well anyways, he shall wash its entrails and its legs with water, and the priest shall burn all on the altar as a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, a sweet aroma to the Lord. So the burnt offering is made by fire, and what is it to the Lord? Well, it's holy, but it's a sweet aroma. Do you know what aroma is?
Smells. Remember when I made hamburgers yesterday? No. On the grill? Well, you weren't here. Gasoline smells better. You think gasoline smells better? That's odd, but it's kind of like a barbecue, right? When daddy heats up the grill, the barbecue, does it smell good? Yeah, right, the smell of food. I mean, I would think that it would smell good. Yeah, well that's what it's saying here. It's a sweet... It smells like smoke. Well, it's a sweet aroma to the Lord.
Okay, so that's if it's a bull, right? Now, that would be the most costly, most costly type of burnt offering. Well, the other burnt offering is verse 10. If his offering is of the flocks of the sheep or of the goats, so this is instead of a bull, what is this now? A sheep or a goat. As a burnt sacrifice, he shall bring a male without blemish. Is that the same as if it was a bull? Yep. So a male without blemish. He shall kill it on the north side of the altar, before the Lord and the priest Aaron shall..." What do you think they should do with its blood? Sprinkle it around the altar. Sprinkle the blood around the altar. Good. So basically it's the same thing, so she can get... Mm-hmm, similar.
"...and he shall cut it into its pieces, with its head and its fat, and the priest shall lay them in order on the wood that is on the fire upon the altar." But he shall, what do you think he should do with the entrails and the legs? Wash. Wash them with water. Then the priest shall bring it and burn it on the altar. It is a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, a sweet smelling aroma to the Lord. That's right. That's just two times it said it now. So they're both burnt offerings. So they're different types of animals. And then verse 14. Here we go. We'll wrap this up with this section. Ready?
And if the burnt offering of his offering to the Lord is of birds, so which one is, what type of burnt offering is this now? Birds. Of birds. Tweet tweets. Tweet tweets, that's right. Then he shall bring his offering of turtle doves or young pigeons. Right, so you can bring turtle doves or young pigeons. The priest shall bring it to the altar. So cute. No, you can't do Hawkeyes No, no, no pop. No Hawks.
No Eagles turtle doves are young pigeons Here's now this is interesting the priest shall bring it to the altar ring off its head and Burn it on the altar the blood shall be drained out at the side of the altar and He shall remove its crop with its feathers and cast it beside the altar on the east side into the place for ashes. Then he shall split it at its wings, but shall not divide it completely, and the priest shall burn it on the altar. on the wood that is on the fire.
It is a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, a sweet-smelling aroma to the Lord." Alright, so it's a sweet-smelling aroma to the Lord. Well, so what type of offering was this whole part, chapter 1? Do you remember? A burnt offering. That's right, a burnt offering. Now people might be offering burnt offerings for different things, right? It might be for, right, you need it for atonement. Alright, I think that's what verse 5 said. Then he shall put his hand on the head, and of the burnt offering... Hey, what are you doing? Come on, man.
Of the burnt offering, and it will be accepted on his behalf to make atonement for him. So it might be because of sin. Some people might make burnt offerings because they made a vow. Or some people might make... A vow? A vow, yeah. Yeah, well not vowels, but vow, meaning like a promise, a solemn oath to God. Or some people might do it because they are dedicating something to God.
Or it might be a burnt offering for Thanksgiving. So there's different reasons why people in the Bible would make burnt offerings. But we normally think of the burnt offering as the sin offering. But we'll get there later. There's actually one specifically for sin.
Okay, what do you think is the best verse to summarize this? Anything stick out to you? What's a sweet-smelling aroma? A sweet-smelling aroma to the Lord's good. It's like the only thing in common. So, do you guys think we have sweet-smelling aromas to the Lord now? Yeah. Well, in 1 Corinthians it tells us about Jesus being the sweet-smelling aroma to the Father. And then in Philippians, you know what is the sweet-smelling aroma now?
God. Not God. Nope. our generosity to one another. So we can still offer up the sacrifice of praise, and we can be generous our whole lives. It can be offered up to the Lord as a free will offering. Alright, you guys ready to pray? Father, we thank you so much for giving us Jesus Christ, our burnt offering. Lord, we thank you that his sacrifice to you was a sweet smelling aroma, and that you made him to be the one who would be our atonement, taking away our sins, but also making us right with you. Father, we pray that you would please, by your Spirit, press these truths on our hearts and let us love you all of our lives. In Jesus' name, Amen. Well, may God bless you. May you walk in the joy and peace of Jesus Christ, and we'll see you next time. Bye!
Thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in rural southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith in your life this week. If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website, SharonRPC.org. We'd love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue. Morning Sun, Iowa, 52640. May God richly bless you this week.