Category: Bible Study

Throughout Leviticus so far, and certainly prior to that in the back half of Exodus in the instructions on how the tabernacle was to be built. we’ve seen Yahweh be very specific about how His people were to interact with Him in worship. He cares where they do it, how they do it, who is doing it, what they are wearing, their purity, the purity of the altars, the process, etc. The point is, it is understandable that His people would not immediately know how to properly interact with a holy God so God has made it very clear to them how it is to be done. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it doesn’t take long for those instructions to be subverted, and the consequences are severe.

The chapter continues on what is the very first day of Aaron being the official high priest having just completed the week long sanctification and sacrificing process. Two of his sons, Nadab and Abihu, who have also gone the ordination process, each pick up a censer, put fire in it, then add incense. At a brief glance, these actions are not completely foreign, as ordained priests we should assume they had the right to offer incense. But the narrative takes a drastic turn, for what they are offering is “unauthorized” or “strange” fire.

What does that mean exactly, strange fire? There are a few options. Incense was made by mixing spices together and the vaporizing them by putting them in a censer containing glowing lumps of coal. It’s possible that strange fire is a description of any one of those items coming from unclean sources (coals that come from somewhere from the altar, a mix of spices that wasn’t allowed, wrong time of day for the daily incense offering, etc.) However, the core of the issue is that it was a fire which God had not commanded them. It has been very clear that that God’s priests are to obey the law promptly and exactly. Certainly, Aaron’s sons know better than to freelance. And yet, here they are.

God’s reaction is swift and fierce. Fire comes from the Lord, in much the same way as it did to consume what had been offered to him in the previous chapter, and the two fellas die in the judgment of God. Moses quickly declares what was at stake, a basic summary being that the closer a man is to God, the more attention he must pay to the holiness of God. This principle is not restricted to just the priests, we find it similarly occurring to God’s people as a whole. As God’s chosen people, similarly to God’s chosen personal servants, there is a higher expectation upon them as mediators and representatives. In the book of Amos, the nations that surround Israel are condemned for all of the heinous things that they have done to people and other nations. Israel and Judah, however, are also condemned but not for those same things but simply for not keeping the Law of God (which from a human perspective we can recognize may not always have the same worldly consequences but are of the utmost consequence in their right relationship with God).

Broadly, how we feel about this instant judgment upon these two fellas tends to reveal our understanding/reverence of the holiness of God. If we believe it is a passive thing or casual thing, the judgment seems harsh. But if we recognize what a holy thing God’s worship is, the punishment is not offensive at all.

Aaron, certainly upset but also understanding what has just occurred, holds his peace. Moses has what remains of Nadab and Abihu buried outside the tabernacle area. He also instructs Aaron and his remaining two sons that they may not do some of the standard mourning actions in response to their death (letting down hair, tearing clothes, etc.) We should probably see this as an instruction to act with consistency of God’s perspective as this was a just response to the actions of the Nadab and Abihu. However, the rest of the people can “bewail” or mourn/remember them, lest they forget the situation and bring risk upon themselves in the future.

Then the Lord speaks to Aaron directly, the only time this will happen in Leviticus (most of the time Moses is acting as an intermediary). God instructs Aaron that they should not be drinking any booze when they enter the tent of meeting (makes sense, ya’ll shouldn’t be drinking before you head to work either). Reasonably, we might ask why this is coming up now. It’s possible alcohol might have contributed to the actions of the two boys of Aaron, recently deceased. It’s also possible that God is heading off actions Aaron and his remaining sons might take in reaction to the death of the fellas, drinking to cheer themselves up. Whether it’s one of these of another reason, God’s warning is a reminder that they are serving in a high calling and must lead in these areas. They are to distinguish between what is holy and common, clean and unclean. As teachers, they must first be faithful followers. (This word from God was certainly good news for Aaron, who is being assured by direct contact from God that he is to remain in the office of high priest doing the work of the Lord, despite the actions of his sons).

Then Moses reminds them that the work must continue and that there are sacrifices still available that they are to eat. Specifically, the goat that was to be offered in the purification offering (chapter 9) had portions that were to be eaten by the priests as long as the blood of the sacrifice wasn’t brought into the tent of meeting. It wasn’t, so they should have eaten it. in a day where lack of following the guidelines has already been disastrous, Moses is incensed.

Aaron basically explains that, based upon what has happened already today, he didn’t want to take any chances and get this wrong. He and his remaining sons had been eye witnesses to making a mistake with the holy things, so they were going to take what they considered the safest option and not risk unintentionally eating something that belonged to the Lord alone. Both of these thoughts are reasonable, really. This is their first day, after all, seems like a sizable risk to maybe get the distinctions wrong. Further, the consequences were significant, they would rather be overly cautious.

This explanation is sufficient for Moses, who was likely glad to hear Aaron and the boys are looking at God’s worship with the right sense of reverence.

Where chapter 8 prepares Aaron to be able to be able to start the priestly duties, chapter 9 kicks off Aaron’s first duties in office. After a full week of continual sacrifice to prepare Aaron and the tabernacle/altars for full time service (these are the purification (sin offerings) and burnt offerings), the eighth day arrives. The work that is to be done points to the whole reason any of this is going on, worship of God and the desire for His glory (think presence) to be revealed to them.

Different sacrifices/animals are represented for different parties. Moses tells Aaron to a bull calf for a purification offering for the altar/tabernacle and a ram for a burnt offering (for his personal atonement). There is no shortage of irony here that Aaron’s first duty as the official high priest is to sacrifice a young calf, the same animal that he made a golden image of and declared to be Yahweh in Moses’ absence. The people of Israel (again, likely represented by the elders) are instructed to bring a male goat for there purification (sin) offering and a calf and a lamb for their burnt offerings. Also, they are to bring an ox and a lamb for the peace offering as well as the grain and oil.

Everyone agrees and does what they are supposed to. Moses twice tells them that the result of all of this will be the glory of the Lord will appear to them. Again, these sacrifices help to bring the tabernacle to purity (defiled by the people and their sin but cleansed so that they can approach for atonement for their sin) as well as to allow for that atonement that restores right relationship between man and God. What was the glory of God that would appear? It’s likely the pillars of cloud/fire that had been present many times in the past. Sacrifices at the tabernacle were of no use if Yahweh was not there, His presence made the entire thing work. What is happening on this day is the initiation what will need to be in place for all of this to keep working.

The wide variety of animals is likely intentional, Aaron gets a chance to do all but one of the sacrifices (the reparation offering from chapter 5, that’s a specific situation that isn’t occurring here). Broadly, we should see these atonement for the general sinfulness of the nation, to dedicate the whole people to the worship of God according to his means, and to pray for God’s blessing on them. Then Moses and Aaron go into the tent of meeting and come out and bless the people. The Lord validates this blessing by appearing and then consuming the already burning offerings with fire. The people, as you would expect, give a shout and fall on their faces.

What can we take away from this? It puts all of the ceremony into context. All of this is pointing to something, ultimately the proper worship of God. The elaborate dress of the priests, the procedures around the sacrifices, etc. all helped simple human minds appreciate the holiness of God. None of it ensures God’s presence, He gives that graciously, but it provides a window into how to understand the presence that they are asking for. There are also aspects of spontaneous praise as well as fear in reaction to the God’s presence. This is difficult for us as often our worship is manufactured. Perhaps a pillar of fire would straighten that right out.

God had laid out how to ordain the priests for service back in Exodus 29. Here, Moses executes on those instructions. The Lord tells Moses to grab Aaron and his sons along with some animals to sacrifice and the special clothes that were created for the priests and head to the tent of meeting, that’s where it will all go down. In addition, the congregation is to be gathered to witness all of this (this isn’t everyone, they all wouldn’t fit, most likely the elders of the people are here representing everyone).

First, Moses washes the fellas. This is something the priests were to do prior to starting priestly service, but they weren’t priests yet, so Moses does it for them. This will persist, things that the priests will be responsible for Moses will handle as part of their initiation. Then Aaron is dressed in all the action, the shirt, the cloak, the sash, and that sweet breastplate with the gems representing the 12 tribes and a spot for the Urim and Thummim (those items used to determine the will of the Lord). We don’t think much of uniforms, they seem stuffy. But it’s not about the person, it’s about the position. You could pick the High Priest out by the sweet gear he had on, and it was a reminder of the who he’s in service of (Yahweh, of course), the important work he did (securing atonement for the nation) and the role of each individual to be part of the “kingdom of priests”, the calling of God’s people from Exodus 19.

Then Moses breaks out the oil, instructions from Exodus 40, and uses it to consecrate the tabernacle, the altar and Aaron and his boys. They are being identified for God’s service. That’s followed by the sin (or purification) offering. This isn’t for the the fellas themselves, it’s for the tabernacle, it had to be purged from sin’s pollution, specifically those introduced by the priests themselves. The blood is smeared on the altar to purify it (necessary, as this will be followed up by the actual burnt offering which needs a purified altar, otherwise it will be tainted).

The ram is sacrificed for the burnt offering, this is for their personal sins. The burnt offering allows them to reconcile with God by offering up a ram in their place as a ransom for their sins. Then there’s the ram of ordination. The blood of the animal is touched to Aaron’s right ear, right thumb, and right toe. This is a merism, parts that represent the whole. What’s the purpose? Likely a few things. This identifies the role of the priesthood explicitly with sacrifice. Also, it could be a kind of peace/confession offering, where Aaron is confessing God’s mercy for choosing him as high priest.

Finally, they are to stay in the tabernacle for 7 days, repeating the burnt offering every day. Although it only takes a moment to defile yourself, the sanctification of that is generally a slower process. We see similar instructions of avoiding normal social contact when demonstrating cleansing from disease and upon life events that caused someone to become unclean. They are to keep the instructions of the Lord under penalty of death.

Broad takeaway in this chapter is the reminder of the pervasiveness of sin, even for those chosen to be in the highest service of the Lord. These men who are in service to God brought pollution in with them so a sacrifice had to be done to cleanse the place so the burnt offering for their own personal atonement could be made. Even their skin and clothes have to be sprinkled and purified. And the sacrifices must be done more than once because sin is deep-rooted and often recurs. In the light of Jesus, our need for daily forgiveness does not go away. However, the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin, rendering the sacrifices and ritual we find in Leviticus no longer necessary.

As we move into chapter 5, it’s probably appropriate to try and make distinctions, where possible, among the sacrifices over the last few chapters and into this one. Although often called the “sin” offering (a reasonable translation but perhaps not exactly the concept as we normally think of it), chapter 4 should be more appropriately referred to as the purification offering. The whole point is purify the tabernacle so they can even enter to be able to offer the burnt offering that is actually for atonement. The presence of sin defiles God’s sanctuary so it must be purified. sin doesn’t happen in a vacuum, it pollutes things around it. So this offering addresses that. God is not endangered by this pollution of course, but man certainly is. We know when unclean and holy attempt to occupy the same space, holy wins and unclean is destroyed.

So chapter 5 continues addressing situations where common folks require the purification offering. Note that the lay folk don’t bring as valuable an offering compared to the priest (a nanny-goat or lamb vs. a bull, or even pigeons, turtledoves or flour if they’re poor). Particularly, the examples are sins of omission, times when you are supposed to do something but intentionally choose not to. Broad point is that things that are sinful or that make people unclean are applicable in fact, even if we are unaware of them. You can be unclean and not know it or have committed a sin and not realized it (basically the opposite of walking into it willfully). Either way, it’s still true and still has impacts. And, as soon as you are made aware of it, regardless of how, it must be addressed. (Our tendency may be to figure that since it’s been some time and is separated from the event, it can just be ignored. That would be a mistake. As noted before, sin has consequences and impacts beyond the event itself.)

Then the discussion switches to discussing the guilt or reparation offering (reparation is probably a more appropriate way to talk about it as the core focus is on addressing those additional consequences of sin, more specifically violating God’s holiness. The examples include trespassing on God’s holy stuff (could be eating holy food, touching stuff dedicated for the priests, etc.) but done unintentionally. Once it’s realized, the reparation sacrifice must be made and a restitution must be made to make up for what was defiled.

The next example seems mostly the same although this one is likely pointed to someone who doesn’t know exactly what he defiled, he just feels a guilt. Basically, someone believes they have sinned against sacred property but aren’t sure how. So, they make the reparation offering, but there is no extra fifth to tack on for this one because he doesn’t know exactly what he infringed on. Although it moves into chapter 6, the first few verses that follow are of similar concept, someone infringes upon God’s holiness by swearing falsely (lying and using God’s name to seal the deal). The reparation offering must be made (in addition to the purification offering, to allow access to make the burnt offering for the sin itself).

So, up to this point, we have various sacrifices of offerings that describe the effects of sin and how to remedy it. The burnt offering focuses on the individual, a sinner who deserves to die and an animal dying in his place. God accepts the animal as ransom or covering for man. The purification offering uses a medical view, sin makes the world dirty so that God can no longer dwell in it (it’s unclean). The blood of the animal cleanses the sanctuary so God can still be present with his people. And the reparation offering sees sin as a debt that man incurs against God. The debt is paid through the offered animal.

The narrative coming out of Exodus continues and the Lord calls to Moses from the tabernacle (the new tent of meeting) and begins to tell him how various aspects of the worship related to the tabernacle should be undertaken. First up, the burnt offering.

Now, as we start to read and try to understand the offerings, we’ll often find that we don’t have as much information as we want. Some of these instructions have an assumed level of understanding or pre-existing communal knowledge that isn’t included in the text because everyone already kind of gets it. As such, we’re going to do our best to call out what we believe to be true according to the information we have and then be cautious and prudent with any speculation outside of that.

The first two things we learn about the burnt offering is that it is on behalf of an individual (vs. the whole group) and that what is being offered must come from the owner’s own herd or flock. This is interesting in that it means that the offering must cost the person something, you can’t just go snare a wild beast and bring him to the Lord as an offering. We see David echo this thought in 2 Samuel 24:24: “I will not offer a burnt offering to the Lord my God which cost me nothing.”

Further, the offering must be a male without blemish. Again, we’re speaking to something costly, as the males were more prized and it couldn’t be some kind of limp, bedraggled character that you’d be happy to be rid of anyway. Only the best is good enough for God. The Lord calls out Israel in Malachi for trying to get away with shifty behavior in this area, “‘You sniff at me,’ says the Lord of Hosts; ‘You bring what has been taken by violence or is lame or sick, and this you bring as your offering. Shall I accept that from your hand?’ says the Lord”.

By the way, just so we don’t miss it, this expensive. It’d be something to sacrifice an entire young cow today, let alone in OT times when meat was a rare luxury for all but the very rich. Yes, the offering accommodates the variations of what people can afford (could be bull, sheep/goats, or birds), but it’s costly either way.

So, the animal is brought to the entrance of the tabernacle (tent of meeting), and the owner places his hand on the head of the burnt offering (and prays, those things are connected in Scripture) and it is accepted to make atonement (Hebrew word kipper – said “kip-air”, meaning “to cover” or “ransom”) for him. The guilt is acknowledged here, this situation is a consequence of action taken by the animal’s owner. Then he kills the animal, washes the dirty parts, cuts it all into pieces so it can be burnt on the altar. Note that the owner of the beast does all of this, it is handed off to the priests only to tend the fire that it will burn on (and also keep the skin of the animal).

A couple things. First, we want the sacrifice to be accepted because the general goal of it is peace with God (or right relationship). It is to be a “soothing aroma” to God, it is done in worship as something that pleases Him. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen this, recall that Noah makes a burnt offering to God after the flood and God reacts to it saying that it is a soothing aroma and promises to never flood the earth again (Genesis 8).

Further, the clearest identification of the purpose of the sacrifice comes from the word atonement. Although it debated among folks whether to consider it this way, I think this clearly is an offering in reaction to sin (with some differences from the upcoming purification and sin offerings). This is an atonement, an action taken as a “cover” or “ransom” for sin that created a lack of peace between a person and God. In this situation, God has agreed to accept this sacrifice, where the sin is seemingly passed through to the animal on behalf of the owner, and then killed and entirely consumed by the fire. Why does this work? Well, the basic answer is because God said it does. Perhaps more specifically, Leviticus 17:11 tells us that the blood of the animal represents its life and God is willing to accept its blood instead of yours. (Yes, we should certainly see Jesus in this, this is exactly what he does completely and finally on our behalf).

The one thing that should jump out clearly here, fellas, is that in a reality where Jesus has already come and died for us, we run the risk of not recognizing the cost of our sin. If you were an Israelite at the time of Moses, you didn’t forget because you had to haul one of your beasts up there in the presence of sin in your life and it died on your behalf (in fact, you did the killing). Folk saw you bring it up, it took a decent effort to kill, clean and cut it up, and you had to do it all over again the next time.

Conceptually, the same thing happens with Jesus, we just don’t have to live it out physically. He dies because God wants peace with us and He provides a sacrifice so that it can be (as noted in the introduction, the absence of this concept either denies that broken relationships are actually broken or creates a world where we can never have peace with God). Your sin put the nails in His hands, the crown on His head, and the spear in His side. But you weren’t physically there. Your sin is bundled with millions of others into that crown and into those nails and your part doesn’t get re-enacted over and over again. That is an amazing mercy, let us not forget it by treating are sin with nonchalance.

Dig on this tune, which has relevance to what we were just talking about:

Chapter 1 continues with how to handle the burnt sacrifices for either sheep/goats or birds, reflecting what people actually have available to them to sacrifice. Nothing significantly differs in the process for the other animals, just enough to accommodate distinctions that inherently exist in differences between say birds and bulls.

It’s worth noting that burnt offerings do not appear to be exclusive to atonement. Primarily, it brought reconciliation between God and man but also expressed faith in God and obedience to his law and could be offered in fulfillment of a vow. Either way, of all the sacrifices, this one is all encompassing; the entire animal is consumed in the fire and none is shared or left for either the original owner or the priests (again, except the skin).