(Read Lev. 1 to 7)
In writing of the Offerings it would be well to make a few prefatory remarks. A good general survey always helps to an intelligent grasp of the details.
The principal Offerings were five in number.
The Burnt Offering.
The Meat Offering.
The Peace Offering.
The Sin Offering.
The Trespass Offering.
These in their turn were divided into three and two.
The Sweet Savor Offerings were burned upon the Brazen
Altar. The first three of our list belonged to that category. The Sin Offerings were burned " outside the camp." The last two of our list belong to this category.
The Sweet Savor Offerings spoke of God's delight in our Lord's surrender to His will in making atonement on the cross.
The Sin Offerings spoke of the fierce judgment of God upon sin when the load of our sins was laid on the Holy Sufferer.
The following will give at a glance the things offered, and show to the careful observer somewhat of their differences and detail.
The Burnt Offering
Bullock, a male without blemish.
Ram, a male of sheep or goats without blemish.
Fowls, turtle doves or young pigeons.
The Sin Offering FOR THE ANOINTED PRIEST.
Young bullock without blemish. FOR THE WHOLE CONGREGATION. A bullock without blemish.
FOR A RULER.
Kid of the goats, male without blemish. FOR ONE OF THE COMMON PEOPLE.
Kid of the goats, female without blemish. Lamb, female without blemish.
The Trespass Offering
Female lamb, or kid, two turtle doves or two young pigeons. Tenth part of an ephah of flour.
IN THE HOLY THINGS OF THE LORD.
Ram, without blemish, restitution, and fifth part added. a trespass against the Lord.
Ram, without blemish, restitution and fifth part added.
It will be noticed that a bullock is a higher class of sacrifice than a young bullock; that a male is higher than a female; and that the lowest type of sacrifice were the turtle doves, or young pigeons or even fine flour. It can be seen at a glance that the higher the sinner was, the greater his privileges before God, the greater his sin in the sight of God. This is on the lines that " unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required " (Luke 12:48).
It will be seen there is a distinct order. God begins at the Burnt Offering, the highest type of Offering. The sinner in his experience begins with the Trespass Offering. Just as God began with the Ark, and the Holiest of All, as we have already seen, began as it were at the very top with His own glory, rather than with the sinner's need, though His glory includes meeting the sinner's need, so here God begins with the Burnt Offering, the highest aspect of the death of Christ, an atoning death even in this aspect.
Just as the prism splits light into its seven amazing colors, the blending of which gives perfection, viz. pure light, so the death of Christ in its varied aspects, grouped together in our mind, helps to a fuller and richer understanding of the death of Christ.
The Bible gives no quarter to Unitarianism, Higher Criticism and Modernism with their denial of what is fundamental to Christianity. Sacrifice, blood-shedding, death of victim, burning, ashes-all emphasize with a mighty voice that the death of Christ was sacrificial, vicarious, atoning. To rob it of these meanings or weaken them is to make the death of Christ perfectly meaningless. To present Christ's death as that only of a martyr, or as an inspiring example to mankind, is to mock a sin-stricken, death-marked race with a crueler deception than the mocking mirage of the desert, deceiving the traveler dying of thirst, leading its already exhausted victim to a last despairing effort, only ending in death. To pretend that the sacrificial aspect of the death of Christ is not in the Scriptures, is to call black white, and white black, deceiving none but the willingly ignorant.