The Encourager
“"How am I Doing Lord?" - by Jeff Curtis”
“How Am I Doing Lord?”
by Jeff Curtis
Leviticus presents in type a multifaceted view of Christ. He is our High Priest. He is also the sacrifice which is prefigured in the different offerings instructed in the book of Leviticus. Each offering in Leviticus has three parts: (1) the offerer; the Israelite; (2) the priest; the mediator and participant with his brethren; and (3) the offering.
Five different sacrifices are presented in Leviticus. Christ can be seen in His manifold roles in these sacrifices.
He is the offerer (Heb. 5:5-9). Christ came to do the will of God as a man. He is the Priest (Heb.7:24-25). These sacrifices show us how He acts as our mediator. Christ stands as an official and qualifying capacity, after the order of Melchizedek (Heb. 7:11), and He lives to make intercession for His people. His Offering (Jn. 1:29). We see the work and character of Christ in the actual sacrifice. In the blood sacrifices, the whole concept of using different animals and birds without defect was the idea of the innocent being killed for the guilty. Jesus as the Lamb (Jn. 1:29) was that innocent, sinless One (without defect) who was killed for the guilty party, man (Matt.20:28; Rom. 3:9-23).
The significance (Lev.1:2-14). The burnt offerings were the most common of the sacrifices. The burnt offerings had a history in the generation of the patriarchs such as Noah (Gen. 8:20) and Abraham (Gen. 22:1-14). Leviticus indicates that no day was to pass in the tabernacle without one of these offerings being made (Lev. 6:9-12).
The Cost. (Lev.1:2-14). God recognized some social and economic differences among the Israelites by allowing each one to participate in the sacrifices at their economic level. Each Israelite, however, had to meet strict requirements whose underlying principles taught them some needed lessons.
The Participant (Lev.1:4-6). In this sacrifice, more than any other, the worshiper was heavily involved in making the sacrifice himself. No comment is made in the text as to the significance of the worshiper in doing all of this. But, the one lesson we should draw from studying his participation in the sacrifice is that God always demanded that worship be an act of participation, not a passive one.
The Whole Offering (Lev.1:8-13). The last characteristic about this offering is that the whole animal was consumed in the fire. Not only was the burnt offering the most common sacrifice, in the it was done daily; but it was to burn to the extent that the sacrifice be reduced to ash. Then the ash was to be carried out the next morning by the priest.
Jesus Christ, the Anti-type. The focus of Jesus in this offering – while it suggest the ideas of blood, innocence, and a life offered – is more centered on His wholeness. We need, “5 Therefore, when He came into the world, He said: “Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but a body You have prepared for Me.
6 In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You had no pleasure.
7 Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come— in the volume of the book it is written of Me— to do Your will, O God.’”8 Previously saying, “Sacrifice and offering, burnt offerings, and offerings for sin You did not desire, nor had pleasure in them” (which are offered according to the law), 9 then He said, “Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God.” He takes away the first that He may establish the second. 10 By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Heb. 10:5-10).
Conclusion. Are we offering God our wholeness? Paul told the Christians in Rome: “Therefore I urge you, brethren, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship” (Rom. 12:1).
