The burnt offering is unique among the offerings in its complete surrender to the Lord. It is not difficult to see how this gift communicates a wholehearted dedication that makes it a most fitting expression of covenant loyalty.
This is the gift Abraham is called to bring—out of his household he selects the offering pleasing to the Lord (Gen. 22:2) and makes Moriah’s ascent to “worship” (Gen. 22:5). It is there that the Lord reveals his will to provide a substitute, having found Abraham faithful because he has “not withheld your son, your only son” (Gen. 22:12). On this same mountain (2 Chron. 3:1) Israel’s covenant worship will rise from the altar in burnt offerings, day in and day out, anticipating the time when the Lord himself will turn to his household to select a pure and spotless Lamb to offer on the altar (Rom. 8:32; 1 Pet. 1:18–19). The beloved Son unreservedly holds nothing back, pouring out his life to the Father as a ransom for many (Mark 10:45; 1 Pet. 3:18). His is the perfect offering, worthy of the Father’s pleasure (Mark 1:11), a pleasing aroma and “fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (Eph. 5:2).
The language of sacrifice, far from having become obsolete, characterizes our own discipleship as followers of Christ. We are called to conform our lives after Jesus’ own self-abandonment, who held nothing back but emptied himself completely to death on a cross in sacrificial obedience (Phil. 2:5–8). In the same way we offer back to the Lord our very lives that he has redeemed, serving him with a radical self-giving that embraces all of life: “Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship” (Rom. 12:1). We are sacrifices that are living, brought to life by faith in Christ, so that we can offer ourselves back to him in lives lived for his purposes in the world.Leviticus 1
Or an offering by fire; so throughout Leviticus
Or feathers
1:1–2a The Lord calls to Moses as he has done throughout the exodus from Egypt. Only now, instead of calling “out of the mountain” (Ex. 19:3) or “out of the midst of the cloud” (Ex. 24:16), he speaks from behind the veil of the tent of meeting, where he has taken up residence. It is appropriate that in Leviticus the Lord’s dwelling is almost exclusively referred to as the “tent of meeting,” emphasizing the relational goal of the Lord’s abiding presence. Yahweh descends from Sinai to inhabit his earthly sanctuary and call his people to meet with him. They will meet through the ordained sacrifices at the altar.
The Lord’s instructions are for the “people of Israel,” inviting every covenant son and daughter into the fellowship of worship. This is in contrast with practices of the ancient world, where typically only the priestly class held the knowledge of ritual performance. In Israel all are invited to approach the Lord in recognition of their priestly call as a nation (Ex. 19:5–6).
1:2b The opening line of the sacrificial laws is simple in its phrasing but generous in its inclusion: “When any one of you . . .” The Hebrew behind this translation is ʾadam, referring to a human person. The invitation to worship the Lord through the offering of sacrifice is extended to men and women alike with language that echoes humanity’s creation (Gen. 1:27). Indeed, the tent of meeting creates sacred space that evokes the setting of Eden (cf. Introduction) and becomes the place where the Lord will once again meet with humanity in fellowship, healing the rift created by sin through substitutionary sacrifice.
The language of sacrifice communicates volumes about its theology. The offering a worshiper must bring (Hb. qorban) derives from the verb “to draw near” (qarab), variations of which appear four times in this verse. A worshiper draws near to the Lord through that which he brings near, an idiom that may best be captured in English as “[to] present a present.” Fellowship with God is accomplished through a gift of domesticated livestock, whether from the herd, the flock, or the birds, listed in descending order of economic value. What the worshiper brings from his own household represents more than his resources, as it personally represents and stands in for him.
1:3 The burnt offering takes pride of place to introduce the sacrifices and serves as a template for the ritual procedure to be followed for all the offerings. In other words it is paradigmatic. In English translations the emphasis falls on the burning of the sacrifice on the altar: the animal is consumed in flames as it is dedicated in its entirety to the Lord. The LXX adds to this the notion of completeness: the whole animal is burned on the altar, rendered in the LXX as holokautōma (“whole burnt offering”). But this is only part of the picture. In Hebrew ʿolah most literally means the “ascending” offering, a term that captures its dynamic movement upward as it rises in smoke to the Lord. The focus, therefore, is not on the animal’s being incinerated by fire but its being conveyed upward through fire and smoke.
The burnt offering may be one of the oldest and most foundational sacrifices, brought by the faithful even before the covenant at Sinai (Gen. 8:20). This is the offering of wholehearted devotion required of Abraham: “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering” (Gen. 22:2). The burnt offering is at the heart of Israel’s worship, offered daily on the altar at dawn and at twilight (Ex. 29:38–42; Num. 28:3–8). It is the most common offering on public celebrations such as covenant making (Ex. 24:5), priestly ordination (Leviticus 8), and the annual festivals (Numbers 28–29). As a personal offering, it is a fitting expression of worship for a broad range of occasions—fulfilling a vow or offering thanksgiving (Lev. 22:18), making petitions (1 Sam. 13:12), and seeking atonement (Lev. 14:19–20).
Coming to the Lord with an offering begins before the actual moment of sacrifice. Each household takes care to breed and cull the flock and herd for animals that are whole and without defect. The worshiper then selects an animal according to that which is fitting for his petition (chs. 1–5) and according to his means (1:3, 10, 14). He physically examines the animal from head to tail to ensure that it is free of blemish or injury (22:22–24). For a burnt offering he must bring a male without blemish. Male animals are generally preferred for daily and public sacrifices in Israel’s worship, and female for private offerings, though in this instance private burnt offerings had to be male. No reason is given. What is clear is that selecting an offering pleasing to the Lord and presenting it according to his laws means that the worshiper and his household will be accepted through its acceptance and find favor with God.
1:4 The offering is brought to the entrance of the tent of meeting, where the worshiper presses his hand on the animal’s head in an act of presentation and dedication. This gesture—a firm leaning rather than simply resting of the hand—signifies that the item that has been in his grasp, in his sphere of ownership, is now surrendered to the Lord. In this act of presentation the offerer also identifies with his offering as he leans his weight on the animal that will represent him, as though saying, “This creature stands in for me.” The Levites are dedicated with a similar gesture when the people of Israel lay their hands on them to dedicate them to the Lord’s service on their behalf (Num. 8:10, 16).
The animal is “accepted for him” as a gift that secures atonement. The theological concept of atonement, literally at-one-ment, expresses the reconciliation and restoration of relationship between two estranged parties. This is achieved in two main ways: one avenue is through purification from sin (Leviticus 16), and the other is through the payment of a ransom. Since there is no particular sin or offense in view here, atonement must be in the sense of appearing before a holy God through sacrifice that serves as a ransom, that is, the offering is accepted in place of the offerer, such as the ram that Abraham offered “instead of his son” (Gen. 22:13).
The aim of the offering is to be accepted by the Lord with favor for blessing (Ex. 28:38; Isa. 56:7). The language in these verses alternates between the Lord’s accepting the offering (Lev. 1:3) and accepting the offerer (v. 4), blurring the boundary to bring to the fore that the offering stands in for the offerer.
1:5 The worshiper slaughters the bull by passing a sharp knife over its throat (cf. Gen. 22:10), while the priests handle the blood that makes atonement (cf. Lev. 17:11). The animal is the worshiper’s to offer, but the blood that represents its life is the Lord’s and so is returned to him by those consecrated to handle the life-liquid. The act of sacred killing is passed over quickly; death is not the goal of sacrifice but is only the beginning of the ritual of drawing near to the Lord. What receives more attention is the handling of blood, which throughout all the instructions for sacrifice is drained, splashed, poured, sprinkled, and smeared in the variety of its applications. Priests catch the animal’s blood in bronze bowls (Ex. 27:3) to toss upon the sides of the altar or pour at its base (Lev. 4:7). Some of the freely flowing blood might make contact with the offerer, spattering him as it is splashed on the altar, reinforcing the blood bond that binds every Israelite in covenant to the Lord: “Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he threw against the altar. . . . [Then he] took the blood and threw it on the people and said, ‘Behold the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words’” (Ex. 24:6, 8).
1:6–7 The worshiper continues to prepare his offering by stripping the carcass of its hide and butchering it into cuts of meat, likely on tables in the area of the courtyard (cf. Ezek. 40:39). He is, however, prohibited from setting the offering on the altar. The priests are the ones to arrange the wood and kindle the altar’s fire, having been consecrated to serve and invested with a holiness akin to that of the altar (Leviticus 8). Instructions for the handling of the sacrificial animal alternate perspectives between worshiper and priest, as they work in concert to present an offering to the Lord.
1:8–9a The offerer washes the entrails and lower part of the legs to remove any soiling. He then relinquishes his offering to the priest, who arranges the animal’s pieces on the altar according to the ritually prescribed order: the quartered cuts, the head, suet, and finally the innermost parts. Some see a deeper significance to this order, suggesting that, as the animal’s innermost parts are laid bare before the eyes of the Lord for examination, so is the worshiper whom the animal on the altar represents (Jer. 11:20; 17:10).
1:9b The animal in its entirety is placed on the altar and given to the Lord, with nothing held back but its hide for the officiating priest (Lev. 7:8). The Hebrew word translated “burn” (hiqtir) could also be rendered “turned to smoke,” the focus being on the offering’s now rising from the earthly sphere to the heavenly. The “ascending” offering passes from the offerer’s hand to the hands of the priest and on to the altar’s consuming fire, where it is transformed into a pillar of smoke reaching toward the Lord.
It reaches him as a “pleasing aroma,” a sensory metaphor for divine favor. The sense of smell as a means of experiencing and interpreting the world was finely developed in Israel, as with many cultures around the world today. Distinctive odors, foul or favorable, lend discernment to interpret that which is not visible. For example Isaac must rely on smell to discern the person who speaks to him in Jacob’s voice yet smells like his firstborn, Esau (Gen. 27:27). Smell naturally serves as a way of expressing social relationships: an odious stench in the nostrils signals fractured bonds and adversarial relationships (Gen. 34:30; Ex. 5:21; 1 Sam. 13:4; 27:12; 2 Sam. 10:6; 16:21). When the Lord refuses to smell the smoky aroma of sacrifice (Lev. 26:31), he is rejecting the offering and ultimately the offerer (Gen. 4:5–7; Mal. 2:13). To accept the fragrance of an animal consumed on the altar, however, is to accept the worshiper who has surrendered it: “As a pleasing aroma I will accept you” (Ezek. 20:41; cf. Phil. 4:18).
This is the worshiper’s gift offered as “food.” The Hebrew uses a technical term that can refer to sacrificial meat (Ex. 29:18; Lev. 3:5), grain (2:2), baked bread (24:9), or wine (Num. 15:10). This should be understood in the sense not of providing sustenance but of giving a valued gift. The offerer surrenders to the Lord that which is his food and livelihood: domesticated animals, agricultural produce, and the fruit of the vine. But unlike with Israel’s neighbors, who bring food offerings and place them before the images of their gods, Israel’s worship celebrates that their God is self-sufficient and Sustainer of all (Pss. 50:10–15; 145:15–16).
1:10–11 A worshiper who brings an offering from the flock, a sheep or goat, follows the same protocol laid out above, though we learn additional details from other texts. As the worshiper enters the east-facing entrance to the tent of meeting to present his animal to the priest (Ex. 27:13), he is in a direct line with the sanctuary where the Lord is enthroned. Facing toward the tent, he is simultaneously presenting himself to the Lord. He then moves to the north side of the altar, where the animal is slain (Lev. 1:11) and the priests catch the blood that is tossed around the four sides of the altar.
1:12–13 The ritual continues with the priest’s handwashing in the laver to the west (Ex. 40:30), going up a ramp beside the 4.5 foot (1.8 m) altar to arrange the animal’s portions (cf. Ex. 20:26; Lev. 9:22), and finally discarding the remains in an ash heap to the altar’s east (1:16). The ritual at the altar is clearly the focal point, underscoring the Lord’s grace in providing the sacrificial system so that his people can draw near to him in worship and fellowship.
1:14 The final instruction is regarding an offering of birds (dove or pigeon). The provision of an offering for the poor ensures that all Israelites may participate in worship and in the giving of themselves to the Lord. Remarkable equality is found in the declaration that this is no less a “pleasing aroma” and acceptable offering to the Lord. Though the worshiper may bring as he is able, he must nevertheless bring the best that he is able.
1:15–17 The smaller size requires different sacrificial handling to be performed by the hand of the priest: the bird’s head is pinched off, its blood drained by the side of the altar, its crop discarded, and its body cavity laid open on the altar. Just as the larger animals are arranged with their innards for the Lord’s inspection, birds likewise are laid fully bare before the eyes of the Lord (cf. Heb. 4:13).