1 And the Lord called unto Moses, and spake unto him out of the tabernacle of the congregation, saying,

2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, If any man of you bring an offering unto the Lord, ye shall bring your offering of the cattle, even of the herd, and of the flock.

There are quite a few offerings described in the Bible, and their symbolism and meaning can be cryptic in our modern culture. But we already saw three types of offerings at the end of Exodus and were able to find some insights on the symbolism there. If you need a refresher, here are links to each offering that was discussed:

Sin offering
Burnt offering
Consecration offering, part one
Consecration offering, part two
Daily offering

With so many offerings, it can be hard to keep separate in the mind all their different parts and purposes. Thus, as an aid to our study, I am introducing a table that we will fill out as we go, providing a clear record of each sacrifice, the rituals surrounding it, and the possible meanings that each of those might have. Hopefully this will allow us to see any repeating patterns, and to build up the grammar of sacrifice.

For now, I will populate the table with the sacrifices we already saw at the end of Exodus, then we will expand upon it with the information gained in tomorrow’s verses.

Sacrifice	Eligible animals	Steps	Explanation
Sin offering	Bullock		Sacrifice of sin
		Hands placed on head, slaughtered	Animal takes the place of us
		Blood placed on horns of the altar	A heartfelt plea to the Lord for mercy
		Fat and kidneys burned on altar	Cleansing our behavior and desire
		Skin, dung, and flesh burned beyond the camp	The sinful behavior purged out of us
Burnt offering	Ram		Giving our life to God’s purposes
		Hands placed on head, slaughtered	Animal takes the place of us
		Blood sprinkled around altar	Our life is sprinkled over God’s work
		Cut in pieces, and washed	Each part of us measured and made clean
		The whole thing burned on the altar	Our lives consumed in service to God
Consecration offering	Ram		God and the priests sharing His portion
		Hands placed on head, slaughtered	Animal takes the place of us
		Blood placed on tip of ear, thumb, and toe	Receiving the word, work, and path of God
		Blood mixed with oil and sprinkled on person	God’s spirit given to us
Wave and Heave offerings	Ram, bread, oil		Part of the Consecration offering
		Loaves of bread and fat, kidney, shoulder, rump, and kidneys of ram waved in the air, then burned	Us participating in the work with the Lord, and Him receiving His portion of it
		Shoulder and breast of ram are also waved and heaved on the shoulders, then given to us to eat	Us participating in the work with the Lord, and us receiving our portion of it
Daily offering	Lamb, flour, wine, oil		Regular, daily renewal of all prior covenants
		All parts offered on the altar, presumably burned	Giving our time, energy, and effort for regular communion and recommitment to the Lord