Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Leviticus 6:8-9

8 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,

9 Command Aaron and his sons, saying, This is the law of the burnt offering: It is the burnt offering, because of the burning upon the altar all night unto the morning, and the fire of the altar shall be burning in it.

Today begins a new section of ritual instructions. This part is related to the perpetual burnt offering that the priests were to offer through the whole night. At the close of the day, after the needs of the common Israelite had been seen to, the priests would make one more overnight burnt offering.

This is presumably a repeat of the command we already read in Exodus, in which a lamb was to be offered each night, and another lamb each morning. There are multiple meanings and symbols to be found in this practice. In my previous post on the subject, I noted how the perpetual offering can be seen as representing the path of the disciple, largely defined by its daily, quiet surrender to the Lord.

Another symbol is that even when the world would go dark, the perpetual flame of the Lord’s altar would still be burning, still providing a mark and a guide to God’s people. So, too, when the world becomes confused and apostate, the Spirit of the Lord can still guide us through the dark.

A third symbol is the sacrifice of a lamb closing one period of time and also ushering in the beginning of a new one. This seems to echo the change from the Old Testament to the New, where John the Baptist, the last Old Testament prophet, was slain at the close of one era, and Jesus was slain to usher in the next.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Leviticus 3:6-11

6 And if his offering for a sacrifice of peace offering unto the Lord be of the flock; male or female, he shall offer it without blemish.

7 If he offer a lamb for his offering, then shall he offer it before the Lord.

8 And he shall lay his hand upon the head of his offering, and kill it before the tabernacle of the congregation: and Aaron’s sons shall sprinkle the blood thereof round about upon the altar.

9 And he shall offer of the sacrifice of the peace offering an offering made by fire unto the Lord; the fat thereof, and the whole rump, it shall he take off hard by the backbone; and the fat that covereth the inwards, and all the fat that is upon the inwards,

10 And the two kidneys, and the fat that is upon them, which is by the flanks, and the caul above the liver, with the kidneys, it shall he take away.

11 And the priest shall burn it upon the altar: it is the food of the offering made by fire unto the Lord.

Yesterday we heard of cattle being acceptable for the peace offering, and now we read that sheep were also. Tomorrow we will hear about goats. The descriptions of how each should be offered were virtually identical to one another. One thing that is unique in today’s passages is that the sheep had to be a lamb. Neither cattle nor goats are described with that same young age requirement.

We do not have a clear explanation for this difference. Perhaps there actually was no difference, and a young animal was the expectation for all animal types. If that was the case, then either it was simply understood in that culture, or the original records were more explicit than the ones we have today.

Or, on the other hand, perhaps there really was only an age requirement for the sheep, which may have been done to help define a hierarchy of sacrifice. We saw in the last chapter that for some sacrifices fruit of the field could be an acceptable offering, but more often it was a living sacrifice. In the chapter before that, we saw how sometimes a bird could be the animal sacrificed, but more commonly it was a livestock animal. And of all the livestock, sheep were the quintessential sacrifice animal. And among sheep, obviously the lamb is the most pure and unblemished. Indeed, in some cases a lamb was the only sacrificial option, such as when the Israelites used its blood on their doorposts in Egypt to dispel the angel of death.

Thus, if there was an age requirement for sheep only, it might have been part of this hierarchy: belonging → animal → livestock → sheep → lamb. This hierarchy shows a clear progression, one that naturally draws the mind one step further, to the ultimate sacrifice, even the Lamb of God.

SacrificeEligible oblationStepsExplanation
Peace OfferingCattle, LambGratitude for reconciliation
Animal is slainGiving up old life for one of unity with another
Fat burned on altarGiving up old plans, passions, and drives

Full table.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 12:6-7

6 And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening.

7 And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses, wherein they shall eat it.

Not only would the Israelites eat the sacrificial lamb, but they were also to streak its blood across their doorposts. We will soon read how this unique practice would protect the Israelites from the death of their firstborn. The blood of the lamb was being used to mark a home as housing God’s people, and His favor and protection would be upon them. This is obviously representative of Christ, the Lamb of God, whose blood was shed to also make us God’s people, and to similarly mark us for His protection and favor.

This is not the only representation in the killing of the lamb, though. As we have already discussed, sheep were one of the creatures that the Egyptians worshipped. God had already mocked that pagan worship by sending the murrain that killed their sacred flocks, now He would mock them again by having His people sacrifice the animals right before the Egyptians. Perhaps the Israelites would normally have been harmed for doing this, if not for the humbling that God would put upon the Egyptians immediately after.

Another possible symbol in killing the lamb and streaking its blood on the posts might have been that the lamb was innocent and young, just like the Israelite baby boys that the prior Pharaoh had ordered to be killed and thrown into the river. At the start of Moses’s campaign against the Egyptians he had drawn the blood out of the river, presumably to show that Egypt’s sins had not been hidden and washed away. God still remembered that evil and He had come to recompense. Thus, slaying the lamb and painting their doorposts with its blood might have been a way for the Israelites to signify that “we have already had our young and innocent slaughtered, therefore pass us over in this next doling out of death.”

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 12:3-5

3 Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house:

4 And if the household be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbour next unto his house take it according to the number of the souls; every man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb.

5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats:

God had instructed the Israelites to follow a new calendar, now He instructed them on a special feast to be held on the tenth day of the first month. This, of course, would be the Passover. The significance of this event would soon be made apparent, and every year afterward the tradition would be used to remind the Israelites of the events that came on the first Passover.

God instructed the Israelites that they must each kill and eat a lamb in its first year during the Passover. Aside from this, the requirements for this offering were quite lenient. It could be one lamb for each household, or one lamb for two households, and it could be a lamb of the sheep or of the goats. Given that this lamb would be a key instrument in God’s redemption of the Israelites, it seems appropriate that His instructions were very gracious and accommodating, fitted to the convenience of His people.

A lamb in its first year would mean that it came from the previous calendar year and it would not live to see the next. It was therefore a lamb “of the year,” and every lamb in every year would be a potential candidate for the sacrifice. Thus, each lamb’s fate would hang in the balance until their first Passover, at which point their fate would be sealed one way or the other.

This lamb was being used as a food, as the main item of the Passover meal, and that seems to be representative of how God’s grace provides the earthly nourishment that people require to survive. He lends us our breath, our water, our sources of food. The fact that this Passover nourishment came by means of the creature’s death seems to represent that there is a real cost and a real sacrifice behind God’s grace. It is not just some magical reserve that comes from nothing. God genuinely gives up something to provide for us. What exactly that is will only become more evident as we continue the analysis with tomorrow’s verses.