Offering a Sweet Aroma to God
Study Scripture: Leviticus 1: 3 –17
Background Scripture: Exodus 40 Leviticus 1
Lesson 4 March 22, 2025
Key Verse
.When any one of you bring an offering to the Lord, you shall bring your offering of the livestock—of the herd and of the flock
If his offering is a burnt sacrifice of the herd, let him offer a male without blemish: he shall offer it of his own free will at the door of the tabernacle of meeting before the Lord
Leviticus 1:2-3
INTRODUCTION
We sometimes look at some Books in the Bible and some of the contents and we instinctively turn our mind against the contents either because some of it appears to be meaningless, or otherwise because it gives fearsome warnings and instruction that we must follow to avoid dreadful consequences.
So we dismiss genealogies, tribal allotments to the peoples of the world and to the people of Israel and some other details for they do not seem to be valuable to our spiritual growth.
In the case of the Book of Leviticus we think we are dealing with apparently meaningless regulations, sacrifices, and rituals that no longer exist, a priesthood that no longer exists, and some laws we think we are under no obligation to follow.
But as we ask why these tedious details have been recorded and we have the feeling much of it had no meaning or relevance to contemporary Christians, we instinctively feel that the Holy Spirit had some great reasons for these challenging details.
We have the nagging feeling that these Books and the contents intend us to see powerful truths about God, how He thinks, what He wants of us to do that there will be a deep effect on our lives and how we live.
Is it logical or even possible that the Holy Spirit will reveal meaningless and trivial things in inspired Scripture? Why would He have inspired men write these things?
Is it possible and quite likely that the Books and the content of Books in Scripture that seem most challenging and difficult to understand are in fact the most important Books for understanding the mind of God?
Is it possible understanding these books and their contents are the means to enable us to have a closer fellowship with God?
In addition, is the hand of the Holy Spirit short in enabling us to understand what He has revealed and had written for our instruction aimed squarely at those who live near to the end of the age?
There are several facts to consider as to the reasons for the inspiration of the Book of Leviticus.
First, this Book describes the entire religious system in Israel so that we can understand how it worked, how the human people responded to its formal structure, its demands, and their obligation under the covenant they had accepted and prized.
Second, with its main theme of holiness, God’s holiness and the holiness God expected from His people, its aim clearly was to show how important holiness was crucial if a person was to have fellowship with God.
Third, Leviticus record God’s summoning Moses and His direct word to Moses. There are 38 times when God spoke to Moses and Aaron and 18 times when God commanded Moses, Aaron, and the people.
Fourth, the New Testament frequently refers and alludes to Leviticus and its contents and we need knowledge of the Book to understand what the New Testaments writers are writing and about and exactly what they meant when they were speaking.
The New Testament writers with Old Testament teachings and practices ingrained in them did not explain the critical nature of the instructions of
“purification after childbirth, washing after the healing of a leper, journeys to the three main festivals in Jerusalem, separation from the Gentiles in eating”
and other practices from the book of Leviticus.
Fifth, Leviticus gives great details about the importance of where God was to be worshipped and how He was to be worshipped, and the indispensable importance of worshiping through sacrifice.
Sixth, this book describes priestly matters, what priests were, and their roles and their job.
This is necessary so we can understand what our Great High Priest, the Lord Jesus Christ had to do for our atonement and the reason for His shedding of His blood, our forgiveness, and our salvation, As well, it lays out our roles and position as priests of God under our Great High Priest.
Seventh, Leviticus makes us understand that sin is our main problem and it is in total opposition with the holiness of God.
Man is by his nature sinners and there is none that does good, no, not one, and all man like sheep have gone astray.
Hence we cannot escape the need for atonement to be brought by God Himself.
Hence Leviticus reveals God’s answer to sin and man’s utter helplessness to save himself from certain death. One writer summarizes what God had to do to deal with the devastating effects of sin:
“When more than one kind of offering was presented, the procedure was usually as follows:
Sin offering or guilt offering, burnt offering, fellowship offering and grain offering (along with a drink offering).
This sequence furnishes part of the spiritual significance of the sacrificial system.
First, sin had to be dealt with (sin offering or guilt offering).
Second, the worshipper commits himself completely to God (burnt offering and grain offering).
Third, fellowship or communion between the Lord, the priest and the worshipper (fellowship offering).
The sin and guilt of the worshipper was transferred to the animal, so when the animal died he was taking the penalty of the sin that had been transferred to him.
The animal took the worshipper’s sin, so he died the worshipper’s death”.
The sad part about human beings is that we are not really smart, though we think we are since we can develop all kinds of amazing technology and gadgets.
But God has to teach us like how the kindergarten teachers teach children. That teacher has to begin by teaching the children simple arithmetic and about numbers using simple pictures to illustrate the concepts the children had to grasp.
The kindergarten teacher would never succeed in developing the minds and abilities of the children by starting with complex mathematical formulas.
So God had to use pictures and illustrations, most of them from nature, and by using pictures. We recall Jesus’ parables using the things of nature. One writer helps our thinking along as follows by the “apparently meaningless regulations, sacrifices, and rituals. But these are pictures which portray truth which God wants us to know.
I hope you recognize that the Old Testament is filled with these pictures. They are called types. They prefigure something yet to come. The New Testament calls them shadows,(cf. Col.2;17, Heb 8:5, 10:11).
Just as a shadow takes the form of the object which casts it, so these ceremonies and rituals are shadows of something yet to happen.
When you read the Old Testament you can’t help but see the emphasis laid upon the future. “Someone is coming”, these Old Testament shadows and pictures are saying to us.
We know, of course, that they are pointing toward the coming of Jesus Christ.
That in itself is a most remarkable testimony to the divine authorship if this book.
Only God could have prescribed offerings which so accurately depict the coming of Jesus. As we go through them you will see that this is true.
These pictures are a kind of visual aid which God uses to impress truth upon our minds”.
The study of the Book of Leviticus introduces us to the doctrine of typology, which is an important doctrine. One renowned scholar describes:
“Typology is the study of spiritual correspondence between persons, events, and things within thr historical framework of the divine revelation. And so typology is the study of an example or examples. The word has come to be used often in a technical sense of correspondences between persons, events, and things within the Old Testament and the New…….
The principal features are
First, correspondence, historicity; that is, when we talk about typology, we are talking about historical events of the Old Testament that correspond to historical events in the New Testament. We are not talking about allegory. We are talking about historical events, persons, things.
So the second principal feature is historicity.
The third of the principal features that characterize typology is predictiveness because in the divine revelation as God set up, he controls all history, as he set up certain persons, events, things to, ultimately, correspond to things in the future.
Characteristic of these things in the Old Testament was the fact that they looked forward to the antitype of the New Testament, that is, the things in the New Testament that correspond to the thing in the Old Testament”.
It is to be noted that some abuse this doctrine and draw correspondence on very flimsy evidence and where none exists. Some of these are quite bizarre, and made without much justification.
Some look at Revelation 12:13-14 which reads:
“And when the dragon saw that he was thrown down to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child….
The two wings of the great eagle were given to the woman.”
Some then have taught given their nationalistic stance, the two wings of the great eagle refer to the United States Air force or our phantom jets.
That type of abuse is found in several commentators.
Some delight is referring to the Book of Ezekiel and will say th visions in that book teaches about UFOs
So be careful when dealing with those that try to persuade you on these matters.
But we know the Bible does teach about types and their importance for spiritual growth. For example in Romans 5:14 where the Apostle Paul deals with the subject of Christ and Adam as our representative there is correspondence between them. He states:
“Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come”.
Clearly then when Adam sinned all men sinned and the race sinned and fell in him as their representative.
“The Lord Jesus Christ is the antitype of Adam because his acts are also representative and his death, burial, and resurrection are an activity, a work of his that is for those who are his. So Adam is representative, our Lord Jesus is representative. Adam is a type of him who was to come. They are both representative men. There is a correspondence between the two.
There is historicity. Adam is an historical character. The Lord Jesus is an historical character.
And there is predictiveness because the fall of Adam in the Old Testament setting anticipates the activity of the Lord Jesus Christ which in the New Testament we learn rights the wrong that Adam was responsible for.
So it is specifically affirmed in the New Testament that is why it is important”.
There are many instances of types in the Bible. We can look at another example of a “type” and an “antitype”. Jesus said:
“As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness even so must the son of man be lifted up”
And so we know that our Lord is likened on the cross to the serpent of brass on the cross that saved Israel from death when they were in the wilderness.
We have another clear example in John 1:51 where Jesus likened Himself to the Ladder that Jacob saw. So in that case this scholar explains:
“In John chapter 1 in verse 51, the Lord Jesus …says that the ladder was typically of the ministry of the Son of God and as Jacob saw the ladder and the angels of God ascending and descending upon it is suggestive of the fact there is a communication between heaven and earth. We learn in our Lord’s language of John chapter 1 that he is the ladder. that he is the mediator between God and men and it is by traversing this ladder of this way that there is fellowship and communion between earth and heaven.
We all have read the 6th chapter of John in which we read there of the manna and our Lord calling Himself in the light of that the bread of life, so that the manna with which God fed Israel in the wilderness is typical.
It is illustrative of our Lord Jesus as the bread of life upon whom we feed as we pass through our wilderness journey of this life.
There is correspondence between the manna and Christ.
There is historicity in that the manna was a historical activity of God in feeding Israel during the wilderness, and it is predictiveness because ultimately that manna pointed forward to our Lord Jesus who should come”.
The study of ‘types’ is very instructive and should not be ignored because this kind of study seems to be mentally demanding.
The Book of Leviticus is both an important and a work of much typology. We know this because the New Testament makes a great deal of use of this Book. For example, the book of Hebrews emphasizes the importance of the Day of Atonement in chapters 8,9, and 10 and it sees the fulfillment typically of the Day of Atonement in the ministry of Jesus. Its teaching on Leviticus 16 makes this clear.
The offerings illustrate the offerings of our Lord’s offering of Himself in the New Testament and we therefore should understand the importance of this Book. We can learn much from this Book.
Note this Book is addressed to believing people who have experienced salvation and come out of Egypt, delivered by the blood of the Passover lamb. They have been redeemed.
So are you, we pray.
We are examining the shadows but let us remember they were not the real thing for they are pictures of Christ who came to do the work in our lives. The real thing is Jesus Christ. The law of God given at Sinai was inflexible and there could be no deviation from it. But Israel thought they could keep the Laws fully and they failed.
So there had to be a coming of the Messiah/Deliverer.
The saving work of the Lord Jesus Christ is illustrated by the various offerings which illustrate the various aspects of His ministry to save us fully.
- In His activity on the cross there is the burnt offering.
- But there is also the meal offering.
- He is also the peace offering.
- He is the sin offering. See Matthew 27.
- He is also the trespass offering.
Jesus therefore had to come and He had to die. The entire sacrificial system was necessary until the time the true Lamb of God came. Christ is on prominent display everywhere in this Book.
THE TEXT
Verses 1-2. The foundational offering is the offering of the burnt offering.
Note that God took the initiative. He called to Moses and instructed him to pass on His words at the Tent of Meeting.
Moses was to speak to the children of Israel directly. This was corporate instruction for the congregation and all the covenant people.
They were to make offerings, literally “come near” or “approach” to God. This must be voluntary and come from the heart.
The priests had no part to play in this bringing the sacrifice.
Their part would come later when they would ensure the offering was perfect and acceptable so that they could present it to the Lord.
The instruction was to bring an offering from the herd or the flock
Oxen was the desired first sacrifice for this was the means of sustaining fellowship with God.
These sacrifices were not a means of salvation, for they were to be made continually for maintaining communion as the covenant required.
Verse 3. He burnt offering or sacrifice on the altar takes us back to the time when the Flood ended and Noah offering sacrifice, the word used meaning “to ascend” in smoke.
Genesis 8:20-23 makes the connection of sacrifice in worship which is pleasing to God. The Flood ended and we read:
“Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offering on the altar.
And the Lord smelled a soothing aroma.
Then the Lord said in his heart “I will never again curse the ground for man’s sake, although the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth;
Nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done.
“While the earth remains,
Seedtime and harvest,
Cold and heat,
Winter and summer,
And day and night
Shall not cease”.
Never forget that though the smoke of the burnt offerings ascended and it was a soothing aroma in the nostrils of God. We must not misunderstand what this offering and its effect on God meant.
This act Noah began meant God would now exercise His further mercies.
A sacrifice by men leads to God exercising His abundant mercies and His compassion which is renewed every morning.
It is important to note that Hebrews 10 reminds us that though this picture of the burnt offering is important there is one final use of this offering. It tells us about the sacrifice of Jesus and it reads:
“Wherefore when He came into the world, He said:
“Sacrifice and offering You did not desire,
But a body You have prepared for Me.
In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin
You had no pleasure.
Then I said, “Behold, I have come-
In the volume of the book it is written of Me-
To do Your will, O God”
The stipulation was that the offering for the burnt sacrifice was to be a male and this male was to be without defect or blemish or spot.
The Apostle Peter in 1 Peter 1:18-19 told us of the spotlessness of Jesus and of this lamb without spot or blemish.
Ephesians 5 and many other Scriptures refer to Jesus as spotless and that He fulfilled this particular offering.
Jesus was tempted in all points like we are so we know that in His human nature he was temptable and peccable because He had to prove He had a perfect human nature. His nature had to be the nature we have. But because He was a divine person, with a divine nature and not a human person as we are His divine nature made Him impeccable.
The union of His human nature with the divine in a divine person made Him the God-Man and was therefore not able to sin. He could therefore voluntarily sacrifice Himself for His brethren and meet the demands of spotless and without blemish.
Verse 4. The Israelite who came with his offering had to lay his hand on the head of the animal to be sacrificed so that it would be accepted to make atonement for him. He would identify with the animal and be acknowledging the animal was a substitute for him and would die because of his sins. His sin would be covered over or expiated.
Jesus would bring the final and complete atonement.
Note the five- step pattern.
First, the required unblemished male animal from the herd, chosen from their most valuable possession had to be made.
Then, after the selection the animal had to be brought to the tent of meeting and the worshippers’ hands laid on it to declare the substitution.
Then would come the third step. The animal would be killed immediately. Only death could solve the problem. Death had to come quickly.
Verses 5-8. Now is introduced the role of the priests. Aaron’s son would have had to make sure fire was on the altar and lay the wood on the fire.
Then as soon as the worshipper slit the animal’s throat, the priests would spring into action and complete the killing, draining out the blood completely.
This would be a violent death by slaughter.
Aaron’s son would offer up the blood, which represented the life, and this was the most important part of the sacrifice. The blood would be sprinkled around the altar at the doorway at the Tent of Meeting.
The priests thus were acting as mediators.
The priests would skin the animal, and cut it up into pieces.
The parts, the head, and the fat would be laid in order on the altar and consumed by fire.
The entrails and the legs would be washed with water.
All would be offered as a burnt sacrifice and would be a sweet aroma to the Lord.
Note that fire is the symbol of judgment and purification and the picture of the animal being slaughtered and burned illustrate the judgment and the bearing of sin.
Verse 9. The offering was burnt by the fire of God’s judgment.
The statement that it was an offering by fire of a soothing aroma to the Lord is considered by some to not present a complete and finished work. One writer coments on this as follows:
“In the Hebrew text, it is literally an odor of rest, and the word translated “rest’ in that literal expression is the one from which the name Noah comes. That was his name: “rest giver’ or “rest” was his name.
So the idea of it is that as a result of our Lord smelling the sweet savor of the sacrifixe he has an odor of rest.
And because it is an odor of rest, that is, his claims are met in the sacrifice and he, therefore rests.
The result is that it stresses the fact that the animal completely satisfies good and in the antitype it is a reference to our Lord Jesus’ finished work.
When he said, “It is finished”, it was then that in the whole Godhead there was an odor of rest. That’s what is referred in the New Testament in Ephesians chapter 5 in verse 2, “an odor of a sweet smelling smell to the Lord”.
Verses 10-13. If you were rich and could offer a bull from your flock that would be the acceptable sacrifice.
But if a person of the nation only had a flock of goats and sheep God would accept a burnt offering from the flock of sheep or goats.
The animal however had to be unblemished and spotless, and it would have to be slaughtered on the north side of the altar before the LORD. The sons of Aaron would then once the animal was killed throw its blood against the altar.
This sacrifice would be acceptable to God for the priests would burn it on the altar for a sweet aroma to the LORD after doing the same procedure, treating the animal, splitting it up in parts and washing the entrails and the legs, just as the priests had treated the sacrifice of the bull.
Note Jesus was both victim and priests in the position of antitype in this antitypical and historical event. He would present His blood and by doing so acted as the Mediator for men before God.
Verse 14-17. If the Israelite was poor they still had to make a sacrifice of burnt offering to the Lord.
An offering of birds would be acceptable to the Lord.
Turtledoves or young pigeons could be sacrificed.
In this case the priests would take the birds to the altar and there wring off its neck, drain out the blood as had been done with all the other animals, but here the priests would take off the feathers from the bird, and tear off the wings before sacrificing the bird on the altar.
The bird sacrifice would be burned on the altar and that would be a sweet savor to the Lord.
Note the important fact that God was saying that there was three sources of sacrificial animals. Provision was made for everyone depending on their ability to provide an animal for sacrifice. Even the very poor could offer something to God in sacrifice.
We remember that Mary and Joseph were poor and when they took Jesus up to the Temple to be circumcised, they could not afford a grand sacrifice and so they gave a burnt offering of birds.
CONCLUSION
Note the importance of the unblemished male animal to be offered. The male was created first and the male steward Adam was responsible. Sin came into the world because Adam foolishly accepted and ate the forbidden fruit.
Scripture declares that the action of Eve was not the action that brought sin into the world.
God therefore is teaching the truth that is unpleasant for men. They do not like to think that they are the appointed stewards of the earth and they are responsible to God for they had been appointed as sovereign.
Note however that there are certain offerings that females could do, but the basic offerings were specified as indicated.
Note carefully that the people of God are told specifically what they were to do. Matters were not left in their own hands.
Both men and women have been given responsibilities to God and they are to work together in the established order to mature the body of Christ. That is how God created and established the world and the rules established will continue to the end of the age, whether we like it or not.
It is a lie from Satan that man is a master of his or her fate. No man or woman can run their life the way they want. Man and woman do not exist by themselves.
The entire man or woman is to be the dwelling place of God and if that is not the case there will only be restlessness and a lack of fulfillment.
It is important to note that there are sacrifices which please God. This basic sacrifice was all consumed and no man ate the meat from this burnt offering.
The sacrifices involve death and we should never forget it.
The deaths in the sacrifices should remind us of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ for us. That death tells us of His love for us and reminds us that He bought us and He owns us, and will satisfy all our longings.
Remember that you have a family and that God has chosen you.
So love Him and obey Him for there is no other way to salvation and paradise.