Leviticus: ‘Coram Deo: Life in God’s Sight’

Section I. Leviticus 1-7:34 Focus: 1:1-9

When my brother was small he used to look at the night sky with me, but he’d see something very different than I did. I saw stars, ordinary and familiar. He saw holes in the dark sky that let in the light hidden behind it! We each were looking at the same thing but we each saw something quite different. My view was conventional and uninspiring. His view was filled with imagination and wonder.

This morning we begin a new series of sermons looking at the Book of Leviticus. Our plan is to cover the whole book in six goes, in order to follow the six fold plan of the book itself. Sections 1-3 of Leviticus are all about true worship, and being right with God. The central 4^th section (dealing with the Day of Atonement in Chapter 16) sums up these themes and brings them to a climactic conclusion. Then sections 5 and 6 are about the response of obedience and giving that are Israel’s fitting answer to God’s atoning grace.

My brother thought he saw pin holes of light shining through a canopy of darkness. That perspective fascinated me because it was so different from the more ordinary view of the stars at night that I had. And sometimes we need a fresh perspective on books of the Bible like Leviticus. We have long ago made up our minds what Leviticus is all about; law and ritual and sacrifices; nothing too interesting! That’s the conventional view; like stars in the sky, so familiar, and not worth a second glance. We know what’s there.

Now, my brother’s view of the night sky was just the product of the imagination of a little boy. The reality (as he soon discovered) matched up with the more mundane perspective. But with Leviticus it’s the other way around. The view that sees Leviticus as mundane and irrelevant is really the imaginative and fanciful view. In reality, Leviticus truly is a series of six pin holes of light shining through the darkness of human sinfulness and need. It gives to us a series of opportunities to see through the gloom of our fallen condition into the eternal purposes of God’s grace for us.

Now our title for this series is ‘Coram Deo: Life in God’s Sight’. Coram Deo means ‘before the face of God’ and in many ways that summarizes the message of the whole book of Leviticus. Verse one begins ‘The LORD called to Moses’ and the name of the book in Hebrew is taken from these first few words, ‘the LORD called’.  And that’s an eminently appropriate name for this book because it’s really all about God’s call to us and His claims on our lives. His call extends over every sphere and every area of our existence and His word has something to say to us about it all.

Leviticus is about how to live before the face of God. It will take us through the themes of God’s holiness and our sinfulness, God’s grace and our obligation to worship Him, the sanctity of all of life and the cost of redemption. In other words Leviticus gets us to the heart of what it means to live life under the gaze of God.

And, today we’re going to look together at the first section of the book in chapters 1-7, dealing with the ritual sacrifices that were offered in the tabernacle. And there are several ways to approach this section, but the way we’re going to do it is to look at one sacrifice in detail, as a kind of window into the material you will find in the remainder of these first 7 chapters. So look with me at Leviticus 1:1-9, and what’s called the ‘burnt offering’.

Now what I want us to notice in particular is that this whole opening section of Leviticus presupposes our sin, and God’s gracious initiative in dealing with it.

That much is clear when you see the context. Israel had been rescued from slavery in Egypt. Moses has led them into the wilderness and now they are camped at the base of Mount Sinai. In large part, Exodus is the record of Moses’ interviews with the Lord on the mountain, and the giving of the Law to Israel. But then in Exodus 32, while Moses was still on the mountain, we read that Israel had grown unhappy and impatient. They resolved to make an idol, an image of a golden calf,  for themselves and worship and serve it instead of Jehovah. The result was that God’s anger burned against Israel and only the pleadings of Moses averted their destruction. He prayed, “O Lord, if I have found favor in your eyes then let the Lord go with us. Although this is a stiff necked people, forgive our wickedness and our sin, and take us as your inheritance” (Exodus 34:8).

Israel needed forgiveness.

There's a Spanish story of a father and son who had become estranged. The son ran away, and the father set off to find him. He searched for months to no avail. Finally, in a last desperate effort to find him, the father put an ad in a Madrid newspaper. The ad read: ‘Dear Paco, meet me in front of this newspaper office at noon on Saturday. All is forgiven. I love you. Your Father.’ On Saturday 800 Pacos showed up, looking for forgiveness and love from their fathers.

What that story tells us, is that, like Israel, we all need forgiveness. “There is no-one righteous, not even one; there is no-one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no-one who does good, not even one.” Romans 3:11-12. “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God”, Romans 3:23. We all need forgiveness and Leviticus 1 deals with the grounds of our forgiveness.

You and I are guilty in God’s sight. We need our sin to be dealt with. We need forgiveness. And helping us grasp how that forgiveness might be ours is what Leviticus 1 is all about.

And what’s interesting is that immediately after Moses prayed, back in Exodus 34, God does not answer with a promise of forgiveness. Instead the Lord gave instructions for the tabernacle to be built, a kind of moveable temple where God could meet His people. At the end of Exodus it is finally put together, and God comes down to fill it with his glory. But then the book just stops. We’re confronted with a kind of cliff hanger, designed to make us ask… ‘OK, so you’ve got all this, but what’s it all for? Now you’ve got this tabernacle, what do you do with it?’

And the answer only comes in Leviticus 1. The opening words pick up where Exodus 40 left off and the language is supposed to remind us of the words that introduced the interviews between Moses and the Lord on Mount Sinai throughout the Book of Exodus; “The Lord called to Moses”, only now He does it, not from the mountain, but ‘from the tent of meeting’, the tabernacle.

And having called to Moses He gives him the mechanism of mercy. He speaks to him about sacrifice! He tells him about the grounds for Israel’s forgiveness. God didn’t answer Moses’ prayer for forgiveness in Exodus 34 immediately. He waited until there was a tabernacle, and then gave regulations for the sacrifices that would be offered at that tabernacle, so that His forgiveness could be seen to rest, not on their merits, nor on the mere whim of God, but on atonement for sin.

And we know that from verse 4. The purpose of the sacrifice is, we are told, “to make atonement”. That’s the focus of this sacrifice; atonement, getting sin dealt with, and being made right with God. If you are to have God the Father as your Father and not your judge, you must have atonement made on your behalf.

So, look with me at this ritual of atonement as it is recoded in Leviticus 1. It points us to three things:

I. The seriousness of sin.

II. The grace of God.

III. The principle of substitution.

First of all, there’s the seriousness of sin.  Sin’s seriousness is underscored first in the way the sacrifice was made. The offering, vs. 2, is to be either from the herd or the flock.  Verses 3-9 detail what is to be done if the offering is from the herd. The assumption here is that the normal type of burnt offering is an offering of cattle, and the others are alternatives to the norm for those who could not afford to sacrifice a bull. Cattle were the most prized and costly of the livestock of ancient Israel, and males without defect, vs. 3, were still more so. In other words, they were to bring as a sacrifice to deal with sin something precious and costly; a male bull without defect. Sin is costly and it is serious. You cannot disobey God without serious personal consequences. It is real and serious.

And the seriousness of sin is further emphasized by the fact that the animals were to be slaughtered. The one bringing the offering had to slaughter the animal himself, and then it was burnt up entirely, nothing was left over, it was wholly given up to God. Sin is so serious that it demands that the sacrifice be wholly consumed. It demands death. The wages of sin is death. In the day that you eat of the fruit of the Tree of the knowledge of Good and evil you will surely DIE. Hebrews 9:22 says, “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” Sin is a mortal offence against a Holy God. The penalty of your sin is death. That’s how serious it is, and the ugly, brutal and bloody, not to mention costly, ritual sacrifice of a bull without defect was a dramatic way, a stomach turning way, to drive that point home. Leviticus 1 teaches us that sin is sickening and it is brutal. It is ugly and, most of all, sin is deadly!

Then secondly there’s the grace of God. And doesn’t the whole arrangement here speak to us of the goodness and grace of God for sinners? Israel was lost in sin. And God does not rush in with quick solutions. First, He provides the place for reconciliation with Himself, the tabernacle. Then, He provides the means of that reconciliation; the sacrifices.

He is holy. We are sinful. He is just to condemn us and reject and destroy us. That he should provide a way to have our sin removed speaks volumes of His love and grace. That God outlines so fully the nature and forms and rituals related to atonement and sacrifice for sin tells us that God was not willing to sit back and watch us grope in the dark for some way to get right with him. He was not content to stand aloof from sinful humanity and watch them stumble around in search of a means to restore their lost relationship with their God. No He takes the initiative. He steps in and intervenes with a system of sacrifice that he himself provides as the way of rescue for lost sinners in need of salvation.

And that means that we do not need, nor are we free, to find our own path to God. We are not really able to do so. God knows that we are lost in transgressions and sins. We’re stuck and we can’t get ourselves out. He alone provides the antidote for sin’s poison. If you would be right with God you must find out from Him alone how you can be reconciled to Him.

Then thirdly there is the principle of substitution.  Look at verse 4and 5 “He is to lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it will be accepted on his behalf to make atonement for him. He is to slaughter the young bull before the Lord and then Aaron’s sons the priests shall bring the blood and sprinkle it against the altar.”

The offerer of the sacrifice was to take the animal and lay his hands on its head. Now the words for the laying on of the hand here, carries the idea of leaning heavily and pressing down. It was a strenuous and powerful physical act that symbolically identified the person making the sacrifice with the animal to be sacrificed. The idea is one of transference and substitution. The sinner transfers sin and guilt onto the animal, and the animal becomes their substitute before God through this act of laying hands on its head. Then the animal is killed and its blood is sprinkled on the altar by the priests, as a way of formally offering the sacrifice to the Lord. God then accepts the death of the animal in place of the one who offered it in sacrifice. Here is the principle of substitution.

So atonement takes sin seriously. Atonement is the provision of God’s free grace. And atonement functions by way of substitution.

Now, ‘so what?’ I hear you say!  Well these three principles, the seriousness of sin, the grace of God, and the principle of substitution, are absolutely vital to get clear in our minds. They are the fundamental building blocks of the Christian faith. They are the essential truths of salvation and they come into their own with the advent of Jesus Christ.

Hebrews 10:1 tells us that ‘the law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming- not the realities themselves.’ The point is that the law of sacrifices and offerings were shadows of a reality. That reality according to Hebrews has come in Jesus Christ. “We have” Hebrews 10:10-12 says, “been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this priest (Jesus) has offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, (His own body) he sat down at the right hand of God.” Jesus Christ, we are told, is the true and ultimate sacrificial offering. As 1Peter 1:19 puts it, picking up on the legislation for the burnt offering, you were redeemed, “with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.”

The daily sacrifices of the temple, of which the most common was the burnt offering, were all symbols, cruel and graphic symbols, of the far more cruel sacrifice to come. And that sacrifice alone truly dealt with sin.

In Leviticus 1: 9 we are told that the offering was to make atonement for sin, and it is defined as, “a burnt offering, an offering made by fire, an aroma pleasing, to the Lord”. These sacrifices were to be burnt, and the smoke was pictured as ascending up to God and satisfying His requirements for justice, it was ‘a pleasing aroma’. In Ephesians 5:2 we are told that “Christ loved us and gave his life for us as a fragrant offering, or a pleasing aroma, and sacrifice to God.”

Jesus is the true burnt offering. And it is at the cross that He offered himself wholly to God as a pleasing aroma to satisfy God’s justice for your sin and mine. Here at the Cross God the Son was consumed, not by flames on an earthly altar, but by the flames of God’s wrath on your sin.

And this is how seriously God has taken your sin. It is not so serious that it merits the death of a bull or lamb or goat, merely. It is so serious, so offensive to Him, that the only sacrifice that can ultimately really deal with it, the only One who could ever bear the sentence our sin has incurred, is His own Son Jesus Christ.

And isn’t this the true measure of God’s love and grace for us? “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son that whoever believes in Him will not die but have eternal life” (Jon. 3:16). Romans 5:6 says, “At just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrate his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” 1 John 4: 9-10, “This is how God showed His love among us: he sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”

How much does God love sinners? As much as the Cross. As much as the gift of His own Son to be our sin bearing substitute.

And it’s here at the Cross that that principle of substitution can be seen in it’s true significance. In Leviticus the one who offers the sacrifice must press their hands firmly down on the head of their sacrifice, as a kind of physical act of identification with the sacrifice as their replacement under the justice of God. They were saying in effect, “I take this animal as my replacement, and I view it as bearing my sin and guilt, now transferred to it by the laying on of my hands.”

Ernest Gordon's little book  Miracle on the River Kwai recounts the lot of some Scottish prisoners of war, forced by their Japanese captors to labour on a jungle railroad, who had degenerated into barbarous behavior, but one afternoon something happened that was inspired by the self substitution of Jesus Christ. A shovel went missing. The officer in charge became enraged. He demanded that the missing shovel be produced, or else. When nobody in the squadron budged, the officer got his gun and threatened to kill them all on the spot . . . It was obvious the officer meant what he had said. Then, finally, one man stepped forward. The officer put away his gun, picked up a shovel, and beat the man to death. When it was over, the survivors picked up the bloody corpse and carried it with them to the second count of the tools. This time, no shovel was missing. Indeed, there had been a miscount at the first time. The word spread like wildfire through the whole camp. An innocent man had been willing to die to save the others! . . .

And is that not what Christ does for us, on a scale far more wonderful still?  He dies, an innocent man, as the substitute for others. Remember Jesus trial in Matthew 27:11-26. Pilate had two prisoners, a notorious criminal, Barabbas, and Jesus. One of these men would be released, and the choice was placed in the hands of the people. When Pilate asked them they screamed for Barabbas. And so in vs. 26 we read that Pilate “released Barabbas to them. But he had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.”

Barabbas, the man deserving death goes free, and the innocent man, Jesus Christ, takes his place on the cross.

We are all Barabbas. We all stand guilty at the tribunal of God’s justice. Let us then lay our hands on the head of our sacrifice of atonement, Jesus Christ.   Let us have him to be our substitute under God’s wrath.

Now, how do we do that? Paul tells us in Romans 3:25, “God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement through faith in His blood.”

Faith is the means by which we are identified with Jesus Christ, our true burnt offering. Faith is the means by which our guilt is transferred to His account. Place the hand of faith on the head of Jesus Christ today and you will be reconciled to God and your sin will be forgiven.

He is God’s antidote for your sin and guilt. He is God’s sinless sin-bearer. He is the burnt offering presented before the throne of God in glory to make atonement for the sins of all who trust in Him. The only question you must answer now is, ‘what will I do with this Jesus?’  

Let me plead with you to look at the cross and see the mirror of your sin in all its profanity and horror. Look at the cross and see the provision of God to take your sin away. Look at the Cross and see the truest measure of the love and grace of God towards you. And seeing all this, look at the Cross with faith and take this Jesus who gladly gives Himself to take the place of sinners, as your sacrifice and substitute. Then you will know, once and for all, peace with God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen