Exodus 20:22-24
"Then the Lord said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: ‘You have seen that I have talked with you from heaven. You shall not make anything to be with Me—gods of silver or gods of gold YOU shall not make for yourselves. AN ALTAR OF EARTH you shall make for Me, and you shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen. In every place where I record My name I will come to you, and I will bless you."
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(The Law was given at Mt. Sinai.)
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God first commanded the Israelites to offer burnt offerings here in the book of Exodus. However, it is in Leviticus, the book of laws, where they are described in great detail.
God first commanded the Israelites to offer burnt offerings here in the book of Exodus. However, it is in Leviticus, the book of laws, where they are described in great detail.
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Why did He institute this system? Because Israel had boasted, quite self-righteously I might add, "All that You command, we can do it." That's why He gave the Ten Commandments in the first place. But He knew full well that there was NO WAY THEY COULD OBEY THE BIG TEN. The problem was, they didn't know it.
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The Knowledge Of Sin.
This should come as no surprise since the law was not given for us to try and keep. Paul says in Romans 3:20: "Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin."
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No one, of course, is in favor of lawLESSness. Quite the contrary. But understand this: The Law was given so that we would see the futility of trying to obey it. THAT IT DOES
VERY WELL. God wants you and I to come to the end of ourselves and CRY OUT FOR HELP TO JESUS.
VERY WELL. God wants you and I to come to the end of ourselves and CRY OUT FOR HELP TO JESUS.
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Laws Concerning Sacrifices.
There were five different kinds of sacrifices, all to describe that one, beautiful work of Jesus. They are recorded in the first five chapters of the book of Leviticus, followed by all the laws of the sacrifices. Five is the number of Grace!
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It is so amazing that in this book (where the pages of your Bible might be stuck together?), that you find some of the most beautiful, warm and wonderful pictures of pure Grace! AWESOME!
Jesus' sacrifice was so perfect, so complete and so beautiful that it took five, plus one from Numbers 19, to describe His one perfect offering.
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We Must Know All Five.
When we first come to God, we approach Him in our trespasses and sins. In other words, via the "sin and trespass offerings." In the order of His book, however, God puts them last. All we really understand about Him in the beginning is that we are sinners saved by grace, and that's ok. But it's not ok to stay there. God expects us to mature; to grow in grace and in the knowledge of His Son; to know all five.
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In time, we must grow beyond merely understanding what has become of our sins because of the cross, as wonderful as that is, to understanding that we have peace with God. We are now hid with Christ in God and have become the righteousness of God, represented by the Burnt Offering.
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You see, if all you understand is that your sins are forgiven, you haven't grown spiritually. The more you understand, the clearer picture you have of Jesus, and the more deeply you fall in love with Him. That's how you grow and are transformed from glory to glory: By beholding Him!
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(The Ashes of the Red Heifer.)
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Only In Numbers.
There is one law which, surprisingly, is ONLY FOUND IN NUMBERS, not Leviticus, the book of laws. The Ashes of the Red Heifer. The Holy Spirit, as usual, has a very good reason for only putting it here which, by the way, totally baffled Solomon. The link below will take you part one of a study on this cryptic law; but I warn you, it's in 9 parts.
Solomon, in all his wisdom, regretted that was not able to decipher it. That means if you get it, you are smarter than him! In all fairness, though, he didn't have the key to unlock the mystery...but we do!
Solomon, in all his wisdom, regretted that was not able to decipher it. That means if you get it, you are smarter than him! In all fairness, though, he didn't have the key to unlock the mystery...but we do!
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The Offerings Of Leviticus.
These are the 5 offerings of Leviticus in the order God has placed them in the Bible:
#1. Burnt offering: Ch. 1
#2. Grain offering: Ch. 2
#3. Peace offering: Ch. 3
#4. Sin offering: Ch. 4
#5. Trespass offering: Ch. 5
The chapters immediately following contain all the laws of the offerings.
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The first three offerings are ascending offerings, a sweet smelling aroma to the LORD. But the last two, the sin and tresspass offerings, are not a sweet aroma because they contain dung, which depicts our sins.
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In part two, we'll be talking about the Burnt Offering, because God mentions it first. So, since it is most important to Him, we'll them study according to His order, even though we approach God from the opposite direction: Via the "sin offering."
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So, Church, let's go crack open those Bibles and study these wonderful chapters!
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Please proceed to Part 2.
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