The laws of Leviticus were revealed to the covenant nation at a particular phase of their history. They were designed to mold Israel into a holy people in a particular historical environment. Though God’s holiness is unchanging, its expression may vary from age to age.” – Gordon Wenham
Structure of Leviticus 1:1-17
The call of God to worship (1:1-2)
Whole burnt offerings of cattle (1:3-9)
Whole burnt offerings of sheep and goats (1:10-13)
Whole burnt offerings of birds (1:14-17)
I.) The call of God to worship (1:1-12)
The LORD called Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting, saying, 2 “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When any one of you brings an offering to the LORD, you shall bring your offering of livestock from the herd or from the flock. (Leviticus 1:1–2)
The solution to the tension created at the end of Exodus begins with God calling to Moses. Leviticus is not about obscure laws, but about God’s redemptive plan to bring his people into his divine presence. The opening words, “The LORD called Moses…,” tie Leviticus into the larger context of God’s redemptive work throughout Genesis-Exodus.
| YHWH God called to Adam [in the garden] | Genesis 3:9 |
| God called to him [Moses] from within the bush | Exodus 3:4 |
| YHWH called to him [Moses] from the mountain | Exodus 19:3 |
| YHWH called to Moses from within the cloud | Exodus 24:16 |
| YHWH called to Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting | Leviticus 1:1 |
Two key things are worth mentioning in the opening verses. First, God initiates and calls his people back into his presence; second, he provides the ways and means of entering his presence.
Leviticus 1-10 presents a redemptive solution that turns the tabernacle (God’s dwelling place) into a tent of meeting. Before God gives his grace through the Levitical sacrificial system, the tabernacle, God’s dwelling place, cannot function as a tent of meeting.
34 Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. 35 And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting (because the cloud settled on it, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.) (Ex 40:34–35)
We can draw a great deal of reflection about biblical worship from these themes in Leviticus 1:1-2. Worship is far from self-expression. As David Peterson writes, worship “…is an engagement with him on the terms that he proposes and in the way that he alone makes possible.”
Allen Mosely encourages Christians to reflect on the implications of Leviticus 1:1-2 for Christian worship, and it is worth quoting in full.
“It would be good for us to spend time meditating on the fact that the worship of Israel described in Leviticus was at God’s initiative and according to God’s words that He spoke to His people. These days, when the topic of conversation is worship, people often speak of their preferences. When God speaks about worship in His Word, He doesn’t address our personal preferences about styles of preaching or styles of music. Since that is not what God says about worship, why do we talk about it so much? Why are our preferences in worship so important to us, when they’re not important in God’s Word? Who determined the worship forms of Israel? God did. Who was at the center of the worship of Israel? God was. So when we talk about worship, why do we talk so little about God and so much about what we like? God spoke to Moses about Israel’s worship; Moses listened and obeyed. Let us listen to what God says about worship, and let us obey.”
God’s call to worship is also an invitation into his presence: 2 “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When any one of you brings an offering to the LORD, you shall bring your offering of livestock from the herd or from the flock.
Let’s note carefully who is being invited: “When any one of you brings an offering…”
The offerings mentioned in verse 2 are not exclusively priestly offerings or sacrifices for the nation of Israel as a whole (Numbers 28-29); rather, Leviticus 1:2 speaks of personal, individual offerings that any member of Israel could make. As we study Leviticus, we’ll come to see the many reasons why individuals might make a sacrifice before the Lord (Lev. 4-5, 12-15), but for now it is enough to see that God invites sinful people into his presence and provides the means for them to do so.
The offering was to come from the livestock from the herd or from the flock.
The offerings came from the herd or the flock, meaning the worshipper would not offer a wild animal but an animal from their own flock or herd. In worship, we give God our best, and that means worship costs something. Worshippers could eat wild animals (Deut. 14:5), but never offer them as sacrifices because they cost the worshipper nothing.
II.) The Whole Burnt Offering (Leviticus 1:3-17)
The first sacrifice mentioned in Leviticus is the whole burnt offering. This offering was the most common, as the priests began and ended each day in the tabernacle with a whole burnt offering to the Lord (Exodus 29:38-46).
- The sacrifice must be without blemish or perfect (cf. Malachi 1:8)
3 “If his offering is a burnt offering from the herd, he shall offer a male without blemish. He shall bring it to the entrance of the tent of meeting, that he may be accepted before the LORD (Lev 1:3)
“The animal had to be perfect because it was given in place of the morally, sometimes physically, blemished worshipper.”- Allen P. Ross
The New Testament emphasizes Jesus Christ’s sinless nature for this very reason. It tells us not only about the nature of the Lord Jesus, but also about the sufficiency of his sacrifice (2 Cor. 5:21; Hebrews 7:26-27)
2. The worshipper must be identified with the sacrifice
4 He shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him. (Lev 1:4)
Laying on of hands consecrates the animal as an atoning sacrifice and as a substitutionary sacrifice. The sacrifice is offered in place of the worshipper’s life. The laying on of hands symbolizes both identification and transference. The sacrifice takes on the worshipper’s guilt.
3. The sacrifice, spreading of blood with the division of labor
| Worshipper | Priests |
| The worshipper killes the animal (vs. 5) | Aaron’s sons bring the blood and throw it on the sides of the altar (vs. 5) |
| The worshipper flays the offering and cuts it into pieces (vs. 6) | Aaron’s sons put the fire on the altar and arrange the wood (vs. 7) |
| The worshipper washes the legs and entriails with water (vs. 9) | Aaron’s sons attange the pieces on the altar (vs. 8) |
| Aaron’s sons burn the offering as a burnt offering (vs. 9) |
The same procedure applies to sheep and goats (Leviticus 1:10-13), but birds differ slightly (Leviticus 1:14-17). Because the sacrifice is small, the priest drains the blood on the side of the altar (Lev. 1:15) rather than cutting it into pieces. The priest also removes the bird’s head himself (Lev. 1:15).
What significance can be drawn from the three different animal options for sacrifice? This is another act of God’s redemptive grace. God accepts an unblemished offering that the person can afford. No one is excluded from worship because of socio-economic status or income.
The Purpose of the Whole Burnt Offering
The purpose of the burnt offering is stated clearly in vs. 3-4 in two related concepts: acceptance before God and the making of atonement (Lev. 14:20; 16:24)
Vs. 3: He shall bring it to the entrance of the tent of meeting, that he may be accepted before the LORD
Vs. 4: and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him.
Perhaps we can summarize it this way: the purpose of the whole burnt offering was peace with God through atonement.
The whole burnt offering maintained the worshippers’ fellowship with God by appeasing God’s wrath for their sin and consecrating the worshipper for life with God among God’s people.
It is called the whole burnt offering because the entire sacrifice was burned and became a pleasing aroma before the Lord (Lev. 1:9, 13, 17)
Important background for this appears in Genesis 8:21.
20 Then Noah built an altar to the LORD and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. 21 And when the LORD smelled the pleasing aroma, the LORD said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done. (Ge 8:20–21)
Gordon Wenham helpfully writes, “Though man was unchanged in his sinfulness, God’s attitude to man altered, thanks to the burnt offering…Sacrifice is the appointed means whereby peaceful coexistence between a holy God and sinful people becomes a possibility.”
The Whole Burnt Offering and the Christian Life
Space does not allow us to consider the ways that the New Testament alludes to Jesus Christ true burnt offering for sins (Eph. 5:2; 1 Peter 1:18-19; Heb. 10:6-8), but we can say that Christ has fulfilled all that the whole burnt offering represented, so that we have no need to offer atonign sacrifices in bulls, goats, and birds. Through Christ’s perfect, atoning sacrifice, we are at peace with God.
However, the New Testament also speaks of Christian service and good works as an offering pleasing to the Lord.
15 Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. 16 Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God. (Heb 13:15–16)
18 I have received full payment, and more. I am well supplied, having received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God (Php 4:18)
5 you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. (1 Pe 2:4–5)
The Whole Burnt Offering and Christian Worship
Gordon Wenham again is worth quoting in full:
“The burnt offerings were the first offering of the day in normal worship. This reminds us that forgiveness of sins is the prerequisite of true worship. Only those whose sins are forgiven can enjoy God’s fellowship and praise him from their hearts. The pattern of OT sacrifices may thus provide a pattern of truly Christian worship. Worship should begin with confession of sins, a claiming of Christ’s forgiveness, and a total rededication to God’s service, before going on to praise and petition.”
The most neglected part of biblical worship in modern church services today is the corporate confession of sin and the assurance of pardon. People rarely like to deal with confession, sin, and forgiveness today. They want worship that is light and feels good.
The problem, of course, is that this does not resemble the way God has instructed us to worship. Daily confession of sin and weekly corporate confession of sin on the Lord’s Day should be a regular rhythm in the life of the church (1 John 1:9).
