0:01
again for this opportunity to be together to be in your word to to study what you have revealed of yourself and of your people and the relationship that
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exists by your grace your gracious Covenant we pray that we might have open minds and hearts to your spirit as we read your word as we try to sort out
0:23
these sacrifices and understand what they meant what you intended them to mean and how they both pointed toward and were fulfilled in Jesus Christ and
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yet we know that the what they tell us about the about the relationship between your people and yourself that abides so guide us so
0:46
we're going to be looking at the sacrifices so in in your notes you'll see the you know fairly long quotes but these are going to be more the introductory I I would and I didn't want to take up a lot of paper by just you
0:58
know so please have your Bibles open when you're if you're reading the notes and read the the full passage um but I I wasn't going to put the entire passage because it would be the notes would be
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somewhat unwieldy because you'd have long segments of scriptures and you have Bibles so you can use your Bibles um but that I don't want that to um to in any way indicate that I think that what
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we're reading is not important even the repetitive parts are important that these things are to be repeated and we'll be talking about you know why are they repeated this way um it it is something it's somewhat like
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repetition is the essence of learning okay it it's repeated because again this was primarily an oral Society um they all didn't have Scrolls in their tents
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and so they the repetition of it was the instruction the Levites were to provide to the Israelites uh and it's so it's what's being repeated that I think
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should um should Lodge in our minds not not so much in the idea that we could reproduce what they did um that sometimes is hard to do if
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you read what you you read the text and you think okay now I can be a priest I can go do this no it's not always quite like that um in fact often it's not like that um and that's why I don't think as
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some have said over the over the Millennia uh they have treated Leviticus as a teaching manual for the priests uh no I don't think that that's it at all in fact there's very little said about
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what the priest does um and and so that you know there are other places where the priests learned what they were supposed to do mostly in Exodus um Leviticus just isn't that way so we're
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going to look at the five but again I'm I'm really just introducing each and describing each sacrifice and I want to spend when we're in these texts I want
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to spend time in these texts I don't I don't want to try to bring them forward as to their significance in Christianity just yet I think that in
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fact that's maybe something that doesn't come until we've we've gone a ways in Leviticus before we begin to see um probably at least past chapter seven
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before it's time for us to say okay what does all this mean to us I think first what we need to do this is my opinion but I think we need to try to put ourselves back then and and be in the
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camp surrounding the Tabernacle where the shakina is a visible presence of a holy God in the midst of an Unholy people and and try to just you know read
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the sacrifices as if not as if you're and I know this is hard but not as if as you've been taught oh these are all these are all fulfilled in Jesus these are all fulfilled in Jesus uh as I've
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said before that is a sure way to turn your brain off in terms of actually trying to understand what it meant to be the
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people of God under the old Covenant if Jesus did fulfill which he did then what he fulfilled will only give us a deeper
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understanding of who he is and what he's done rather than just saying oh you know these are all fulfilled in Christ having said that there's another caveat I don't know that we can figure out how each one
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of them is fulfilled in Christ and I have read books that have tried that and for the most part I feel like they are really trying to slam a square peg into a round hole we know you know it's
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almost as we take the cross and we beat that peg into the hole all right U and they they they come up origin was the worst I actually in next week's notes you'll you'll get a quote from origin uh
4:46
as to what he thought about the sprinkling seven times and the four horns of the altar all of that had meaning that's allegorizing but we do that maybe not to that degree but
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preachers like to do that when they're in the Old Testament they like to show oh this is this is Jesus's body and this is his blood and nowhere does that actually is that actually found in
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scripture it's found in our exegetical imaginations and frankly most of it is roll up the scroll and smoke it because it's not it's not right so we're not
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going to we're not going to go there and I think we I'm going to try to admit wherever I wherever I encounter procedures and rituals that I just frankly just frankly don't really know how they connect and
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I'm not so sure that the connection is meant to be in the in the minutia I think the connection is mostly meant to be in the big
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picture which is why there are so many different sacrifices that often vary from one another only very slightly as to the
5:55
disposition of the carcass for example okay that that is one of the things that you'll find so again as you're reading Leviticus do read the repetitive Parts
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but try to listen for the subtle differences in each section because if it pertains to a different sacrifice or as we're going to see in the guilt offerings if it
6:18
pertains to a different segment of the population the procedure is going to be very similar but there's going to be just a subtle difference and that's what you're looking for because I think
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that's where where the the ultimate meaning of it all comes out right so that's going to be our approach um and I'm sure that that will vary and I hope you have questions and uh as as we go
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sacrifices three General and two particular um we're going to talk about the three general ones this evening and then one of the particular ones next week and then Lord willing oh we are not
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having class on the 15th because Angela and I will be enjoying Andrea belli at the boo Center bonsy core um so we will we will
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be um having an evening out uh so we won't be having class the 15th but Lord willing the 22nd we will be back for the grain or for the guilt offering okay since we went to them okay yeah you you
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you you caught where I was going there so you have the three general ones now the reason the these are called General is that there is no reference to
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sin or sin or transgression okay in these the burnt offering the um grain offering and the peace offering so these three are the
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this has other names is that how you spell meat yeah that kind of meat um and the peace okay these are the three that we first encounter and as I said the reason they're called the general
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offerings is that there's no mention of offense there there's no connection between something the offer did and the sacrifice itself in fact it
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it is purely a matter of the desire to bring the sacrifice so we look at Leviticus 1 verses 1 and
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2 then the Lord called to Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting saying speak to the sons of Israel and say to them when Any Man Of You brings an offering to the Lord you shall bring your offering of animals from the herd
9:00
of the flock when Any Man Of You brings an offering it's a it's it's a matter of um actually it's kind of a matter of Free Will these are often linked under
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what are known as the Free Will offerings and we're going to talk about that concept this evening but what we're dealing with here are um General sacrifices no
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specific reference to sin to trans discretion or to offense okay now the particular ones and I'll put them up here even though we're
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not going to be dealing with them this evening the two
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sin offering and the guilt or guilt or trespass offering and they both have reference to
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reference to specific offenses committed by the one who is bringing the offering now the first one um they're they're they're all under the
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under the classification of unintentional but they're not the same so the sin offering just just kind of introductory this is the
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unintentional and we'll get into that um next week we'll talk about what what does that mean how do you sin unintentionally U that is contrasted in numbers 15 with sinning with a high hand uh for which there is no sacrifice
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so that's that helps Define the idea of the unintentional but the this the scripture actually helps there as well and we'll get into that next week but the guilt or
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the trespass offering is is even more more unique because these are known sins like bearing false witness you know not
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bearing testimony when you know something or bearing false testimony these are again getting ahead of ourselves but these are basically uh sins for which some um
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remuneration can be made and is actually prescribed some Payback uh for the offense but there is a specific offense and so that's unique but there is
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actually specific actually specific offenses listed now they're listed only as examples I don't think it's an exhaustive list um but they give the the
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gist of of what this type of sin and um atoning sacrifice means now that word atonement is right here in chap 1:4
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four and he shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering that it may be accepted for him to make atonement on his behalf and again we assume that that word because of the teachings since the
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Reformation especially we assume that that word implies sin I mean an actual offense not not the general corruption okay but I don't think it does imply an
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actual offense and no actual offense is ever mentioned because the word atonement as we talked about last week probably has more to do with cleansing than it does with appeasement
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or or even propitiation or experation it's over here that we start to get into those $25 words that you
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know that are full of Christian theological significance but it's it's here that we get the more the idea
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one having to do with God and one having to do with the sinner God is propitiated we are expiated our sins are expiated that's kind of a a very pedestrian distinction between the two
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um but I think it's an important one but I think that the these terms are mistakenly applied up here uh or at least the understanding of
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the word atonement is too limited it it definitely does apply to actual offenses but just not up okay and
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I think what's interesting is these are the ones that come first the is not used it is used down here end up here it's used throughout
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but because there's no mention of any sin or trespass in the first three offerings and and they are if a man sins unintentionally and it
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is made known to him he will bring if a man Bears false witness he will bring If any man brings a burnt offering
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let him take it from the these are voluntary there there is no now these are happening all day long in the in the Priestly ritual
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Priestly ritual the morning and the evening sacrifices were burnt offerings okay so we need to distinguish what we're reading here from what we might read in Exodus or numbers concerning the
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concerning the daily sacrifices these are not the daily sacrifices these are the sacrifices of the people but what what I'm trying to say is these are a sacrifice of Free
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Will If any man brings it's it's entirely up to him whereas when we get to these that's not an option you must bring does that make sense well what I'm
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trying to say is the word atonement then doesn't always have to do with actual
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also I think that I the earlier the earlier ones being Incorporated in lab later ones um actually I I I'm not really sure of that because distinction are made in terms of the disposition of the
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carcass that actually tends to differentiate them so for example the sin offering is differentiated from the Burt offering in that the carcass was to
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be burned outside the camp some of the sacrifices say it should be offered according to the law bir all three well now that's getting yeah that's getting a little bit further into the levitical
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and that's in six and seven and when we get into the actual ritual that's about the only thing that actually talks about what the priest does and yes there there are according to the law of the burnt offering or even in the Sin offering and
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the trespass offering the law is the same it says they are the same so yeah the ritual and the mechanics of it are often referenced back so these are
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definitely the more General and the more specific but again I think it is an important feature of our investigation to realize
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meaning than our modern Christian Reformed understanding of it and I think that meaning will help us to understand it does have the meaning of actual specific
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sins it has that meaning I'm not denying that and it's not to be denied but that is not the ex that does not exhaust its meaning in fact it may
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not even be the primary meaning as we looked at last week you have the woman who just gave birth she must be atoned okay you have the leper who has
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been healed both he and his house must be atoned okay we cannot take those in reference to actual committed sin child
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birth is not a sin in fact the the the I think this has
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unwarranted ammunition to the liberal view for example that the Old Testament was misogynistic you see it treated it treated the the woman as as a sinner for having given birth
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no no the Old Testament also tells us that children are a blessing from the Lord in fact you can see uh if for example in Hannah that they they viewed that they were not in favor with God if
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they were Barren okay so but nonetheless it's a misunderstanding of these sacrifices we've come to individualize them and think that the whole thing is
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all about my sin is that that not a fair statement but but we're looking in three sacrifices right up front that aren't about anybody's about anybody's sin they are about sin because if there
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hadn't been any sin there wouldn't be any of these right but they're not about sins and yet the word atonement is used throughout it will be an atonement for him so Aaron could be an atonement for
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the curse because child birth was mentioned directly for disease well no because um not the not I mean that's obviously the pain in childbirth is the
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curse and obviously leprosy is is a fruit of the curse um and so in that sense very general sense yes but the sacrifice for the leper was actually
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after he was healed he's not told when he gets leprosy to bring any particular offering but when he's healed okay so that's kind of a reverse of the curse and yet he he
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is still is still unclean okay this I this idea of clean and unclean really lies at the heart of the relationship between God and his people under the old
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Covenant and I think it also underlies the New Testament concept of the flesh okay I think it it it it's kind of
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it's behind that the idea that that we are are we are not yet wholly clean until you know the consummation of the ages so
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the the the problem with our reading of the Old Testament it is it has been now focused through basically Martin Luther and that is every sacrifice had to do
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with specific sin but that's not the text so the word Aton the word atonement must be broader than just sins yes it is ultimately linked to sin
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as a curse yes C and it could not exist with God right then that's the break that that I
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think you're referring to and that is where whereas God once walked with Adam in the garden now there's he is cast out a veil is put up and see there's that
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imagery that we have in the Tabernacle later in the temple okay so as we've talked about before there is the presence of Yahweh but but in the midst of that presence there is separation
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that separation Isaiah tells us is because of our sin your sin has caused a separation between you and Yahweh so yes in that sense all of this is about Sin
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but I do think it's important for our understanding and really even our application of these sacrifices to realize that there was something more than just atoning for individual
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offenses that existed we've got them right here and we've got them elsewhere but really what was going on every day in the in the Tabernacle was not about this person's
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sin or that person's sin it was about God continuing to abide with his people and his people continuing to abide in his presence but can't you equate sin
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and the curse because do say that Christ was cursed was cursed anyone then he became sin he became sin
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yeah I have no problem with equating or at least linking together in a causal manner the curse and and well sin and the curse yes but I what I'm trying to
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make a distinction of is we can always say that sin's behind these things we may not be able to discern exactly how they're it's behind them but it's definitely behind them I I don't think
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anybody can imagine that any of these sacrifices would be necessary if sin had not entered the world is that fair I mean there' be no death there' be no disease you know so there's
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always that connection what I'm trying to argue against is the connection that we commonly make between sins and
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sins and sacrifices okay I hope that's that's you can catch that distinction because there are no sins mentioned for these three art uh
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art uh sacrifices okay ultimately sin is is what has divided sin is the reason that that one of the tribes is mediatorial sin is the reason there are
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two veils between the people and God sin is the reason that there's an altar before the first Veil okay sin is the reason that there is an incense altar before
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the second Veil all of that is because of sin with a capital S okay sin is also the reason why Israel was chosen from among the Nations and the rest of the
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world was allowed to wander and and grope about in the darkness so yeah sin is is ultimately behind all of this but in order to understand what the burnt offering meant
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what the grain offering meant what the peace offering meant I think the first thing we need to realize is it was not in reference to any specific
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sins anybody disagree with that struggle with that General on they done gratitude yeah yep we're actually we're heading there yeah yeah because these are free will
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offerings now that sounds arminian okay and so I think it free will how can you say that um well they they certainly are the the
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the text is clear that the bringing of these offerings is analogous to the bringing of the offering by ananas and
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saf okay there are those who think that the early church was Communist everybody sold what they had and gave it to the no Peter makes it very clear to ananas he
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says before you sold it was it not yours when you sold it was not the money yours right there's no communism here there was no obligation for them to sell their
24:57
property and to give any of that money to the church there was no law that required that of them okay so what
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Barnabas had just been praised for in the text was entirely Free Will and they were imitating that because he got all the praise and they were jealous that's how I read the text um but they weren't
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they weren't obligated to do that so it's free will well the same thing's true with true with these it is free will If any man brings a burnt offering um
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and so what is this concept then between Free Will and um the sovereignty of God and obligation uh so I think it's worth
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talking about this concept of Free Will Free Will offerings and and really these are really the only ones
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where the word offering is offering is valid the sin offering for example it's called a sin offering but it's not like
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you really have a choice if you want to remain in the congregation and in the presence of Yahweh so it's not really an offering like we think of it today it's it's it's you sinned and you must bring
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this sacrifice the word for offering is familiar I think to you from the New Testament it's the word Corban okay um typically because of
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the Hebrew it's spelled in the English it's transliterated with a Q uh I think in the New Testament c r B- an but Jesus chastises the scribes and the Pharisees because you know they whatever um they
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might be able to benefit their parents they say it's Corban in other words it's it's dedicated to God they were perverting the law of Corban but Corban really just means a
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presentation uh it's something presented it it doesn't have um uh literally from as far as I've been able to discern and I'm not a Hebrew scholar but the the the
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atmology of the word is to bring near so it it just has the idea and almost always used in reference to someone of higher rank so would be
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something like um a before a king um and certainly before a God that's where the word is typically used but it's not exclusively used there but almost uh I
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mean it's typically used in terms of what's brought before God it's Corban okay so it it's something but we're talking about
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talking about here things that the Israelite chooses to bring okay he chooses to bring a burnt offering he chooses to bring a grain
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offering or a peace offering so this is where the the Free Will comes in and so what distinction then do we make between this idea of
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okay we separate these uh in our thinking and we we tend to have on the one side what I must do and on the other side what I might do what I may
28:40
do and we tend to think of the second category that that it is is since it's not obligatory then it's not required and oftentimes our mind goes
28:52
down the path of lease resistance if it's not required then I'm not going to bother um no one would have thought that from reading the pentet nor the rabbis the scribes that
29:05
that the Levites and the faithful among Israel never viewed the voluntary as anything less than obligatory but it was not the obligation
29:17
brought upon them by their sin it was the obligation brought upon them by God's grace that's what you were talking about Gra gratitude okay but
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gratitude is not it's it's not voluntary the idea of voluntary Le you know it it you can reference for example um Psalm
29:45
110 um that they will be made willing in the day of your power so the idea of The Sovereign power of God in regeneration but the result being they will be made volunteers literally in the day of your
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power so power so volunteerism is not optional for the people of
30:14
are people yeah you're techically doing sacrific but you're not actually following the law because you're only doing it out of obligation that comes on
30:26
that's that's the Nega perspective where they're only doing the obligatory and God basically says not what we're going to look at here in a moment this is not a sweet Savor this is a stench in my
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nostrils I have had enough of your new moon feasts and you know Isaiah 1 he just basically stop it and yet if you read Isaiah 1 these are all of the feasts and sacrifices that God had
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prescribed for Israel through Moses and he was saying I'm tired of it now that's where we take the obligatory to become really just the legal and and not at all
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um not at all voluntary um but the idea though that often I think trips people up in terms of um of free
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will if if we recognize that Paul's anthropology in Romans 3 applies to every human being born of
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Adam apart from one then we realize that there are none willing no not one willingness itself is a result of
31:36
Grace and that's Psalm 110 okay that you will be made willing in the day of his power so we we kind of not think uh and this is I think the problem Armenians
31:46
have is they they are actually convinced that willingness somehow derives from within the within the sinner you can't get through Romans 3 without conclusion I don't think okay
31:58
but that doesn't mean as as is often said of Calvinism and sadly has been um wrong you know it's been Associated because of calvinistic preaching that does not mean that um
32:11
that we are to to beat ourselves into willingness you know I I've read where some of the Puritans would say that they would be willing to be damned so long as
32:22
God was glorified that's a stupid thing to say it is just not a biblical thing to say I mean yes God will be glorified in the damnation of the ungodly yes he
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will and we should desire his glory but let's not go beyond what he has done his glory is actually manifested more in his grace than in his
32:45
judgment he calls judgment his strange work okay he is full of loving kindness that's what we should focus on not that oh if God were to curse me I would still
32:56
yeah okay yeah okay I don't know that you really think that but um I'll give you the benefit of the doubt I don't think that's that is the right attitude toward this idea of
33:07
volunteerism I think that the idea that we see in the scripture is why are these people voluntarily offering up Bulls goats and whatnot well
33:17
because God has made his presence known to them visibly and has called them out among all the nations to be his peculiar people people because he loved them
33:29
first he loved them first yes and we love because he first loved us so this is yeah this is this is responsive God's God's work God's part
33:42
is always is always first okay but it's it's not as if the Israelite um you know Israelite um in
33:54
one tent he notices that his neighbor had just taken a bull to the Tabernacle as a as a offer a free will offering and she says honey get me a bowl I need to
34:05
you know that that kind of keeping up with the Levis type thing that is that is not what this is about okay this is about oh I should have said the Jonas or whatever um this is this is about you
34:18
know this is about to me this is more about communion than it is about Sin
34:41
KN out of and he has and you and you areen only way to
34:59
come but you want to come before him right both voluntary and obligatory it's voluntary and obligatory at the S same time you must bring the blood to come into His presence and even then it's the priest who goes into the presence on
35:10
your behalf but nonetheless you know these are required you don't just walk up and say hey Yahweh how's it going you know the idea that that is often preached today about uh ABA meaning
35:22
daddy you know and that we're supposed to run in and jump up on our Daddy's slot that is horrible stuff yes we boldly approach the throne of grace but our God is an allc consuming fire his Holiness you
35:35
read the scripture these are just comments that are made by people who don't understand the scripture and therefore don't understand god um but there there's still this desire even though he is you know awesome that the
35:46
people did not want to even go near the mountain because his presence is terrifying yet there's among the faithful there's there's a inexorable
35:58
desire to be in his presence to me the New Testament analogy of this is the phrase that Paul uses this is The Obedience of
36:13
Faith okay it's an obedience that is born in us through the faith that has been graciously given to us it's an obedience that requires a regenerate heart and the
36:25
the fact that the sacrifices exist in Israel we always think of the sacrifices pointing to Christ in terms of they're not able to uh cleanse our sins and
36:36
Hebrews makes that clear they are not able to but we're missing another aspect of the whole picture and that is the desire that God has to have to himself a
36:46
people and a and a desire that he wants within that people to be with him and so I think we think of God sometimes in a very uh
36:57
very uh marcionite way that God the god of the Old Testament is this Zeus with bolts of lightning you know and and retribution and Punishment and Damnation that's what he's all about no for God so loved the
37:10
world that He Sent His only begotten son for God so loved Israel not because of Israel he loved Abraham then he loved Israel on Abraham's behalf and called
37:22
them out okay um and so God acts first but it's yes he must forgive sin in order for his people to dwell
37:33
with him in uninterrupted communion this is interrupted communion this is mediatorial communion we have uninterrupted communion and that that is
37:44
uh a very important feature it's not all about the fact that we commit sins because everybody commits sins Solomon said who who no man does not sin
37:55
when he's dedicating the temple he says there is no man who does not sin what God is doing is he's calling to himself a people and I think that the
38:06
reason that Leviticus is tucked between the dedication of the Tabernacle and the census that 30 days I keep that in mind that 30-day window where we have the
38:16
whole Book of Leviticus slotted in is because that's really what it's all about is the people of God communing with God and God dwelling in the midst
38:26
of people now that hasn't changed in fact that has become even more intense with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit thats at least sense
38:54
both that like why when you consider it it is that act of that allows is glorious blessing to him in that and it's also on the side that's why God honors him in the way that he does
39:05
because he because he gets closest to Obedience of faith of just about anyone we see under the law yes and he is a man after God's heart uh
39:15
but he's also a notorious sinner is he not I mean David's sins are certainly notorious and people struggle I remember
39:25
our good friend back in my engineering days he basically he flat out said I got a problem with David well okay yeah well that he need he did
39:36
need to do that but uh but you know he had he had a problem with reading the Psalms because of what David did you know he thought God let him off too easy um and well yeah he didn't really suffer
39:49
the penalty that was do his sin that was God's grace okay but I think when we look at sin and sacrifices always in that under that
39:59
umbrella or rubric of sins then we're we're missing the bigger picture and that is Grace and that the reason they even have these sacrifices is because of
40:09
God's grace okay so when we look at these burnt offerings then or these um excuse me these General offerings um what what we're dealing with just to summarize this what we're dealing with
40:21
is voluntary is voluntary submission this Obedience of Faith this is voluntary I need to get rid of these some of these
40:52
God when we when God's people lose sight of the incredible blessing of dwelling in his presence then in order to hold a religion together we must bring in legalism that's what works and we must
41:04
bring in bring in guilt because that's what keeps people guilt is a major motivating factor as is fear in all human religions including humanized Christianity and humanized
41:17
Judaism okay so and you you've seen it you've experienced it and I think it's it's it's um fairly easy to see that wherever that manifests itself there are
41:28
a couple things that have been lost any understanding or comprehension of Grace or of the incredible blessing of dwelling in the presence of God okay so
41:38
not every Israelite and we we would be naive to think that even the majority of Israel especially as we read through the histories um that even the majority of
41:50
Israel even attempted to actually follow what we read here we're reading an idealized Society of an unfulfilled
42:01
communion between God and his people does that make sense this this is how this is how it should have gone okay but it's not how
42:11
it actually went including the particular offerings that were often ignored as ignored as well come in okay all right so let's
42:21
turn then to the burnt offering um this is starting in verse three if his offering if is a burnt
42:32
sacrifice of the herd let him offer a male without blemish he shall offer it of his own free will there it is verse three at the door of the Tabernacle of
42:43
meeting before the Lord then he shall put his hand on the head of the burnt offering now just just as an aside apparently the meaning of that phrase from from what I can tell is to lean on
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to actually put wait on the animal now what that sign signified we talked about a little bit before and we'll probably talk about it again but it's it's almost universally accepted to be some type of
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identification between the human and the animal now again we can't say it is a transfer of transfer of guilt because there's no guilt mentioned
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in the burn offering this is a free will offering there is no free will in an offering or a sacrifice for sin
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does everybody accept that if you sinned you don't have a choice whether or not to bring the sacrifice okay your will has already
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been determined by your action and if you want to remain in communion with the Assembly of God you will bring a sacrifice but here free will bring it to
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the tent of meeting which is as far as I can tell that I mean the word tent of meeting is used both before and after the Tabernacle was erected so apparently before the
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Tabernacle was erected there was some place where Moses met with God okay but the tab the tent of meaning appears to be the two tents the sanctuary that the
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writer of Hebrews talks about what we know as the mo the holy place and the holy of holies everything else is the court court of the Israelites Court of
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the women Court of the Gent Iles but these are the courts that surrounded the tent of meeting okay so just that just that little aside so he's to bring it to the tent of
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meeting and it will be accepted on his behalf to make atonement for him again I don't I don't see where we can interpret atonement there as meaning
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atoning for an actual sin accept May accept May accept AC by God so this again is it
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Leviticus 17 sheds light back on verse 11 where God says I have given you the blood on the altar to make atonement so the explanation comes later
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that sheds light back on this phrase but the point is it's it's all about God's grace he will be accepted okay uh which
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means who accepted by whom he will be accepted by accepted by Yahweh okay the blood will be accepted for him or on his behalf but he hasn't done anything
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wrong okay now I know that sounds disturbing because we all do stuff wrong yeah seems to indicate that he was not accepted oh no that it doesn't have
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to mean that okay um when we give gifts the gifts are accepted but there was no non-acceptance
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before then hopefully we're not trying to buy our acceptance to God but his the gift is being freely given and God who
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is Holy Now The Sinner is not holy okay and and even his our best righteousness are his filthy rags okay
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so it is gracious that God should accept anything from our hands so in a sense because of that innate corruption yeah we were not acceptable but God has already accepted
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these people okay they they were they were not trying to work up his acceptance he had already bared his arm in delivering them from Egypt and showed
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himself to be their God they were his people Aon is the image of monarchy is
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so um yes absolutely a monarchy uh there there is a scene in The Animated uh TV program uh the Avatar The Last air
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bender where they're in this huge library that is run by a big owl who represents of course wisdom and in order for them to be able to look through the library they must give him a gift and
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there are four of them there and and um you know one G they they eat gives something of worth except for Saka who's kind of the he's he's the any of you've
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seen it you you know what I'm talking about well he all he has in his pocket is some string and he makes a butterfly out of it okay and the owl says I guess that we'll have to do and I think
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sometimes God looks at what we offers as I think it is we'll have to do but there's that sense at which it is accepted not that there was anything unaccepted more than the general
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yes no no it's the offer yeah priest has very little to do he say he yeah it's the man who offers not the priest yeah the he is the man who offers it that's who puts who puts it without woman well not that we know
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we got to assume that that there's some that's looking at it I mean accept well that certainly that certainly is a given you didn't do
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things you know that's clear from the prophets especially like Malachi you know go ahead and bring that offering to your governor and see if he accepts it you know that lame half dead gnarly
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sheep that you just brought me no so yeah that's part of it but I think it's bigger than that that that um that that word accepted has to do from Leviticus 17 it has to do with the blood it it's
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really the I mean yes it has to be according for example if you were to bring a male goat you don't bring a female you bring a male I mean you had to do it the right way but it's the
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blood that we see explicitly given on the altar to make atonement so I think that's where the the the acceptance is of yes the whole ritual and and we're
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going to see Aaron in terms of what you're saying we're going to see that in that that that that regard God had respect to people's ability so that if you couldn't afford a
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bull you could bring a goat if you couldn't afford a goat you could bring a turtle dove if you couldn't afford a turtle dove you could bring some grain okay and there's no blood in the grain okay but the acceptance is there
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and I I think that is the broader the broader aspect is you're coming before that's what Corban means to present a present and you're coming before God and
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he is is as a holy potentate saying I accept your offering do you think there is a degree of maintaining one's accept these things because it seems
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like that perhaps it's part of what the Writ Hebrews is getting about the repetition of this it's not enough just to do to do it when he when the writer of Hebrews
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talks about the sin off the offerings I I think he is referring primarily to the sin offerings and the guilt offerings um that we're not able to cleanse the
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conscience um and but he does mention the burnt offering and if there is a sense of of maintaining the communion it was to be
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from a desire to maintain the communion not a fear of losing that communion but rather a love that responds to the love that God has
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already shown okay so I I you know yeah any relationship requires maintenance you want to maintain it yes but you don't want to maintain it out of a spirit of fear or guilt but rather out
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of out of a an attitude of of Love and Desire and I think that is why these General offerings precede the particular ones when the book is dealing primarily
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not with the priesthood but with the people okay it's the first place we go is free will but that Free Will is
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it's it's put in US sorry this acceptance thing is it closer to IDE meaning at
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that the distinction between clean and unclean gets gets to the practical application of this idea of acceptance nothing unclean was accepted by God so a
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blemished so it gets back to what Aaron was saying you that if it was a blemished animal it wasn't clean okay it was it may have been a clean animal from the clean category of animals but it is
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lame or it is it has imperfections and therefore in the offering it is unclean it is unacceptable okay so that this whole idea that we get
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into and we're going to into later of the clean and unclean is not because there was anything inherently wrong with this or that animal we cannot look at these clean and unclean and find modern
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uh dietary rules you know we shouldn't eat shellfish because it's unclean that that had nothing to do with it it had to do with a distinction that God made so
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that his people would understand that to approach him he must be regarded as holy that that there in Leviticus 10 that really kind of is the by those who
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approach me I will be holy well what we talked about that the first week what does that even mean well it means clean and unclean accepted and not accepted
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blemished and not blemished okay all these other terms come into this whole concept of by those who approach me
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okay and again there's no real reference to your individual sins did you did you agree what I was trying to say yes accept and atonement
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yeah tied into one another I think so yeah in fact I think that's the broader meaning of atonement is Acceptance in the presence of God which is goes beyond
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mention not accept yeah sin is crouching at your door yeah sin is not mentioned in reference to either of the sons yeah they came but as far as I can tell Cain
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came with a peace offering Abel came with a burnt offering Cain had it he assumed
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yeah yeah and he was eventually sent out from the Lord's presence okay and that again you have uh and and that's going to be the case like in numbers 15 if someone sins with a high hand they are to be cut off you know so the ultimate
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penalty in penalty in Israel was to be cut off from the congregation which sometimes meant death sometimes it meant Exile you were
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excommunicated and that meant you lost the privilege of dwelling in the presence of Yahweh okay so I I you know I'm more and more convinced as I get
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into this and and and think about it in terms of Paul's teaching that you know our individual sins they they are important they do require
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atonement they have been atoned for what we need to get our mind around and I think this is where Paul would have us be is to to consider what it
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means to dwell not even in the presence but in the family of a holy God you know it's even more intense than what we're reading which is so graphic and intens
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in and of its own right um but now we have so much more so the first of the uh General offerings is the burnt offering and it it's really um
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I guess if I were Saddam Hussein I would say this is the mother of all offerings okay this is the oldest one that we read about it's the most universal in the ancient world the idea of an Ola o l
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um the Ola that is Bel D to come from the verb meaning to ascend and the idea is the smoke and the aroma ascending from the offering from
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the fire to the nostrils of God okay and that you know that is a metaphor it's an anthropomorphism God doesn't have form
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so he doesn't have nostrils but the idea of it being a sweet Savor to God is is a very significant phrase in the Old Testament especially
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in the pentet and very especially here so um the the again the word Ola meaning
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ascend this is this phrase I think and I I will accept if I'm wrong because I didn't do a thorough check on this but I believe the first time we see it is in Genesis 8 when Noah After the flood coming off
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of the Ark he takes some of the animals and he offers up a burnt Ola again there is no reference to Noah having sinned that comes later you know
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the story of ham and and whatnot um but he offers up and the Lord smelled it and it was a sweet Savor to him this this phras it's the same Hebrew phrase um
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that we find here in Leviticus now what is what is really to me very interesting is that these two sets of
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sets of offerings are distinguished from each other by repetitive phrases 10 phrases 10 times in this
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read that will be a sweet saver one one um Rabbi actually says that the word literally means a rest inducing Savor or as Bath and Body Works puts it Aroma theapy okay so uh that's that's
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essentially what we're talking about here is this is Pleasant to God um and and we're not going to probably get through it all um but the grain offering
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if you are I'm going to mix them up a little bit just for the sake of time because it has to do with this this is found in all of the these offerings okay but only once in this
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section in chapter 4 and there is some debate among the scholars as to whether or not that actually belongs there now very quick note on Old Testament textual variant uh
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we don't have nearly as broad uh a manuscript basis for the Old Testament as we do for the new what we do have is
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even after the tuen in other words we we don't have manuscripts from the 6th Century BC okay what we have are manuscripts
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from the 11th century ad okay uh so the Hebrew Bible is is not as I know this is going to sound tough it's not as well
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attested as the New Testament there are more textual variants in the Old Testament by far again none of them deal with anything
