A LOT OF BULL(S)
Leviticus, Chapters 1-7

I was walking through the huge barn of a county fair one time when the thought hit me: When Israel sacrificed, these are the kinds of animals they would offer! Males without spot or blemish – prize-worthy animals!

The first lesson from sacrifice: Only the best will do. In Genesis 4, Cain brings an offering of the fruit of the ground. Abel brings the fat portions (the best, see below) as his offering. Cain is rejected, Abel accepted. Some have said it's because Abel brought a blood offering, but this doesn't fit with the rest of the Torah, especially today's lessons. To me, the obvious difference is Abel brought the best, Cain brought lesser quality. Sacrifice as an act means sacrifice as an attitude, the willingness to give up something.

The second lesson from sacrifice: the Lord designed the system for any level of society. The offerings include male and females, cattle, sheep, goats, birds, grains. Likewise the 10% tithe is automatically a sliding scale for the pauper and the rich man.

The third lesson surprised me. I just now noticed that some sacrifices could be either male or female, not only bulls and rams, but cows, sheep, and goats.

A fourth lesson also surprised me: Offering the fat parts was essential. The next to last verse of Chapter 3 even says “The fat is the Lord's!” Do you suppose that means the Lord specially loves the obese among us? At least it's eternally safe to be overweight. On the other hand, you might get to eternity more quickly!

The fifth lesson is that sin is serious, it costs us something. In reality sin is sin because it hurts us and other people. Often the pain recoils on us and sin becomes its own punishment. But all sin is also against God, and He must forgive us. Sacrifice leads to the covering, or atonement, of our sin. The word translated “atonement” here is very similar to the word “cover” in speaking of the lid of the ark. Thus sacrifice, whether of bulls or goats or Jesus Christ covers our sins, or atones for them.

Sixth lesson: God provides a way out, a covering, an atonement. From the beginnings of Israel as the people of God, He designed an appropriate way to find forgiveness.

Seventh: This is highly participating worship! In NO sense can one find atonement only by watching sacrifice. The one who brought the animal must lay his hand on that animal, have the priest accept it, and then slaughter it himself! It's unclear at what point the priests helped in the sacrifice, but my guess is during the butchering of the meat. Those of you who have field dressed and perhaps prepared deer meat should have a good sense of what this was like.

Eighth: This was also joint worship and fellowship – sort of like tailgating! For many, perhaps most, of the sacrifices, the priests threw the blood and fat and sometimes various organs on the altar. The rest was barbecued and eaten by the family of the one who sacrificed but also including other families they may have invited. Reminds me of after-church fellowships!

NOTE:  Be sure and read the quarterly. This is unusually good, and you may want to save the comparison chart of sacrifices.