Looking for Jesus in Leviticus: the offering

The Word for today:
Leviticus 6:8-7:38

mark this: Leviticus 1:1-1:4
The LORD called Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting, saying,
"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.
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.
He shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him."

 

Pictures of an offering are the earliest pictures of Jesus in the Bible.

In chapter one of Leviticus, the people were told to bring an animal, which was then sacrified on the altar. These offerings are a continuation of the offerings we have already seen in the Bible's first book, Genesis.

In chapter 3 of Genesis, Adam and Eve tried to cover their sin with leaves, but they could not. So God killed an innocent animal in order to clothe them in its skins.

In the very next generation, God instructed Cain and Abel to bring an offering for sin.  Abel brought what God required--a Lamb.  But Cain brought produce that he had grown in the fields.  Cain's offering--the works of his own hands--was not accepted by God.

Later in Genesis, God told Abraham to offer his son, Isaac. When Abraham obeyed, God saw his faith and stopped Abraham from slaying Isaac.  Then God himself provided a ram for the sacrifice.

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These pictures tell us that there is a price to be paid for sin: the wages of sin is death.

These pictures tell us that the blood of an innocent sacrifice will be the only acceptable offering.

These pictures tell us that the price will be unimaginably steep--so steep that only God can pay it.

These pictures tell us that when God sees our faith, he deflects the knife and visits our sins upon his own Son, instead.

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