The Creator of the heavens and the Earth wants to live among humankind, but there humankind is too attached with the muck-and-mire ways of this world. Heaven’s solution is acted out in the imagery and ceremony of Israel’s Tabernacle and in the work of the Messiah, Yeshua (Jesus). Discover in the Torah reading ויקרא Vayikra (“and He called,” Leviticus 1:1-6:7) how our heart’s cry determines whether we are a “soothing aroma” as Heaven transforms us.
If we are honest with ourselves and with others, we want God to be unfair. We want Him to give us mercy. But if we don’t want Him to give others mercy, He will not give us mercy (Matt. 7:2; Mark 4:24; Luke 6:38). Neither atonement nor forgiveness are fair, yet we want it that way. Contrary to popular belief, not all offerings of the Tabernacle are equal or identical. When we confuse them and lump them all together, it’s too easy to dismiss them and throw them out as obsolete. וַיִּקְרָא Vayiqra (“he called out,” Leviticus 1–5), the beginning reading from the Torah book by the same name, teaches us that God has a purpose in mind for each of the offerings. We’ll learn what each are and more about what God is trying to teach us.
Many think that the Tabernacle and Temple services were about works that pay for entrance into the Father’s presence and that the regimens of faith — prayer and repentance — made the Tabernacle obsolete. But what the Bible actually teaches about the Tabernacle is quite different from this common view.
God’s presence can’t abide with impurity, and the book of Vayiqra (Leviticus) shows us God’s prescription to make us pure and ready to live in His presence. The animal and grain קרבנות qorbanot (offerings/sacrifices) described in the Torah reading ויקרא Vayikra/Vayiqra (“and He called,” Leviticus 1:1-6:7) were symbolic of the supplicant’s desire to abide with God.
Leviticus 5 sounds very similar to Leviticus 4 in a lot of ways. Both passages discuss unintentional violations of God’s commandments and sin offerings, but the “guilt offering” we’re looking at today is different.
When you pray to God earnestly, you feel relieved that you can release those things that only God can hear, release them to Him and find relief. We don’t approach our High Priest with animals. We are God’s Temple. When we come to God with our sins, the High Priest brings His sacrifice and our repentance to God and we received God’s forgiveness. Without God’s Spirit increasing in us, we will not grow.
The entire book of Leviticus is about the function of Israel’s high priest. Yeshua (Jesus) is our High Priest, and as we study Leviticus, we learn more about what Yeshua is doing for us in God’s presence.
Leviticus 1-3 starts with instructions about how to give free will offerings to God. These are not offerings of punishment but offerings of gratitude and love of God. We also learn how the High Priest prepares and gives these offerings to God. We can see the New Testament fulfillment in Yeshua as we read through Hebrews 5.
A chiastic structure buried in 1st Kings 8 compares messianic figures of Moshe (Moses), David and Shlomo (Solomon) by changing up the historical and thematic order of them. This swapping is very important because it reveals elements of the character of the Messiah.
Symbolism of the various offerings for God’s appointed time of סֻכֹּת Sukkot (Tabernacles) reveals the changes of heart each person and ultimately all nations will bring to God on the Day of the LORD.
We are supposed to bring God offerings — everything that we are — in joy, without grumbling or complaining and not expecting anything in return.