Exodus ends with the glory of God filling a tent no one can enter. Leviticus opens with a voice calling out of that tent, and the first thing it teaches is how a sinner may come near without being consumed. The answer is an offering — five of them, laid out from the door of the tabernacle: the burnt, the meal, the peace, the sin, and the trespass. Every one of them is a picture drawn in advance of the cross.
A study in Leviticus 1-7 · Arthur Baldwin · StandUp4Jesus.Org · 10 min read
If Any Man Of You Bring An Offering
“Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, If any man of you bring an offering unto the LORD, ye shall bring your offering of the cattle, even of the herd, and of the flock.”
Leviticus 1:2
The book of the law begins not with a command but with an invitation: if any man of you will come. The burnt offering is brought “of his own voluntary will at the door of the tabernacle” (Leviticus 1:3) — as far in as an ordinary Israelite could go. Worship starts where the sinner is standing and moves toward God, one step at a time, and the first step is a gift that costs something living.
He Shall Put His Hand Upon The Head
“And he shall put his hand upon the head of the burnt offering; and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him.”
Leviticus 1:4
The whole system turns on this gesture. The worshipper lays his hand on the animal’s head — leaning his weight on it, identifying with it — and then kills it himself. What was true of him passes to it; what happens to it counts for him. “Accepted for him” is the language of a substitute standing in. Isaiah puts the same picture into words centuries later: “the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6).
An Offering Made By Fire, Of A Sweet Savour
“But his inwards and his legs shall he wash in water: and the priest shall burn all on the altar, to be a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the LORD.”
Leviticus 1:9
Of the burnt offering, nothing is kept back. The peace offering is shared and the sin offering is partly eaten by the priests, but this one goes up entire — it is the offering of total self-surrender, holding nothing in reserve. Paul reaches for exactly this phrase to describe the cross: Christ “hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour” (Ephesians 5:2). What the fire did to the bullock, love did to Him.
Fine Flour, And No Leaven
“And when any will offer a meat offering unto the LORD, his offering shall be of fine flour; and he shall pour oil upon it, and put frankincense thereon: And he shall bring it to Aaron’s sons the priests: and he shall take thereout his handful of the flour thereof, and of the oil thereof, with all the frankincense thereof; and the priest shall burn the memorial of it upon the altar.”
Leviticus 2:1-2
The “meat offering” in the King James English is a grain offering — no blood at all. It is the gift of a life’s work: flour ground fine, oil poured through it, incense laid on top, a token handful burned and the rest given to the priests to eat. And a rule: “ye shall burn no leaven, nor any honey, in any offering of the LORD made by fire” (Leviticus 2:11). Leaven is corruption spreading quietly; honey ferments. The offering that pictures a human life lived toward God has to be a life with nothing souring in it — which no one but Christ ever brought.
A Sacrifice Of Peace Offering
“And if his oblation be a sacrifice of peace offering, if he offer it of the herd; whether it be a male or female, he shall offer it without blemish before the LORD. And he shall lay his hand upon the head of his offering, and kill it at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.”
Leviticus 3:1-2
The peace offering is the only sacrifice the worshipper gets to eat. The fat is burned to God, a portion goes to the priest, and the rest becomes a meal for the family in God’s courtyard — reconciliation you can sit down to. “All the fat is the LORD’s” (Leviticus 3:16): the richest part is His by right. Peace with God is real, and it is shared, and it still costs the best of the animal.
If A Soul Shall Sin Through Ignorance
“Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If a soul shall sin through ignorance against any of the commandments of the LORD concerning things which ought not to be done, and shall do against any of them.”
Leviticus 4:2
The sin offering deals with the sin a person did not even know they were committing. Ignorance does not make the guilt disappear — “though he wist it not, yet is he guilty, and shall bear his iniquity” (Leviticus 5:17) — but it can be atoned for: “the priest shall make an atonement for them, and it shall be forgiven them” (Leviticus 4:20). The trespass offering goes one step further and adds a requirement that no ritual can replace:
“And it shall be, when he shall be guilty in one of these things, that he shall confess that he hath sinned in that thing.”
Leviticus 5:5
Bring the lamb, and say out loud what it is for. Where a neighbour was wronged, chapter 6 adds repayment in full plus a fifth. Confession and restitution are built into the sacrifice; forgiveness was never meant to be cheap or silent. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins” (1 John 1:9) is the same law, still standing.
The Fire Shall Ever Be Burning
“And the fire upon the altar shall be burning in it; it shall not be put out: and the priest shall burn wood on it every morning, and lay the burnt offering in order upon it… The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar; it shall never go out.”
Leviticus 6:12-13
Every morning a priest built up the fire and laid the day’s offering on it; the altar was never cold. Chapter 7 gathers the five sacrifices into a single sentence — “This is the law of the burnt offering, of the meat offering, and of the sin offering, and of the trespass offering… and of the sacrifice of the peace offerings” (Leviticus 7:37) — one system, taught in the wilderness of Sinai, all of it aimed at one death still centuries away.
“The ceremonial system was made up of symbols pointing to Christ, to His sacrifice and His priesthood. This ritual law, with its sacrifices and ordinances, was to be performed by the Hebrews until type met antitype in the death of Christ, the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. Then all the sacrificial offerings were to cease.”
Ellen G. White · Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 365
Read as ritual, Leviticus 1-7 is a butcher’s manual. Read as prophecy, it is the gospel in diagram form: a spotless substitute, a hand laid on its head, blood that atones, a life wholly given, confession spoken aloud, peace to sit down to, and a fire that never goes out. The next studies follow the priests who did this work — and the two who did it their own way.
