Leviticus 1:2-4

Leviticus 1:2-4 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. If his offering be a burnt sacrifice of the herd, let him offer a male without blemish: he shall offer it of his own voluntary will at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the LORD. 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. The Book of Leviticus gets its name from the Levites, who were the priests and descendants of Levi, one of Jacob’s twelve sons. Leviticus goes right with the book of Exodus. When the children of Israel were freed from the Egyptians and left Egypt for the Promised Land, God gave them things to do to remind them of how He viewed things. God told them to make sacrifices to remind them that sin had a death penalty. But by bringing an animal to sacrifice instead, the animal could take their place in the death sentence. The sacrificial animal died in the place of the sinner. And that ceremony was a picture of what Jesus would do for sinners on the cross of Calvary – Jesus would die as their substitute. But the Old Testament sacrifices had to be done every year. The priest and the people were never finished. The animal sacrifices never ended. But Jesus Christ died on the cross once and for all! When Jesus died, is last words were, “It is finished!” And there was never a need for another sacrifice again. Jesus paid for our sins once and for all. So let’s look at the word pictures in the book of Leviticus and see how the sacrifices point to Jesus, the perfect Lamb of God.