The Burnt Offering

In the first chapter the full procedure of sacrifice is described. Regarding the Burnt offering, everything is consumed by the fire – it marks a complete exhaustion of wrath and an end of sin, all come to an end in death. Everything goes back to God, it was voluntary, a male animal sacrificed to God to make propitiation for the people’s sins against the Lord. To propitiate for sin in general, a means of approach by unholy people to God who is holy. Only the blood is spared from the flames. The offerings were close to hand, taken from their own flocks and herds and thy were also voluntary. The offeror came to the door of the tabernacle and immediately faced the altar, he came to sacrifice in order to worship God. The offeror puts his hand firmly on the head of the victim, thus identifying himself with the offering which is accepted by God as an atonement for his sin, the offeror may also be involved in the killing of the animal,

“Then he shall put his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it will be accepted on his behalf to make atonement for him. He shall kill the bull before the Lord; and the priests, Aaron’s sons, shall bring the blood and sprinkle the blood all around on the altar that is by the door of the tabernacle of meeting” (1:4-5).

The animal is then prepared for sacrifice,

“And he shall skin the burnt offering and cut it into its pieces. The sons of Aaron the priest shall put fire on the altar and lay the wood in order on the fire. Then the priests, Aaron’s sons, shall lay the parts, the head, and the fat in order on the wood that is on the fire upon the altar; but he shall wash its entrails and its legs with water. And the priest shall burn all on the altar as a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, a sweet aroma to the Lord” (vv6-9).

The first thing to be done to the sacrificial victim was to skin it and then the animal is butchered according to a prescribed procedure. To tear off the skin is to remove the animals protective covering and exposes the carcase to the knife, when the animal is cut into pieces its body is totally dismembered and then it its parts are placed, in order, on the burning fire of the altar and consumed. The wood had already been laid in order on the altar and then lighted in order to consume the sacrifice. The “offering made by fire,” a sacrifice on which the fire feeds, is “a sweet savour to the Lord.” I think the spiritual meaning of the skinning of the animal is like the stripping of the soul from its pretence, its dependence on its own righteousness which leads to the exposure of the body of sin in all its vileness. I do believe on the other hand that the whole process of sacrificing the sacrificial animal to the laying each part on the burning fire of the altar is a picture of the sufferings of Jesus to gain salvation for us. The laying out of the wood in preparation for the sacrifice speaks of the fact that God prepared a body for Him with sacrifice in mind and this is exactly according to the typology of Hebrews.