Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Leviticus chapter 4 verses 27 through 31:
27 If anyone of the ordinary people among you sins unintentionally in doing any one of the things that by the Lord’s commandments ought not to be done and incurs guilt, 28 when the sin that you have committed is made known to you, you shall bring a female goat without blemish as your offering, for the sin that you have committed. 29 You shall lay your hand on the head of the sin offering; and the sin offering shall be slaughtered at the place of the burnt offering. 30 The priest shall take some of its blood with his finger and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering, and he shall pour out the rest of its blood at the base of the altar. 31 He shall remove all its fat, as the fat is removed from the offering of well-being, and the priest shall turn it into smoke on the altar for a pleasing odor to the Lord. Thus the priest shall make atonement on your behalf, and you shall be forgiven.
At the heart of the book of Leviticus is the human need to make atonement before God. Whether this need is heavenly or earthly, juridical or psychological, we know for sure it is deeply theological. It has to do with our relationship with God.
In Leviticus there is an interesting phrase that comes up again and again relative to the atonement offerings of made of animals on the Tabernacle altar: “the priest shall turn it into smoke on the altar”.
The phrasing “turn it into smoke” is intentional and different from simple burning or incineration. At the altar the offering is not destroyed by fire but rather transformed into a sacred smoke rising up to heaven.
Later in the New Testament, Paul will speak of his own works using the burnt offering as a metaphor for his work for the church, which he says — even if fruitless — he prays is a sacred and pleasing offering to God.
Nothing is ever destroyed on God’s altar, so long as it is given genuinely and with humility before God. What is offered in the spirit of a desire for atonement (oneness) with God is pleasing to God. And nothing is incinerated— ever. It is transformed and turned into smoke on the altar of the LORD.
NOTE: Tomorrow’s Lesson will come from Leviticus chapters 5 through 7.
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