Behind the Scenes of Biblical Scenes, Pt. 6
Study Guide, September 22, 2024
Pastor Clay Olsen
When you hold the Bible in your hands, you are holding a miracle. The Bible is a miracle book. It is the only book whose Author is from outside of Planet Earth. In fact, the Author of this Book is not only the Creator of this Book, but also the Creator of this Earth, the Sun, and the Stars. This book is also the only Book that has 40 sub-authors or scribes who were inspired by the original author to record His record and revelations to this world. Yes, God allowed them to use their own personality and writing styles, but the message they compiled was God’s message. In fact, the Bible was written over a span of 1600 years by kings, fishermen, diplomats, prophets, shepherds, lawyers, doctors, soldiers, historians, and many others. It is really 66 different books, whose writers wrote on hundreds of subjects, including life, marriage, family, worship, work, eternity, and more, but all in perfect harmony in its message of redemption and the values for living life, now and throughout eternity. It is a miracle indeed! And it contains wondrous revelations for us to learn and to live out and to celebrate.
Even the wonders of the early followers of God in their ceremonial sacrifices still speak to us today. We started looking into those wonders last week as we looked behind the scenes of the Levitical sacrifices to see not only what they were all about then, but even how they still have lessons for us today. So let’s return and look deeper into Leviticus.
Last time we explored the ceremonies of the Burnt Offering and the Grain Offering, with the Burnt Offering picturing Christ’s perfect and sinless sacrifice to remove the penalty of our sins and to provide for the forgiveness of sins, and the Grain Offering picturing Christ as the giver of both life and the provisions for life. Let’s now look behind the scenes of the Peace Offering and both its purpose and its many applications. We’ll open it up through what is stated in Lev 7:11-14- “These are the instructions regarding the different kinds of peace offerings that may be presented to the Lord. If you present your peace offering as an expression of thanksgiving, the usual animal sacrifice must be accompanied by various kinds of bread made without yeast—thin cakes mixed with olive oil, wafers spread with oil, and cakes made of choice flour mixed with olive oil. This peace offering of thanksgiving must also be accompanied by loaves of bread made with yeast. One of each kind of bread must be presented as a gift to the Lord…” NLT
Among the remarkable things about the Peace Offering is that it allowed for ‘different kinds of offerings’. Let’s explore. For one thing, this offering served as being an opportunity for God’s people to celebrate their peace with God. This is the only offering in which the worshiper received a portion of the offering as well. This was a direct picture of the wonder of the peace and the fellowship that we can have with God. And of course, that was made possible for us through the final offering of Christ Himself to make peace between God and man. Paul put it like this in Rom 5:1-2- “Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory.” NLT Through the loving sacrifice of our Savior we have both peace ‘with’ God and the peace ‘of’ God. As we have pointed out before, many people want to have the peace ‘of’ God in their life, but they have not first come to God in repentance of their sin and faith in Jesus for His forgiveness in order to make peace ‘with’ God. Peace ‘with’ God precedes any experiential gift of the peace ‘of’ God.
But, whenever anyone turns to God from sin and self to follow Christ and trusts in Christ’s sacrifice to forgive them, Christ then grants then both His forgiveness and His life, along with peace ‘with’ God and the peace ‘of’ God.
Plus, this offering not only allowed for a deeper communion with God, but also a deeper communion with others, as the offering could be shared with family and friends. It pictures something else that Paul said about what Christ’s ‘peace’ offering accomplished. Look at this: Eph 2:14- “For Christ Himself has brought peace to us. He united Jews and Gentiles into one people when, in His own body on the cross, He broke down the wall of hostility that separated us.”, 17-18- “He brought this Good News of peace to you Gentiles who were far away from Him, and peace to the Jews who were near. Now all of us can come to the Father through the same Holy Spirit because of what Christ has done for us.” NLT
Because of the sacrifice offering that Jesus Christ made of His own life, He both brought reconciliation between us and God, but also reconciliation between God’s people of Israel and God’s people of His Church. This part of God’s plan was a mystery for thousands of years until this final Peace Offering was made by Jesus Christ. Then, as Paul explains: Eph 3:3-6- “As I briefly wrote earlier, God Himself revealed His mysterious plan to me. As you read what I have written, you will understand my insight into this plan regarding Christ. God did not reveal it to previous generations, but now by His Spirit He has revealed it to His holy apostles and prophets. And this is God’s plan: Both Gentiles and Jews who believe the Good News share equally in the riches inherited by God’s children. Both are part of the same body, and both enjoy the promise of blessings because they belong to Christ Jesus.” NLT
God’s plan and covenant promises for believing Israel will be fulfilled, but so will God’s plan for His Church, as both those who believe from the Gentiles and those who believe from among the Jews all become the forever children of God, and also His personal heirs who will inherit His New Earth and New Heavens, along with all the privileges that come with being fellow heirs with Christ.
Let’s look into the next offering…called the Sin Offering. Lev 4:1-3- “Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘If a person sins unintentionally in any of the things which the Lord has commanded not to be done, and commits any of them, if the anointed priest sins so as to bring guilt on the people, then let him offer to the Lord a bull without defect as a sin offering for the sin he has committed.” NASU
One of the fascinating things about this ‘Sin offering’ was that it was not a provision that depicted their restored relationship of salvation, like with the Guilt offering, but it depicted having restored fellowship with God. This offering was about their sanctification…about how they could be cleansed from their sin in order to have fellowship with God and then be used of God. This ‘Sin offering’ was to the believing Israelites what 1 John 1:9 is to the believers of the Church Age. Notice: 1 John 1:9- “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” NASU As those who have once and for all been forgiven the penalty of our sins, this is the means for us to be forgiven from the daily presence of our sins. And although the presence of our sins cannot cause us to lose our salvation, still, if we do not ask God for their forgiveness, it will cause us to lose our fellowship with God, and it will interfere with our usefulness for God.
It’s like with what we find in the teaching of Timothy concerning the usefulness of our lives. 2 Tim 2:20-21- “Now in a large house there are not only gold and silver vessels, but also vessels of wood and of earthenware, and some to honor and some to dishonor. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from these things, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work.” NASU Day by day we choose how useful to God we are going to be. And part of the answer to that is how much we desire to be cleansed from the presence of our sins, so that our lives become more and more consecrated to our Master, who can then use us in doing the works that He planned for us from the foundation of the world. Remember, the definition of true success in your life is: Usefulness to God. Success equals ‘Usefulness to God’! If you are not ‘useful to God’, and yet seemingly succeed in every other temporal aspect of your life, then you have failed in the purpose for which you were made and saved. Again, the measure of your success in life is the measure of your usefulness to God. And we can only be as useful as we are committed to being sanctified…to living under the Lordship of Christ, being more and more cleansed from the presence of sin and becoming more and more like our Savior in character and conduct.
So, if coming to God in daily confession of sin for the purpose of closer fellowship with God and greater usefulness to God has not been a practice in your life…make sure that you add that to your daily habits. Make coming to God for your daily cleansing from the presence of your sins a holy habit of your life. It will not only make you more sensitive to God, but it will also allow the Spirit of God to both use you and to grow the fruit of the Holy Spirit in you, which is the most fulfilling way to experience life anyway. Plus, just like in this ‘Sin offering’, John tells us that if we confess the sins we know about, God will also cleanse us from the other unintentional sins that we are not aware of… How gracious and merciful is our great God!
But now there was another aspect of this sacrifice that puts a perspective on the attitude we need in order to live as a sanctified or set apart follower of Christ. Notice: Lev 4:11-12- “But the hide of the bull and all its flesh with its head and its legs and its entrails and its refuse, that is, all the rest of the bull, he is to bring out to a clean place outside the camp where the ashes are poured out, and burn it on wood with fire; where the ashes are poured out it shall be burned.” NASU ‘Outside the camp?’ Now where have we heard that before? Remember, these offerings that were begun in Leviticus were given as symbols of what the Savior would accomplish. These sacrifices were previews or pictures of what the Messiah would fulfill as He completed His perfect offering of sin on behalf of all who would believe. So the writer of Hebrews uses this very picture to exhort all followers of Christ to courageously identify with the Savior and to refuse to compromise with the world or with any religious system that distorts the Gospel of Christ. Notice: Heb 13:11-13- “For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy place by the high priest as an offering for sin, are burned outside the camp. Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people through His own blood, suffered outside the gate. So, let us go out to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach.” NASU
Remember, Jesus was crucified outside the city, as the false teachers deemed Jesus to be unclean and defiled in the eyes of their arrogant and judgmental religious attitudes. Much of the world still treats followers of Christ as unclean and defiled, to be removed from their religious or social associations. But just like our Lord Jesus stood up to the crowds of the world and took a stand for truth and righteousness and justice, we too, as His followers, are to take the same stand of loyalty to our God and to not compromise the message of the Gospel and the truths of Christ’s coming Kingdom. And remember, God plus one is a majority in any crowd!
The last offering was referred to as the Guilt offering, or Trespass offering. And if only the whole world would practice the principles that we see in this Trespass offering, our justice systems would work 100% better than they do now. What do we mean? Well, let’s look. Lev 6:1-7- “Then the Lord said to Moses, “Suppose one of you sins against your associate and is unfaithful to the Lord. Suppose you cheat in a deal involving a security deposit, or you steal or commit fraud, or you find lost property and lie about it, or you lie while swearing to tell the truth, or you commit any other such sin. If you have sinned in any of these ways, you are guilty. You must give back whatever you stole, or the money you took by extortion, or the security deposit, or the lost property you found, or anything obtained by swearing falsely. You must make restitution by paying the full price plus an additional 20 percent to the person you have harmed. On the same day you must present a guilt offering. As a guilt offering to the Lord, you must bring to the priest your own ram with no defects, or you may buy one of equal value. Through this process, the priest will purify you before the Lord, making you right with him, and you will be forgiven for any of these sins you have committed.” NLT
Now we’re on to something! This passage should be posted in every jail house and every courthouse and in every place where the laws of the land are taught and carried out. This Law of Restitution was not only ‘just and fair’ but it was also a powerful deterrent to crime among the people. If you knew that if you stole 100 sheep or oxen or cattle from someone else’s property that you would not only have to return the 100, but in addition, you would also have to give them back twenty more in restitution, you would be powerfully influenced to not steal them in the first place. And this deterrent factor would rise as the crime or crimes got worse, whether they would be crimes of property or crimes of physical harm. The restitution for your crime would grow heavier and harsher for the criminal.
But can you imagine the impact for good if all people everywhere, if America, would follow the legal requirements for justice as revealed in the Scriptures? If they would just follow this Law of Restitution alone it would bring an immense change for good in the lives of people in every town and county and state in our country. But, once more, this is the difference between choosing to live according to God’s wisdom or to stumble and fall according to man’s foolishness.
But another lesson for everyone from this is to understand that sin always costs you. The devil deceives people into thinking that there is ‘gain’ in sin. But the truth is that whatever the sinner thinks will be ‘gain’ will always be ‘loss’. For the unrepentant sinner, there will be the loss of their soul in Gehenna Hell. For the saved, but yet unfaithful saint, there will be loss of rewards and loss of privileges in the Kingdom of Heaven. Choose wisely…always choose God’s revelation over man’s reasoning.
But how fascinating to see in these Levitical ceremonies both the practical daily laws for these Old Covenant Israelites and the prophetic teachings and lessons for us New Covenant believers. How amazing that these sacrificial offerings all pointed to the Savior’s ultimate offering of His own life and death to both fulfill these laws and to fulfill everything necessary to redeem God’s people and provide a way to have daily fellowship with our Creator and our Savior.