I'm late posting today - I had a shock last night when I checked my diary and saw that I'd agreed to take an assembly for a colleague this morning. Snce I'd forgotten all about it, I had to sacrifice my early morning Bible reading time for some frantic assembly writing.
So, somewhat belatedly - Happy Valentine's Day, everyone.
Today we are thinking about the heart of Israelite worship. Very different from ours - it was all about killing animals. Seems weird. But then, our worship seems weird to outsiders - we’re either singing soppy songs or victorian hymns, sometimes reading Elizabethan words to each other, and all in a funny pointy building.
The Israelites were giving up their currency, their treasure, their future, every time they killed an animal. Especially while they were in the desert. This took faith, courage and real dedication.
Day of Atonement
Leviticus 16:1-34
Necessity of blood sacrifice
Leviticus 17:1-6
Offerings described
Leviticus 7:37-38
The burnt offering from the herds
Leviticus 1:1-9
The burnt offering from the flocks and the fowls
Leviticus 1:10-17
Concerning the burnt offering
Leviticus 6:8-13
“Scapegoat” is a word that we use today. And here is its origin. On the head of a goat were laid the sins of the whole community, and it was led away into the wilderness and released. Far, far away, taking the people’s sins with it. A graphic picture of atonement.
But most of the animals brought to the tabernacle were to be burnt. God obviously likes the smell of roasting meat! It was all to be done here, no crafty sacrificing an animal anywhere else, to any other gods that you might think of. And God invests great significance in the blood. It was the essence of life, in people’s thinking, and life was God’s gift in the first place - he had breathed it into his creation. So people couldn’t take it for themselves. Thy weren’t to drink it, or eat meat with the blood still in - as another reminder that life came from God, and returned back to him.
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