2. “An Acceptable and Pleasing Gift to the LORD” (Leviticus 1 and 2)

                                “An Acceptable and Pleasing Gift to the LORD”

                                                            Leviticus 1:1-9, 2:1-3

Whenever tragic events happen like the one that happened in this past week with the assassination of Charlie Kirk, a preacher always faces the decision of whether to try to say something relevant to the moment. Sometimes it’s wise to try to biblically address the specific issue. But I believe it also at times can be wise to choose instead to turn our attention from the events of the moment, however important they are, and seek to find strength and wisdom in what is timeless and eternal.

That’s what I would like to do this morning: to turn our attention to a book that feels ancient and to ask a timeless question. What kind of relationship does God desire for us to have with him? What kind of relationship does God desire for us to have with him? 

This is a slightly different question from what is often asked. We tend to talk about the kind of relationship with God that we want. It’s common to speak of a search for meaning, to look for a relationship with God that WE find fulfilling. But this is rather narcissistic, isn’t it? Doesn’t it seem important, in fact much more important, to ask what God wants this relationship to be like? What kind of relationship with God is pleasing to him?    

God answers this question for us. In his word he describes for us the relationship with him that he desires for us, the relationship that is pleasing to him. This is, in fact, what Leviticus is about.

Nearness and Relationship

We mentioned last week that Leviticus is written in response to the question, “How can we, as sinful human beings, draw near to the living God?” As you might remember, at the end of Exodus, God’s glory dwells in the tabernacle, but Moses is not able to enter. So what can be done? How can sinful human beings draw near to the living God? 

From the outset, Leviticus picks up on that question: nearness is front and center. Because that’s clearer in the Hebrew, let me offer a really clunky literal translation of verses 2 and 3: “When a man from among you brings near something to bring near to the Lord, it is from your livestock, herd or flock that you shall bring near your object to bring near. If his object to bring near is an ascension offering from the herd, he shall bring near a male without blemish. He shall bring it near to the entrance of the tent of meeting so that he might be accepted before the face of the Lord.” 

And what it’s important for us to understand is that this language of “nearness” is really talking about relationship. Whenever we are talking about distance or proximity to God, we’re not speaking literally, as if God is somehow physically present in one place but not another. God is not limited to location. Rather, it’s figurative language for relationship. We speak like this all the time, don’t we? At college you and someone might have become really “close,” but now over time you’ve become more distant from each other, growing far apart. You hear that? It’s metaphoric. It makes sense we would speak that way, because proximity and relationship are often closely related. When people dislike each other, they try not to be in the same room as each other; when a young couple really like each other, you can never pull them apart. Physical proximity often is a metaphor for relational closeness.  

So also here. When the Bible speaks about drawing near to God or being far from him, it’s speaking about one’s relationship with God. When Leviticus is telling us how sinful humanity can draw near to God, it’s talking to us about how we are supposed to relate to God. That’s why in verse 3 it speaks of how a person “may be accepted before—literally, before the face—of the Lord.” It’s talking about what is needed for us to be able to have an ongoing, personal relationship with God where our sin does not keep us from him. “What kind of relationship does God desire for us to have with him?” Leviticus offers us an answer.

Or, more precisely, God offers us an answer. Because these instructions come from God: on 35 different occasions in Leviticus these instructions are preceded by “the LORD spoke to Moses.” The LORD is the one instructing his people on how they can relate to him. That’s important. A relationship with God is not just something we strive for, something we’re hoping might happen if God lets us. It’s what God wants for us. Even before people’s sins are dealt with, God has already loved them. Even before they have learned how to turn to him, he has turned to them and is seeking to enable them to draw near to him. While Leviticus is clear that God is holy, that God cannot be a friend to sin, we also see a God who loves and has chosen to be a friend to sinners.

Sacrifices are Relationship-Enablers

And as God instructs his people about how to relate to him, he talks to them about sacrifices. In a somewhat mysterious fashion, sacrifices offer a pathway for relationship. They are given to supply something that is lacking in God’s people, to provide for Israelites something that is necessary for them to have a right relationship with God. If you look with me at verse 4, you’ll notice how the offering is in order to “make atonement” for those who are drawing near. The word here for atonement has a range of meanings: sometimes it’s about cleansing or covering or even sometimes paying a ransom. The common theme throughout is supplies something that is lacking to make a relationship possible. That’s what the sacrifices were for: in them God provided something Israel needed in order to have the kind of ongoing relationship with God that he desires for them. Sacrifices were given as relationship enablers.

In Leviticus there are a few different types of these relationship-enabling sacrifices, and those types correspond to different aspects of having and maintaining a relationship. As an analogy, consider what’s involved in a healthy marriage relationship. In a typical marriage, there are times when one or both of the spouses have done something wrong that has hurt the relationship so that now the two remain distant from each other. What is needed to maintain the relationship is some act of repair, usually a combination of apologizing and forgiving. In the same way the guilt and sacrifice offerings that will be described in chapters 4 and 5 are the way for Israelites to repair their relationship with God when they have done something to hurt it.

Another aspect of maintaining a healthy marriage is to have times together that focus on deepening the connection with each other. Like a date night, where the whole purpose is just to enjoy each other’s company and the relationship they have. In the same way, the point of the peace or fellowship offering described in chapter 3 is to facilitate a connection and delight in the relationship God’s people enjoy with God.  

Of course, when it comes to maintaining a marriage, it’s not all about either working through conflicts or having date nights. The very core of a marriage is the ongoing day-in-day-out commitment of seeking to love each other and be faithful to each other. And that is how we should think of the sacrifice we find in this morning’s passage in chapter 1: it’s a sacrifice that helps maintain the core of the relationship between God and his people. 

The burnt offering, probably better translated as the “ascension offering” is what you might call the baseline offering; it’s the bread and butter of sacrifices. The altar in the courts of the tabernacle is named the altar of the ascension offering, because the ascension offering is what is offered every morning and every night. And the ascension offering goes with the other key offerings: when a peace offering is made, it is to be offered on top of the ascension offering. When there’s a sin offering, it is to be immediately followed by an ascension offering. The ascension offering is the core of the relationship-enabling sacrificial system. Which means it is the most important offering for us to understand what kind of relationship God wants us to have with him.

The Ascension Offering

Three aspects to this offering are especially important to notice.   

First, it requires a substitute representative. Notice in verse 2 that God says that an offering must be from the flock, that is, not some wild animal that is caught, but rather an animal that belongs to the worshiper. You need to have a personal connection with it. Furthermore, we see in verse 4 that as the worshiper comes into the tabernacle courts with the animal, the first thing that he is to do is to place his hand, literally lean his hand upon so that the animal is supporting him. And the idea here is a kind of transfer: as he presses on the animal, he is saying, “This animal is me,” or if it’s a priest offering for the people, “This animal is us.” This animal is the person’s or people’s representative. Specifically, it is a more perfect version of the worshiper: notice how verse 3 also tells us that this animal must be without blemish; he is faultless. The animal, you might say, is what the worshiper should be but has fallen short of. The animal is a faultless substitute representative. 

Second thing we need to notice, and this will take a bit longer, is that the primary action of the ascension offering is complete devotion. Right after the worshiper leans upon the animal to establish it as his representative, he kills the animal by cutting its throat. After the priests drain the blood of the animal and splash some of it on the altar, the worshiper cuts the animal into pieces, and then, every single part of the animal, piece by piece, is burnt. This completeness is what distinguishes the ascension offering from all the other offerings—verse 9 “The priest shall burn all of it on the altar.” That is the point. It‘s an action of complete consecration, where all if it is being devoted. Remember, if you are the person offering the sacrifices, this animal symbolically is you, an ideal version of you. And as the priest places one piece of animal after another on the fire, it would feel like an enacted prayer. “All of who I am, I give to you.” 

Often this offering was accompanied by a second kind of offering which we see in chapter 2, where grain or fruit is added, symbolizing that along with a giving of self, there is also a giving of wealth. The idea expressed was “All that I am and all that I have, I give to you.” 

The ascension offering shows us that this is the fundamental nature of the relationship God wants us to have with him. It is a relationship of complete self-surrender to God, to give to him 100% of who you are without remainder. 

See, one of the effects sin has on us is that we become fearful and protective. We want to hold on to control, to hold on tightly to ourselves, so that we are our own masters, but that never works well. We were always meant to love, we were always meant to give ourselves to something, and when we don’t, our lives shrink and harden. We know that deep down, so often in our sinful confusion we give ourselves away, but we give ourselves to something other than God. We give ourselves to our careers and ambitions, and discover that they are unforgiving and they devour us. Or we give ourselves to our families, and though it is good to love others, we eventually discover that when we make a person our everything, too much weight is placed upon that relationship and it crumbles. 

We are meant to give ourselves away in love to God alone, the one who made us and who stands at the center of this universe. God is the one who deserves our complete devotion. 

And complete devotion to God is the only way we can be complete and whole. When Leviticus tells us that God wants us to have a relationship of complete devotion to him, this is not because God is somehow lacking. It’s because God loves us and knows what we need. Giving ourselves to God does not empty us or diminish us, because God is not a black hole of need. He is the fountain of life. As we give ourselves to him, we receive ourselves back in greater fullness. 

This is what it means to have a right and healthy relationship with God. As Paul puts it in Romans, it is to “Offer your bodies as a living sacrifice to God.” He’s using here the language of the ascension offering. All that I am, all that I have, I give to you. It’s about complete devotion.

The third thing to notice about the ascension offering is the outcome; the conclusion of this offering is God’s pleasure and welcome. Earlier we mentioned that “ascension offering” is a better translation. That’s because the word used emphasizes that in burning, it’s causing something to go upward. Likewise, the word in verse 9 translated “burn” emphasizes the idea of “transforming into smoke.” All that’s intentional. Once the animal that represents the worshiper is entirely dedicated to God, it is transformed by fire, you might say by divine fire, and so then it ascends upward, into heaven. Complete dedication to God allows it to enter into God’s presence. Verse 9 tells us how God responds. It is a pleasing aroma to God. This blameless representative, this perfected version of the worshiper, as it is completely offered without remainder, brings delight to God.

If you were a worshiper in that time, this was what you were meant to understand. As you saw the smoke rising up to heaven, the transformed version of this animal that was a representation of you, you would reflect on what God’s promise told you: that this gift rising to God was pleasing to him. You would leave the tabernacle understanding that in some way, through your perfected representative, God was welcoming you and taking pleasure in you.

This is a picture of the kind of relationship with God that he wants us to have with him. This is a picture of a relationship that is pleasing to him.

The Ultimate Meaning of the Ascension Offering

Now this sacrifice, as significant as it was, was still only a stopgap. God was providing this set of symbols to develop in Israel an understanding of the kind of atonement God was committed to providing. The animals themselves were not sufficient for atonement, not enough to supply what was lacking. This is clear from the fact that even with these offerings, the worshiper still was not cleansed enough to enter the tabernacles, and also from the fact that the ascension offering needed to be offered again and again; one time was never enough. The implication was plain: their sin was not yet fully atoned for. These sacrifices were given as a shadow, pointing beyond themselves, teaching the people of Israel to wait for a greater atonement that God would one day provide.

The ascension offering shows us the relationship with God that Jesus gives us through his atonement. Because Jesus is our ascension offering. Consider again the three aspects we mentioned. First, Jesus came to be a representative substitute: he entered this world and took on flesh as one of us, born of Mary. He identified himself with us, being baptized side by side with sinful humanity, choosing to represent us. And like the animal being sacrificed, Jesus was blameless without sin, a perfect and complete version of what you and I were meant to be.

And, secondly, Jesus’ life from beginning to end was one of entire devotion. He was the one who worshiped God perfectly. He entirely entrusted himself to the Father, always seeking to do his will. “All that I am, and all that I have, I give to you, Heavenly Father,” was the prayer of his life, fully expressed when he offered his body and his life unto death on the cross. He did that as our representative.

And, finally, when he offered himself completely unto death, he was transformed. Jesus was resurrected into a new Spirit filled, life-filled body. Like smoke ascending into the sky, the resurrected Jesus ascended into heaven and as our substitute, our representative, was received with joy by God the Father.

And all of that was done so that you and I could experience the relationship that God wants us to have with him. This is a gift you and I are meant to receive. When someone trusts in Jesus, it is the same as when the worshiper in Leviticus leans his hand upon the bull. It is to say, “Jesus, I am yours, and you are mine; who I am goes with you.” That’s what it is to be a Christian: it is to claim Jesus as our representative. 

When a person trusts in Jesus like that, identifying with him, it also means we are joining with him. In the same way that Jesus offered himself completely to God, if you claim Jesus as your own, you are choosing to join with him so that his prayer is now yours as well, “All that I am and all that I have belongs to you, O God.” 

And when we join with Jesus in this way, something wonderful happens. The flawed gift of yourself and your dedication becomes beautiful in God’s sight. Even though you and I are not blameless, Jesus is. And his blamelessness becomes ours. Even though our best moments of devotion and dedication to God are still filled with mixed motives and hesitation, Jesus’ devotion is pure and steadfast; through him, your sin is cleansed and your imperfection is made perfect. Because Jesus has supplied what is lacking. Jesus has atoned for you. 

We’ve mentioned that Romans 12 says, “Offer your bodies as a living sacrifice”; it goes on to say that because of Jesus, this offering of ourselves is now holy and pleasing to God.” What a remarkable thing that is. The Christian life is a gradual process of learning to give ourselves to God. Over time we learn, bit by bit, what it means to love God with all of our heart; what it means to devote all of our energy and our resources in service to him. At any point in time, if we are honest we are probably aware that we are not yet where it should be. Our best efforts are still tainted by our sin. And yet as we give these things to God, God does not look in revulsion and say, “What is that? Don’t you see how poor your gift is? How halfhearted it is?” No. Every little moment when we remember to give thanks and depend on God, every occasion when in service to God we stop to consider the needs of others, every time when we painfully choose to let go of our own desires and give ourselves in love, each of those moments are now like gifts rising up to heaven, gifts that please God. God looks at us and looks at what we have done, and smiles. Because of the atonement we have in Jesus.