The Book of Leviticus

Hebrew Study

Explanation

"It came to pass on the eighth day." The seven days of consecration were complete, and now the newly ordained priesthood began its work. Moses called Aaron, his sons, and the elders, and told Aaron to take a calf and a ram for his own offerings, and a range of offerings for the people, "for to day the LORD will appear unto you." He repeats it as the reason for everything: "This is the thing which the LORD commanded that ye should do: and the glory of the LORD shall appear unto you." All the washing and robing, all the blood and fire, all the careful obedience, had one goal: that the glory of the LORD would be seen. The offerings were not an end in themselves. They were the appointed way to the manifest presence of God.

Gospel Focus

"The glory of the LORD shall appear unto you." This is the aim of all true worship, not merely to perform a duty but to come into the manifest presence of God. Everything God commanded was ordered toward this one end, that His people would behold His glory. We can be so occupied with the mechanics of religion that we forget its purpose; the offerings were never meant to satisfy in themselves, but to bring the worshiper to God. And notice the way to the glory was through obedience and blood, "this is the thing which the LORD commanded," followed by the sacrifices. It is still so. The glory of God is revealed to us "in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Corinthians 4:6), through the blood of His cross and the path of obedient faith. Do not settle for the forms of worship while missing its goal. God still means for His people to see His glory; let that be what you seek when you come to Him.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

Moses sent Aaron to the altar with a clear order: "offer thy sin offering, and thy burnt offering, and make an atonement for thyself," and only then "offer the offering of the people." Aaron obeyed. He "slew the calf of the sin offering, which was for himself," presented his burnt offering, and then brought the people's sin offering, burnt offering, meat offering, and peace offerings, doing each "as the LORD commanded" and "according to the manner." The order mattered: the priest was atoned for before he made atonement for others. A sinner himself, Aaron could not stand for the people until he had first been dealt with by the blood. Step by step, offering by offering, he did exactly what God had said, and the ministry of the tabernacle began in careful obedience.

Gospel Focus

Aaron had to offer for his own sin before he could offer for the people, and that necessity marks the distance between him and our great High Priest. Aaron's ministry began at the altar of his own guilt; Christ's did not, "for such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners" (Hebrews 7:26). Where Aaron brought a calf for himself, Jesus had nothing to atone for and instead became the offering for us. The repeated sinful priest was a standing reminder that Israel still awaited a sinless one. Yet Aaron's example still instructs every servant of God: we must be right with God ourselves before we can lead others to Him. The one who would make Christ known to others must first have come to the cross himself. All ministry flows from a life already dealt with by the blood, and no one can bring others nearer to God than he has come himself.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

His offerings finished, "Aaron lifted up his hand toward the people, and blessed them," and came down from the altar. Then Moses and Aaron "went into the tabernacle of the congregation, and came out, and blessed the people." At that moment, after the sacrifices, the obedience, and the blessing, "the glory of the LORD appeared unto all the people." The promise of verse 6 was kept. The glory was not for the priests alone in a hidden place; it appeared to the whole congregation. Everything had led to this: the blood shed, the offerings accepted, the priest's hands lifted in blessing, and then the manifest presence of God breaking upon the sight of all the people.

Gospel Focus

The high priest lifting his hands to bless, then the glory appearing, gives us a picture of the Lord Jesus. When He had finished His work, "he lifted up his hands, and blessed them" (Luke 24:50), and was taken up into heaven, into the true tabernacle. Like Moses and Aaron, He has "went into the tabernacle" of heaven itself; and Scripture promises that He will "come out" again, for "unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time" (Hebrews 9:28), and then the glory of the LORD will be revealed to all. The blessing of God rests on His people because their High Priest has done the work and now blesses them from within the sanctuary. And notice the glory appeared only after the sacrifice and the blessing; the manifest presence of God follows the finished work of atonement. Because Christ has offered Himself and lifted His hands over us, we live under His blessing and await the day His glory appears to all.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

Then the climax: "there came a fire out from before the LORD, and consumed upon the altar the burnt offering and the fat." This was no ordinary flame; it came from the very presence of God and devoured the sacrifice in an instant. It was God's own visible answer, His seal upon the whole day, declaring that the offering was accepted and the priesthood approved. The same divine fire would fall on Solomon's temple and on Elijah's altar, each time as heaven's public acceptance of the sacrifice. And the people's response was immediate and whole: "when all the people saw, they shouted, and fell on their faces." Joy and awe together, a great shout of gladness and a bowing to the ground, the only fitting answer to the manifest presence and accepting fire of God.

Gospel Focus

The fire that fell and consumed the sacrifice was God's public acceptance of the offering, and it points to a greater acceptance and a greater fire. God set His seal on the sacrifice of Christ by raising Him from the dead, declaring the offering received and the atonement complete. And when that accepted sacrifice had opened the way, fire came again, not to consume a lamb but to fill a people: on the day of Pentecost there appeared "cloven tongues like as of fire" (Acts 2:3), and the Spirit fell on the waiting church. The fire that once fell on the altar now falls on believers, the mark that they are accepted and God has taken up His dwelling in them. And notice the people's twofold response, joy and reverence: "they shouted, and fell on their faces." True worship holds both together, glad shouting and humble awe, exuberance and reverence, in the presence of a holy and gracious God. When the fire of His acceptance falls, the only fitting answer is to rejoice and to bow.