Leviticus 1

1 the tabernacle of the congregation. i.e., “the tent of meeting” (R.V.). The law of sacrifice, as a remedial institute, was promulgated, not from the mountain top like the moral law, but from the mercy-seat. See Exod. xxv. 22.

2. If any man of you bring. It is taken for granted that sacrificial offerings would be made, as they always had been in religious worship; but they are now to be more minutely regulated, to present the great truths as to the sinner’s reconciliation to God, and to afford expression to the wants and feelings of the worshippers.

3. If his offering. This was evidently a voluntary offering, like those in ii., iii.; but it was to be wholly consumed. As distinguished from the sin and trespass offerings (iv., v.), it appears to have been intended to express special and entire devotion to God, as well as a deep sense of general sinfulness. It was always connected with a meal offering and a drink offering (Numb. xv. 3, etc.).—a burnt sacrifice of the herd. The three classes of victims here mentioned, viz., bullocks (ver. 3), sheep or goats (ver. 10), and fowls (ver. 14), were suited to the means of different classes of persons. See 2 Cor. viii. 12.

4 he shall put his hand upon the head. Thus in effect confessing his sin, and symbolically transferring his guilt to the substituted victim.—to make atonement. Heb., “to cover.” The phrase is generally understood to mean that the expiation covers the sinner from the Divine wrath, so that he is treated as a righteous person.

ferring his guilt to the substituted victim.—to make atonement. Heb., “to cover.” The phrase is generally understood to mean that the expiation covers the sinner from the Divine wrath, so that he is treated as a righteous person.

5. And he shall kill. That is, the offerer took some ostensible part in what was chiefly done by the practised Levites.—sprinkle the blood. By this act the life of the victim was considered as presented to God, and accepted by Him, in the stead of the offerer. Cp. Heb. xii. 24; 1 Pet. i. 2.

9 shall burn all. The victim having been slain and its blood sprinkled on the altar, as an expiatory sacrifice, it was then to be wholly burnt upon the altar, in token of the offerer’s entire consecration to the Divine service. Cp. Rom. vi. 13; xii. 1, 2.

15 wring off his (its) head. Probably without dividing it from the body. Cp. ver. 17 and ch. v. 8.

Aaron and his sons, the punishment of Nadab and Abihu, and the Great Day of Atonement.

2. Laws relating to personal and social life (xvii.-xxv.). These include the life of the family, the relations of the sexes, the treatment of the workers by their employers, and the provision for the poor.

3. The blessings promised for obedience, the punishment for disobedience, and the conditions of voluntary vows (xxvi., xxvii.).

Both the ceremonial and moral enactments are bound together by the one great sanction or claim: “I am the Lord thy God” (xviii. 30; xix. 3, 4, 5, 10, 31, 34, 37, etc.). And surely this is the only foundation on which law can be based. There must be a supreme authority, higher than all human law-givers. There must be a Divine power which can enforce the observance of law by nations as well as by individuals. The ceremonial observances taught the Jewish people the holiness of God; the moral and social regulations were the practical outcome of it. Those who imagine that this Book is one of old-world or ritual interest only would do well to study such passages as xix. 9-18, and xxv. They would find, perhaps, a solution of some of our modern social problems.

The Christian, at any rate, will note that Christ more than once appealed to this Book as an authority (Matt. viii. 4, cp. Lev. xiv. 3-10; Matt. xii. 4, cp. Lev. xxiv. 9; John vii. 32, cp. Lev. xii. 3). As Dr. S. H. Kellogg has well pointed out in his Introduction to Leviticus (Expositor’s Bible), “Not only did our Lord use language which implied the truth of the Jewish belief regarding the origin and authority of the Mosaic law, but He formally teaches it; and—what is of still more moment—He rests the obligation of certain duties upon the fact that this law of Leviticus was a revelation from God to Moses for the children of Israel.”

And, finally, the Christian will find in Hebrews ix. the connexion, as one of type and shadow with the reality, between the ceremonies and sacrifices of Leviticus and the perfect sacrifice and mediation of our great High Priest.