Stand for a few minutes in the courtyard of the tabernacle. There is smoke rising from the great bronze altar, the smell of burning fat and wood, the sound of animals, priests in linen splashing blood from a bowl, a man with his hand pressed on the head of a young bull. For modern readers it can feel far away and even disturbing. For an ancient Israelite it was the most natural way in the world to come near to God, and Leviticus 1 explains the first and most complete of the offerings: the one that goes up entirely in smoke.
Where it sits in the story: Still Act 3. Exodus ended with the glory filling the tabernacle so fully that Moses could not enter. Leviticus, whose Hebrew name means 'And he called', begins with God calling from that tent to answer the obvious question: how can a people like Israel come near a God like this? The sacrificial system in chapters 1–7 is the first answer, and the New Testament letter to the Hebrews reads Jesus' death in its light.
What this chapter is doing: To teach the burnt offering, a wholly given sacrifice that makes atonement and gives God a 'pleasing aroma', and to make that way of approaching God open to rich and poor alike.
- 1:1–2 — The LORD calls to Moses from the tent of meeting and tells him to instruct the people: when any of you brings an offering to the LORD, it may come from the herd or the flock.
- 1:3–9 — A burnt offering from the herd must be a male without defect. The worshipper lays a hand on its head, identifying with it, and it is accepted to make atonement. He slaughters it; the priests splash its blood around the altar, arrange the pieces and burn all of it as a pleasing aroma to the LORD.
- 1:10–13 — The same pattern applies to a sheep or goat from the flock, slaughtered on the north side of the altar, cut up, washed and wholly burned.
- 1:14–17 — Those who cannot afford cattle or sheep may bring a turtledove or young pigeon. The priest handles it at the altar and burns it, and it is described in exactly the same words: a pleasing aroma to the LORD.
- Traditional view: the laws are Mosaic in origin and substance, given at Sinai as the text says.
- Critical view: Leviticus belongs to the Priestly source, compiled by Jerusalem priests during or after the exile, though it may preserve older temple practice.
- Mediating view: an older priestly core of sacrificial practice was expanded and edited over centuries into its present form.
Key verse: Leviticus 1:4 · So what: The poorest worshipper's two birds are received with the same words as the rich man's bull, a detail worth noticing in any society ordered by wealth or rank. Mary and Joseph later bring birds, the offering of the poor (Luke 2:24). The burnt offering also speaks of giving something wholly, holding nothing back, which Paul echoes in calling believers 'living sacrifices'.