The Burnt Offering!

A big Thankyou to Malcolm and Moira for hosting our meeting yesterday, with one of their legendary barbecues to follow, where we also celebrated John’s 82nd birthday! And so good to see a great turnout, with a few faces we had not seen for a while. And, great to see Craig’s new yellow Porche on the drive!!!

After a time of praise and worship, we looked at Leviticus 1, and read about a Biblical barbecue. Well, a burnt offering! The Old Testament is full of pictures of Jesus, given to prepare the people of Israel for the Messiah who would bring people back into real relationship with the Lord. We considered the burnt offering, and though it could be a bullock, sheep or goat, we considered a lamb, within the context of John the Baptist introducing Jesus as, ‘the Lamb of God’ who takes away the sin of the world.

The lamb was to be –

male

without blemish -pure

the person offering it was to lay his hand on its head, whereby the guilt of the offerer would be transferred to the lamb, and the offerer would accept the innocence of the lamb

killed outside the tabernacle

skinned, and the skin given to the priests

placed on a wood fire on the altar, and roasted.

Jesus was a man who was without sin, who took our sin upon himself and who offers us his righteousness in exchange. He was killed outside the city of Jerusalem, and his one-piece cloak given to the soldiers in attendance. On the wooden cross, he endured the fierce heat of the wrath of God toward our sin.

If we were to look at Genesis 22, we would see a picture of resurrection following a burnt offering, as Isaac returned from Mount Moriah with Abraham.

Malcolm gave testimony and led us in communion.