(Through the Bible) Leviticus 1-10 — Chuck Smith

The Offerings and the Better Covenant

As we get into Leviticus, we get into the various offerings and the method by which they were to be offered unto the Lord. It is getting into a system that is very foreign to us because it's the covenant that has now been set aside that God might establish a better covenant with us.

This covenant of the sacrifice of the animals could never make anything perfect, but all it could do was to point ahead to that sacrifice that was to be offered whereby we could be brought into full perfection before the Lord.

Paul tells the Ephesians that they are to be followers of God as dear children, walk in love as Christ also hath loved us and hath given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor.

So Christ was more than just our sin offering. He was also the sweet savor offering. Now, the offerings that were given to the Lord were divided into the sweet savor offerings and the sin offerings. There were three basic sweet savor offerings, and we'll be talking about these in more detail, but there was the burnt offering, which was the consecration.

There was the meal offering, which is translated in your Bibles meat, but it should be meal offering because it was made of fine flour and oil, and that was a sacrifice of service unto God. And then there was the peace offering, which was the fellowship and communion with God.

Those were the sweet savor offerings. Then we had the two sin offerings, one the sin offering and the other the trespass offering, and we'll be noting the difference in those two as we move through the text.

Voluntary Worship and Substitutionary Sacrifice

It is important to notice that in verse 3 of Leviticus chapter 1, that any sacrifice or offering that you offered unto the Lord had to be of one's own voluntary will. Man exercised his own free will when he left fellowship with God.

It is necessary that man exercise his own free will to return to fellowship with God. And so the own voluntary will is something that God required. God does not force you to love Him. God does not force you to serve Him.

God does not force you to give to Him. It must be something of your own voluntary will. And in the sacrifices, when it was an animal sacrifice, there was always the laying of your head upon the sacrifice before the slaying of it.

And that laying of your hand upon the sacrifice, the head of the sacrifice, was in essence a transference of yourself, so that the animal was dying in your stead. In the case of the sin of trespass offerings, it was the laying of your hand upon the head of the animal in order that your guilt and your sin might be transferred onto the animal, and thus it was slain for your sins.

In the case of the bird offering, your consecration, again the laying on of hand was the symbolizing of the animal is taking my place as a complete offering unto God, a total consecration unto Him. The word atonement in verse 4, the latter portion there, to make atonement for Him, it is important that we distinguish between the word atonement in the Old Testament and the word atonement in the New Testament.

For in the Old Testament, the word atonement comes from the Hebrew word kofar, which means to cover. Now, it was impossible that the blood of bulls or goats could put away our sins. They never put away sins for anybody.

But they did make a covering for sin, so that the guilt of the person was covered, but it wasn't put away. So, the word atonement in the Old Testament usage out of Hebrew from the word kofar is actually a covering, and kofar you can think of kopher or cover.

Actually, our word cover comes pretty much from it. A kofar for the sins, a covering. In the New Testament, through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, our sins were put away by His sacrifice once and for all.

So, the New Covenant that God has established through Jesus Christ is far superior as you get into the Old Covenant here, and all of the various sacrifices, how grateful we should be for that sacrifice of Jesus Christ for us, whereby this old relationship with God is no longer valid, but has been invalidated by the New Covenant in Jesus Christ.

Fellowship with God and the Purpose of Sacrifice

The purpose of all of the sacrifices, the purpose of the Covenant, was that God might establish a basis whereby you can have fellowship with Him. When God created man, it was in the heart and mind of God to create man in order that God might fellowship with man.

But in order to fellowship, and the word means oneness, in order for me to have a oneness with God, I must be obedient to the will of God. The Bible says, can two walk together except they be agreed? Can I really walk with God unless I'm in agreement?

I cannot have real fellowship with God unless I'm in agreement with God. And so, God creating man for the purpose of fellowship, that fellowship with God was broken early there in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve disobeyed the commandment of God.

And with the entrance of sin, there came a broken fellowship with God. Now, man alienated from God, God sought to restore him to fellowship. But the law of God had been violated. And God said, the soul that sinneth, it shall surely die.

In the day that thou eatest thereof, God said, thou shalt surely die. So, here is the law that is broken and the penalty that is there hanging. And for God to restore man into fellowship with Him, something had to be done about the law.

And thus God established, in the Old Testament, this system of sacrifices where the animal became your substitute. And where the animal was slain for you. As we said, the laying on of hands, the transference of yourself to the animal, and then the animal dying in your place.

It became your substitute. And through the death of the animal, your sin was covered and you could have fellowship with God. Until you sinned again. And then you had to bring another animal. And so, unless you were very wealthy and had a big herd, you were really in trouble, you know.

As far as a continued fellowship with God. Now, that covenant failed to bring man into a full, complete fellowship with God. What it did do was point forward to that day when God would send His only begotten Son to be as a lamb sacrificed for our sins.

So Peter said, we are redeemed, not with corruptible things, such as silver and gold, from our vain manner of living, but with the precious blood of Jesus Christ, who was slain as a lamb without spot or blemish.

So as we study these sacrifices, we must realize that they were all of them just fingers pointing ahead to Jesus Christ. They were saying, we're not it. We can't do it. But there is one who is coming who will.

And they are all pointing man to the perfect sacrifice that God was to offer when Jesus Christ was crucified and went before the Father to make atonement. Now, the word atonement in the New Testament is to make one with, or the koinonia, the idea of fellowship.

Now I have become one with God through Jesus Christ, His blood having now atoned, or making possible atonement for my sin in order that I might now have this beautiful fellowship with God. So as we get into the offerings, chapter 1 deals with the burnt offering.

The Burnt Offering and Total Consecration

Now the burnt offering was an offering of consecration. If I wish to really consecrate my life completely to God, I would signify this desire of total consecration by bringing an ox to the priest, laying my hand upon the head of the ox, slaying it, the priest taking the blood in, and putting it on the horns of the altar.

And then the ox was to be burnt entirely. The whole thing was to be consumed on the altar as a sweet-smelling savor unto God. That neat smell of barbecue beef as the smoke arises and ascends upward, it becomes a sweet-smelling savor unto God.

But the whole thing was to be burnt in the fire and totally consumed by the fire. Bespeaking the fact that my consecration to God needs to be a total consecration. Not holding back any area for myself.

One of the problems today is the incomplete consecration of so many lives. We hold back so many areas from God. But God wants really, if we are to consecrate ourselves to Him, I beseech ye therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you'll present your bodies, holy and acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

And God wants you to present yourself totally, completely to Him, not reserving, not holding back anything for yourself. But a total consecration. Now, you could use an ox, you could use a sheep, or if you were poor, you could use turtledoves for this offering.

The Meal Offering as Service

In chapter 2, the next offering that we have is the meal offering. And this they would take the fine flour, mix it with oil and frankincense, and make up a dough that they would put on the fire to more or less bake unto the Lord.

Now, these things bespeak the work of man's hands. I'm bringing flour, mixing it with oil. Where did I get the flour? I had to till the soil, I had to plant the seed, I had to harvest the seed, I had to thresh the seed, I had to grind the seed into flour itself.

And so, it was the work of my hands. I picked the olives and put them in the olive press and got the oil. It was the work of my hands. So, I am offering to God in the peace offering, or rather in the meal offering here, I am offering to God my service.

Dedicating the work of my hands unto God. Giving unto God my service. And thus, this meal offering, again, was a sweet-smelling savor. And what smells better than home-baked bread? You know, that smell of bread baking is always just a great smell.

When we were kids in Ventura, just a block and a half from the church, on Sunday nights there was a bakery that would bake bread. And oh, we were overcome by the neat aroma. We would go up and buy a quarter pound of butter and get a loaf of bread right off the rack as it was coming out of the oven so hot you had to juggle it from hand to hand and break the thing in two and drop the butter down in.

In those days, I didn't worry about weight. I was running so much that I ran the thing off at all. Boy, I'll tell you, the smell of home-baked bread is really great. And the idea is that of, again, that it might be a pleasant odor unto the Lord.

It might arise as a pleasant aroma before Him. And an offering to God. Here it is, Lord, my service. I'm giving now my labor unto You. I'm offering You myself as a servant to do Your work. And thus was the significance of this meal offering.

The idea was the offering unto God, the work of my hands, as service unto the Lord. And so, in chapter 2, it deals with this meal offering. Now, there were two things that were never to be mixed with the flour.

One was leaven, and the other was honey. The leaven, of course, always through the Scripture is a type of sin. And thus, it was never to be mixed. It causes putrefaction. Actually, it causes decay, is what leaven does.

And honey also can have that same effect. But honey really represents a natural sweetness. Now, some of you are naturally sweet, but it's interesting, that doesn't buy you any points with God. It is only that sweetness that comes from Him that is acceptable.

And so, honey or leaven were two forbidden additions to these little loaves of bread. But there was one thing that it had to always be offered with salt. Because salt has the opposite effect of putrefaction.

Salt was used in those days as a preservative, and of course, to make things really more tasty. If you forget to put salt in your rolls, you'll find they taste very flat. Potatoes without salt can be very flat.

And so, the salt was to give the flavor. And being a preservative, they were to use salt in the meal offerings, but never the leaven or the honey. And again, the idea is offering to God service. Giving to God my life to serve Him.

The Peace Offering and Fellowship

Offering Him the work of my hands. Now, the final of the sweet savor offerings was the peace offering. And again, this could be the ox, or actually it could be out of the herd. It could be a cow also.

It had to be without blemish. It could be from the flock, a lamb. Or again, if you are poor, it could be a turtle dove. But this is the offering of communion and fellowship with God. In this offering, a part of it would be returned to you to eat.

And thus, the idea was, here God, I have given this to you, and part of it is burned. That's for God. But then part of it is given back to me that I might sit down and eat of it so that I am actually fellowshipping with God.

Eating together with God is the idea. God is eating part of it. I am eating part of it. I am becoming part with God. And it was called the peace offering. But it was that of fellowship with God, the idea of eating together with God.

It is interesting in the New Testament how often Jesus sought to eat with people. In fact, the last message of Jesus to the church, in the Lord's epistle to the church, what was His very last message?

Behold, I stand at the door and knock, and if any man will hear my voice and open the door, I will come in and eat supper with him. Because the Lord always enjoyed eating with people. It spoke to them in their culture of the deepest possible fellowship.

When we ate together, we were entering into such a deep fellowship that we were actually becoming a part of each other. Because in those days, it was really family style. You have the big old leg of lamb out there and you don't have utensils.

Your fingers are your utensils. And so you reach out and you grab and pull off a piece of the meat. And your friend reaches in and grabs a piece of the meat. And you're eating together. Having pulled off from the same leg of lamb that portion that you're eating of that same leg of lamb.

Thus, that leg of lamb that is nourishing you is also nourishing me. That leg of lamb that's becoming a part of your body is becoming a part of my body. Thereby, I'm becoming a part of you. You're becoming a part of me.

We're becoming related through this common eating together. And then as we would finish the meal, we'd take the bread and we would break it. And they didn't have napkins in those days, so they used the bread for a napkin.

You wipe the lamb grease off your fingers and all. The juices. And then you ate the bread. Or quite often that bit of bread was thrown to the little puppies that were around the table. The last piece that was used to sort of clean up.

But by eating the same bread, by eating of the same meat, by partaking from the same table, from the same bowls, we were becoming part of each other. And they looked at it as that. For that reason, they would never eat with their enemies.

They didn't want to become a part of their enemy. And for that reason, a Jew was always extremely careful never to eat with a Gentile. There is no way that he wanted to become one with a Gentile. And so that's why that strict separation.

The Jew never eating with a Gentile because of the fear of becoming a part of a Gentile or a Gentile becoming a part of him. And so here is the idea in the peace offering of offering the sacrifice unto the Lord.

And part of it goes up unto the Lord roasted for Him and all, but yet part of it roasted given back to me and I eat of it myself so I sit down to eat with God. And in the great feast days, most of the offerings that were brought by the people in the great feast days were peace offerings so that they were just what they say, they were feast days.

The Passover feast, the Feast of Pentecost, the Feast of Tabernacles, they were feasts, great feasts. People would come in and you'd have just all kinds of meat, all kinds of feasting together. There were holidays of feasting for seven days.

As all of these sacrifices, these peace offerings would be offered and then you'd receive yours back to eat and thus people were just sitting and feasting with God was the idea. And really it's a very beautiful thought indeed.

Man, that would be great if we had a seven day feast with God around here sometime. You know, just the idea of here we are to sit with the Lord, just to feast together with Him, realizing the oneness that is ours with Him, feasting together with the Lord, God's people.

Sin Offerings and Trespass Offerings

Now as we get into chapter 4, we get in now to the sin offerings. First of all, God said if a soul should sin through ignorance against any of the commandments, it is interesting to note that sins of ignorance needed forgiveness.

We hear so often, ignorance of the law is no excuse. This actually comes from God because God made provision for those sins of ignorance. Quite often, sin is related to ignorance. Transgression is never really related to ignorance.

Sin is related to ignorance because there is a vast difference between sin and trespass. And thus, the difference between the sin offering and the trespass offering. Sins were often due to ignorance. I didn't know.

The word sin has as its root word missing the mark. In Greek, harmatia, the missing of the mark. Now, I could be trying to hit the mark and still miss. That's still sin. There are a lot of people who are sinning who don't want to sin.

They're trying not to sin. They are doing their best not to sin. But they're still sinning. They're still missing the mark. They're still doing their best not to sin. For the word sin means to miss the mark.

Trespass is not ignorance. It's more than missing the mark. For it is missing the mark deliberately. I know what I am doing. I know that God doesn't want me to do it. I do it anyhow. That's a trespass.

It's a deliberate, willful act against God. So often when you're dealing with sin, you deal with ignorance. A person didn't know, yet the sin needed taking care of. You remember Jesus, when He was being nailed to the cross, prayed, Father, forgive them.

They know not what they do. It was a sin of ignorance, and yet it needed the forgiveness of God. Father, forgive them. They needed that forgiveness, though the sin was being done by them in ignorance, not really knowing what they were doing.

And so if a man sinned against the Lord, ignorance, he was to bring a young bullock without blemish unto the Lord for a sin offering. And again, the idea of putting your hand upon its head, transferring the guilt, slaying it, the blood being taken in by the priest dipping his finger in the blood, sprinkling the blood seven times before the veil of the sanctuary.

And the priest shall put some of the blood upon the horns of the altar and shall pour out the blood of the bullock at the bottom of the altar. And then also they were to take a part of the bullock and to place it upon the altar and burn it on the fire, mainly the fat and the kidneys and all.

And the skin of the bullock and all his flesh with his head and his legs and the inwards and all, even the whole bullock shall he carry forth without the camp unto a clean place where the ashes are poured out and burn him on the wood with fire where the ashes are poured out shall he be burnt.

So, the whole skin and everything was taken outside of the camp and there burnt with fire in this place where they would carry the ashes of the burnt offerings and all. There was a place outside of the camp they'd carry them and lay them out.

And at that place is where the skin and all. Now the skin of the... Coming back to the first offering, the offering of consecration, those hides could be kept by the priest and they would make them into coats and wear them and all.

And so the sheepskin coats and so forth would be worn by the priest because they got the hides of those offerings. But with the sin offering, the priest couldn't keep the hides. They were to be taken out and burnt completely with fire outside of the camp.

And the whole congregation of Israel will sin through ignorance. And the thing is hid from the eyes of the assembly. They have done somewhat against any of the commandments of the Lord concerning things which should not be done and are guilty.

When the sin which they have sinned against is known to the congregation, they shall offer a young bullock for the sin and bring him before the tabernacle and so forth. And thus the sin offering following the same routine.

The sin offering for the congregation. And then the sin offering for the rulers in verse 22. Same idea of ignorance. The rulers and so forth. And then they were to bring a kid of the goats. A male without blemish.

And it was to be offered in the same manner as the bullock before the Lord. And then we get down to us in verse 27. And if any of the commoners sin through ignorance. And so it comes down to every one of us.

While he doeth somewhat against any of the commandments of the Lord concerning things which ought not to be done and is guilty. If the sin which he has sinned comes to his knowledge, then he shall bring an offering of the kid of the goats, a female without blemish for his sin which he has sinned.

Now the rulers brought the male of the goats and the commoners brought a female kid of the goats. And they would lay their hand upon the head of the sin offering and the priest would go through the same routine of putting the blood upon the altar and sprinkling it before the Lord.

And if he bring a lamb for a sin offering, he shall bring it a female without blemish. And thus, the sin offerings. And as I say, sin was related to ignorance. It was the missing of the mark. It comes to your attention.

It wasn't really a deliberate thing. But now, what about those deliberate things? Chapter 5. And if a soul sinned and hear the voices swearing and is a witness, whether he has seen or known of it and he does not utter it, then he shall bear his iniquity.

If you touch any unclean thing, and it goes on with some of the sins that you know to be wrong and you swear against God or do things that are to you knowledgeable, you're guilty, you know it, then you shall confess that he has sinned in that thing.

So even though you were to bring a sacrifice, yet the necessity of the confession of your guilt. Now, in Proverbs we read, whoever seeks to cover his sin shall not prosper, but whoso will confess his sin shall be forgiven.

God cannot really deal with sin in your life as long as you're trying to hide it. As long as you're trying to deny it. As long as you're trying to excuse it. As long as you're trying to give the rationale for it.

God can't deal with it. If you can just sit down and tell me all the reasons why you sinned and give me all of the excuses for why you were doing it, then God can't deal with your excuses. God can only deal with it when you come to the place of confession.

And when I confess my sin, it is then that He is faithful and just to forgive me and to cleanse me from all unrighteousness. So always with a trespass there was the necessity of confession. God, I have sinned against You in this thing.

I was wrong. God, I am sorry. And with the confession I make the possibility of forgiveness. And so, first of all, the necessity was that of confession of the guilt, verse 5. And then He shall bring His trespass offering unto the Lord.

A female from the flock, a lamb, or a kid of the goats for the sin offering. And the priest shall make an atonement or a covering for his sin. And if he's not able to bring a lamb, then he shall bring for his trespass, which he has committed, two turtle doves or two young pigeons unto the Lord.

One for a sin offering, the other for a burnt offering. And He shall bring them unto the priest who shall offer that which is for the sin offering first. And it goes ahead in how they are to take care of the turtle doves and so forth if that is what is brought as an offering.

And they are to be offered before the Lord for the trespasses. Verse 15. If a soul commits a trespass and sins through ignorance in the holy things of the Lord, then he shall bring for his trespass unto the Lord a ram without blemish out of the flocks of his estimation according to the shekels and so forth.

He shall make amends. And thus, dealing with the trespass offerings and going on into chapter 6. The Lord is speaking to Moses saying, if a soul sins and commits a trespass against the Lord and lies to his neighbor in that which was delivered.

In other words, if you are my neighbor and you loan me your car and I go out and smash it and then I say, well, you know I parked it at Lucky's and I just left the keys in the ignition and I went into the store and when I came out it was gone.

You better file a stolen report and then they find the thing, you know, wrapped around a telephone pole someplace and oh my, you know, they must have wrecked it. And I'm lying to you about something that was entrusted to me.

The Continual Fire and Priestly Duties

This is a trespass and it would be necessary for me to make a confession and to offer a offering before the Lord for the forgiveness or the covering. The Lord is speaking to Moses verse 8 saying, Command Aaron and his sons saying, This is the law of the burnt offering.

And the burnt offering because of the burning upon the altar all night unto the morning and the fire of the altar shall be burning in it. And the priest shall put on his linen garments, his linen breeches, and he shall put upon his flesh and take the ashes which the fires consume with the burnt offering in the altar and shall put them beside the altar and then later carry them out.

But in verse 13, The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar. It shall never go out. So, God was the one who was to kindle the fire on the altar, but the priests were never to let it go out. Once God kindled the fire, it was their duty all night long.

A priest would be on duty to put wood on the fire so that the fire of the altar would never go out. And so, he goes ahead and explains again the offerings, the burnt offering, and then in verse 14, the meal offering.

And the priest would get to eat this neat hot bread themselves on this meal offering. What was left over, part was unto the Lord and part was given to the priest more or less as a let's see, now just a minute, hold on.

On the meal offering is one that was to be wholly burnt and not to be eaten. There were other meal offerings of bread that the priest were to eat, but not the meal offering. Verse 19, The Lord spake unto Moses, saying, This is the offering of Aaron and his sons, which they shall offer to the Lord the day in which they are anointed.

And the fine flour is a meal offering perpetual half in the morning and thereof at night. It shall be baked in the pan. And thou shalt bring it in and bake the pieces for the meal offering. A sweet savor to the Lord, the priest and his sons, that is anointed in his stead shall offer it.

It is a statute forever unto the Lord. It shall be wholly burnt. For every meal offering for the priest shall be wholly burnt. It shall not be eaten. That is if the priest himself offered the meal offering for himself.

The Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto Aaron and unto his sons, saying, This is the law of the sin offering and the place where the burnt offering is killed. Shall the sin offering be killed before the Lord?

It is most holy, the priest that offers it. For sin shall eat it in the holy place. It shall be eaten in the court of the tabernacle of the congregation. Whatsoever shall touch the flesh thereof shall be holy.

And when the thing is sprinkled with the blood. Now, the priest did get a part of the offerings. They always were able to take apart the offerings to eat for themselves that the people brought. It was in a way a payment to the priest.

Corrupt Priesthood and Misrepresentation of God

But this thing became corrupted. You remember later on when Eli was the priest at the time of Samuel. He had a bunch of greedy sons who were also working in the office of the priest. And these guys, when people would come to offer their sacrifices to the Lord, they'd take their hooks and they'd reach in and grab the fillets.

The very best of the meat and all. And if the people would object, then they'd give them a bad time and curse them and everything else. And so, Eli got into trouble because he didn't correct his sons in these things.

But the bad thing about it is that they were creating in the minds of the people a negative reaction towards God. Because they were the priest representing God to the people, but they were so misrepresenting God by their greed that they made the people actually hate to bring sacrifices to the Lord because of the horrible way that Eli's sons were treating them.

Peace Offerings, Thanksgiving, and the Priesthood

And thus, Eli was judged by the Lord for his failure to reprimand his sons in that regards. Going on into chapter 7, sort of a repetition again as God deals with the trespass offerings. Offering a few additions to what has already been said.

And then in verse 11, as God gets into the peace offerings, the peace offering was also for a thanksgiving. It was fellowship, but it was fellowship in thanksgiving unto God. And it was to be offered and it talks about a heave offering.

Now the heave offering is the offering that they would lift up in a heaving motion before the God. The wave offering was where they would move it back and forth and wave it before God. And so you read also of the wave offerings and the heave offerings.

And so the requirements and so forth for the offering of the peace offering are in chapter 7. We get into chapter 8. And now that God has laid out for them the various offerings and the ordinances regarding these offerings, how they were to be offered, who was to offer them, what part the people were able to eat, what part was to be burnt, where it was to be burnt, what part was the priest, and God has laid out the whole thing for them in these offerings.

And now the Lord said unto Moses, Take Aaron and his sons with him and the garments and the anointing oil and a bullock for a sin offering and two rams and a basket of unleavened bread. And gather all the congregation together at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.

So Moses did as the Lord commanded. Gathered all the people there together unto the door of the tabernacle. And Moses said unto the congregation, This is the thing which the Lord commanded to be done.

And Moses brought Aaron and his sons and washed them with water. This big brass laver bath that was there in front of the tabernacle. And Moses washed Aaron and his sons. And he put on them the coat and all of the garments of the high priest and put upon the sons of Aaron the garments of the priest.

And so here is Aaron now for the first time being decked out in this magnificent robe of the high priest. The breastplate, the urim and the thumim, the whole thing, the mitre on his head with a little plate, a gold plate that said, Holiness to the Lord.

And Aaron is being dressed for the first time in the garments of the high priest. And then Moses took the anointing oil and he anointed the tabernacle that was therein and sanctified them. And the tabernacle is now set up.

Now is the time to dedicate the thing, more or less, and to sanctify it unto God. The word sanctify means to set apart for exclusive use. This was to be a single-use building. It was there only for the purpose of man having a place to come and meet God.

And it wasn't to be used for den mother's meetings or anything like that. It was just strictly a place where people met the Lord. And so he sprinkled the altar seven times. He anointed the altar and all the vessels and the laver to sanctify them.

And he poured of the anointing oil upon Aaron's head and anointed him to sanctify him. So they took this anointing oil, went by, and anointed all of the things within the tabernacle, anointed the tabernacle, everything was anointed.

It was set apart. And this is for God. It's to be used only for God and all. And then Aaron, who was actually also to be used only for God. He was to be God's instrument. Thus, Aaron was anointed with the oil.

And Moses brought in Aaron's sons and put the priest coats upon them and the priest girdles. And he put on the bonnets, as the Lord had commanded. And he brought the bullock for the sin offering. Now that these guys are being set up as priests, the first thing that was necessary was that the sin offering be offered for them.

They were sinners just like everybody else. And so before they could really serve the Lord and act as God's representatives to the people, there had to first of all be a sin offering offered for them.

And this, of course, yearly when the high priest would on Yom Kippur go into the Holy of Holies to offer a sacrifice for the sins of the whole congregation, the first sacrifice that he would make on Yom Kippur was his own sin offering.

He had to take care of himself first. And his own sin offering would be first, he'd have to offer for himself before he could ever offer for the people. And so the first offering in this whole new tabernacle set up was the sin offering for Aaron and his sons that they might then be sanctified for the ministry unto the Lord.