Bible Commentaries

A CONTINUAL BURNT-OFFERING

‘A continual burnt offering throughout your generations.’

Exodus 29:42

I. The Burnt-offering typified Christ, not as the Sin-bearer, as in the Sin and Trespass offerings, but as the Perfectly Obedient One. Here is Human Nature glorified in its absolute devotion to the Father, in its sustained, and all-absorbing, enthusiasm for His will.

II. It was made the Ground of Acceptance—‘He shall offer it that he may be accepted before the Lord.’ (Leviticus 1:3, R.V.) The offerer was represented in his offering, being accepted, or rejected, in its acceptance or rejection. The Great Offerer, Jesus, standing as our Representative, the Second Adam, offered His obedience. It was accepted, and in that acceptance He was accepted, and we in Him. Henceforth, and for ever, the believer stands ‘accepted in the Beloved.’

III. It was wholly consumed. (a) All was burnt, and in this it differed from all the other offerings. (b) The fire that consumed it fell from Heaven—striking symbol of that only source of true zeal for God, the Holy Ghost, ‘the Spirit of burning.’ This is made clear by Hebrews 9:14 :—‘Who, through the Eternal Spirit, offered Himself without spot to God.’

IV. Unlike the Sin and Trespass offerings, it was ‘for a Sweet Savour … unto the Lord.’ This teaches God’s unending delight in the obedience of Jesus. It is His satisfaction that is emphasised. In the case of the other oblations, man partook in part, or whole; but here all is given to God, none to the priests. In Leviticus 21:6; Leviticus 21:8; Leviticus 21:17; Leviticus 21:21-22, it is spoken of repeatedly as ‘the bread of God.’ It is most eloquent, therefore, of God’s joy in His Perfect Servant, His Well-beloved Son.

Illustration

(1) ‘This burnt-offering is the whole-offering, signifying that the life all goes up in self-surrender to Jehovah; hence also this will be responded to by a complete self-communication of Jehovah, a revelation of His glory, this itself having been in fact the cause of Israel’s self-surrender or holiness.’

(2) ‘Every day began and closed with the burnt-offering of a lamb of the first year, along with a meal-offering of fine flour and oil and a drink-offering of wine. This would be a sweet savour unto God, not after the carnal fashion in which sceptics have interpreted the words, but in the same sense in which the wicked are a smoke in His nostrils from a continually burning fire.’