The burnt offering teaches the principle of atonement.
"We will now quote M. Bruston, who says: 'According to the Jehovist author, man has violated the law of God; he has allowed himself to be seduced by the attraction of the senses and by pride; therefore is it that he suffers and dies. But if he had persevered in the way of obedience, he would have been able to eat of the fruit of the tree of life which was in the midst of the garden of Eden; that is to say, he would have been immortal, as well as exempt from pain and suffering. He was not so, then, by nature, but he could become so by continuing in union with the author of life. It was sin that made him mortal.' 1 From the Old Testament point of view, the sinner must sooner or later perish, body and soul; the mortality of his being extends to the whole individual. This appears from the following considerations:
1. God said to Adam, not: "Thy body shall die," but "Thou shalt die," thy self shall perish. For Adam death could only signify that which he had been used to call by that name in relation to the animal world which surrounded him, and which had been subject to death throughout the geologic ages.
By death, says John Locke, some men understand endless torments in hell fire; but it seems a strange way of understanding a law, which requires the plainest and directest words, that by death should be meant eternal life in misery. Can anyone be supposed to intend by a law which says: for felony thou shalt surely die, not that he should lose his life, but be kept alive in exquisite and perpetual torments? And would anyone think himself fairly dealt with that was so used? 2
2. In the Levitical sacrifices the victim represented the sinner; yet those who offered it were not required to inflict upon it a long series of tortures. Death pure and simple was all that the law of sacrifice demanded. In the rite it was not the suffering, but the suppression of the life, that was accentuated. In practice, if the execution was prolonged, the sacrifice had to be rejected. In our own days even, if the shochet (the Jewish butcher) makes use of a blade with ever so small a notch in it likely to cause the least useless suffering, the flesh of the slain animal is terepha, forbidden to the faithful; it is only allowed to be sold at a low price to non-Jews. The burning of the victim, too, was not a symbol of suffering, since it took place only after the immolation; but was rather an emblem of the utter destruction which menaces the incorrigible sinner.
3. So also in the penal code of the Israelites, the heaviest chastisement prescribed is the death, pure and simple, of the offender; there is never a word to indicate that the sinner may have to endure eternal pains. It is an extraordinary fact, and a divine characteristic, that long-continued tortures are foreign to Old Testament legislation. In the republic of Israel there is no executioner, nor rack, nor torture, nor gallows, nor special place of execution. The numerous and odious means of torture, which have dishonoured both ancient and modern civilizations, have no equivalent in the Divine code of Sinai. 3 Crucifixion is well known to be of Roman origin. In executions by stoning, it was usual, in order to shorten the suffering, to take care that the first stone cast should be large enough to crush the culprit's breast. The contemporaries of Noah, the inhabitants of Sodom, and the infamous Canaanites, were in turn overtaken by the water, the fire, and the sword; their chastisement was terrible, but the accompanying anguish did not long endure. Nothing can be quicker than lightning, symbol of celestial vengeance.
1 Op. cit., p. 224.
2 Reasonableness of Christianity, § 1.
3 In Germany the torture of the wheel was maintained until the present century; it was abolished in France in 1790
[From The Problem of Immortality (1892)— Chapter 3, III by E. Petavel— Excerpt from III. Adam a candidate for immortality, and the necessary conditions of immortality.]
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Here is my attempt to use this gem in a an overall look at the Old Testament burnt offering: The burnt offering is a free will offering. It must be brought with a willing heart grounded in the faith of the patriarchs. Alternatives were given based on the ability of the offerer to afford it. Yet, we will speak of the offering of the herd brought by the seeker to the door of tabernacle.
There a priest instructed. “Then he shall put his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it will be accepted on his behalf to make atonement for him.” (Lev 1:4) “We have here is what Dr. Louis Goldberg, of blessed memory, called ‘The Exchange of Life Principle.’ You, the guilty party, lay your guilty hands on the head of an innocent animal. In so doing your sin is symbolically transferred to that animal, and its innocence symbolically transferred to you. The animal (now bearing your guilt) is then put to death, suffering (death) in your place.” (Jews for Jesus)
“He shall kill the bull before the LORD; (Lev 1:5a) “In the Levitical sacrifices the victim represented the sinner; yet those who offered it were not required to inflict upon it a long series of tortures. Death pure and simple was all that the law of sacrifice demanded. In the rite it was not the suffering, but the suppression of the life, that was accentuated.”(E. Petavel)—
"and the priests, Aaron’s sons, shall bring the blood and sprinkle the blood all around on the altar that is by the door of the tabernacle of meeting.”(Lev 1:5a) "For the life of the flesh is in the blood. and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for your soul." (Lev 17:11) It was made effective not by the blood only, but by the blood mixed with faith of the seeker in it’s redeeming power.
“And he shall skin the burnt offering and cut it into its pieces….And he shall cut it into its pieces, with its head and its fat; and the priest shall lay them in order on the wood that is on the fire upon the altar; but he shall wash the entrails and the legs with water.” (Lev 1:6; 12-13a) This was an external and internal inspection, as well as images of purification (washing). “Just as those animals had to be without defect, Messiah Yeshua lived a perfectly sinless life.” (Jews for Jesus)
The animal was skinned, which points to the skins by which the Lord covered the first couple.
Read Hebrew 4:1–10. Paul teaches that each Hebrew generation performed the types but many didn’t understand the substance of the particular rites. They brought the required sacrifice to the brazen altar. And the generation in the wilderness kept the Sabbath— one type of God’s eternal rest. And the subsequent generation entered into the promised land— another type of that blessed rest. But their deeds were not mixed with faith. (Hebrews 4:2)
These rites were only types of a greater rest that God has prepared for those who love Him. “So,” says the LORD, “I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest,’ (Psalm 95:11) They died in their sins, never being justified by faith in the blood of the atoning sacrifice. "Since therefore it remains that some must enter it, and those to whom it was first preached did not enter because of disobedience, again He designates a certain day, saying in David,
'Today,' after such a long time, as it has been said: ‘Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts.’” ( cp. Ps 95:8; Heb 4:6-7) Paul preached: “Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience.
For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.” (Hebrews 4:11-13)
“Macknight sees in the words here a reference: ‘to the state in which the sacrifices called burnt offerings were laid on the altar. They were stripped of their skins, their breasts were ripped open, their bowels were taken out, and their backbone was cleft. This is the import of the original word. Then they were divided into quarters; so that outwardly and inwardly they were fully exposed…(Lev 1:5,6); and… they were laid in their natural order upon the altar and burnt.
Here then is the explanation of the image in the author's mind that caused him to mention such things as joints and marrow, the significant warning to Christians lying in the fact that the word of God is able to discover blemishes or taints of character by means of the most thorough and accurate discernment of the entire man, such being the spiritual equivalent of the priest's minute examination of the ancient sacrifices. Not one little sin shall ever be able to crawl by the eyes of the Eternal God without receiving its just condemnation and punishment; and that is the overwhelming reason why every man should fly to Christ for refuge and forgiveness. These words of Hebrews 4:13 conclude the second great admonition of the Book...” (Coffman Comm.)
“Then the priest shall bring it all and burn it on the altar; it is a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, a sweet aroma to the Lord.” (Lev 1:13b) "The burning of the victim, too, was not a symbol of suffering (as traditionalist suggest), since it took place only after the immolation; but was rather an emblem of the utter destruction which menaces the incorrigible sinner." (E. Petavel) It speaks of decomposition or corruption of the body from which the body of Jesus was spared.
Moreover, Jesus distinquished between the killing (the penalty) and the destruction (decay). He tells us not to fear those who can only do temporal harm, He ends: “but I will show you whom you should fear: Fear Him who, AFTER HE HAS KILLED, has power to cast into hell; yes, I say to you, fear Him!” (Luke 12:5) And to an unfaithful servant, He warns “the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and WILL CUT HIM IN TWO (killing him) and (then) appoint him his portion with the unbelievers...” (Luke 12:46)— a return to the base element of dust of the ground from which the were formed.
"I commend thy soul to God the Father Almighty, and thy body to the ground, earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust, in sure and certain hope of resurrection to eternal life, through our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body, that it may be like to his glorious body, according to the mighty working whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself." [1. J. Parker, editor. The First Prayer-book...of King Edward VI [1549], (Oxford and London, 1883), 79. (This official committal prayer pointed to a growing acceptance of the reformation position that pointed to a growing psychopannychist view that it is on resurrection day that the promises of Scripture regarding eternal life for the believer will be fulfilled). Roger Galstad PhD, "Man's Ignorance And God's Grace: A Case For Conditional Immortality", Xulon Press. Kindle Edition.]
Hebrews 4:14 Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.
15 For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
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