It shouldn’t be a surprise that the first offering mentioned is all for God. He deserves it!
Let’s think about the burnt offering in Leviticus chapter 1. Here are verses 3 and 4: “If his offering is a burnt sacrifice of the herd, let him offer a male without blemish; he shall offer it of his own free will at the door of the tabernacle of meeting before the Lord. Then he shall put his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it will be accepted on his behalf….” This first of the sweet-aroma offerings, if selected from the cattle, was to be “a male without blemish,” which makes perfect sense if it was a picture of Christ. Thus the statement, “accepted on his behalf.” The killed animal was then to be skinned, and the hide given to the offering priest. This could become shoes, a belt, a coat, or part of a tent—some form of covering. So with the believer today, “He has made us accepted in the Beloved” (Eph 1:6). When you looked at the offering priest, you would see the animal offered. When God looks at me, He sees His beloved Son, offered on my behalf. I am accepted in Him. But how solemn to notice that the offerer himself must kill the animal. No on-call butcher for him! How this reminds us of our personal responsibility for the death of the Savior. And yet He went willingly to Calvary. Here the offering pictures the highest view of the Cross: while it is true that the Lord Jesus offered Himself FOR us, ultimately He offered Himself TO God. “Christ,…through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God” (Heb 9:14). It was God who must be fully satisfied, and for once in all of history a real Man lived every moment, with every thought and action, all for God. Thus the distinctive of this offering: “The priest shall burn ALL on the altar as a burnt sacrifice…to the Lord” (Lev 1:9). May we also seek daily to be all for God!