God is an excellent teacher, and builds “precept upon precept” and “line upon line” to help us.
So there we have it: the five main offerings given to the children of Israel and ultimately revealing five glorious aspects of Christ’s person and work. Leviticus 1, the burnt offering, which was all for God’s possession. Chapter 2, the grain offering, illustrating Christ’s life lived all for God’s pleasure. Chapter 3, the peace offering, where a fellowship feast is spread for God and all His people. Chapters 4 and 5, the sin and trespass offerings, where guilt is confessed, restitution paid, and the offended party enriched in the end. But wait, there’s more! Those five chapters give a listing of the offerings for the people. Now the section from chapter 6:8 through chapter 7 is called the law of the offerings, and provides more specific details for the priests. The offerings are discussed, but in a slightly different order—burnt, grain, sin, trespass, and peace. We’ll need to be especially observant to discover the eye-opening additions given. God is very serious about this, and we should be as well. He begins by saying, “Command Aaron and his sons” (Lev 6:9), the first of 35 times that the word “command” is used in this book. The emphasis regarding the burnt offering (6:8-13) is—no surprise—the burning part! “The fire of the altar shall be kept burning” (v 9). Remember, the fire was God’s fire. As we shall see in chapters 9 and 10, there was to be no “strange fire” offered. Recall the two ways the fire worked. With the sweet-aroma offerings, it caused the earthly to become heavenly, so to speak. With the offerings for sin, it made the visible invisible. But this isn’t just an Old Testament idea. Everything in our lives will also be tested by God’s fire, so I think we’d better spend another lesson on this important topic: Fire!