The Sacrificial Thread That Connects Leviticus to Jesus

Audio By Carbonatix

I sat poolside on a family vacation, reading my Bible, and lightning struck.  I gasped. “No way.” I’d just read a random verse about sacrifices and offerings. The new thought added a stroke of color to my portrait of Scriptural understanding.  

Well-Known Facts about Jesus’s Identity

• Jesus is the high priest.
• Jesus is the sacrificial lamb.
• Jesus died on Passover.
• Jesus’s body was taken down that evening, so he wouldn’t hang on the cross during the Sabbath.

Details I’d never seen before—a correlation between Old Testament offerings and Jesus’s death on the cross—took shape. If you're anything like me, when you attempt to read Leviticus, your eyes glaze over and you skim past monotonous details. You may have asked yourself, “Why is that significant?” but moved on, not curious enough to search for the answers. 

Sometimes when I read my Bible, I underline things that don’t make sense, and that day by the pool, I came across one of those underlines. Except, having just read details about Jesus’s death on the cross, suddenly the passage I didn’t understand made complete sense. I started devouring Leviticus, excited to read it—a statement that feels strange to type—and found more pieces to fit into place. 

6 Key Phrases in Leviticus

• “Must be burned completely.”
• “Must be kept burning.”
• “Must be eaten on the day it is offered.”
• “Must not be eaten.” 
• “It is a pleasing aroma to the Lord.”
• “They will be forgiven.”

Leviticus is brain-liquifying confusing, until it’s not.

Leviticus 1-5: Instructions for the Israelite community regarding five sacrifices.  

Leviticus 6-7: Addressed to the priests. Describes specific instructions on how priests should handle the exact same five sacrifices listed in Leviticus 1-5.

We’ll backtrack to Leviticus 6 in just a second. For now, understand that we’ve arrived at Leviticus 8 and no action has taken place yet—only instruction.

Leviticus 8: The inauguration/ ordination of the first priests—Aaron and his sons.

Leviticus 9: The first sacrifices. 

In Leviticus 9, Aaron kills the sacrifices. He has the altar and the animal, but to this point, there is no fire. 

Contrast that with Genesis 22:7. “Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?” “Yes, my son?” Abraham replied. “The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”

Do you remember Abraham’s reply? “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” 

God will provide. Both Abraham and Aaron follow God’s instructions for the sacrifice. Yet, the gift is incomplete without God’s intervention.

Aaron’s sacrifice is a bloody mess, raw meat upon the altar. And then Leviticus 9:24 happens.

 “Fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the fat portions on the altar. And when all the people saw it, they shouted for joy and fell facedown.”

God consumes the sacrifice with his own fire. 

So, now, back to Leviticus 6:12-13. When God says, twice, “the fire must not go out,” He is speaking of the fire on the altar of burnt offering that He lit Himself. 

Three Interesting Facts about the Levitical Sacrifices

Priests wash the internal organs of the sacrifice prior to the offering (Leviticus 8:21, 9:13-14).

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous, but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness” (Matthew 23:27-28).

The entire offering “must be burned completely.”

“It is finished” (John 19:30).

After the food is eaten, the priests must remain in the sanctuary. 

“Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple” (1 Corinthians 3:16-17).

But here it is. Here’s the detail that snagged me: the timing of it all. I’d been vaguely aware that a.) Israelites celebrated Passover at twilight and b.) Jesus died at twilight. For more on this, read Numbers 9:4-12 and John 19:31-37. 

But, look! Look at what God commands His people regarding the fellowship offering. 
The meat of their fellowship offering of thanksgiving must be eaten on the day it is offered; they must leave none of it till morning. - Leviticus 7:15.

I was so excited that day at the pool that I jumped up and exclaimed to my husband and three daughters, “They couldn’t leave any food until morning. Do you know why? Because God knew Jesus’s body wouldn’t be left until morning! Jesus was the offering that bridged the broken fellowship between God and mankind.”

They blinked at me as Disney animated characters would. And if crickets had been anywhere near the pool, we would have heard crickets chirping. 

I kept talking anyway. “And then,” I grabbed my Bible. “Listen to this. Leviticus 7:17. If it’s a freewill offering, ‘Any meat left over till the third day must be burned up.’ The third day? You get it? Jesus gave Himself freely. Three days!”

My youngest daughter dipped her fist and said, with zero emotion, “That’s great, Mom.”  

If you’re reading this and you’re excited about the new things you’ve just learned about the obscure book of Leviticus, give me just 484 more words, and I’ll hit it home.

The Sabbath following Passover was referred to as “High Sabbath.” It was commemorative of the Israelites’ freedom from slavery in Egypt and acted as a reminder of God’s salvation for His people. No work was allowed during the Sabbath, a day of rest. These are the same days Jesus “rested” in the tomb.  

Christians Are the “Pleasing Aroma” of Sacrifice

The phrase “pleasing aroma to God” is used seven times in Leviticus 1-5. Paul uses that same language in his letter to Corinth.

But thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are an aroma that brings death; to the other, an aroma that brings life. And who is equal to such a task? - 2 Corinthians 2:14-16

Jesus stepped upon the altar to become are sacrifice. God provided. When we, daily, “offer our bodies as living sacrifices” (Romans 12:1), we become the pleasing aroma to God that rises up from the altar.

The Beauty of Levitical Sacrifices

Let me show you something beautiful. Seven times within Leviticus 4-5, God says, “and they will be forgiven.” Read Leviticus 1:3-5 the way you normally would. 

“‘If the offering is a burnt offering from the herd, you are to offer a male without defect. You must present it at the entrance to the tent of meeting so that it will be acceptable to the Lord. You are to lay your hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it will be accepted on your behalf to make atonement for you.  You are to slaughter the young bull before the Lord, and then Aaron’s sons the priests shall bring the blood and splash it against the sides of the altar at the entrance to the tent of meeting.” 

The easiest way to understand Leviticus is to replace each animal with “Jesus.” Read the same three verses one more time. 

“‘If the offering is a burnt offering from [Jesus,] you are to offer a male without defect. You must present [Jesus] at the entrance to the tent of meeting so that [your offering] will be acceptable to the Lord. You are to lay your hand on the head of [Jesus], and [He] will be accepted on your behalf to make atonement for you. You are to slaughter [Jesus] before the Lord, and then [the priests] shall bring the blood and splash it against the sides of the altar at the entrance to the tent of meeting.” - Leviticus 1:3-5

This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. - Matthew 26:28

Are you crying too? You don’t need to. God provided.

Photo Credit: ©Getty Images/artisteer 

Author Samantha Evans Tschritter, The Grief Advocate: Unedited, specializes in articulating grief and loss, hope and healing. Learn more at LoveUnedited.com or find her on social media at Linktr.ee/LoveSamEvans.