Leviticus describes the five major offerings of the law: burnt, meat, peace, sin and trespass. 

All the Mosaic laws and rituals were by design a picture image of all the facets of Jesus Christ at the cross as King, High Priest and Sacrifice all  rolled into one. The crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ is also a fulfillment of the promise given to Abraham long before the law was given and all foretold by all the prophets of old and confirmed in the new and everlasting testament.

Part of the offerings of the law are a direct testament of the agreement entered into by God and Abraham [Genesis 15:11] I believe that all the dividing of the animals was exactly what Abraham did when in his culture they entered into a contract, so when God passed through the prepared sacrifice of Abraham, God was signing a contract showing Abraham in the way that he would most understand as to the surety of God’s promise to him and his seed. The sacrifices of the law in part are a reminder of that promise. Look at this comparison between the burnt offering of the law and the sacrifice of Abraham:

All the burnt offerings in some way are an aspect of the sacrifice of Abraham. They were all the same animals; they were divided and arranged on the altar of fire except for the birds.

All the brunt offerings were also atonement offerings. Whether of bulls or lambs, they were to be perfect [without blemish] and the inward parts were washed with water showing that God’s salvation sacrifice cleanses you inwardly [Something you and your strength could never accomplish]. The person bringing the offering would lay his hands on the head of the animal in an act of transference; transferring their sin to the sacrifice just as Jesus took our sins upon himself. The person who brought the offering has to kill this animal before the Lord. The act of offering was repulsive and indeed purposely so, designed to show the ugliness of sin and its high cost of atonement. The lamb of the burnt offering was killed on the north side of the altar; Jesus was crucified at Calvary [Golgotha], which is located on the north side of the former Temple location. Also Jesus was crucified with all Israel looking upon him, just as the peace offering was slain before the tabernacle of the congregation. The fire on the Altar represents when God passed through Abraham’s sacrifice thereby signing the contract:

Cloven tongues of fire appeared on the day of Pentecost and are the very same symbolism of God walking through the sacrifices of Abraham. Jesus is letting you know that you have an unbreakable covenant or signed contract with God.

 The plucking of the crop and feathers  was also part of Abraham’s preparation of the original sacrifice and surely is  also an image of what Jesus endured before his crucifixion during the scourging. Isaiah records the event:

All the meat offerings were of unleavened bread [none-risen bread] Fine flour is unleavened bread without any influence of man and is symbolic of the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross [then after three days he arose from the dead or became Leavened or risen bread, got it?]. All offerings were laid upon ordered wood just like Jesus was nailed to the wooden cross [ordered wood]. The meat offering of unleavened bread was the most holy of all offerings made by fire. Jesus is most holy.

The meat offering of Unleavened bread is also represented in Communion as the last supper with Jesus breaking the bread and passing it to his disciples representing himself, the bread of life. The fact that oil was poured upon the meat offering symbolizes the Holy Spirit, which Jesus was born of and is also the author of. All who are his children are also born of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God through Jesus Christ and if the Spirit of God is not bearing witness with you, then you need to get saved. Time is running out.

All meat offerings were made with salt, which symbolizes incorruption. Jesus is the perfect incorruptible sinless sacrifice.

Paul refers to Jesus as our High Priest and he offered himself on the Altar.

The peace offering had the kidneys and the fat of the animal burned upon the altar. To me this is amazing; the kidneys figuratively represent the innermost mind with its affections and desires while the fat symbolizes "the choicest, best part and abundance".

God wants your choicest best part of your emotions, desires and affections, which is your love. God wants your love. Your love for God should drive you in all you say and do, the way you treat others and the truth of the Gospel [ Jesus, the only way the truth and the life] This is a work of the Holy Spirit, which is why it is an offering made by fire. The fire is the Holy Spirit. Through Jesus who is the giver of the Holy Ghost, you are brought into an intimate relationship with God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. For God said I will give them a heart to know me:

The sin offering was for sins of ignorance as in goofing up, sinning without knowing, knowingly sinning or also to lead astray whether knowing or not knowing. The root word for ignorance here means to err mentally showing that God sees the innermost thoughts of the heart. If your thinking isn’t right, you will live in sin. Let me explain, if you think that you must walk this regimented way of life by your own strength, you are not thinking right. It takes Jesus by the Holy Ghost to change you inwardly. You have nothing to do with it except to say, "Lord, I want it, I can’t do it without you." You become quite aware of your own inabilities. The greatest sin is to say I’m doing it on my own, which is to suggest that Jesus sacrificed himself in vain. When the Holy Ghost comes upon you, your thinking becomes right and you can rest being assured by the witness of Jesus in you.

Again, your sin was transferred to the sacrifice by laying your hands on its head.

The priest would sprinkle the blood seven times before the mercy seat showing that the blood stays God’s judgment. Seven represents God’s rest, peace and perfection.

The priest would then put some of the blood upon the horns of the altar of sweet incense before the LORD. The horns represent authority showing that the power to atone for sin is found only in the blood. All the remaining blood was poured out at the Altar of the burnt offering. Jesus poured out his blood upon the Fathers Altar and his blood was literally sprinkled upon the mercy seat. [Read the Ron Wyatt story of the discovery of the Ark of the Covenant]

Again they would offer the kidneys and all the fat were burned upon the altar, here though it is displaying the faultless love of Jesus for the Father, who willingly laid down his life to redeem all whom the Father had given him. The rest of the sacrifice was then carried outside the camp to a clean place and burned upon wood where the ashes of the temple sacrifices were placed. This was to show that your sins departed and went away with the sacrifice outside the camp to be remembered no more.

Jesus was crucified [offered] outside the camp, beyond Jerusalem’s walls to the north. The Location will prove to be the very location where the sacrificial ashes were deposited. The Lord’s body was laid in a clean place, in a tomb where never a man had laid.

All the sacrificial animals of Abraham’s sacrifice are also represented in the sin offering serving as a reminder that the promise covenant given by God to Abraham still stands strong. The fulfillment of the two-fold Abraham promise is found in the crucifixion. God says I will bless those who bless Abraham and curse those who curse thee [Genesis 12:3]. All the promises of Abraham apply also to the body of Christ. Furthermore, God gave to Abraham the lands from the Nile River in Egypt to the River Euphrates in Iraq [Genesis 15:8]. Yet the most important promise is the one concerning all the families of the earth, the blessing that would become available to all of them through his seed [Genesis 22:18]. Galatians 3:16 explains that the seed spoken in Genesis is Jesus Christ and the promise is the Gospel message. All of this is the Covenant of Abraham.

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Another important aspect of the sin offering explains the reason why Jesus spoke the words, "My God My God, Why has thou forsaken me?" This was not some lack of faith as some have tried to present, rather an expression and description of an event so we could fully know what was happening to him. It is also not as it is falsely claimed by some that God could not look upon sin, for if this were true then he couldn’t look on any of us. The following may be hard for some to accept nevertheless it is the truth.

Concerning the sin offering when it came to offering of the fine flour [refined flour or unleavened bread] the Lord said you shall not put oil on it nor any frankincense [Leviticus 5:11]. One important meaning of the word "frankincense" is to make ceremonially and personally white as in purification; by not putting frankincense on the offering you can see how Jesus who knew no sin became sin for us. He who is pure took our judgment, transferring our sin unto himself and became impure for our benefit or justification. Also, and to answer the original question, why Jesus said what he said, while Jesus hung on the cross as the lamb of atonement, all judgment for mankind’s sin was poured upon him. God the Father had to completely separate himself from Jesus. Yes, Jesus endured all the Judgment of sin including complete separation from God. Jesus although being God in the flesh, lived on earth as a man led always by the presence of the Holy Ghost, when Jesus cried out those words that was the very moment the most horrible part of God’s judgment was laid upon him, complete separation from God the Father. The Holy Spirit had departed from him, which is represented in the law by the notion of "No anointing Oil" on the sin offering of fine flour. Jesus endured something we have never known nor will ever have to know so long as Jesus is your savior. [My God I Love Him!]

Jesus presented himself to Israel for three years beginning with the overturning of the moneychanger’s tables when the religious leaders ask for a sign and he told them, "Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up."

I find it significant that the original sacrifice of Abraham called for the sacrificial animals to be three years old:

The ministry of Jesus was three years therefore fulfilling the Abraham sacrifices of the heifer [bullock], goat and the Ram [A male sheep] of three years! I’ll bet the turtledove and the pigeon were also three years old [young by any standard]

I was not planning on bringing this out, however as I said in the beginning, the sacrifices of the law are directly related to the Abraham covenant and the original sacrifice of Abraham when God himself walked through the middle of it, which was the way a contract was signed in Abraham’s Chaldee culture. The Abraham sacrifice is confirmed in the Mosaic sacrifices and both foreshadow and are fulfilled in God’s sacrifice for mankind Jesus Christ.

There is one more sacrifice of Abraham that paints the image of substitution and is directly related to the crucifixion, when Isaac, Abraham’s promised son, was to be offered to God on Mount Moriah. Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife; and both he and Isaac together  went to Mount Moriah [Genesis 22:6]. Notice that Isaac carries the wood just as Jesus carried his cross. Isaac notices all the items for the sacrifice  are present except for the sacrifice itself and he puzzled by this asks, Hey Dad where’s the sacrifice? Abraham replied God would provide the sacrifice. At the last minute as Abraham, with a paining heart was about to thrust his son through with a knife, his love for God being greater than for his son, God seeing this forbade him to continue. God provided as a substitution for Isaac, a Ram in the thicket. The Ram was offered in place of Isaac [Genesis 22:13].

The very place that Jesus was crucified is the exact location that Abraham was to offer Isaac. Since the lamb of the burnt offering was to be sacrificed on the north side of the altar and the sin offering was to be burned or offered outside the camp [According to the Law of Moses], Jesus is the Lamb of God, the sin offering, the burnt offering and the substitution for Isaac rolled into one. Clearly this proves that the Muslim claim that the Dome of the Rock is built over the Abraham rock of sacrifice is a fallacy. Furthermore, the notion that the Holy of Holies stood on the Isaac location is also a mistake since the sin offering for the people was burned or offered Outside the Camp. Remember, Jesus literally fulfilled all the details of the offerings of the Law of Moses and of the Abraham Covenant completely and exactly.

The trespass offering is for the sins partly due to ignorance; the ones committed even when you were not aware, yet not exclusive to sins done in ignorance. This offering is a two fold offering; for trespassing against your neighbor and also God. Notice the trespass offering comes after the sin offering showing that Christians are not perfect in their works yet your sins are covered nonetheless. There may be repercussions in this life for those actions [ Jesus is Merciful though isn’t he?] but God is not casting you away for your failures, he covers them with his righteousness. In each case, whether against God or your neighbor, it was a Ram [Male Sheep] that was slain or in other words a lamb and the priest made the atonement before the Lord.

All the offerings and aspects of the law, whether it be by methods or the actions of the priest or preparation of the sacrifices, fully show the multi-faceted accomplished aspects of the crucifixion offering of Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, High Priest, covenant promise of Abraham, fulfillment of the law that takes away the sins of the world and soon coming King. Hallelujah.

Amen.

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