Leviticus 1:4

I. Laws and Ordinances Determining the Covenant Fellowship Between the Lord and Israel - Leviticus 1-16 The Laws of Sacrifice - Leviticus 1-7 When the glory of the Lord had entered the tabernacle in a cloud, God revealed Himself to Moses from this place of His gracious presence, according to His promise in Exo 25:22, to make known His sacred will through him to the people (Lev 1:1). The first of these revelations related to the sacrifices, in which the Israelites were to draw near to Him, that they might become partakers of His grace. (Note: Works relating to the sacrifices: Guil. Outram de sacrificiis libri duo, Amst. 1688; Bhr, Symbolik des mos. Cultus ii. pp. 189ff.; Kurtz on the Sacrificial Worship of the Old Testament (Clark, 1863); and Oehler, in Herzog's Cyclopaedia. The rabbinical traditions are to be found in the two talmudical tractates Sebachim and Menachoth, and a brief summary of them is given in Otho lex. rabbin. philol. pp. 631ff.) The patriarchs, when sojourning in Canaan, had already worshipped the God who revealed Himself to them, with both burnt-offerings and slain-offerings. Whether their descendants, the children of Israel, had offered sacrifices to the God of their fathers during their stay in the foreign land of Egypt, we cannot tell, as there is no allusion whatever to the subject in the short account of these 430 years. So much, however, is certain, that they had not forgotten to regard the sacrifices as a leading part of the worship of God, and were ready to follow Moses into the desert, to serve the God of their fathers there by a solemn act of sacrificial worship (Exo 5:1-3, compared with Lev 4:31; Lev 8:4, etc.); and also, that after the exodus from Egypt, not only did Jethro offer burnt-offerings and slain-offerings to God in the camp of th…

1:4 Lay your hand on the animal’s head: The sacrificial animal represented the worshiper in the ceremony (4:4, 15, 24, 29, 33; 16:21). This act signified that the animal’s death represented the death of its owner. In the ritual for the Day of Atonement, it signified that the sins of the owner were transferred to the animal (16:20-22). With the peace offering (3:2, 8, 13), the act seems to have indicated ownership of the animal being sacrificed. • The phrase in your place may mean “in payment for sin” (sometimes called expiation) or “as a substitute for the sinner’s death” (sometimes called propitiation). • to purify you, making you right with him (or to make atonement for you): Although older commentaries describe this process as “covering over” sin, recent scholarship defines it as “blotting out, erasing, or cleansing from” sin. The concept involves satisfying God’s wrath against sin, ceremonially cleansing the worshiper, and restoring fellowship with God in the community of God’s people.