Christ in all the scriptures An offering made by fire

 Christ in all the scriptures

An offering made by fire...a sweet savour unto the Lord!  Leviticus 1

Intensity in worship  v7-9   "And the sons of Aaron the priest shall put fire upon the altar, and lay the wood in order upon the fire: and the priests, Aaron's sons, shall lay the parts, the head and the fat in order upon the wood that is on the fire which is upon the altar: but his inwards and his legs shall he wash in water, and the priest shall burn all on the altar to be a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the Lord."

The burnt offering is always associated with fire.  The early chapters of Leviticus detail the procedure for the offerings, and it is not until chapter 9v23-24 the first offering was ignited, amid a spectacular signal of God's approval-"And Moses and Aaron went into the tabernacle of the congregation, and came out and blessed the people: and the glory of the Lord appeared unto all the people.  And there came a fire out from before the Lord and consumed upon the altar the burnt offering and the fat, which when all the people saw, they shouted, and fell on their faces!"  Thus the first burnt offering was ignited by the Lord from heaven, not from any incendiary on earth.   Furthermore, the flame was never to be extinguished, as is stated three times in chapter 6v9, 6v12, 6v13.  This was the issue in Leviticus 10, when the sons of Aaron kindled their own fire, and brought burning censers of strange fire to the golden altar of incense.  God takes a dim view of those who do things their own way, and not God's way, when handling sacred things in a way contrary to His will.  The severity of the judgment on them is a warning to all who handle holy things.  The burnt offering, and all the offerings with it must only burn with the flame kindled from above.  The golden censors for burning the pure incense at the golden altar must come from the Divinely kindled flame of the altar.  It is not enough to do God's work, it must be done in God's way.  Strange fire, new carts, this is the imagery of those who will do things differently, and not according to the Divine pattern.  I shuddered when I heard a so-called spiritual leader, while defending a clear breach of scripture, say, "We have our own way of doing things here".  How tragic.  God's work must be done in God's way, and this applies to the present day.  Paul said to the church at Corinth "The fire will try every man's work OF WHAT SORT IT IS!"-1st Cor.3v13.  It does matter how we do things for God.

There is no coldness or formality to the worship of God, it is symbolised by fire.  It is the fire that comes from above through the Spirit of God and kindles passionate thanksgiving.  Read through the scriptures and find that worship is passionate and heart-warming: e.g.

Psalm 45v1 "My heart is inditing a good matter: I speak of the things which I have made touching the king: my tongue is the pen of a ready writer".   The Hebrew word for inditing rachash  literally means to gush.  Other translations render this as an overflowing heart, or a heart bubbling over.  Note it is not the mind that is overflowing, we do not worship God with sermons-it is the heart that is oozing with praise to God through the Holy Spirit's flame.  The Lord said in Luke 6v45, "...out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh"  The context of that is for good or bad.  We can only speak good of Christ, and what we speak is from a heart warmed by the Divine flame!  Paul wrote in Romans 5v5 that the ultimate experience of the Christian who has tasted the grace of God is that "the love of God is shed abroad (poured forth, flooded) in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given to us".  Is this the Divine flame within?  

A point of interest is that the word for "burnt" differs from the burnt offering (qatar-slow burning) to the sin offering (saraph-burnt to ashes).   In the sin offering, God consumed the whole animal in a deluge of fire outside the camp-(Leviticus 16).  The burnt offering was of a slow burning flame emitting clouds of sweet savour perpetually to the Lord.  Most other offerings were burned upon the burnt offering, including the grain offering, the peace offering, the fat from the sin and trespass offering, and the drink offering.  None of these were offered without the burnt offering.  The only exception was the offering of the red heifer of Numbers 19, which is a separate study in itself.     

The other sacrifices for the burnt offering, namely of the flock or of the fowls, all follow the same principle, that the entire offering was on the altar before the Lord-refer Lev. 1v13v15- but there are a few different procedures.  In summary, the burnt offering was presented before the Lord, it was killed at the altar, and placed on the wood in order.  The fire from above kindled the flame and emitted a sweet savour to God.  The link to Christ is obvious-in the words of Ephesians 5v1-2, "Be ye therefore followers of God as dear children; and walk in love, as Christ also loved us, and hath given Himself for us an offering and sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour".  Again the hymnwriter catches the mood of these fabulous scriptures, "The vow was on thee, thou didst come; to yield thyself to death.  And consecration marked thy path; and spoke in every breath"-Wylie Macleod, Christian barrister from Calcutta (1812-1872).  Christ presented Himself to God, He laid down His life on the cross, His blood cleanses from all sin, and in death the pleasure of the Lord prospered in His hand.  What the flame meant for Him we can never know; what it means to God will forever be extolled.  We are challenged to follow the One who so devoted Himself to God...Romans 12v1, "I beseech you therefore brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service (worship)".  This is our best response to such sacrifice made on our behalf.