111_The burnt offering Lev 1:1-9 The Lord called Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting, saying, 2 “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When any one of you brings an offering to the Lord, you shall bring your offering of livestock from the herd or from the flock. 3 “If his offering is a burnt offering from the herd, he shall offer a male without blemish. He shall bring it to the entrance of the tent of meeting, that he may be accepted before the Lord. 4 He shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him. 5 Then he shall kill the bull before the Lord, and Aaron's sons the priests shall bring the blood and throw the blood against the sides of the altar that is at the entrance of the tent of meeting. 6 Then he shall flay the burnt offering and cut it into pieces, 7 and the sons of Aaron the priest shall put fire on the altar and arrange wood on the fire. 8 And Aaron's sons the priests shall arrange the pieces, the head, and the fat, on the wood that is on the fire on the altar; 9 but its entrails and its legs he shall wash with water. And the priest shall burn all of it on the altar, as a burnt offering, a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord. On a cold winter evening in London, a young man named William Booth walked through the streets, witnessing the plight of the poor and destitute. His heart burned with a passion to serve God by helping those who were lost in the darkness of sin and suffering. He was the founder of the Salvation Army. He once said, "The greatness of a man's power is the measure of his surrender." He made no half-hearted devotion but offered his life completely to God. Booth’s life reminds us of the burnt offering in Leviticus 1, a sacrifice that was wholly consumed. It pictures absolute surrender and devotion. All of the book of Leviticus unfolds the nature of God’s relationship with his redeemed people. The old covenant God made with Israel was established at Mount Sinai. Beginning with their sinfulness and weakness, it moves to display the riches of God’s provision to restore man to fellowship with him. The laws of sacrifice and purification were not arbitrary but neither were they able to remove the guilt of sin. "For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near." (Hebrews 10:1). But they were a pointer to the final and perfect sacrifice that would be performed once for all when God sent his Son Jesus Christ into the world. Colossians 2:16-17 declares that these rituals were "a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ." A