Burnt Offerings And Sacrifices

 

For I spake not unto your fathers nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices.

But this thing I commanded them, saying obey My Voice, and I will be your God and you will be my people, and walk in all the ways that I have commanded thee that it may be well with thee...(Jeremiah 7:22,23).

Will I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats? Offer unto God thanksgiving and pay thy vows unto the Most High...(Psalm 50:9-14).

But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of these things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice to the Lord at Gilgul.

And Samuel said, hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the Voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams...(1 Samuel 15:21,22).

But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance of sin every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sin, wherefore when he cometh into the world he saith:

Sacrificeth and offerings thoou wouldst not, but A Body thou hast prepared me; for in burnt and sacrifices for sin thou hadst no pleasure...

Then said I, lo, I come, (in a volume of a Book it is written of me), to do Thy Will O Lord...(Hebrews 10:3...study the whole chapter in the light of the Oracles), (see Psalm 40:6-10 and Psalm 50).

 

And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, (Seven times). and said, Behold, the blood of the covenant which the Lord hath made with you concerning all these words...(Exodus 24:8).

The life of the flesh is in the blood. I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh atonement for your souls...(Leviticus 17:11).

Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins. (In other words, without a witness against the spirit of Darkness in our time, there is no National redemption)... (Hebrews 9:6-28).

Having boldness, therefore brethren, to enter into the Holiest (place of all) by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us, through the vail, that is, his flesh...(Hebrews 10:7-29).

 

 

And having taken bread, (looking forward to the harvest season at the end of the Year), he gave thanks, and broke, and gave it to them, saying, This is my Body (The Five kinds) which is being given for you; Do this in remembrance of me. In like manner he took also the cup after the supper (at the Third Meal), saying, This cup is the New Testament in my blood, which is shed for you...(Luke 22:19,20).

THE FIVE KINDS...This is the law of the Burnt Offering, of the Meal Offering, and of the Sin Offering, and of the Tresspass Offering, and of the consecrations, of the sacrifice of the Peace Offerings...(Leviticus 7:37).

BURNT OFFERING TO THE LORD..."A symbol of the offering up of the best of the lower desires (beasts) to the higher ideal, in order that they shall be purified by buddhi (Fire), and so be transmuted.

And Noah took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar...(Genesis 8:20).

And every lower emotion and desire given up for the sake of the ideal, becomes the means of this offering of the lower self to the will of the Higher Self in reciprocal action between the two.

'The name given in Scripture to this species of sacrifice is olah, an ascension, so called from the whole being consumed and going up in a flame to the Lord. It also received the name kalil, the whole, with reference also to the entire consumption.' P. Fairburn, Typology of Scriptures, Vol II. p.344.

In the Burnt Offering we have seen Jesus as our representative. His offering was (is) offered 'for us,'; therefore as he is, so are we in this world; the measure of his acceptance is the measure of our acceptance. A. Jukes, The Law of the Offering, p.66.

And when the burnt-offering is placed upon it he shall burn the fat of the peace offering. (Lev.6:12). For whoever kindles within themself this fire of love, places themself upon the altar as a burnt offering, because they burn out every fault, which wickedly lived within them. For when they examine the secrets of their own thoughts, and sacrifice their wicked life, by the sword of conversion, they have placed themselves upon the altar of their own hearts, and kindled themselves with the fire of Love. And the fat of the peace offering (the inward parts) smells sweetly from this victim; because the inward fatness of new love, making peace between ourselves and God, emits from us the sweetest odour. But since this self-same love continues inextinguishable in the heart of the Elect, it is fitly subjoined, 'This is that perpetual fire, which will never go out on the altar.' (Lev.6:13). This fire in truth will never go out on the altar, because the glow of love continues on even after death." The Dictionary of World Religions.

These are the beasts which ye shall eat, (which are clean): the ox, the sheep, and the goat. The hart, and the roebuck, and the fallow deer, and the wild goat, and the pygarg, the wild ox, and the chamois (Ten in number).

And every beast that parteth the hoof, and cleaveth the cleft into two claws, and cheweth the cud among the beasts, that shall ye eat. (And thus, that shall ye sacrifice)...(Deuteronomy 14:4-6).

CATTLE, OR OXEN..."A symbol of those emotions of the lower nature, which are under control of the higher nature; or of the higher desires...

And God said. let the earth bring forth the living creatures after its kind, cattle, and creeping things, and the beast of the earth after its kind: and it was so...(Genesis 1:24).

And again the Divine nature directs that the lower nature of the soul shall bring forth that which is first in order, namely, the natural qualities. The 'cattle' (which are acceptable as a sacrifice) symbolize obedience and docility to higher rule: the 'creeping things,' (which are not ), cunning and subtlety: and the 'beast of the earth,' animal instinct: and so involution proceeds without struggle and strife in perfect order and entirety." The Dictionary of World religions.

One must perceive the fact here that not one species of beasts or fowl, (the oxen, the goat, the Ram or the sheep, or the pigeon and turtle dove), not one type or image, acceptable in the Law of God upon the altar of sacrifice, is a scavenger (living on what it has not earned for itself), or a meat eater (a killer, or a hunter, as is Nimrod the great warrior archetype). For none of these qualities or attributes are acceptable in the soul that is coming to spiritual perfection, much less in those who are bringing themselves as a sacrifice upon the altar of Life itself.

To "chew the cud," and "part the hoof," means to meditate and repent, or change directions. The creature that finds a quiet place to ruminate, to bring up and chew over again what it has already ingested, is like a soul, who after hearing a precept of God, or some meaning of a thing, or some word that purports to come from God, goes and thinks them through again before it acts. It does not act immediately and carelessly like the swine, (who indeed parts the hoof--snoughing up everything from every direction that comes to it--but does not chew the cud), but finds time to reflect on what it has heard. Only when the Word sits correctly in the mind, and upon the soul, does the spiritual aspirant part the hoof--only then does it change directions or walk in another path.