Leviticus 1:1-6

I. The very same voice which proclaimed the commandments on Sinai is here said to announce the nature of the sacrifices, and how, when, and by whom they are to be presented. The unseen King and Lawgiver is here, as everywhere, making known His will. Those sacrifices which it was supposed were to bend and determine His will themselves proceeded from it.

II. These words were spoken to the children of Israel out of the tabernacle. The tabernacle was the witness of God's abiding presence with His people, the pledge that they were to trust Him, and that He sought intercourse with them.

III. The tabernacle is represented as the tabernacle of the congregation. There, where God dwells, is the proper home of the whole people; there they may know that they are one.

IV. "Say to the children of Israel, If any of you bring an offering to the Lord." The desire for such sacrifice is presumed. Everything in the position of the Jew is awakening in him the sense of gratitude, of obligation, of dependence. He is to take of the herd and the flock for his offering. The lesson is a double one. The common things, the most ordinary part of his possessions, are those which he is to bring; that is one part of his teaching. The animals are subjects of man; he is to rule them and make use of them for his own higher objects; that is another.

V. The victim was taken to the door of the place at which all Israelites had an equal right to appear; but the man who brought it laid his own hand upon the head of it. He signified that the act was his, that it expressed thoughts in his mind which no one else could know of.

VI. The reconciliation which he seeks he shall find. God will meet him there. God accepts this sign of his submission. He restores him to his rights in the Divine society.

VII. Now it is that we first hear of the priests, Aaron's sons. If there was to be a congregation, if the individual Israelites were not to have their separate sacrifices and their separate gods, then there must be a representative of this unity. The priest was consecrated as a witness to the people of the actual relation which existed between them and God.

F. D. Maurice, The Doctrine of Sacrifice Deduced from the Scriptures, p. 67.

References: Leviticus 1:1.—Parker, vol. iii., p. 126. Leviticus 1:1-9.—Ibid., pp. 13, 21, 29. Leviticus 1:4.—Spurgeon, Evening by Evening, p. 104. Leviticus 1:4, Leviticus 1:5.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxx., No. 1771. Leviticus 1:5.—Ibid., No. 1772; Parker, Christian Chronicle, Jan. 22nd, 1885. Leviticus 1:9.—J. Fleming, The Gospel in Leviticus, p. 46. Lev 1-7.—J. Monro Gibson, The Mosaic Era, p. 171; Preacher's Monthly, vol. ii., pp. 309, 311. Leviticus 2:1, Leviticus 2:2.—J. Fleming, The Gospel in Leviticus, p. 96. Leviticus 2:12-16.—Parker, vol. iii., p. 35. Lev 3—Ibid., pp. 42, 126. Lev 4—Ibid., p. 53. Leviticus 4:2, Leviticus 4:3.—J. Fleming, The Gospel in Leviticus, p. 107. Leviticus 4:3.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xiii., No. 739; Parker, vol. iii., p. 46. Leviticus 4:6, Leviticus 4:7.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxx., No. 1780. Leviticus 4:27-31.—Ibid., vol. xviii., No. 1048. Leviticus 4:29.—Spurgeon, My Sermon Notes, p. 39. Lev 5—Parker, vol. iii., p. 59. Leviticus 5:15.—Ibid., p. 127. Leviticus 5:17, Leviticus 5:18.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxiii., No. 1386. Leviticus 6:1-7.—Parker, vol. iii., p. 67. Leviticus 6:2, Leviticus 6:5.—J. Fleming, The Gospel in Leviticus, p. 114. Leviticus 6:9.—Parker, vol. iii., p. 128. Leviticus 6:12.—J. Fleming, The Gospel in Leviticus, p. 20. Leviticus 6:13.—W. Spensley, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xix., p. 344; Spurgeon, Morning by Morning, p. 197; Parker, vol. iii., p. 74; Homiletic Quarterly, vol. ii., p. 120. Leviticus 7:1.—Parker, vol. iii., p. 128. Leviticus 7:11-18.—Preacher's Monthly, vol. ii., p. 313. Leviticus 7:27.—Parker, vol. iii., p. 130. Leviticus 7:29-31.—J. Fleming, Gospel in Leviticus, p. 74. Leviticus 7:37, Leviticus 7:38.—Homiletic Quarterly, vol. iv., p. 529. Lev 7—Parker, Christian Chronicle, May 22nd, 1879.