#09 God’s Unfailing Love – OT Survey

Do you feel that God loves you? Do you sense His affection, or do you fear His rejection? This is a question that some think inappropriate. Some would say that my feelings are not the point and that what matters are the facts. Or, “it’s not what you feel, but what you think that matters.”

This seems entirely inadequate to me. It reminds me of why Zsa Zsa Gabor had nine husbands—and why each relationship failed so miserably.

Zsa Zsa loved money and, provided he made his approach with cash, she tolerated the man. Many Christians agonise over a similar relationship with God. They suspect that God doesn’t really love them; He loves His Son. And, provided they make their approach to God with Jesus at their side, they will be tolerated but not really loved.

God tolerates them, they think, the way we tolerate the neighbours’ kids who come over to play. But is that true of Jesus? Is He like a landlord who tolerates the tenant, provided the rent is paid?

In the Exodus, a Holy God had moved into the neighbourhood and set up His House. And, one of the first things that happens when God moves into your neighbourhood and invites you over to His House is that you become acutely aware that you are unholy.

In scripture, this unholy condition is described in various ways: Sin, rebellion, wickedness, debt, and wrath.

In Leviticus, the motif for this unholy condition is that of being “unclean”. Leviticus teaches us that this uncleanness, like talcum powder in a salad, gets into everything.

It’s in this context that the sacrificial system is given to Israel. This is important. Yes, the sacrifices picture Jesus cancelling debt, sin, and rebellion, but here the context is “uncleanness”.

By these sacrifices, God was showing His intention to take His treasured possession and make her clean. And so, Paul could say in Titus that Jesus,

…gave himself… to purify for himself a people for his own possession… (Titus 2:14)

In the tabernacle sacrifices, Jesus is portrayed as dying for a people He already loved but who could not enjoy it on account of their uncleanness. Though the regulations for animal sacrifice may at first seem complicated, the goal and motivation is clear and is given to us in a song back in Exodus,

You have led in your steadfast love the people whom you have redeemed; you have guided them by your strength to your holy abode. (Exodus 15:13)

Here we have both the goal—to enter His House—and the motivation—love.

With that as the backdrop, we can take a look at the five basic kinds of sacrifice in Leviticus. The first three deal with atonement—the need to cover and cleanse.

• The Ascension or Burnt offering
• The Sin offering
• The Guilt Offering
• The Grain Offering. This was a gift presented to God.
• The Peace Offering. This offering emphasised communion and friendship with God in the form of a meal shared in His presence.

In each of the animal sacrifices, there are five basic steps. At each step, God is pictured as wooing Israel to Himself in order to make her clean.

1. The Laying on of Hands (Leviticus 1:4)

Here we learn that drawing near to God must be through a God-appointed substitute.

The Animal is a substitute for the worshipper. The worshipper acknowledges the animal as a substitute by placing his hand on the animal’s head and then presenting it to the priest in his stead.

2. The Slaughter (Leviticus 1:5)

In the immediate slaughter of the animal, the sinner is, via the animal, “slain”.

The substitute representing the sinner must bear the penalty. At this point, the priest takes over.

3. The Blood (Leviticus 1:5)

The blood is collected and sprinkled over the sides of the altar.

This act of atonement makes the sinner clean and must be presented before God. (Passover). After the blood has been sprinkled, the animal is then cut into pieces and burnt before the Lord.

4. The Burning (Leviticus 1:6-9)

The word for burning here means literally to “turn into smoke.”

The ascension of the smoke of this offering is regarded as a pleasant aroma to God. It’s not the fire of judgement; it’s fire that transforms the offering and ascends as “Bread for God”.

5. The Meal (Leviticus 6:16)

Finally, animal sacrifices were often followed by a meal.

By this meal, God signified that He had welcomed the sinner as His friend. It renewed the covenant bonds and represented communion with God and neighbour.

Many see the Old Testament sacrifices as the work of a rather distant or else angry God who demands that the rent be paid. But this whole process of sacrifice was a vivid display of God’s unfailing love for His people and is portrayed in Ezekiel in the most intimate of relationships. (Ezekiel 16:3-11, 13-14).

In the sacrifices, God was wooing and cleansing Israel so that she might be acceptable to Him.

This is the meaning behind Leviticus 1:3, which reads…

…That he may be accepted before the Lord. (Leviticus 1:3)

God was “Taking pleasure in” and “Delighting in” His people.

The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, but the prayer of the upright is His delight. (Proverbs 15:8)

In Leviticus, God required you to bring a sacrifice without blemish, exactly as He had instructed.

When we remember how God destroyed Aaron’s sons for bringing unauthorised fire before the altar, I doubt not that every faithful Israelite looked over his animal very carefully and with more than a little bit of anxiety. What if God rejects my offering?

But pictured in the sacrificial system of the Tabernacle, God was not demanding that Israel pay her rent, foot the bills, or clear the debt so that she could keep her tenancy in His neighbourhood. She couldn’t.

The believing Israelite knew that the blood of bulls and goats could never take away sin. In offering a sacrifice, His trust was not in the animal but in God’s provision of a perfect substitute.

Pictured in these animal offerings, to quote Andrew Jukes, “God was taking Jesus to pieces.”

In the gospel, Jesus, for the joy set before Him, becomes our substitute (1 Peter 2:24-25.) His blood is shed and presented before God to cleanse the sinner. (cf. Hebrews 9:11-14; 1 John 1:7)

In His death, Jesus was washing our feet at the doorway so that we could come into His House without fear of punishment. In His resurrection, Jesus was ascending to the Father, as a pleasing aroma, as “bread for the world.”

He did this because He already loved you; He always loved you. A thousand bulls cannot buy His love. 10,000 good works can’t do it either. And…

…and this is especially important for us to hear: No amount of spiritual growth, no amount of Christian maturity, no amount of Calvinism, of praying, fasting, or tithing can make Him love you more.

The reason is that the problem was never His lack of love or affection. It was your uncleanness.

But on the cross, in cleansing our heart from sin, Jesus was dealing a death blow, not only to sin but to the unbelief that enslaves us to a fear of rejection by reassuring us of His unfailing love.

And so John writes,

In this, the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (1 John 4:9-10)

This is the love that casts out all fear. By faith in this Word, I can now come into His presence, reassured that, though I am not yet perfected, His blood cleanses me from all sin, and therefore, I am clean, and therefore I am free to enjoy the love with which He has always loved me.