The Burnt Offering

 Lev 1:10-13 'If the offering is a burnt offering from the flock, from either the sheep or the goats, he is to offer a male without defect. ¹¹ He is to slaughter it at the north side of the altar before the LORD, and Aaron's sons the priests shall sprinkle its blood against the altar on all sides. ¹² He is to cut it into pieces, and the priest shall arrange them, including the head and the fat, on the burning wood that is on the altar. ¹³ He is to wash the inner parts and the legs with water, and the priest is to bring all of it and burn it on the altar. It is a burnt offering, an offering made by fire, an aroma pleasing to the LORD.'

In the Old Testament, God instructed his people to offer a Burnt Offering.  The Burnt Offering expressed the individuals readiness for communication with God.  It was a volunteer offering of yourself.  You presented it of your own free will (self surrender) showing you are ready for communion with God. This was an expression of your readiness to present your entire being to God-a complete giving of yourself to God.

The animal sacrificed was raised by you, that is an animal that was familiar to you possibly even a pet.  The animal is skinned by the priest exposing all of its inward parts.  The priest quickly checks to make sure the animal is free from defects and then burns the entire animal on the Altar except for the skin that remains as evidence that a sacrifice has been made.  The smoke from the Burnt offering ascends as a sweet aroma to God as an acceptable sacrifice.

 

Ephesians 5:2 "...and live a life of love,  just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God."

Jesus offered Himself willingly to become our Burnt Offering, with no reservations He offered His whole body as a "fragrant offering and sacrifice to God".  This made possible a return of communication and fellowship with God that was broken by sin in the Garden of Eden. In Hebrews 10:7-10, Jesus expresses the fact that because of his willful act of sacrifice on the cross, He set aside the covenant of the law and established the covenant of grace.

^{Hebrews 10:7-10 "}Then I said, 'Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll—I have come to do your will, O God.' " ⁸First he said, "Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them" (although the law required them to be made). ⁹Then he said, "Here I am, I have come to do your will." He sets aside the first to establish the second. ¹⁰And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all."

Recommended book:  "The Miracle of the Scarlet Thread" by Richard Booker