Leviticus 7:38

“This is the law of...” is a closing formula, like the note at the end of a document that says what it contains and who issued it. It tells us that the seven chapters before it make up the whole law for these acts of worship. Leviticus 1–5 speaks mainly to the worshipper, setting out what each person was to bring and why. Leviticus 6:8–7:36 then turns to the priests, with their duties in handling the same offerings, the portions that were theirs, and the holiness their work required. Verse 37 gathers all of it into one list, and verse 38 sets the LORD’s authority over the whole.

The word for law, tôwrâh, means a precept or statute, and it also carries the sense of instruction or teaching. Here it marks every detail of the offerings as the LORD’s own instruction for how his people were to approach him, seek atonement and live with him in covenant. Once the law is complete, the book moves straight on to the ordination of Aaron and his sons in Leviticus 8, where these laws are first put into practice.

The setting is Israel’s first months as a nation. God had brought them out of Egypt and shown his presence and holiness at the mountain (Exodus 19), and the tabernacle had just been finished (Exodus 40). It was the place where these offerings would now be brought. The nations around Israel had sacrifices of their own, and their worship often involved idolatry, divination and even human sacrifice. The LORD’s laws stood apart from them in their moral demands, their emphasis on atonement for sin, and the holiness and justice of the God who gave them.

Verse 37 names six offerings, and each one answers to a different part of Israel’s life with God: complete dedication, thankful gifts from the field, cleansing from sin, making amends for wrong, the setting apart of priests, and fellowship at a shared meal.

Verse 38 tells us who gave all this. “The LORD” is Yᵉhôvâh, the name of Israel’s own God, the self-existent and eternal one who had brought them out of Egypt and made his covenant with them. The verb tsâvâh means to appoint, to give a charge or to command with authority. It comes twice in this verse, the same verb both times: the LORD “commanded Moses”, and in the same day “he commanded the children of Israel”. “Sinai” is named twice as well, first the mountain and then the wilderness around it. The repetition fixes the point firmly in the mind. These offerings were God’s own revelation, given through Moses, at the mountain where the covenant was made.

That covenant gave Israel the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20) and a large body of other laws, and it called them to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation (Exodus 19:5–6). The people promised to do all that the LORD had spoken (Exodus 24:3), and Moses later urged them to keep his commands just as he had given them (Deuteronomy 4:1–2). The offerings were part of how Israel lived out that bond. They gave the people a way to confess sin, receive atonement, give thanks and keep fellowship with the God who had chosen them.

“In the day that he commanded” points to a definite moment, when God set up these practices for the whole community. “In the wilderness of Sinai” places it on the journey, in a time of national formation, of God’s daily provision and of testing. The law was for their life and worship there and then, before they ever reached the promised land, and it laid the foundation for their life in Canaan.

The words “to offer their oblations” carry a picture in Hebrew. “Offer” is qârab, to come near or to bring near, and “oblations” is qorbân, an offering, literally something brought near. It is the broad word that covers every kind of gift brought to God, from the burnt offering to the peace offering. The whole system was a way for sinful people to come near to a holy God, whether for atonement, for thanks or for fellowship, and the worshipper had an active part in bringing the gift. “Unto the LORD” names the one to whom every offering went.

These offerings, commanded by God himself, were repeated again and again, and Hebrews explains that the sacrifices of the law could never take away sins or make the worshipper perfect (Hebrews 10:1–4). What they pictured, Christ fulfilled, and each offering in verse 37 finds its fulfilment in him.

• The burnt offering pictured complete dedication, and Christ gave himself wholly to the Father’s will, even to death on the cross. Hebrews puts his coming in these words: “Lo, I come... to do thy will, O God” (Hebrews 10:7).
• The meat offering pictured a life’s work and daily bread given to God, and Jesus is the bread of life (John 6:35), who offered his perfect life and service as a pleasing aroma to God.
• The sin offering and the trespass offering dealt with sin and its wrongs, and God made Christ to be sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21). He paid the full penalty and made peace through the blood of his cross (Colossians 1:20).
• The consecrations set priests apart, and Christ is our holy High Priest, who offered himself once for all (Hebrews 7:26–27). Through his blood we now draw near to God with confidence (Hebrews 10:19–22).
• The peace offerings pictured fellowship with God, and Christ is our peace, who has broken down the wall of division (Ephesians 2:14). Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through him (Romans 5:1).

He is the Lamb of God (John 1:29), who entered the holy place by his own blood and obtained eternal redemption (Hebrews 9:11–14). In him the oblation, the gift brought near, is God’s own Son, and through him we come near.

These two verses show us a God who did not leave his people to guess how to approach him. He named every offering and gave the commands himself, at a set time and place, through a mediator he chose. The care in those laws shows how holy he is and how seriously he takes sin, and the very fact that he gave them shows his grace, because a sinful people could come near only by a way that he provided.

That way has now been opened fully in Christ, the offering all six of these pointed to. Because his sacrifice is finished, we can come boldly to the throne of grace (Hebrews 4:16). Our worship is a response to what God has revealed, and the gifts we bring him now are ourselves, our thanks and our praise, offered “unto the LORD”.