There are 184 references to the burnt offering in the Old Testament. Due to the volume of information on this topic, a large book could be written on this subject. However, the first chapter of Leviticus gives us a brief summary of this subject.

The burnt offering was to be offered voluntarily. It was an offering that represented devotion to God and it had a sweet aroma. Provision was made for the poor. If a bull could not be afforded, a sheep, goat, turtledove or pigeon was accepted by God.

Neither the one providing the offering or the priests ate any of the offering. The dressed portion of the animal was totally burned and the fragrant aroma was for God alone. The offering which pictures our Lord Jesus Christ could only be fully and appropriately appreciated by God Himself.

Even the poorest had something to offer. Yet, regardless of what man brought, each offering had to be without blemish to represent the moral perfection that God demands.

It is helpful to know that offering and sacrifices are interchangeable words in the book of Leviticus and, in chapter one of that book, we read the details of how the offering was prepared and sacrificed. When the Israelite brought his sacrifice to be offered, he laid his hand upon the sacrifice as a symbol of substitution. Then he performed his duties: kill, skin, cut up and then wash certain parts of the animal. The priests duties were to sprinkle the blood all around the altar, put the wood and the fire on the altar and then place the parts of the animal in order on the wood. The burnt offering—all that was burned on the altar, totally belonged to God. As recorded in Leviticus 7:8, the priest making the offering received the skin; however, the one bringing the offering did not receive any portion of the sacrifice.

The Holy Priests who offered these sacrifices to God and who performed their priestly services daily, over and over, could not fully appreciate their symbolic meanings. Sacrifices, from the time established, continued throughout the Old Testament. But, in the fulness of time, Christ, our High Priest, came, offering Himself as the spotless Lamb of God. He was the eternal, true burnt offering that forever satisfied God’s demands. “ [Christ] who does not need daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the people’s, for this He did once for all when He offered up Himself”
(Hebrews 7:27).

In Numbers 29, we read of a continual burnt offering, suggesting an eternal appreciation of the Father for the offering of His beloved son. Paul reminds us in Hebrews 10, verses 10 and 12, that “…we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” “…after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, [He] sat down on the right hand of God.”

Charles Haddon Spurgeon said, “Atonement by the blood of Jesus is not an arm of Christian truth; it is the heart of it.” And seated at the right hand of God today, He receives our gratitude for His perfect and everlasting sacrifice that purchased our salvation.