Morning and Evening Israel were to offer a burnt offering to the LORD. The Burnt offering rises as a soothing aroma to the LORD. It speaks of the righteousness and perfection of Jesus Christ Himself. Jesus was crucified at 9am, the time of the morning burnt offering….and He died at 3pm as the evening burnt offering was being made.Jesus is our righteousness. Every morning and every evening we can declare this. By doing so we offer to God an acceptable sacrifice…not ours…but that of the perfect Lamb of God.
Lev 1:3 If his offering be a burnt sacrifice of the herd, let him offer a male without blemish: he shall offer it of his own voluntary will(ratson) at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the LORD. nkjv
The NKJV is not bringing out the true meaning here. I don’t know why they put, “offer it of his own free will”? The Hebrew and the Greek does not support it.
The Greek says
(ABP+) If [be a whole burnt-offering his gift offering] of the oxen, [ male as an unblemished he shall bring it] the door of the tent of the testimony. He shall bring it as acceptable(G1184) before the lord . ABP
The Apostolic Bible polyglot above says the offerer shall bring it as acceptable before the Lord. The unblemished male of the oxen is acceptable as a propitiation for the man’s sin. The word is “dektos” and it means From G1209; approved; (figuratively) propitious: – accepted (-table).— G1209 means, to accept , receive or take.
So God accepts and receives and takes the offering of the unblemished male oxen. It is pleasing to Him to make propitiation for the one who brought it to be offered. We then read….
Lev 1:4 And he shall put his hand upon the head of the burnt offering; and it shall be accepted(ratsah) for him to make atonement for him. (NKJV)
But the NKJV here makes up for the previous blunder by clearly showing that the burnt offering makes the one who brought it acceptable to the LORD. When he lays hands upon the head of the burnt offering before it is killed, the unblemished qualities of that animal are transferred to him. In other words there is an exchange taking place here. The unrighteous man puts his unrighteousness upon the head of the offering….and the righteousness of the unblemished Christ Jesus is imputed back to him in exchange. WONDERFUL!!
2Co 5:21 Him who knew no sin he made to be sin on our behalf; that we might become the righteousness of God in him. ASV
Jesus is our burnt offering. We are made righteous through what He did for us. Believers are righteous before the Father. So every day we can declare this out loud, every morning and every evening. Thank you Father that Jesus became my burnt offering, the righteous for the unrighteous. Lord I thank You that I am made righteous in Jesus. In a very real sense when Jesus died, you died. Your old life was offered as a burnt offering in Christ. The exchange was that you receive a new spirit and are now joined with Christ in His righteousness. Hallelujah!