Better than hands on the Lamb - Leviticus 1-3

Leviticus ... simply the name of the book gives most Christians the chills. Twenty-seven chapters of ceremonial law that is no longer in application today. We might has, why read it, at all? Why worry about a sacrificial system that has been replaced by the unltimate sacrifice of the Son? We already know that Jesus fulfilled all the "types" and "analogical" pictures of the book, so why go over the "shadow" when you can look at the real "light?" All these things are good questions to ask but you really don't have to read far into the book to discover some real practical truths for us today. Despite the fact that 2 Timothy 3:16 says that "all" Scripture is inspired and therefore "profitable" for reproof and correction and instruction, there are many truths to be found in Leviticus that we should apply today and make our walk with Christ vibrant today. In Leviticus 1:4 we have instruction that when the Israelite brought a sacrifice to offer before the mercy seat he was to "lay his hands on the head" of the sacrifice. This was to indicate the relationship of the worshiper with the sacrifice. That is the key to understanding the relationship we have with Christ and with the Old Testement system. Laying your hands on sacrifice was the limit and best approach we had to identification with the lamb. But, when Christ came along we were given a more substainial place for the identification process: WE were IN Christ. Chrst took us with Him through the death, burial and resurrection. Let us rejocie in the victory Christ had because we were with Him in that victory. To be "IN" the Lamb is better than having our "hands on the head of the lamb!'