The Purpose of Old Testament Offerings - Leviticus 4-6

 Leviticus 4:3 (ESV)

if it is the anointed priest who sins, thus bringing guilt on the people, then he shall offer for the sin that he has committed a bull from the herd without blemish to the LORD for a sin offering.

Leviticus is a tough book to read for the New Testament believer.  Especially if we are Gentile believers.   We know very little about all the “offerings” mentioned in Leviticus.  We don’t see either their meaning or their relevance to us, today.   These were laws written for the nation of Israel over 4,000 years ago and can seem not only out of touch for us, but almost to the absurd for people who believe in Jesus Christ.   However, that is the connection.   Yes, all the offerings in the Old Testament are hard to understand, but the important part is to realize they taught the nation of Israel (and us) that their was a need to come to God with an offering.   It taught them, as the above verse mentions, that sin MUST be atoned for my an offering to a holy God.   That is the point of all the offerings.   Man was supposed to come with a enlightened heart of his sin and realize that God has a way to approach Him.    We can rejoice today that these 4,000 year old offerings told a story that would be fulfilled in the life, death and resurrection of the Son.   These are all foreshadowing of what Jesus would do for us. We can rejoice that we don’t have to see our sin and figure out the exact formula to follow to have that sin covered before God via a certain type of offering.   No, we know that Jesus fulfilled all the Law and all the offerings in His single act of obedience on the cross.   We rejoice today that the 4,000 year old offerings showed the need for a offering and the 2,000 year old offering of Jesus showed the fulfillment for those offerings for us.   Jesus was the perfect offering and took our place as a sin sacrifice to give us complete access to God.  

Hebrews 8:1 (ESV Strong's)

1 Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven,