Numbers 7.13-17
His offering was … one young bull, one ram and one male lamb a year old for a burnt offering.
The burnt offering as described in Leviticus 1 was a sacrifice wholly given to God. Every part of the animals offered was to be burnt on the altar – the skin, the entrails, the blood, everything. The animals used had to be males without blemish or defect. So Jesus became the spotless lamb, as pure on the inside as on the outside – nothing less than perfection would satisfy a holy God. The offerer had to lay his hands on the sacrifice and slaughter it himself (he couldn’t delegate it to the priest). The burnt offering is about how this lovely sacrifice takes my place – a picture of how God finds Jesus thoroughly acceptable; and because Jesus died instead of me, God now finds me acceptable.
I have been at the altar and witnessed the Lamb
Burnt wholly to ashes for me;
And watched its sweet savour ascending on high,
Accepted, O Father, by thee.
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