Leviticus 1:14-17

Bring his offering of turtledoves.

The burnt sacrifice of birds

I. We observe, in the first place, that worship and dedication to god are the general ideas connected with sacrifices in the sacred scriptures, and this is most important to a right understanding of them. His own Divine love induced the Saviour to glorify His humanity through sufferings, that He might be a Saviour for ever to bring His children to Himself; and thus He suffered, as the apostle says, the just for the unjust, to bring us to God. He suffered to satisfy His love, not as a punishment to appease the anger of another Divine person. In the sacrifice before us, “it is a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the Lord. A symbol this of the offering of interior worship from love, the fire of the soul, on the altar of the heart.

II. But secondly, the objects offered up were correspondences of good principles or powers in the mind. The animals used in the sacrifices were lambs, sheep, oxen, goats, turtledoves, and pigeons, and a consideration of the typical character of each will assist us to confirm the truth of our first proposition. The lamb is used in Scripture as the symbol of innocence, and is so expressive of this grace that it is almost a household word for those who are in possession of it. “I send you forth,” said our Lord, “as lambs in the midst of wolves.” Sheep are the types of the gentle principles of charity, or sympathising brotherly love. The sheep described by the Lord Jesus in Matthew 25:1. were those who had fed the hungry, clothed the naked, visited the sick and the prisoners, and succoured the strangers. Oxen are the types of the dispositions to duty and obedience. It was the animal chiefly devoted to the plough, and ploughing, in the spiritual sense, means the preparation of the soul to receive the knowledge of heavenly things. The goat, whose delight is in leaping from rock to rock, is the symbol of the disposition to regard the truths of faith with great pleasure, which sometimes degenerates into a love of faith only, and then is strongly condemned by the Lord (Ezekiel 34:1.; Matthew 25:1.). Birds, from their soaring power, are the symbols of thoughts. Turtledoves and pigeons are correspondences of those tender thoughts and yearnings after the heavenly life which the soul has in the early part of its regeneration. The cooing of the turtledove was first heard in the groves of Palestine, on the return of spring. Its sweet sound was the sign of the approach of a brighter and warmer season. When the soul, therefore, is coming to a more genial condition, the sweet thoughts of hope and trust that encourage its advance towards the heavenly state and kingdom are like the soft notes of a God-sent turtledove. All these types, then, of good affections and thoughts, as well as the mode of offering up by fire, abundantly confirm the view we have drawn from tile Holy Word, that the sacrifices were representative of good things and principles dedicated to the Lord in worship, not of punishment for human sin. May I not ask you if you have no spiritual sacrifice to make? Have not the turtledove, or the young pigeon of heavenward thought, begun to make themselves heard within you? Have you no yearnings after a better land? Have you not felt the aspirations after a fuller conformity to the Lord, after greater purity of heart, and greater usefulness on earth? If you have, follow their leadings, and offer them up to the Lord in love. Let the fire glow on the altar of your heart. Acknowledge that these first yearnings for good are from Him. He will not despise the gift, but bless it, as an offering made by fire, a sweet savour unto the Lord.

III. We observe that so far from the idea of sacrifices being regarded as symbolical of punishment by the Divine Being, the truth is, that outward sacrifices never were in accordance with the divine command at all, but were mere permissions to serve as types during human darkness and degeneracy. A common idea has been entertained that outward sacrifices are frequently commanded by God, and He originated the Divine arrangement with the Israelites; but this is altogether an error. Sacrifices were prevalent among the nations of the East before God spoke from Sinai at all. Pharaoh told the Hebrews they could sacrifice in his land, before a single law respecting sacrifice was given them (Exodus 8:25). In the Book of Leviticus, where the laws respecting sacrifices are all expressly given, they do not command sacrifices, they only regulate them. The language is, “If any man of you bring an offering unto the Lord,” as in Leviticus 1:2; “If his offering be of the flocks” (Leviticus 1:10); “If the burnt sacrifice for the offering of the Lord be of fowls” (Leviticus 1:14); and so on through the book, evidently implying no command, but regulation. The Israelitish people, like all their neighbours, had sunk from worshipping God in the heart and mind, with those affections and thoughts to which animals are the figures and correspondences, and were only too ready to offer up animals instead of offering up themselves. God only regulated this disposition to be a shadow of a better worship to come. The graces of the heart are what God requires, not the slaughter of animals (see Jer 7:22-23; 1 Samuel 15:22; Micah 6:7). Let us never suppose, then, that any sacrifice will be acceptable to Him, instead of that devotion of all the principles of the soul to do His holy will, which is the inward meaning of all the sacrifices.

IV. Lastly, To enable us to do this, and thus to return to the order of heaven, and to offer spiritual sacrifices again, the lord himself took human nature upon himself, and purified, perfected, and glorified this, so that all the sacrifices have their highest fulfilment in the lord Jesus Christ, the great high priest and the supreme sacrifice. Now we have seen that in relation to man the sacrifices represent the dedication of the several principles of his nature to the Divine will, by the destruction of selfishness in him, and his consequent regeneration. In our blessed Lord this sanctification of His humanity was far higher; it was the making of it Divine, and thus tile supreme sacrifice. He had the same principles in His humanity which we have in ours, thus He had the innocence represented by the lamb, the charity of which the sheep is the symbol, the obedience typified by the ox, the desire for faith of which the goat is the emblem, the thought and yearnings for the salvation of the human race represented by the turtledoves and young pigeons. As His humanity was from Jehovah interiorly, being the Son of God, but clothed with infirm coverings from His mother, He needed to sanctify and perfect it by a process precisely similar to that by means of which His children are prepared for heaven. (J. Bayley, Ph. D.)

Our Lord’s tenderness in dealing with the offerings of the poor

“Then he shall bring his offering of turtledoves, or of young pigeons.” There is a great deal of tenderness in the Lord’s way of dealing with the offerings of the poor among men; but there is a great deal of meanness in man’s way of giving poor offerings to the Lord. The Lord says, If the offering is of the herd, let it be of the best; if the offerer is too poor to bring a bullock, let him take a choice offering from his sheep or his goats; if indeed he has neither herd nor flock, let him bring the best he can find from among his fowls or his pigeons, and the willing spirit shall enlarge the small offering in the sight of the Lord. But man says, My cows are all Alderney or Durham stock; I must hold on to them. My sheep are South Down and Cotesworth; they are needed for wool and mutton. Some of my fowls and pigeons are of fancy breed: I don’t see how I can let them go. But there is a sickly pigeon, and a chicken with the “pip.” They’ll do for an offering. And the close-fisted believer goes up smilingly to the sanctuary, and passes in his shabby offering, with a self-gratulatory likening of his gift to the “widow’s mites.” There is a world of beauty in the Lord’s regard for the circumstances and necessities of His children. There is a shameful perversion, by ungrateful men, of God’s goodness in His call for offerings according to the means--not according to the meanness--of those who profess to love and serve Him. (H. C. Trumbull.).