In today's reading there are instructions for the sacrifices and offerings.  The details are recorded when we need to refer back to them.  Email us if you would like a chart showing the five main offerings in the Old Testament.

In the requirements for the cereal offerings is the admonition to include the salt of the covenant to the offerings.

Also listed in today's reading are instructions for the priests. One of the requirements is that the fire on the altar be kept burning continuously. Any applications for us as Believers today? Should our "fire for the Lord" be kept burning continuously?

Notice the words, “an aroma pleasing to the Lord” follow most offerings made by fire. Why?

Many times in the Bible, especially in the Old Testament we read of sacrifices and burnt offerings given to the Lord, placed on the altar in the temple or tabernacle. God Himself gave the laws regarding these sacrifices to Moses. The Israelite people offered their sacrifices as atonement for sin. It tells us that an offering, without blemish or defect, is an aroma pleasing to the Lord.  But the sacrifices could only cover the sin, not remove the sin. Jesus’ death on the cross gave humanity the opportunity to have their sins removed forever. The ultimate sacrifice, the perfect sacrifice, the most pleasing of all to the Lord…was Jesus. He willingly became our sacrifice to atone for our sins, an aroma that must have been as sweet perfume to God, the Father.  The aroma pleasing to the Lord is the symbolic destruction of sin.

Romans 12:1
"Therefore I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy  and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship."

The Bible tells us that we are to present ourselves as a living sacrifice. Is our sacrifice an aroma pleasing to the Lord?  Have we destroyed sin in our lives?  Do we present to him our very best?

II Corinthians 2:14-15
"Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place. For we are to God the fragrance of Christ."

What a joy to be the fragrance of Christ to God! Do we diffuse the fragrance of His knowledge everywhere we go?  Have we destroyed sin in our lives?  If so, then we are living as an aroma pleasing to the Lord?