Useful Bible Studies > Hebrews Commentary > chapter 13
Leviticus chapters 1 to 7 contain rules for 5 different types of offerings. These offerings were gifts that the priests offered by fire to God. One of them was the ‘offering because of sin’. Here, ‘sin’ means wrong or evil deeds.
Usually, when people gave an offering because of sin, the priests ate the meat (Leviticus 6:24-26). But on some very important occasions, God did not allow this (Leviticus 6:30). They included an offering because of the sin of the whole nation (Leviticus 4:13-21). And they also included an offering because of the chief priest’s own sin (Leviticus 4:1-12).
On these occasions, the priest brought the blood of the offering inside God’s house. For that reason, these offerings were especially holy. So God told the priests that they must burn the complete animal, including its meat. But they could not burn it in the usual place, that is, in front of God’s house. Instead, they took it outside the camp, and they burned it there.
The most important offerings of this type were on the Day of Atonement. (That means, the day when God forgives his people’s sin – Leviticus chapter 16.) On that day, the chief priest did not just take the blood into God’s house, but into its most holy place. Someone else took the rest of those animals outside the camp to burn them (Leviticus 16:27).
When Jesus died, he took his own blood into the real most holy place, in heaven (Hebrews 9:22-26). His death was the perfect offering because of sin (Hebrews 10:11-12). By his death, God can forgive all our sins (Hebrews 10:14).
Unlike the offerings, Jesus’ death did not happen inside the walls that surrounded God’s house in Jerusalem. He suffered in a place that was outside the city’s gates (John 19:17). But God had established a second place, outside the camp, where the priests burned the offerings because of sin.
So, like those offerings, Jesus offered his own body outside the city. God’s law said that it had to happen there. And Jesus obeyed God’s law perfectly. That was necessary because his death is the perfect offering for all our sin.
Next part: Christ’s shame (Hebrews 13:12)
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© 2014, Keith Simons.