Offering Christ as the Burnt Offering to God as His Food for His Satisfaction

We need to offer Christ as the burnt offering to God for His satisfaction; He is the reality of the burnt offering, and we can offer Him to God as His food.

The burnt offering signifies Christ’s being absolute for God’s satisfaction and being our life to enable us to live such a life; the burnt offering is for God’s food that God may enjoy and be satisfied.

Our God is hungry and He needs to eat; on one hand, He makes sure that we are in the right position for us to come and fellowship with Him through the offerings, and on the other hand, He is hungry, and we as His people can give God food. Wow!

As we delve into the depths of the significance of the recovery of the altar of burnt offering, we realize that this altar is a type of the cross of Christ, for the altar terminates everything and everyone.

Anything put on the altar is terminated and consumed by fire, and God is satisfied with the sweet-smelling fragrance coming from the burnt offering.

When we bear the cross, when we apply the cross in the spirit, God the Father is satisfied.

The cross is not here to merely cause us to suffer as we live the Christian life; the cross is here to terminate us, that is, to put to death anything in us that is not Christ.

We human beings are not as pure and clean as we think; there are many elements of the self, the old man, the natural man, the flesh, and the world in us.

We are a constitution of the self, the world, the flesh, the old man, and so many other natural and old things.

How can we have the proper church life if we live in and by these things? The cross needs to come in.

At the entrance of the church is a big cross; only by passing through the cross can we live the church life in a proper way.

If we want to have a proper church life, we need to experience the cross.

Christ Himself became our peace; He made both one and has broken down the middle wall of partition, the enmity.

When He died on the cross, Christ abolished in His flesh the law of the commandments in ordinances that He might create the Jews and the Gentiles into one new man, so making peace.

Hallelujah, He reconciled us both in one Body to God through the cross, having slain the enmity by it (Eph. 2:14-16).

The only way we can have peace, even God as our peace, is by the cross of Christ; our experience of the cross issues us into the proper church life in peace and reconciliation.

As we live the Christian life and the church life, we need to realize that our unique focus is one person – Christ – and one way – the cross.

We should not live in ourselves, by ourselves, and for ourselves; we need to live Christ and allow the cross to operate in us to remove anything that is not Christ in us.

We proclaim Christ and this One crucified; to the Jews, this is a stumbling block, and to the Gentiles it is foolishness.

But to us who believe, Christ and the cross are the power of God! Hallelujah!

The Burnt Offering Signifies Christ’s being Absolute for God’s Satisfaction and in His being the Life that Enables us to have such a Living

After the children of Israel built the altar for burnt offerings, Ezra 3:6 says that they began to offer up burnt offerings to Jehovah.

The burnt offering is very significant. This offering was offered every day in the morning and in the evening (Lev. 4); it had to lay in the hearth of the altar all night until the morning.

The night represents the present dark age, and the morning represents the Lord’s coming.

We need to present the burnt offering and keep the fire burning all night long, all throughout this dark age, until the Lord comes.

The burnt offering signifies Christ being absolute for God’s satisfaction (Lev. 1:3-9).

In this universe, there is only one man who is absolute for God’s satisfaction, and that man is not you or me but Christ.

The wonderful Christ as a man lived a life absolutely for God’s satisfaction.

In Him, the Father delights, and He did everything not in and by Himself but by the Spirit and for the Father’s satisfaction.

The burnt offering was to be offered from the herd or the flock or the birds, in different sizes, and it had to be without blemish.

The offerer had to put his hand on the head of the offering and then the offering was slaughtered.

Its blood was sprinkled on and around the altar, it was skinned, the skin was taken off and cut into pieces, and the inward parts of that animal and the legs were to be offered, after being washed with water.

Then the whole animal was laid on the altar and burned with fire.

Christ was such a One; He was strong, a male without blemish, yet He was slaughtered and His blood was sprinkled.

Christ was skinned; this means that the outward expression of His beauty was taken away while He was living a life that was absolute for God.

While He was doing God’s will, healing the sick, and being with the sinners to shepherd them and lead them to God, Christ was accused of being a drunkard, and others said that He cast out demons by the ruler of the demons.

This is how He was skinned while He was living on the earth, and He was cut into pieces.

Christ was willing to be broken absolutely without any reservation, and His inward parts and His legs were washed.

This doesn’t mean that He was dirty; rather, while He was living on this earth full of contamination, he was continually being washed by the Spirit.

Christ’s daily walk was washed so that He was not defiled.

This is Christ’s experience in fulfilling the type of the burnt offering; we need to experience Christ in His experiences to become a burnt offering in Him for God’s satisfaction.

The burnt offering, which was wholly for God’s satisfaction, typifies Christ as God’s pleasure and satisfaction (Eph. 5:2).

We need to walk in love even as Christ also loved us and gave Himself up as an offering and sacrifice to God to be a sweet-smelling savour, pleasing to God and satisfying to Him.

Everything Christ was and everything that He did was for God’s pleasure and satisfaction.

The burnt offering typifies Christ not only in His living a life that was perfect and absolute for God but also in His being the life that enables us, the people of God, to have such a living today (John 5:19, 30; 6:38; 7:18; 8:29; 14:24; 2 Cor. 5:15; Gal. 2:19-21).

Yes, the burnt offering is a type of Christ, but it is also a type of Him being the life that enables us to live the same kind of life today for God’s satisfaction.

It is so wonderful that there was a person, Jesus Christ, who was absolutely for God; but what does this have to do with me? Do we just admire Him and adore His living and work?

Actually, He comes into us to be our life to enable us to have the same kind of life that He had. This is so encouraging.

The burnt offering is Christ Himself, and we are one with Him; thus, the burnt offering is also our oneness with Christ (1 Cor. 6:17).

As we offer Christ as the burnt offering, we are one with Him; we offer not only Christ to God but also ourselves in oneness with Christ, not separate from Christ.

There’s no way for us to be absolute for God and His satisfaction if we’re separate from Christ.

But when we lay our hands on Him and identify ourselves with Him, we offer Christ to God and we offer ourselves in oneness with Christ to God; we unite ourselves with Him by spiritually laying our hands on Him.

Lord Jesus, we take You as our burnt offering. You are the One who lived a life absolutely for God’s satisfaction. You are the One who was absolute for God, and Your living and work were pleasing to God to the uttermost. We lay our hands on You, Lord, and we offer You to God for His satisfaction. Thank You for coming into us, dear Lord, to be the life that enables us to live the same kind of life that You lived. We are one with You, Lord, and we want to live the life of a burnt offering today in this oneness with You. We cannot be absolute for God in ourselves, but we lay our hands on You, we are one with You, and we offer You and ourselves in oneness with You to God for His satisfaction! Amen, Father God, You are satisfied with Christ and with our oneness with Christ!

The Burnt Offering is for God’s Food so that God may Enjoy it and be Satisfied

Num. 28:2 speaks of the burnt offering as being God’s food.

God commands His people to bring Him His food for His offerings by fire of a satisfying fragrance to Him, and He reminds them to offer these at their appointed time.

Our God is almighty and has need of nothing, but He wants His people to feed Him.

He wants us to give Him something to eat.

He has done a great deal for us, He prepared many things for us to eat and drink, but He wants us to offer Him the burnt offering for a satisfying fragrance to be His food.

He has been taking care of us for years; He prepared the way for us to enter into the enjoyment of Christ as the good land, and He asks us to give Him His food.

God is hungry. He wants to eat. Although God is almighty, He can’t provide Himself something to eat.

He feeds on Christ, the only One who satisfies Him, and He wants His Christ to be reproduced and lived out in us, then to be offered to Him in our oneness with Christ.

He wants food, His offerings by fire as a satisfying fragrance to Him.

On one hand, Christ is our food, and we feed on Him daily, depending on Him for our life and life supply.

On the other hand, Christ is God’s food, and the Christ wrought into us and experienced by us is food for God’s satisfaction.

He is the peace that enables us to have fellowship with God, and in fellowship with God, we enjoy Christ and God also enjoys Christ.

In Christ and with Christ, we and God fellowship with one another, and we eat Christ while God also eats the Christ we offer Him.

Christ is God’s food, but He’s not God’s food in a direct way; rather, Christ is God’s food served to God by us. Wow!

Even before we feed on Christ for our satisfaction, we need to offer Christ to God for His satisfaction.

Christ is the reality of the burnt offering, the offering that was burned in full for God’s satisfaction.

After we feed God with Christ, even with the Christ that we have enjoyed and experienced as the burnt offering, God is satisfied, and we also feed on this Christ.

The burnt offering was to be wholly and absolutely burned for God’s satisfaction, but in the book of Leviticus we see that this offering was to be accompanied by the meal offering, a large portion of which was for the offerer.

While we have no part in eating Christ as the burnt offering – He is the burnt offering fully for God’s satisfaction, we have a great part in Christ as the meal offering for our enjoyment and satisfaction.

After we serve God with His food, He apportions some food for us to eat also.

In this way we enjoy Christ with God; we are feasting on Christ, and God is also feasting on Christ. God feasts with us and we feast with Him in mutuality.

God and we feast together on the all-inclusive Christ who has been enjoyed, experienced, and wrought into our being.

God needs to be fed at the appointed time; these times are in the morning and at twilight in the evening.

We need to feed God with Christ as the burnt offering.

We need to care as much for God’s satisfaction and feeding as we care for our own.

God needs to eat for His satisfaction, and only Christ satisfies God.

First, we enjoy Christ as the One given to us by God and then, after having experienced Christ, we present Him to God as His food, and then God shares with us a portion of the Christ we have offered to Him.

Lord Jesus, we offer You to God the Father as the burnt offering for His satisfaction. You and only You can satisfy God, and we offer You for His satisfaction and delight. Thank You for being a perfect man who lived a perfect human life, without any blemish. Thank You for offering Yourself up for us and for God’s satisfaction. We lay our hands on You, Lord, and we offer You to God for His satisfaction. Father God, we want You to be satisfied. We want to offer You the food that delights and satisfies You. Thank You for such a rich Christ. Thank You we can have Christ as our portion to enjoy day by day. Thank You for the Christ wrought into us and experienced by us. We present this wonderful Christ back to You, God, for Your food. You are satisfied only with Christ. We lay our hands on Christ and we offer Him to You for Your satisfaction.

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by the brothers in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Numbers, msgs. 10-13 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-study of 1 and 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther (2022 winter training), week 3, entitled, The Rebuilding of the Altar of God – the Altar of Burnt Offering.
• Further reading on this topic:
  – The relationship between the peace offering to the burnt offering and the meal offering, a portion from, Life-Study of Leviticus, Chapter 17, by Witness Lee.
  – Ministering food to God – read more at, Life-Study of Exodus, Chapter 141.
  – Touchstones of God’s economy – Leviticus (1), article by Jim Batten in, Affirmation and Critique.
  – Laying hands on the head of the offering, a portion from, Life-Study of Leviticus, Chapter 17, by Witness Lee.
  – Beholding God in Prayer by Offering Christ as all the Offerings, article via, The Church in Seattle.
  – Experiencing Christ as the Meal Offering (Part 1), article via, Living to Him.
  – Offering Christ to God as our burnt offering according to our experiences of Him, a portion via, Life-Study of Leviticus, Chapter 9, by Witness Lee.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Lord, we praise Thee for the picture: / Consecration’s ram we see, / Burnt for God’s full satisfaction, / Eaten and enjoyed to be. / Thou art now our ram, Lord Jesus, / Offered for the will of God; / By Thy consecration, faultless, / We may walk where Thou hast trod. / As we eat Thyself, Lord Jesus, / Consecrated we become; / By Thy wondrous life within us, / Thy obedience is our own. / No more need we strive and struggle, / Consecrated try to be; / Consecration dwells within us— / Now our part to eat of Thee. (Hymns #1138 stanzas 2-3)
  – Thou art the burnt-oblation, / Consumed by holy fire; / To God as a sweet savor, / Fulfilling His desire. / Thou walkedst in God’s presence, / And all His will pursued; / Thyself the spotless offering, / For us to God as food. (Hymns #195 stanza 2)
  – Based on the burnt oblation / And the meal offering too, / We now may offer Jesus / As our peace offering true. / The more we eat and drink Him / In His humanity, / The more we may enjoy Him / While feasting corporately. / What fellowship, what fellowship / With God and man we share! / O what a joy, O what a feast / With all God’s people here. (Hymns #1104 stanza 3 and chorus)