The concept of offering goes back to most ancient times, it represented the intuitive imagination of man reflecting spiritual and material unity of the world. The Lord gave the laws stipulating offering procedure at mount Sinai. Those laws were given to Israeli people and the goal was to transform Israeli people into Holy People, the kingdom of priests. But these laws had and will have meaning for each person and each people trying to get close to God, and each priest leading his people to God. But the meaning is different: the offering concept was given to ancient people of Israel, but today each man has to create self control and desire to purify his soul. The offering of each man is the way aimed to overcome the animal nature of man and to provide spiritual growth. Comprehension of sin, the need for repentance and purification make the basis for the concept of offering. If a man is looking for redemption of sins he accepts his sins and gives promise to avoid sins in future, he tries to suppress the animal nature not to allow it to gain power over him. Offering was used to solve these tasks in Judaism. The search for Holy Spirit and Truth represent the goal of spiritual improvement of man on his way to God, the man has to comprehend his responsibility for spiritual position of his people and all mankind.
Prior to make service in the Tent of Meeting each priest has to complete cleaning procedures. Moses washed Aaron with water and put on him sacred garments in presence of all Israeli people.
Moses sprinkled anointing oil over Tent of Meeting and all items in the Tent of Meeting, he poured oil over Aaron's head to consecrate him. Then he brought in sons of Aaron and put the sacred garments on them.
To clean priests, Aaron and his sons, a calf is brought to the Tent of Meeting. Aaron and his sons put their hands on the calf at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. They transferred their sins to the calf and then the calf was slaughtered and made the sin offering. Later they brought in a ram and after putting their hands on it the ram was slaughtered and brought for burnt offering. Then a ram was brought, the ram for the ordination. Aaron and his sons put their hands on it and then it was slaughtered. Some of its blood was put on the lobe of Aaron's and his son's right ears, on the thumbs of their right hands and on the big toes of their right feet: the ears of the priest should be open to the voice of the Lord, while the hands and the feet should be prepared for the deeds on behalf of the Lord as the righteous way leads to God. After the offering for the ordination Moses took some part of anointing oil and blood of offerings and sprinkled over Aaron and his sons and their garments. Aaron and his sons took the meat from the ordination offering, cooked it and ate with the bread made without yeast.
This ceremony continued seven days and all that time the priests could not leave the Tent of Meeting to stay alive.

On the eighth day Moses summoned Aaron and his sons and the elders of Israel. He said to Aaron, "Take a bull calf for your sin offering and a ram for your burnt offering, both without defect, and present them before the LORD. Then say to the Israelites: 'Take a male goat for a sin offering, a calf and a lamb-both a year old and without defect-for a burnt offering, and an ox and a ram for a fellowship offering to sacrifice before the LORD, together with a grain offering mixed with oil. For today the LORD will appear to you.' "
(Lev., 9, 1-4)

All the people went to the Tent of Meeting and people brought everything the Lord commanded Moses. Aaron came to the altar and sacrificed the ox as his sin offering. Then he and his sons brought ram and made the burnt offering.
Aaron and his sons took all the items brought by the people and sacrificed the goat as the sin offering of the people. Aaron made the burnt offering and sacrificed ox and ram for the fellowship offering on behalf of the people. Then Aaron raised his hands and blessed the people.

Moses and Aaron then went into the Tent of Meeting. When they came out, they blessed the people; and the glory of the LORD appeared to all the people. Fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed the burnt offering and the fat portions on the altar. And when all the people saw it, they shouted for joy and fell facedown.
(Lev., 9, 23-24)

Aaron and his sons were consecrated and accepted for service to the Lord. The Tabernacle and all the altars were consecrated as well as all items in it and all the offerings were sacrificed for the people of Israel.

Aaron's sons Nadab and Abihu took their censers, put fire in them and added incense; and they offered unauthorized fire before the LORD, contrary to his command. So fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD.
(Lev., 10, 1-2)

Nadab and Abihu, sons of Aaron, were anointed as priests and their lives belonged to God. All the offerings were made and all the altars and items in the Tent of Meeting were consecrated, the people of Israel was cleaned. Still the main procedure was not yet done – the barrier, which separated the people at Horeb mountain at the time the Lord appeared, the barrier of Babel sin were present yet. The spiritual curtain over the courtyard was not yet opened to people. Each curtain in the Tent of the Meeting should be opened by human offering. Nadab and Abihu were anointed they were cleaned of sins and made burnt offering, they cleaned themselves before God and the Lord accepted them as offering for sin and burnt offering to open the people of Israel and all mankind the way of the Return to God. Aaron understood it and accepted it:
"Today they sacrificed their sin offering and their burnt offering before the LORD…"
(Lev., 10, 19)

This is the eternal law for mankind moving to the next stage of spiritual development: two human beings have to offer their lives to open other people new stage on the spiritual way – they are opening the next curtain of the Tabernacle. One life is to be offered for glory while the other for damnation. The same happened with Christianity: the death of Jesus Christ opened the curtain hiding the Holy Place and redeemed the sins of mankind which had lived before the flood and cleared the sins of present generation, while Judas brought those sins to the initial stage. These offerings go back to the time of Abraham, when he had to offer his son. The Day of Atonement set up by the Lord for people of Israel is the prototype of those offerings.

The Day of Atonement

The people of Israel is forbidden to eat and to work on the tenth day of the seventh month.

…because on this day atonement will be made for you, to cleanse you. Then, before the LORD, you will be clean from all your sins. It is a Sabbath of rest, and you must deny yourselves; it is a lasting ordinance. The priest who is anointed and ordained to succeed his father as high priest is to make atonement. He is to put on the sacred linen garments and make atonement for the Most Holy Place, for the Tent of Meeting and the altar, and for the priests and all the people of the community. This is to be a lasting ordinance for you: Atonement is to be made once a year for all the sins of the Israelites.
(Lev., 16, 30-34)

Atonement of a man and people is done by the Lord. Spiritual efforts are required to make the atonement, these efforts are needed to fulfill the laws, commandments and decrees as well as sincere repentance of one's sins. Offerings are not the main means to establish connection to the Lord, and the offering was not mentioned in the Lord's commandments. Offerings can't replace the sincere fulfillment of the Lord's commandments about mercy, justice and love to neighbor. The people unlike an individual man stands before the Lord in a different manner. The cleaning of the people is the purification of the unified spiritual consciousness, collective intelligence. The people represented by the collective intelligence stands as a personality at a new level.
Priest can enter the Most Holy Place only in linen garments, i.e. in garments made of vegetable materials:

"This is how Aaron is to enter the sanctuary area: with a young bull for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. He is to put on the sacred linen tunic, with linen undergarments next to his body; he is to tie the linen sash around him and put on the linen turban. These are sacred garments; so he must bathe himself with water before he puts them on.
(Lev., 16, 3-4)

The priest wearing the priestly garments (breastpiece, ephod etc) – which stress his service to God – can come not closer than the Holy Place. As the priest stands before the Lord in the Most Holy Place he is represented not by his outer clothing, though his spiritual stance and spiritual position of his people.
The people of Israel brings two goats for a sin offering and one ram for a burnt offering.

Then he is to take the two goats and present them before the LORD at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. He is to cast lots for the two goats-one lot for the LORD and the other for the scapegoat. Aaron shall bring the goat whose lot falls to the LORD and sacrifice it for a sin offering. But the goat chosen by lot as the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the LORD to be used for making atonement by sending it into the desert as a scapegoat.
(Lev., 16, 7-10)

Aaron brought bull for sin offering for himself and his family. Then he took a censer full of burning coals from the altar and two handfuls of finely ground fragrant incense and brought it to the Most Holy Place. There Aaron had to put the incense on the fire before the Lord.

He is to put the incense on the fire before the LORD, and the smoke of the incense will conceal the atonement cover above the Testimony, so that he will not die. He is to take some of the bull's blood and with his finger sprinkle it on the front of the atonement cover; then he shall sprinkle some of it with his finger seven times before the atonement cover.
(Lev., 16, 13-14)

Sins were cleared by the Lord as the people made repentance and as a result the sin offering was made. Goat was the sin offering for people. The blood of the goat was brought to the Most Holy Place and the blood was sprinkled over the atonement cover of the Ark and the blood was sprinkled before it. That was the way to make atonement of the Most Holy Place. Then Aaron cleaned the altar for incense, putting blood of the bull and the goat on all sides of it. Then he sprinkled blood seven times over the altar, cleaning it and making atonement of people's sins.

When Aaron has finished making atonement for the Most Holy Place, the Tent of Meeting and the altar, he shall bring forward the live goat. He is to lay both hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the wickedness and rebellion of the Israelites-all their sins-and put them on the goat's head. He shall send the goat away into the desert in the care of a man appointed for the task. The goat will carry on itself all their sins to a solitary place; and the man shall release it in the desert.
(Lev., 16, 20-22)

Later Aaron took off the linen garments and left them in the Tent of Meeting. He washed his body with water in Holy Place, put other garments and made burnt offering for himself and the burnt offering for the people.

This is to be a lasting ordinance for you: On the tenth day of the seventh month you must deny yourselves and not do any work-whether native-born or an alien living among you - because on this day atonement will be made for you, to cleanse you. Then, before the LORD, you will be clean from all your sins. It is a Sabbath of rest, and you must deny yourselves; it is a lasting ordinance.
(Lev., 16, 29-31)

Later the Lord gave Israeli people other laws and regulations – for the people of Israel and for priests.

"Keep my commands and follow them. I am the LORD. Do not profane my holy name. I must be acknowledged as holy by the Israelites. I am the LORD, who makes you holy and who brought you out of Egypt to be your God. I am the LORD."
(Lev., 22, 31-33)

LAWS ABOUT FEASTS

The LORD said to Moses, "Speak to the Israelites and say to them: 'These are my appointed feasts, the appointed feasts of the LORD, which you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies. " 'There are six days when you may work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of rest, a day of sacred assembly. You are not to do any work; wherever you live, it is a Sabbath to the LORD.
(Lev., 23, 1-3)
'These are the LORD's appointed feasts, the sacred assemblies you are to proclaim at their appointed times: The LORD's Passover, the LORD's Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Firstfruits, the Feast of Weeks, the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, the Feast of Tabernacles.

The Lord set up the command to make Jubilee, the Lord commanded how the people had to use land. Each fiftieth year is the Jubilee year. All people have to be set free in this year, those who live in foreign land and they will have to return to land of their ancestors as the land was distributed among people. This year as the forty nineth year should be the years for rest of land: people should not sow or reap whatever is growing on land. This is the year for everyone to return to his property. The Lord gives such a rich harvest on the forty eighth year that it's quite sufficient for three years.
Each man faced the choice of two ways. One way is leading to the Lord – it's the way for fulfillment of commandments, laws and decrees. The fulfillment should be done in deeds, words, thoughts and senses. Each man choosing this way will not be left without help or award. The other way is the way of negligence of the Lord's commandments, it's the way opposition and worshipping alien gods. This way leads away from the Lord, it brings people to death.

Reward for Obedience

If you are trying to follow the commandments, laws and decrees given by the Lord, if you are trying to follow the way, which leads to the Lord, the Lord will be with you.

" 'If you follow my decrees and are careful to obey my commands, I will send you rain in its season, and the ground will yield its crops and the trees of the field their fruit. Your threshing will continue until grape harvest and the grape harvest will continue until planting, and you will eat all the food you want and live in safety in your land.
" 'I will grant peace in the land, and you will lie down and no one will make you afraid. I will remove savage beasts from the land, and the sword will not pass through your country. You will pursue your enemies, and they will fall by the sword before you. Five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand, and your enemies will fall by the sword before you.
" 'I will look on you with favor and make you fruitful and increase your numbers, and I will keep my covenant with you.
(Lev., 26, 3-9)

Punishment for Disobedience

" 'But if you will not listen to me and carry out all these commands, and if you reject my decrees and abhor my laws and fail to carry out all my commands and so violate my covenant, then I will do this to you: I will bring upon you sudden terror…"
(Lev., 26, 14-16)

The labor of people on earth will be in vain: the nature on wish of the Lord will be opposing the efforts of man. Famine, diseases and enemies will destroy those who will disobeyed. The Lord will turn away scattering the people among other peoples destroying their land. The cities will be destroyed and people will be banished from their homes.

…So you will not be able to stand before your enemies. You will perish among the nations; the land of your enemies will devour you. Those of you who are left will waste away in the lands of their enemies because of their sins; also because of their fathers' sins they will waste away.
(Lev., 26, 37-39)

The Hope

" 'But if they will confess their sins and the sins of their fathers-their treachery against me and their hostility toward me, which made me hostile toward them so that I sent them into the land of their enemies-then when their uncircumcised hearts are humbled and they pay for their sin, I will remember my covenant with Jacob and my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land.
(Lev. 26, 40-42)

The Lord is merciful, the Lord retains the way for repentance. As people confess their sins, they will repent and turn to the Lord for help. The Lord will remember His covenant and will listen to them and the Return to God will start from the covenant with Jacob.
These commands, laws and decrees given by the Lord to Moses at the Sinai mountain make the fundament of spiritual development of Israeli people for thousands years ahead. But spiritual development and historical motion are interconnected especially for the Israeli people, while the disobedience results in severe historical lessons.

• Foreword

• The first book of Moses: Genesis

• The second book of Moses: Exodus

• The third book of Moses: Levitikus

• The fourth book of Moses: Numbers

• The fifth book of Moses: Deuteronomy

• The tent of meeting