Thursday

Related Verses
Lev. 6:11
11 Then he shall take off his garments and put on other garments and carry the ashes outside the camp to a clean place.

Lev. 1:16
16 And he shall take away its crop with its feathers and cast it beside the altar toward the east, in the place of the ashes.

Phil. 3:10
10 To know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death,

2 Cor. 5:21
21 Him who did not know sin He made sin on our behalf that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

Gal. 2:20
20 I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.

Psa. 20:3
3 May He remember all your meal offerings And accept your burnt offering.

1 Cor. 3:12
12 But if anyone builds upon the foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, grass, stubble,

Rev. 3:12
12 He who overcomes, him I will make a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall by no means go out anymore, and I will write upon him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which descends out of heaven from My God, and My new name.

Related Reading
If we realize that we need Christ as our burnt offering,…we need to lay our hands on the Lord in order to have a [proper and] subjective prayer…We may say, “Lord, I lay my hands on You, causing myself to be identified with You and You to be identified with me.”…[Then] the life-giving Spirit, who is the very Christ on whom we lay our hands, will immediately move and work within us to live a life that is qualified for the burnt offering. (Life-study of Leviticus, p. 29) 

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For God to accept the burnt offering is for Him to turn it to ashes. Concerning this, Psalm 20:3 says, “May He remember all your meal offerings / And accept your burnt offering.” The Hebrew word translated “accept” here actually means “turn to ashes.” When our offering has been turned to ashes, this is a strong sign that it has been accepted by God. 

Ordinarily, people do not regard ashes as something pleasant. However, to us who offer the burnt offering, ashes are indeed pleasant, even precious, because they are a sign which gives us the assurance that our burnt offering has been accepted by God. 

The Hebrew word rendered “accept” can be translated not only as “turn to ashes” but also as “accept as fat,” “make fat,” and “be as fat.” For God to accept our burnt offering means not only that He turns it to ashes but also that He accepts it as fat, something that is sweet and pleasing to Him. 

For the burnt offering to be turned to ashes means that God is satisfied and that we therefore may be at peace. 

The ashes were not thrown away. Instead, they were put beside the altar toward the east (Lev. 1:16; 6:10), the place of the ashes. The east side is the side of the sunrise. Putting the ashes beside the altar toward the east is actually an allusion to resurrection. 

[That] the ashes were not thrown away…indicates that we should treasure the result of our offering of the burnt offering to God. We should never throw it away. 

In God’s eyes, the result of our burnt offering is highly regarded. It is fine, pure, and clean. Thus, in carrying the ashes outside the camp [cf. 6:11], the priest wore stately garments and carried the ashes in a stately way. This teaches us to have a high regard for the result of our burnt offering. 

To become a full-timer is to offer ourselves to God as a burnt offering…The result of our being a burnt offering will be something that carries out God’s New Testament economy. What we do as full-timers is not merely to preach the gospel to save sinners, to establish local churches, to teach the Bible, or to help people to grow in life and in truth. What we do must result in the building up of the Body of Christ, which is a miniature of the coming New Jerusalem. 

What we are doing is actually extraordinary, but to the worldly people it is nothing. To them what we are doing is ashes. However, God has a high regard for these ashes. Eventually, these ashes will become the New Jerusalem. Have you ever realized that the ashes, the result of the burnt offering, will be the coming New Jerusalem?…The New Jerusalem is our destiny and our destination. How can the ashes of the burnt offering become the New Jerusalem? Ashes indicate the result of Christ’s death, which brings us to an end, that is, to ashes. But Christ’s death brings in resurrection. In resurrection the ashes become precious materials—gold, pearl, and precious stones—for the building of the New Jerusalem…When we are brought to ashes, we are brought into the transformation of the Triune God. (Life-study of Leviticus, pp. 57-58, 208-209) 

Further Reading: Life-study of Mark, msgs. 56—57