The burning of the burnt offering is different from the burning of the sin offering and the trespass offering (4:12).
Leviticus 6:9 says, “Command Aaron and his sons and say, This is the law of the burnt offering: the burnt offering itself shall be upon the hearth on the altar all night until the morning, and the fire of the altar shall be kept burning on it.” Here we see that the burning of the burnt offering was never to cease. To insure that this fire burned continually, the priests were required to keep adding wood to the fire.
The ashes are a sign of God’s acceptance of the burnt offering. For God to accept the burnt offering is for Him to turn it to ashes. Concerning this, Psalm 20:3 says, “Remember all thy offerings, and accept thy burnt sacrifice.” 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. In our eyes the offering has been turned to ashes, but in God’s eyes it is fat; it pleases and satisfies Him as fat.
For the burnt offering to be turned to ashes means that God is satisfied and that we therefore may be at peace. If we understand this, we shall realize that in our Christian life there should be a lot of ashes.
The ashes were not thrown away. Instead, they were put to the east side of the altar (1:16; 6:10), the place of the ashes. The east side is the side of the sunrise. Putting the ashes to the east side of the altar is actually an allusion to resurrection.
Leviticus 6:11, speaking of the priest says, “Then he shall take off his garments and put on other garments, and carry the ashes outside the camp to a clean place.” Once again we see that the ashes were not thrown away. This indicates that we should treasure the result of our offering of the burnt offering to God. We should never throw it away.
The entire burnt offering was burned with the exception of the skin.
The skin of the burnt offering was kept as a portion to the offering priest. “The priest who offers any man’s burnt offering, that priest shall have for himself the hide of the burnt offering which he has offered” (7:8).
The skin of the burnt offering signifies Christ’s outward expression of beauty ascribed to the serving one. The more we offer Christ as a bull, the more will Christ’s outward expression of beauty be ours. Then we shall be clothed with the outward expression of Christ’s human virtues.
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