Welcome to the beginning of your journey through Leviticus! I wonder how you are feeling about it, and how you are feeling about the passage you have just read. Spoiler alert – it is only one of the first seven chapters that deal with different sacrifices Israel was to bring to God. Perhaps that causes quite a deep intake of breath? We do pray that, together with the messages on a Sunday evening, these notes might help you to digest some of what you read, that you would learn more and more about the character of God and His desire to have a relationship with you, and that you would reflect on how these chapters can be applied to your own walk with God, so that your worship to Him would be transformed. We hope that behind the detail and the criteria of the sacrifices you find a God who is making a path from His throne to His people in a way that is ultimately preparing a way for the Cross. Furthermore we hope you recognise that from the outset the criteria for these offerings is designed so that everyone, whether poor or rich, whether they are bringing their offering from the ‘herd or the flock’, the cattle, the goats or the birds, can bring a ‘pleasing aroma to the Lord’, so long as they bring the very best of what they have. Lastly, it should be recognised that in these verses the entirety of the sacrifice is offered up to God. The Israelites have thus far experienced a fantastic journey with God; their deliverance from Egypt, and the building of the tabernacle. God is now imprinting on their hearts His expectation for their whole hearted devotion. The challenge that comes from these verses should be more spiritual than intellectual. How ready are we to give the best that we have in every part, completely sacrificially and whole heartedly to serve the God who delivered us from slavery to sin, through His son. Please pray God would help us to do this.