Study #20: AYIN
AYIN: THE 16TH LETTER OF THE HEBREW ALPHABET
THE AYIN WORD: OLAH (BURNT OFFERING) PART 5
In our study of the Burnt Offering (OLAH), we note there were 3 entities involved:
- The Offeror who brought the animal sacrifice for a Burnt Offering.
- The Animal Sacrifice itself, free of defects.
- The Levitical Priest who collected the blood of the animal sacrifice and burnt its parts totally on the Brazen Altar.
Jesus as God’s Perfect Sacrifice for sin fulfilled all three roles in Himself and became our Burnt Offering (OLAH).
Because of His ultimate sacrifice on the Cross (once and for all!), the Old Testament animal sacrifices became obsolete and do not apply any longer (Hebrews 9:11-12).
The only acceptable worship then is to offer ourselves completely to the Lord. Under God’s control, the believer’s “as yet unredeemed” body can and must be yielded to Him as an instrument of righteousness (Romans 6:12-13; 8:11-13).
The way to yield our bodies as such is to deal with the 3 kinds of lust (1 John 2:15-17):
- The Lust of the Flesh includes what appeals to our fleshly appetites (e.g. excessive desires for food, drink, sex, and anything else that satisfies physical needs).
- Lust of the Eyes mostly involves the Sin of Materialism e.g. coveting what we do not already possess and envying those who have what we want.
- The Pride of Life is defined as our worldly ambition which puffs us up in pride, arrogance and self-importance and puts us on the throne of our own lives.
But the control center is still the mind. Hence Paul exhorts us to be “transformed by the renewing of our minds.” We do this primarily through the power of God’s Word to transform us. We need to hear (Romans 10:17), read (Revelation 1:3), study (Acts 17:11), memorize (Psalm 119:9-11), and meditate on (Psalm 1:2-3) Scripture. The Word of God, ministered in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, is the only power on earth that can transform us from worldliness to true spirituality. In fact, it is all we need to be made “complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16, NKJV).
Abba Father, the result is that we will be “able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will” (Romans 12:2b). For it is Your will for every believer to be a living sacrifice for Jesus Christ.
Romans 12:1-12 King James Version (KJV)
12 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
