Leviticus 3

Let’s review what Israel had been doing prior to the giving of the instructions found in the book of Leviticus.

About ten weeks after their deliverance from Egypt, the Israelites arrived at Mount Sinai (Ex. 19:1). There God declared His law and gave Moses the instructions for building the tabernacle. Moses erected the tabernacle on the first day of the first month of the second year of Israel’s liberation (40:17), so that what you read in Exodus 16—40 covers about nine months (see Num. 9:1–5).

The book of Numbers opens with a census being taken on the first day of the second month of the second year (Num. 1:1), which means that what’s recorded in Leviticus covers about one month. The tabernacle was ready for use, and now God gave the priests the instructions they needed for offering the various sacrifices.

Six basic offerings could be brought to the tabernacle altar. When worshippers wanted to express commitment to God, they brought the burnt offering, and possibly along with it the grain or meal (“meat,’’ ) offering and the drink offering (see Num. 15:1–10). These offerings speak of total dedication to the Lord. The fellowship (“peace,’’ ) offering has to do with communion with God, and the sin offering and the guilt (“trespass,’’ ) offerings deal with cleansing from God. Each of these offerings met a specific need in the life of the worshipper and also expressed some truth about the person and work of Jesus Christ, God’s perfect sacrifice.

The shedding of animal blood couldn’t change a person’s heart or take away sin (Heb. 10:1–4). However, God did state that the sins of the worshipper were forgiven (Lev. 4:20, 26, 31, 35; 5:10, 13, 16, 18; 6:7), and He did this on the basis of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross (Heb. 10:5–14).

Like some people in churches today, Jewish worshippers could merely go through the motions at the altar, without putting their heart into it, but this meant that God had not truly forgiven them (Ps. 50:8–14; 61:16–17; Isa. 1:10–20; Mic. 6:6–8). God doesn’t want our sacrifices; He wants obedience from our hearts (1 Sam. 15:22).

The sacrifices described in Leviticus 1—7 remind us of the basic spiritual needs we have as God’s people: commitment to God, communion with God, and cleansing from God.

There are several distinctive features about the peace offering or fellowship offering that should be noted. For one thing, the offerer could bring a female animal, something not permitted for the other animal sacrifices. If the offering was not in fulfillment of a vow, the sacrifice could have some defects and still be accepted (Lev. 22:23). After all, it was basically going to be used as food for the priests and the offerer’s family, and those defects wouldn’t matter.

That leads to our third distinctive feature: the fellowship offering is the only offering that was shared with the worshippers. After the priest had completed the sacrifice, a large portion of the meat went to him; the rest went to the offerer, who could then enjoy a feast with his family and friends. Since the Jews didn’t often slaughter their precious animals for meat, a dinner of beef or lamb would be a special occasion. At the dedication of the temple, Solomon sacrificed 142,000 peace offerings and the people feasted for two weeks (1 Kings 8:62–66).

In the East, to eat with people is to make them your friends and allies. It means the end of hostilities, as with Jacob and his father-in-law Laban (Gen. 31:54), or the sealing of friendship, as with Israel and Jethro and his people (Ex. 18:12). In the church today, the Lord’s Supper, or Eucharist, is a simple meal that shows the unity of God’s family (1 Cor. 10:16–18; 11:18–34). That’s why it’s called “the Communion.’’

The peace offering meal, however, meant more than the enjoyment of good food and fellowship with loved ones. It was also an expression of joyful thanksgiving that the worshipper was at peace with God and in communion with God. He might be giving thanks for some unexpected blessing God sent him (Lev. 7:11–15); or perhaps he had made a vow to God, and God had answered his prayers; or maybe he was just thankful to God for everything God did for him and wanted to let everybody know (vv. 16–18). The fellowship offering emphasized the fact that the forgiveness of sins resulted in communion with God and with God’s people.

Leviticus 7:11–38 lays down the conditions for the feast, what the people ate, what the priests ate, and what must be done with the leftovers. The blood and the fat were given to God and were never to be used as common food. (There are also good hygienic reasons for this rule.) Anybody who was defiled was forbidden to come to the feast and was “cut off’’ from their people (vv. 20–21, 25, 27; see 17:4, 9–10, 14; 18:29; 19:8; 20:3, 5–6, 17–18; 23:29). In the case of a Sabbathbreaker, being “cut off’’ meant death (Ex. 31:12–14; Num. 15:32–36), but we’re not sure every violation of the laws of the offerings was a capital crime. In some cases, “cut off from his people’’ could mean being sent “outside the camp’’ until the person followed God’s instructions for cleansing (Lev. 15).

On the cross, Jesus Christ purchased reconciliation with God (2 Cor. 5:16–21) and peace with God (Col. 1:20) for all who will trust Him, and we can have fellowship with God and other believers because of His shed blood (1 John 1:5–2:2). We “feast’’ on Christ when we feed on His Word and appropriate for ourselves all that He is to us and has done for us. Instead of bringing animals, we offer God “the sacrifice of thanksgiving’’ (Ps. 116:17) and “the sacrifice of praise’’ (Heb. 13:15), from pure hearts that are grateful for His mercies.