Priestly Duties

Leviticus 6 

While reading about the different sacrifices that Israel needed to do we see that there needed to be a sacrifice for every aspect in their life. Chapter 6 is about offering a sacrifice for the guilt offering to make atonement for a matter regarding a neighbor.

We all have neighbors. Throughout my life we have had some pretty good ones where they were generous as well as very hospitable. When Alyssa and I were married we moved to the location where we live now and there was a problem with a neighbor. We both never had to confront a neighbor about being loud, but we did this one time. They were having a party that day and it started at 6:00 A.M. and went tell 1:00 A.M. They had all the other neighbors mad for their lack of respect. We had to ask them to turn it down in which they did not and so the law had to get involved. The neighbor problem that is being talked about in Leviticus is if you deceived your neighbor or broke the commandments against your neighbor then there were consequences for those actions. If you realized that you were like that to your neighbor and then you would need to offer up a guilt offering in which the priest would make atonement for you.

Jobs of the Priests

The priest was obviously a very important person in the tabernacle because they were the ones conducting the sacrifices of the people. In verses 8 to the end of the chapter deals with how the priests will need to conduct themselves with the different sacrifices. We need to realize that they were the ones that needed to usher in the proper respect as they were the mediators between God and the people. Each sacrifice required some special attention. The burnt offering needed to stay on the altar until the morning and then needed to be cleaned a certain way. The peace offering needed to done a certain way. The grain offering needed to be done a certain way and the priests were able to eat a portion of the sacrifice. The sin offering was to be done a certain way. They were commanded to eat that of the sin offering. This was how the priests were able to eat. A priest did not have any other profession outside of taking care of the tabernacle and operating the sacrifices. If the priest splashed blood from the sacrifice on their clothes they must clean it because the clothes were representing their purity and the blood would tarnish the clothing. 

In reading this we can think of how overwhelming these details are and that it would be a hard thing to be a priest. I agree that it would be a big responsibility to be a priest because you would have to take everything seriously and have the right heart the whole time. But I also think, how important it is for us to take our Christianity seriously. We sometimes think that it was the one time thing and we can go on living our own lives like we did before. Paul said, should we keep on sinning so grace can abound more (Romans 6:1). The answer is no. We should not have the attitude that I can do anything and everything to break the commands of God because I know I am saved by grace. Our true respect should be that I do not want to sin anymore because I am saved by grace. Our Christian walk can be challenging and that is why we need to make sure that we do not get caught up in legalism. 

No Excuse

Leviticus 5

Have you ever been in trouble because you hung out with the wrong people. I remember I was in trouble because a group of guys did something in my neighborhood that was not good. I personally did not do anything but because I was with them and I did not stand up to what they did, I was punished. The same consequences happen when you are older. If you are in a car with people who do some type of crime and even if you did not participate in that crime, you would still be held responsible. You would have to pay the price for the crime.

Israel had consequences for sin. If you witnessed some sin take place by someone but did not speak about it, the guilt and iniquity would be passed on to you. Everyone needed to keep each other accountable.

In this chapter we see about different types of sin which needed a sacrifice to cover it up. The no no’s were touching an unclean animal or unclean person, not holding another accountable, and taking an oath. This resulted a need to offer a sacrifice for compensating his sin.  There was no excuse to offer a sacrifice to cover ones sins. If someone could not afford a lamb then they needed to supply two turtle doves or two pigeons. If someone could not afford that, they would bring in some flour, without oil and frankincense. Anyone could make restitution for their sin.

No Excuse Today

I am so glad when there are no strings attached to certain purchases that I make. I may buy a car, but with that there comes all these other attachments that either I need to purchase or should purchase at an extra cost. It seems with most major purchases there are some hidden incentive. Because of the hidden incentives, I make excuses on why I do not need that thing. Here with even Israel and the sacrifice thing was that there were no hidden schemes. A person sinned and they needed to make it right. It was plane and simple.

I like the fact even more that I do not have to offer up a sheep to have forgiveness of my wrongdoing. With salvation in Jesus Christ, there are no strings attached. There is no hidden agenda. It is as it says in Hebrews 9:26, “But as it is he appeared once and for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.” Jesus did it once and it was good enough. I am thankful that what he did covers my past, present, and future sins. 

We also need to hold other people accountable. Israel needed to make a stand against sin and we should too. We need to not just point each others problems, we need to help them get of the problem. It is easy to point out sin in others but we are not willing to work with them to get past it. Galatians 6:2 tells us that we need to carry each other’s burdens. May we be burdened by the sin of others and be challenged to share Christ love with each other.God Bless   

Peace

Leviticus 3

 My wife and I have a certain routine before we go to bed. After we are done reading our Bibles or watching T.V. and it is time to say goodnight, we need to turn off all the lights and make sure everything is locked. One of us will go around and flip the switches of the lights and then make sure the doors are locked and the windows are shut. We do it this for different reasons like making sure that we are secure, that we do not have pointless lights on and waste electricity, and that we will have less work to do in the morning.

Israel would be in the routine of sacrifices to God. We looked at two different ones so far. There was the burnt offering mentioned in chapter 1 and there was the grain offering in chapter 2. Chapter 3 is about the peace offering and how it should be done.

Fellowship Offering

The peace offering mentioned in this chapter is also called the fellowship offering. It was the one offering the sacrifice was acknowledging that God was King by giving him the sacrifice there was peace. The animals that were to be offered could be male or female but needed to be without blemish. The part of the bull, sheep, or goat that was to be offered was the fat that surrounded the internal organs. The fat that was burned was a sweet aroma to the Lord. The one thing that is different between the three animals is that the sheep would have its tail cut off because in this area were sheep were raise their tails would reach up to four to five feet in length and way up to fifty pounds and that would be upon the altar to be burned as well. 

The peace offering had three people involved with making the sacrifice; the man offering the sacrifice, the priest administering the sacrifice, and God who would receive the sacrifice. This shows how there was fellowship between God and his people and how the priests would stand as the mediator between the two.

 We have Fellowship Today

Have you ever had a best friend that were in a fight with and there was no peace? Something needed to be done to make peace between the two of you. Maybe it was one person apologizing for something, maybe one brought the other person their favorite cookies. Whatever it was something needed to happen for the peace in the relationship.

A sacrifice needed to be done for fellowship to happen between God and his people.  A burnt offering spoke of Christ’s dedication and the grain offering spoke of his perfection. The peace offering speaks of how he is the author of our peace and satisfaction. Romans 5:1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Israel had peace but it was based on them offering the sacrifice and being obedient to what God required in the Law. We have peace not because of anything we did or do but because what Christ did once and for all for us. He died and shed his blood for our cleansing. He died as the offering to make peace between us and God. We now have peace with our Creator, it is not based on an animal, but on His Son. Do not take this peace for granted.  

Sacrifice

Leviticus

My very first job was working at a skate shop. My tasks were to keep the store clean and make sure the shoes were put away and organized. I can be honest, I hated every second working in the shoes. I had 100′s and 100′s of pairs of shoes that were shuffled through and I would have to straighten them up just for them to get messy again.  It was somewhat overwhelming sometimes where I did not even want to think about doing the shoes because of all the hard work required. I even would think, “Where do I begin?” 

We finished the amazing book of Exodus and now on a new adventure through the book of Leviticus. It is easy to get overwhelmed and somewhat lost with the customs of Israel. We may even feel where to begin with Leviticus. It is a great book showing God’s redemptive plan foreshadowing Christ. The book of Leviticus mentions the word “blood” 88 times and the word “holy” or “holiness” over 80 times. This book is showing how the shedding of blood answered the call for holiness. 

The First of Five Offerings

The tabernacle is already built and in place and the sacrifices can begin but before they do there needs to be some instructions on how to do them and the purpose of each sacrifice. The burnt offering was given by the party by bringing a male animal without blemish. The male animal was either a bull, sheep, or goat. The means of this offering was so one could make a plea before the Lord. Could you imagine if everytime you needed to ask your parents for something you would have to do 20 push-ups or something like that. The burnt offering was so someone could make a plea before God and it involved the covering of their sin. 

Hands were laid upon the week, helpless animal. This was to help identify the animal as belonging to the one offering the sacrifice. The sacrifice was the cost to the person offering it. They would lose a male animal, that was without blemish. This was an important thing while having a herd of animals. The animal was serving as the atonement or covering of sin done by the offender. The helpless, innocent animal would take the wrath for the persons sin. When this animal was offered up as atonement for sin it was a pleasing aroma to the Lord because blood was shed and sin was covered. 

Blood

Blood was important to Israel because is showed cleansing. This was something that was not shared by the surrounding nations of Israel. The blood of an animal was the life of the animal. Sin or disobedience from God was done and because of that there needed to be payment. Someone had to pay for the consequence of sin. If there was no sacrifice then the person would have to die. But since there was an innocent animal ready to shed its life for your life then it was considered ok, but only tell the next time around. It would have to be done over and over again.  This is a picture of God’s plan with his son Christ. Jesus was the innocent man led to die and shed his blood to cover our sins. We all have sinned and there needs to be payment of sin. Animals would only go for so long but they never truly satisfied the payment to God, it was a nice aroma to God but never satisfying. Christ died in our place like the animal but this time it was forever. God was pleased in the blood of his Son, He was satisfied. We now can have everlasting forgiveness. We do not have to offer a sheep or goat to cover our wrong. What was done on Calvary is everlasting. There is victory in Jesus Christ (1st Corinthians 15:55-56).