Sunday Devotional: Leviticus 3:3-5
“3 From the sacrifice of the peace offerings he shall bring an offering by fire near to Yahweh, the fat that covers the entrails and all the fat that is on the entrails, 4 and the two kidneys with the fat that is on them, which is on the loins, and the lobe of the liver, which he shall remove with the kidneys. 5 Then Aaron’s sons shall offer it up in smoke on the altar of burnt offering, which is on the wood that is on the fire; it is an offering by fire of a soothing aroma to Yahweh.” [Legacy Standard Version]
This passage comes from the Lord’s instructions to Moses on the sacrificial system, which starts in Leviticus 1 and continues through Leviticus 7. The “peace offering” was a sacrifice from either the herd or the flock that someone would make with regard to well-being (shalom), perhaps in prayer for their health, or someone else’s health, or perhaps for the well-being of the community. There was certainly a communal aspect to this offering since, as we read in Leviticus 7, most of the meat from this offering was to be consumed by the offerer and his community.
The parts of the animal that were not for public consumption are mentioned in these verses: fat, kidneys, and the lobe of the liver. These were to be offered “in smoke on the altar of burnt offering.” We’ll come back to that in a moment. Why were these parts burnt on the altar and not eaten? The text doesn’t say, and indeed it later underscores the fact that the fat, as well as the blood, of the sacrificed animal is not to be consumed. There are a couple of possible reasons for this. One is that fat is symbolic of the best, or most prized part of something. We refer to the best of something as the “cream of the crop.” I remember when I was a child, the milkman would deliver bottled milk to our door. Bottled milk always had a thick layer of cream on top, and my brother and I would fight over who got to drink that since it was the best part of the milk. So by offering the fat of the animal, you would be offering the best part to the Lord.
We know from archaeology and texts discovered from the ancient Near East that consultation of entrails and the liver was a part of the religious practices of Israel’s neighbors. Burning these things would be a way of showing how God’s people were to be different. Lest they be tempted to fall into such practices, they were to destroy the objects of temptation that their worship would be pure and not mixed with the rituals of the world around them.
There are important lessons there for us as we worship, and maybe we’ll contemplate those in another devotional. For now, however, I want us to focus on that altar of burnt offering.
The altar of burnt offering was situated in the Tabernacle (the “tent of meeting”), and later the Temple, in the courtyard beyond the entrance. You can read about the offering in Leviticus 1. What we need to know about this offering for our purposes here is that it was an offering for atonement that was made daily, and the offering was left on the altar with a fire under it continually. Among the duties of the priests were the removal of the ashes from the offering, and keeping that fire burning (see Leviticus 6:12-14). Leviticus never explains why this was the case, but if we recall that the burnt offering was for atonement, we see in that a continual need for God’s people to be made right with the Lord, for their sins to be forgiven. The perpetual fire at the altar speaks of the grace of God in making that sacrifice available continually for His people.
When we read that the sacrifice of the peace offering needed to be offered “in smoke on the altar of burnt offering,” we understand that the peace offering, this offering of well-being between us and God, is made on the basis of the burnt offering. It assumes atonement has been made.
In other words, there is no peace or well-being with God, no shalom with God, without atonement.
However, for God’s people in the days of Moses these sacrifices never ultimately took away their sins. This is why the atonement sacrifices had to be performed daily. In these sacrifices, the Lord was establishing principles that would prepare them for the coming of the Messiah. These principles included:
- We are sinful, rebellious people constantly in need of God’s forgiveness and grace.
- We don’t deserve God’s forgiveness and grace; indeed, we deserve His judgment.
- Our sin has a price: death. Therefore there needs to be shedding of blood for that price to be paid.
- God provides a substitute to pay that death penalty on our behalf.
If you read Leviticus you can see these (and other) principles. The person offering the sacrifice would lay hands on the animal to be offered before slaughtering it, recognizing that the death inflicted upon that beast was the death that the person deserved. And the Lord graciously accepted that atoning sacrifice for sins. But within the next 24 hours, more sin would have accumulated requiring further sacrifices.
Clearly, this system was not the final answer to our sin problem. God established these sacrifices with His people to give them a framework for understanding the work of Christ. This is why in the Gospels we read of Jesus’s frustration that his followers didn’t understand the events of Passion Week:
“O foolish ones and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter His glory?” Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He interpreted to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.
[Luke 24:25-27 LSB]
They ought to have understood. It’s all spelled out right there in Leviticus. We are in constant need of forgiveness of sin, and Jesus came to be the ultimate sin-bearer. He was the final “burnt offering,” a pure and spotless sacrifice made for all who would “lay hands on him,” putting their trust in him in faith that he is able to pay the penalty their sin deserves. But Jesus was no ordinary sacrifice. He is the eternal God-man, fully human and fully divine. This means that his death was no ordinary death. His death was not simply sufficient for the day’s sin. His death was eternally sufficient to pay for the totality of our sins.
When he cried out on the cross, “It is finished” (John 19:30), Jesus meant what he said: “The price is paid in full” (the meaning of the Greek words translated as “it is finished”). The sin debt for his people has been paid for all eternity. God provided a substitute in His Son, and through the death of that substitute, we now have access to God. This final “burnt offering” makes it possible for us to come to God in thanksgiving, or offer up petitions, or simply give praise. As Paul says in Romans 5:1, “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Because of Jesus’s eternally effective atoning sacrifice, all those who place their faith in him have that well-being or shalom with God.
Remember: there is no peace or well-being with God, no shalom with God, without atonement.
Praise God that He has provided the final atoning sacrifice in Jesus!
