Lectures on Leviticus (12) : Peace Offering (2)
2. Making the Peace Offering
Then, how should we give peace offerings? Leviticus 3:1 says, “Now if his offering is a sacrifice of peace offerings, if he is going to offer out of the herd, whether male or female, he shall offer it without defect before the LORD.”
You are allowed to give an animal from the herd, (referring to cattle) or the flock (referring to sheep) or a goat, whether male or female must be without defect for a peace offering. A burnt offering must be a male, but a female is also allowed as a peace offering. Burnt offerings indicate today’s spiritual worship service. The Burnt Offering spiritually represents Jesus Christ who died for us and opened the way of communication with God. So, a female is not acceptable as the Burnt Offering.
However, a peace offering is not spiritually the worship service. You can also give a female because you give to God to have fellowship with Him. Of course, a male is preferable to a female to please God. But, the offering must be blemish or defect like a burnt offering whether you give a male or female.
God is pleased with offerings given willingly and joyfully without compulsion or sense of duty. That is, offerings given as the token of thanksgiving for the grace of God’s salvation must be blameless. Still more, if you are giving offerings to God asking Him to be with you, protect you, and let you live by His word, then you should surely give with all your heart and mind. You should give the best offering without a single spot.
Leviticus 3:2 says, “He shall lay his hand on the head of his offering and slay it at the doorway of the tent of meeting, and Aaron’s sons the priests shall sprinkle the blood around on the altar.” After a man lays his hand on the head of the animal, he slays it before the door of the Tent of Meeting. Then, priests sprinkle its blood against the altar on all sides.
A man must lay his hand on the head of the animal and slaughter it to seal the peace offering as belonging to God. Laying hands on the burnt offering signifies the transferring his sins to the animal. The man was forgiven of his sins when the animal died, shedding its blood on behalf of the man. Unlike the touch on the burnt offering, he lays his hands on the peace offering to seal it as God’s. Then, it becomes a holy sacrifice to God and is qualified to be slaughtered at the gate of the Tent of Meeting.
You should bear one more thing in your mind when you give offerings to God. You should follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit to make your offering truly pleasing to God. You should give offerings to God not by your own thought but by the guidance of the Holy Spirit. You should not think, “I have this money in my pocket now, so I’ll give it as today’s offering.” You should not calculate things before God but have to receive the Holy Spirit’s guidance on the time and amount of your offering. When you give peace offerings according to the guidance of the Holy Spirit, it is sealed as a very pleasing one to God.
Laying hands on the peace offering means that God accepts our offering joyfully when we give it by the guidance of the Holy Spirit. After the laying on of hands, they slaughter it before the door of the Tent of Meeting. I have already explained to you why they slaughtered it before the Tent of Meeting. Let’s briefly review. He had to do that because the people of the Old Testament could not directly communicate with God, and only priests were allowed to enter the most holy place. However, the curtain between the Holy of Holies and the Holy Place was torn into two pieces and the way of the communication with God was opened when Jesus our Lord was crucified. That’s why we are allowed to worship and praise God, and have the direct fellowship with God in the holy sanctuary. After the animal was slaughtered, the priests sprinkled its blood against the altar on all sides.
Remember that the sprinkling of the blood of a burnt offering on all sides of the altar indicates being forgiven of all sins committed in all directions. But sprinkling the blood of the peace offering on all sides of the altar refers to having fellowship with God in all directions. The blood of the peace offering is sprinkled on all sides of the altar so that we can walk with God and be in His protection and blessings having peace with Him wherever we may go.
The procedures of peace offering are similar with that of a burnt offering, but we see that there are also differences. In case of a burnt offering, all its parts but skin are burned. But only the special parts of the peace offering are given to God. In Leviticus 3, a peace offering should be from the herd or flock or a goat male or female, that have no defect. At this point, you might have a question if you think about the burnt offering.
For burnt offering, God is most pleased with male calf, but He allows offering from the flock or a goat as burnt offering for those who are not rich enough to offer from a herd. God allowed doves for those who are not rich enough to offer even from a flock or a goat. But in peace offering, a dove is not allowed.
Why is that? It is because a burnt offering is a must even for the poor, so God allowed them to give doves or pigeons that are not so valuable. For example, if new believers who have little faith come to church on Sunday and merely attend the service, God receives it as a burnt offering. A proper burnt offering is always living according to God’s word, communicating with Him, and worshipping in spirit and in truth, and giving Sunday to God completely. But in case of new believers, God accepts even if they just come to church on Sundays. He leads them to the way of salvation receiving the offering of dove even though it is not so valuable.
But peace offering is not a must, but is an offering of freewill to please God in a special way. Since peace offering is to please God in a special way and to receive answers and blessings, offering a dove, of which is little value, will not be meaningful as a special offering.
For example, let us say you made a vow to pray for certain amount of time for the opening of your spiritual eyes. Then, you cannot just say to God, “Please open my spiritual eyes since I fasted in the morning for a week or since I offered special prayer for ten days.” It is probably not prayer of faith. If anybody’s spiritual eyes can be opened just like this, everybody will do this. Of course since people have different hearts and minds, we cannot set a certain amount of time to pray, but we still have to prepare peace offerings by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
If one made up his mind to give an offering to be healed of an incurable disease by God, how should he give that offering? Even if he always gives thanks offerings, he will prepare a lot more than usual with all his strength for this peace offering. Even if he is not so rich and does not have much, he will do his best since he himself made up his mind to give this savory food to God. If he can give a male from the herd, God will be more pleased. People can give a female from the herd or from the flock or even a goat, but a dove is just of too little value.
But of course, you know that the value of the offering is not just the amount of money. When each one prepares the offering with faith and with all his heart and mind and soul in each one’s circumstances, God judges the value of the offering according to the spiritual aroma in the offering.
Chapter 3 of Leviticus explains in detail about the method for giving from the flock or giving a goat, but since it is almost same as the method to give from the herd, we will consider the method of giving from the herd. Do you remember what parts of the offering are burned in the burnt offering? For burnt offering, we give all parts except the skin. A burnt offering is spiritual worship, and since worship is giving everything to God only, all parts of the offering had to be burnt before God. But for the peace offering we don’t burn the whole offering.
Leviticus 3:3-5 tells us, “From the sacrifice of the peace offerings he shall present an offering by fire to the LORD, the fat that covers the entrails and all the fat that is on the entrails, 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. ‘Then Aaron’s sons shall offer it up in smoke on the altar on the burnt offering, which is on the wood that is on the fire; it is an offering by fire of a soothing aroma to the LORD.”
Namely, we burn the fat from important inner parts as offering to God. Giving the fat in this way symbolizes that we have to be in peace with God wherever we are and whatever we do. But to be in peace with God, we have to be holy and in peace with all brothers and everybody. Not only in the church, but it should be the same in our home or workplace. We should not say we cannot be in peace with a particular person because he does not understand us at all or because we just cannot get along with him. God is telling us that we have to be in peace with everybody.
Are you at peace with everybody – your parents, wife, husband, children, brothers, neighbors, friends, colleagues, and brothers in faith, ministers, and elders in the church?
Matthew 5:46-48 says, “For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.’”
We should have peace with everybody and we have to be perfect as our Father God is perfect. Just as our heavenly Father gives the sunshine to everybody, we can be proper children of God only when we are in peace with everybody. That is why we take the fat from important parts and give them to God. I will explain the spiritual meaning of this fat a little later, but after taking the fat from the offering, we have to take the portion for the priests. Leviticus 7:34 says, “For I have taken the breast of the wave offering and the thigh of the contribution from the sons of Israel from the sacrifices of their peace offerings, and have given them to Aaron the priest and to his sons as their due forever from the sons of Israel.”
From the peace offering, they gave to the priests the breast and the thigh, which were very important parts. Just as there was a part for the priests from grain offering, God has appointed a portion from the peace offering for the priests’ and Levites’ living.
Since priests offer the peace offerings on the altar, open the way to be forgiven of sins and to communicate with God, and wish the blessings, God let the priests share a portion of the blessing that will be given to the one who gave the offering. It is the same in the New Testament. Galatians 6:6 says, “The one who is taught the word is to share all good things with the one who teaches him.” As said, from the offerings of the members, we can continue the ministry of God to save people, and ministers and full-time church workers can make a living.
What do we do after we give to God and to the priests? The left over is to be eaten by the one who gives the offering, and it is the unique characteristic of peace offering. This symbolizes that God receives this peace offering pleasingly and rewards the giver with answers and blessings.
For example, when children bought their parents something delicious, the parents will halve or separate the gift and pleasingly share the food with their children. If we gave offering that pleased God, He will surely show the evidence with answers and blessings that He received it pleasingly.
So, what is the spiritual meaning of the fat, the only thing to be given to God from the offering?
First of all, fat is the energy of the animal and it spiritually represents life. To the animals, fat is same as life along with the blood. Just as a bulb can shine when there is electricity, fat enables the animals to keep the circulation of their lives. Leviticus 3:17 says, “It is a perpetual statute throughout your generations in all your dwellings: you shall not eat any fat or any blood.”
These two things are essential things in keeping the life, and when people eat animals, they must not eat the fat or the blood. Even when they gave offerings, they gave the fat and blood to God to make it a pleasing aroma before God. Today, some people drink the blood of animals because it is said to be good for health, but it is not right for us. Christians should never drink the blood. Acts 15:29 says, “you abstain from things sacrificed to idols and from blood and from things strangled and from fornication; if you keep yourselves free from such things, you will do well. Farewell.” This word was given for the Gentiles who accepted the Lord, because God would not force them to keep all the laws of the Old Testament.
In the New Testament, since Jesus redeemed us from offerings of the law, God does not say it is sin to eat the fat. But He still prohibits taking the blood that is more closely related to life. When Jesus was crucified, He shed all His blood and water, and this symbolizes that He became an atoning sacrifice for us with all His life. Therefore, those who accept Jesus Christ will receive the anointing of the Holy Spirit and be saved, and be blessed in many ways. When we give to God with fat, namely with all our life, God pays back with life.
Fat represents life and sincerity.
When we want to be in peace by pleasing God, we can give a thanks offering, give to the ministers, or dedicate ourselves in various things. But to please God, what you give is important, but what is more important is how sincerely you are giving it. If you give a gift to one of your seniors because you have a request, you will try to select what your senior likes and you will put a lot of attention even for the wrapping. So, it is obvious that we must also give to God with attention and sincerity. Moreover, if you have made a mistake before God and are giving the offering it to be in peace with God, you have to give with all your heart and mind and soul.
By the law, if a person wanted to be forgiven of sins, you once had to be forgiven through a guilt or a sin offering. But sometimes a peace offering was given to God not just to be forgiven but to be in peace with God by pleasing Him so much. For example, let us say a son did something very wrong to his father. Then, could they be at peace and full of love for one another just by saying, “I’m sorry.”? The son could be forgiven, but only when he continued to please his father with his sincere actions, then his father’s heart could be comforted and there would be peace between them.
Giving the fat symbolizes prayer.
In Matthew chapter 25, there is a parable of ten virgins who wait for the bridegroom. The five wise virgins prepared the oil, but the other five unwise virgins could not even enter the wedding banquet since they had not prepared oil.
Oil here also spiritually refers to prayer. We have to be full of the Holy Spirit and be spiritually clear-minded by praying. Only when you pray fervently, will you not be in the lust of the world but wait for the Lord preparing yourself as a bride. To please God with a peace offering, there must be prayers. Not just prayer with only lips, but there must be prayer with all our energy and heart.
When Jesus prayed at Gethsemane, even in the cold temperature of the early morning, his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. Since He prayed with all His energy, His sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. If you really stiffen yourself trying to cry out in prayer, you will see small veins will stand out on hands and neck. Our Lord prayed so hard that these small veins burst and blood came out with sweat. So, the sweat looked like drops of blood.
When Elijah prayed for the rain after 3 and half years, his face went between his knees. Since he prayed with all his strength and energy, he felt the pain of his stomach tearing apart, and naturally his face went in between his knees. You should not misunderstand the Bible and say that you want pray putting your face between your knees. But, if you were to pray like this, you will definitely fight against sins, throw them away and become sanctified, and receive the fullness of the Holy Spirit from above. When this kind of person gives a peace offering, God will receive it pleasingly, walk with that person, and answer him when he asks for his needs.
I explained about the peace offering. Two thousand years ago, our Lord Jesus Christ became the peace offering between God and us, so when we pray in the name of the Lord, God answers our prayers in the Lord’s name.
If we are at peace with God, He walks with us in our lives, has interest in everything of our lives, and gives us blessings. As said in Ephesians 5:10, “trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord,” if you can be in peace with God and please Him, you will be blessed in all things, and there is nothing to which you cannot receive the answer, spiritually and physically. What you have to remember is that you have to give the fat, namely you have to pray with all your heart and energy to keep the peace with God.
You should always look for the ways to love and please God with all your heart, mind, soul and life, and be able to bring down the work of the Holy Spirit by praying with earnest heart. If you are living within the fullness of the Holy Spirit, you will obviously keep God’s word and become sanctified day by day.
I hope you will pray with all your heart, mind, and soul, and with all your energy, and give peace offering with the fullness of the Holy Spirit to please God. Therefore, I wish that you will always walk with God and receive the answers and blessings.