Reflections on Leviticus 3

Leviticus 03 (Contemporary English Version)

1. When you offer sacrifices to ask my blessing, you may offer either a bull or a cow, but there must be nothing wrong with the animal.
   
2. Lead it to the entrance of the sacred tent, lay your hand on its head, and have it killed there. A priest from Aaron's family will splatter its blood against the four sides of the altar.
   
3. Offer all of the fat on the animal's insides,
   
4. as well as the lower part of the liver and the two kidneys with their fat.
   
5. Some of the priests will lay these pieces on the altar and send them up in smoke with a smell that pleases me, together with the sacrifice that is offered to please me.
   
6. Instead of a bull or a cow, you may offer any sheep or goat that has nothing wrong with it.
   
7. If you offer a sheep, you must present it to me at the entrance to the sacred tent.
   
8. Lay your hand on its head and have it killed there. A priest will then splatter its blood against the four sides of the altar.
   
9. Offer the fat on the tail, the tailbone, and the insides,
   
10. as well as the lower part of the liver and the two kidneys with their fat.
    
11. One of the priests will lay these pieces on the altar and send them up in smoke as a food offering for me.
    
12. If you offer a goat, you must also present it to me
    
13. at the entrance to the sacred tent. Lay your hand on its head and have it killed there. A priest will then splatter its blood against the four sides of the altar.
    
14. Offer all of the fat on the animal's insides,
    
15. as well as the lower part of the liver and the two kidneys with their fat.
    
16. One of the priests will put these pieces on the altar and send them up in smoke as a food offering with a smell that pleases me. All fat belongs to me.
    
17. So you and your descendants must never eat any fat or any blood, not even in the privacy of your own homes. This law will never change.
    
    

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    In this handbook on sacrifice that makes up the first seven chapters of Leviticus, the instructions are into the third type of sacrifice which is the fellowship offering. The burnt and grain offerings have preceded the fellowship offering in the two previous chapters. Only the procedure for the offering is given in this chapter. Its purpose, which is described elsewhere, was to rejoice before the Lord because of what He had done for the worshipers. It was a communal event in which the major portion of the sacrifice was eaten by the worshipers, their families, and a Levite.
    
    Since the major portion of the sacrificial animal was eaten as a communal meal, it will be noticed in the procedures that only the fatty portions of the animal were burned on the altar. With these instructions the Lord was establishing a "permanent statute" that "all fat belongs to the Lord." "Throughout your generations, wherever you live: you must not eat any fat or any blood." (3:16, 17)
    
    The procedure for the fellowship offering was very similar to that of the burnt offering. The animal could come from the herd or from the flock and must be without blemish. But a difference in the case of the fellowship offering was that it could be either a male or female animal. As with the burnt offering, the worshiper prepared the animal for the sacrifice. This involved laying his hand on the head of the animal as he killed it. Then he cut away the fat of the surrounding entrails and on the entrails along with the "two kidneys with the fat on them at the loins; he will also remove the fatty lobe of the liver with the kidneys." (3:4) All of this he presented to the priest who burnt it on the altar, placing it on top of the burnt offering. This burnt offering may be the daily burnt offering, offered by the priest on behalf of the community, or it may be that of the worshiper, offered just prior to the fellowship offering. As mentioned above, the remainder of the animal was eaten by the worshiper, his family, and a Levite.