Reflections on Leviticus 7

Leviticus 07 (Contemporary English Version)

1. The sacrifice to make things right is very sacred.
   
2. The animal must be killed in the same place where the sacrifice to please me is killed, and the animal's blood must be splattered against the four sides of the bronze altar.
   
3. Offer all of the animal's fat, including the fat on its tail and on its insides,
   
4. as well as the lower part of the liver and the two kidneys with their fat.
   
5. One of the priests will lay these pieces on the altar and send them up in smoke to me.
   
6. This sacrifice for making things right is very holy. Only the priests may eat it, and they must eat it in a holy place.
   
7. The ceremony for this sacrifice and the one for sin are just alike, and the meat may be eaten only by the priest who performs this ceremony of forgiveness.
   
8. In fact, the priest who offers a sacrifice to please me may keep the skin of the animal,
   
9. just as he may eat the bread from a sacrifice to give thanks to me.
   
10. All other grain sacrifices--with or without olive oil in them--are to be divided equally among the priests of Aaron's family.
    
11. Here are the instructions for offering a sacrifice to ask my blessing:
    
12. If you offer it to give thanks, you must offer some bread together with it. Use the finest flour to make three kinds of bread without yeast--two in the form of loaves mixed with olive oil and one in the form of thin wafers brushed with oil.
    
13. You must also make some bread with yeast.
    
14. Give me one loaf or wafer from each of these four kinds of bread, after which they will belong to the priest who splattered the blood against the bronze altar.
    
15. When you offer an animal to ask a blessing from me or to thank me, the meat belongs to you, but it must be eaten the same day.
    
16. It is different with the sacrifices you offer when you make me a promise or voluntarily give me something. The meat from those sacrifices may be kept and eaten the next day,
    
17. but any that is left must be destroyed. If you eat any after the second day, your sacrifice will be useless and unacceptable, and you will be both disgusting and guilty.
    
18. (SEE 7:17)
    
19. Don't eat any of the meat that touches something unclean. Instead, burn it. The rest of the meat may be eaten by anyone who is clean and acceptable to me.
    
20. But don't eat any of this meat if you have become unclean by touching something unclean from a human or an animal or from any other creature. If you do, you will no longer belong to the community of Israel.
    
21. (SEE 7:20)
    
22. The LORD told Moses
    
23. to say to the people: Don't eat the fat of cattle, sheep, or goats.
    
24. If one of your animals dies or is killed by some wild animal, you may do anything with its fat except eat it.
    
25. If you eat the fat of an animal that can be used as a sacrifice to me, you will no longer belong to the community of Israel.
    
26. And no matter where you live, you must not eat the blood of any bird or animal,
    
27. or you will no longer belong to the community of Israel.
    
28. The LORD also told Moses
    
29. to say to the people of Israel: If you want to offer a sacrifice to ask my blessing, you must bring the part to be burned and lay it on the bronze altar. But you must first lift up the choice ribs with their fat to show that the offering is dedicated to me.
    
30. (SEE 7:29)
    
31. A priest from Aaron's family will then send the fat up in smoke, but the ribs belong to the priests.
    
32. The upper joint of the right hind leg is for the priest who offers the blood and the fat of the animal.
    
33. (SEE 7:32)
    
34. I have decided that the people of Israel must always give the choice ribs and the upper joint of the right hind leg to Aaron's descendants
    
35. who have been ordained as priests to serve me.
    
36. This law will never change. I am the LORD!
    
37. These are the ceremonies for sacrifices to please the LORD, to give him thanks, and to ask his blessing or his forgiveness, as well as the ceremonies for those sacrifices that demand a payment and for the sacrifices that are offered when priests are ordained.
    
38. While Moses and the people of Israel were in the desert at Mount Sinai, the LORD commanded them to start offering these sacrifices.
    
    

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    Chapter 7 concludes the handbook on sacrifices in which the first five chapters were addressed to the people concerning their sacrifices and last two chapters were addressed to the priests with details for handling of the sacrifices. In this final chapter details were given in the first ten verses for handling the meat of the guilt offering. The fat of the animal was to be burned on the altar. Earlier the Lord had given a commandment that all fat belonged to Him and the Israelites were not to eat any fat. The qualifying fat in these instructions is specifically the fat tail, fat surrounding the entrails, the kidneys, and the fatty lobe of the liver. The remaining meat of the offering belonged to the officiating priest. If the offering was a grain offering, it also belonged to the officiating priest if it were baked, but belonged to all the priests equally if it were not baked.
    
    Verses 11-27 give further details regarding the fellowship offering. A distinction concerning the fellowship offering is that it involved a communal meal with the family of the worshipper and the officiating priest. There were fellowship offerings made for different purposes. The most common purpose was as a thank offering. Another purpose was in the making of a vow while a third purpose was in the giving of a freewill offering.  In the case of the thank offering, the worshipper first sacrificed an animal. After burning the fat, the remainder of the meat was for the communal meal. Along with the animal sacrifice, the worshipper also offered unleavened bread which belonged to the priest. Leavened bread could also be offered and this was used for the communal meal.
    
    If the offering was a thank offering the food must be eaten for the communal meal on the same day it was offered. In the case of the freewill offering or offering for a vow, food not eaten on the first day could be left for the next day, but could not be left into the third day. Any food that touched something that was ceremonially unclean could not be eaten. It had to be burned up. Further instructions were given regarding the way the meat of the sacrifice was to be offered to the Lord. Of the portion not burned on the altar, the breast was to be "waved as a presentation offering before the Lord." (7:30) The right thigh was then given to the officiating priest.
    
    Verses 35-38 give a concluding explanation about all of the sacrifices saying that the portions for the priests was to be a permanent arrangement. Furthermore, it is pointed out that these instructions for the sacrifices were given to Moses by the Lord on Mount Sinai, emphasizing that they are included in the covenant.