Leviticus 3-4 - Peace and Sin Offerings and Speeding Tickets

Podcast Transcript (Auto-Transcribed by Apple Podcasts)

You've returned back to the place called Tabernacle Talk, and it's great to have you back. Today, we are continuing our study in the Book of Leviticus.

How can a holy God live in the middle of a sinful people without the sinful people being destroyed? This is the question that the Book of Leviticus answers for us.

And the answer is because God makes a way for them to live in His presence, because He wants a relationship with them. And so He goes through all of these details, this entire book in which He genuinely cares about being near people.

And today, God wants to be near to be with you. He wants His presence to be real and known in your life.

And as we enter into God's Word together, that's the hope, that's the prayer, that we would be closer to our God as a result of hearing what He's like, what His character is, and how He cares for us. Leviticus 3 for today begins with this.

God is proclaiming this from the Tent of Meeting, from the Tabernacle to Moses. And He's gone through first the burnt offering that was completely consumed by the fire. No part went to the person that was offering the sacrifice.

No part went to the priest. It was just something that went entirely to God. And then we looked yesterday at the grain offering.

And this was kind of a, hey, God, thank you for what you've done in my life. And there were specific requirements that that grain offering had to do. And the priest would eat from a portion of that grain offering.

And now we're at the peace offering in chapter three. It says, if you present an animal from the herd as a peace offering to Yahweh, it may be a male or a female, but it must have no defects.

Lay your hand on the animal's head and slaughter it at the entrance of the tabernacle. Then Aaron's sons, the priests, will splatter its blood against all sides of the altar.

The priest must present part of this peace offering as a special gift to Yahweh. This includes all the fat around the internal organs, the two kidneys and the fat around them near the loins and the long lobe of the liver.

These must be removed with the kidneys, and Aaron's sons will burn them on top of the burnt offering on the wood burning on the altar. It is a special gift, a pleasing aroma to Yahweh.

So here is one of those instances in which blood signifies the life of this animal that is given that in a place where perhaps there was hostility, there was fighting, that's why this is a peace offering, whether against man or against God, this

person brings this and this will be elaborated even a little bit more in chapter seven. But as this offering is taking place, then there is life that is cast all around the room, that God's life, his presence brings this new life.

Then he includes here some of the things that the specific parts of the animal's body that weren't supposed to be eaten perhaps by the priest or by the offer. These were things that just went to God.

So, depending on the kind of religion back in the ancient near east or in ancient Europe that you look at, there were always some things that uniquely benefited the priests of like, oh yeah, we get this stuff, we're getting this portion of the

animal. So they're like, oh yeah, the gods like bones and gristle and they don't want any of the parts that taste good to us humans.

And here God says, all right, no, here are the specific things and I'm sure there's many wonderful insights that could be taken from the kidneys, the fat around them near the loins and the long lobe of the liver.

But I will allow you to discover some of that on your own. I'm going to link a book in the description that goes into the Book of Leviticus in even some more detail.

If you want to really dive into some of the weeds on it, and I know it would be an encouragement to you, heard it recommended by several people. So if you would be interested in that, you can look at the show notes and that's all there for you.

So here we have again at the end of this section of verses one through five, he says, it's a special gift, a pleasing aroma to you. You don't have to worry about if God accepts it.

If you have just followed these simple instructions, then that's all that God is looking for as you bring this peace offering from your heart.

You don't have to worry about, okay, all I could bring was a female, I've only got one male left in the herd and I need that for kind of the next season of breeding for the sheep or for the cattle.

But is God mad at me that I couldn't bring anything more than that? But as we follow God's word, we know that what we do is pleasing in His sight.

Verse number six, if you present an animal from the flock as a peace offering to Yahweh, it may be a male or female, but it must have no defects.

If you present a sheep as your offering, bring it to Yahweh, lay your hand on its head, that is, in a sense, like transferring your prayer, your life. You're saying, hey, I am with this, if you will, I am with this sheep. He's with me.

Lay your hand on its head and slaughter it in front of the tabernacle. Aaron's sons will then splatter the sheep's blood against all sides of the altar. The priest must present the fad of this peace offering as a special gift to Yahweh.

This includes the fad of the broad tail cut off near the backbone, all the fad around the internal organs, the two kidneys and the fad around them near the loins and the long lobe of the liver.

These must be removed with the kidneys and the priest will burn them on the altar. It is a special gift of food presented to Yahweh. So here, same exact instructions that he's going through.

Some people, you know, they've got some cattle and some people, they've got some sheep. And then this next section with a goat. If you present a goat as your offering, bring it to Yahweh.

Lay your hand on its head and slaughter it in front of the tabernacle. Aaron's sons will then splatter the goat's blood against all sides of the altar that where there was death, now there is life all around.

The fat around the internal organs, kidneys, fat around them near the loins, the long lobe of the liver, these must be removed with the kidneys and the priest will burn them on the altar. It is a special gift of food, a pleasing aroma to Yahweh.

All the fat belongs to Yahweh. You must never eat any fat or blood. This is a permanent law for you and it must be observed from generation to generation wherever you live.

There is a lot that could be said about fat and some of those details will even be brought out a little bit more as we continue forward in the Book of Leviticus. You can also read about it in that book that I mentioned in the show notes.

But here with blood, this was something that was very popular for people to intake and ingest a lot of during this particular time period in human history, that there wasn't a revulsion to it like there is nowadays, at least kind of in Western

culture, there's been enough of a Judeo-Christian influence that we all kind of think of blood in a bad way. And some of that's been adjusted a little bit over some of the years.

As you look at even some of the vampire stories and things like that, where there's a little bit more curiosity in regards to partaking in blood, but at least as far as God's Word has it, both here and then we read about it actually in Acts 15, where

when the church and the Council of Jerusalem is sending out like their recommendations to the other churches of the Gentiles, they go, all right, don't commit fornication, don't commit sexual immorality, don't worship idols, and keep yourselves from

things strangled, so don't eat things that have been choked out, and don't eat blood. And sometimes that was viewed as a very spiritual thing to people in the Ancient Near East that like, oh yes, here is this life that was in this creature, and now

this life is in me. And God says no, like all of, any taking of life is a very sacred, solemn thing, and it's not something that you take on to yourself to say, I'm going to ingest this creature's lifeblood, even as I say that, to you all listening,

you might go, yeah, well, that makes perfect sense, that's really creepy, why would you do that? But it was a very common practice during those times. I'm going to do this, I'm going to keep on going. So we've got the peace offering.

Once we get to chapter 7, there's some further clarifications on all of these offerings that take place, and so I'm going to keep on going.

So you know about the peace offering, you know all the portions that were given to God, and we'll see what happens with the other portions that weren't burnt on the altar in just a little bit. So we've got the peace offering in chapter 3.

Chapter 4, we have the sin offering, and we'll see what that entails. Then Yahweh said to Moses, give the following instructions to the people of Israel.

This is how you are to deal with those who sin unintentionally by doing anything that violates one of Yahweh's commands. So you can do wrong and not know that you're doing wrong. And there is a safety net for that, if you will.

That there is, there can be no sin, no imperfection in God's presence.

And so God doesn't want people to accidentally come into His presence with sin that they have done wrong, but they don't realize that they've done wrong, or that they, you know, weren't willfully rebelling against God when they sinned.

And God says, there is grace for that, and this particular grace makes itself known through the sin offering. He says, if the High Priest sins, bringing guilt upon the entire community, he must give a sin offering for the sin he has committed.

He must present to Yahweh a young bull with no defects. He must bring the bull to Yahweh at the entrance of the tabernacle, lay his hand on the bull's head and slaughter it before Yahweh.

The High Priest will then take some of the bull's blood into the tabernacle, dip his finger in the blood and sprinkle it seven times before Yahweh in front of the inner curtain of the sanctuary.

The priest will then put some of the blood on the horns of the altar for fragrant incense that stands in Yahweh's presence inside the tabernacle.

He will pour out the rest of the bull's blood at the base of the altar for burnt offerings at the entrance of the tabernacle. Then the priest must remove all the fat of the bull to be offered as a sin offering.

Remember, all the fat belongs to the Lord. I would make a joke about my own weight at this point, but I don't want to take away too much from what's happening here.

This includes all the fat around the internal organs, the two kidneys, the fat around them near the loins, and the long lobe of the liver.

He must remove these along with the kidneys, just as he does with cattle offered as a peace offering and burn them on the altar of burnt offerings.

But he must take whatever is left of the bowl, its hide, meat, head, legs, internal organs and dung, and carry it away to a place outside the camp that is ceremonially clean, the place where the ashes are dumped.

There on the ash heap, he will burn it on a wood fire.

So here, if the high priest, if the one that is doing some of the most holy actions, like he goes the furthest into this tabernacle, eventually into the temple, where there is where God's presence is.

He mentions it here, the horns of the altar for fragrant incense that stand in Yahweh's presence inside the tabernacle.

So he says, the person that is, has like the most accountability, the person that has the greatest responsibility to God, when he has this sin in his life, he needs to go into the furthest part of the tabernacle to get it right, to bring what God has

said. And then for everything that wasn't the fat, the hide, meat, head, legs, internal organs and dung, he has to carry it all outside of the camp.

That God says this sin that the priest laid his hand on the bull saying, hey, he's like, he's with me. That sin that now the bull signifies or typifies, it has to be taken completely outside of the camp.

There can be no sin within God's presence, no sin in proximity to God. Then verse 13, if the entire Israelite community sins by violating one of Yahweh's commands, but the people don't realize it, they are still guilty.

When they become aware of their sin, the people must bring a young bull as an offering for their sin and present it before the Tabernacle. The elders of the community must then lay their hands on the bull's head and slaughter it before Yahweh.

So the elders of the community, they're saying, hey, like, yeah, this is our, this is our bad. We have sinned and now we are with this bull.

The high priest will then take some of the bull's blood into the Tabernacle, dip his finger in the blood and sprinkle it seven times before the Lord in front of the inner curtain, so not in the presence, in the, on the horns of the altar, in the

presence, but now just in front of the inner curtain. He will then put some of the blood on the horns of the altar for fragrant incense that stands in the Lord's presence inside of the Tabernacle.

So he starts first from in front of, not inside, front of, then brings the things for the inside of God's presence. He will pour out the rest of the blood at the base of the altar for burnt offerings at the entrance of the Tabernacle.

Then the priest must remove all the animal's fat and burn it on the altar, just as he does with the bowl offered as a sin offering for the high priest.

Through this process, the priest will purify the people, making them right with Yahweh, and they will be forgiven, that he will make atonement for the people, a covering for sin.

Then the priest must take what is left of the bowl and carry it outside the camp and burn it there, just as is done with the sin offering for the high priest. This offering is for the sin of the entire congregation of Israel.

So now instead of from inside the curtain and then on the horns of the altar and then everything taking place outside, now it's in front of the curtain and on the horns of the altar and then taking everything out. Verse 22.

So we've gone from high priest, closest, most responsibility with God, then to the entire congregation of Israel.

And now, verse 22, if one of Israel's leaders sins by violating one of the commands of Yahweh, his God, but doesn't realize it, he is still guilty.

If I don't know what the speed limit is and it's 20 and I go 80, I'm still guilty of breaking the law, even if I had no intention of breaking the law.

It says, when he becomes aware of his sin, he must bring as his offering a male goat with no defects. He must lay his hand on the goat's head and slaughter it at the place where burnt offerings are slaughtered before Yahweh.

This is an offering for his sin. Then the priest will dip his finger in the blood of the sin offering and put it on the horns of the altar for burnt offerings. He will pour out the rest of the blood at the base of the altar.

Then he must burn all the goat's fat on the altar just as he does with the peace offering. Through this process, the priest will purify the leader from his sin, making him right with Yahweh, giving him that atonement and he will be forgiven.

So again, now there's nothing mentioned about like that inside curtain, inner curtain in front of the curtain, any of that, none of that's mentioned. Because we're now moving out from realms of responsibility.

Verse 27, if any of the common people sin by violating one of Yahweh's commands, but they don't realize it, they're still guilty. When they become aware of their sin, they must bring as an offering for their sin a female goat with no defects.

They must lay a hand on the head of the sin offering and slaughter it at the place where burnt offerings are slaughtered. Then the priest will dip his finger in the blood and put it on the horns of the altar for burnt offerings.

He must pour out the rest of the blood at the base of the altar. Then he must remove all the goat's fat just as he does with the fat of the peace offering. All the fat belongs to Yahweh.

He will burn the fat on the altar and it will be a pleasing aroma to Yahweh. Through this process, the priest will purify the people, making them right with Yahweh, and they will be forgiven.

If the people bring a sheep as their sin offering, it must be a female with no defects. They must lay a hand on the head of the sin offering and slaughter it at the place where burnt offerings are slaughtered.

Then the priest will dip his finger in the blood of the sin offering and put it on the horns of the altar for burnt offerings. He will pour out the rest of the blood at the base of the altar.

Then he must remove all the sheep's fat, just as he does with the fat of a sheep presented as a peace offering. He will burn the fat on the altar on top of the special gifts presented to Yahweh.

Through this process, the priest will purify the people from their sin, making them right with Yahweh, and they will be forgiven.

So all through here, as he's repeating the exact same process, there's greater cost if it's a high priest or if it's the entire congregation. It's something very expensive. It's that bowl.

If you have just a regular everyday person, then you have it is less costly to bring this. But in all cases, it's the exact same process.

I can think even of First Timothy chapter five, where the Apostle Paul talking to Timothy, he tells him as he's interacting with the rest of the Ephesian bishops, the rest of the Ephesian overseers, the rest of the Ephesian elders, pastors.

He says, those that sin, rebuke before all so that others also may fear. He says, if there is a great public ministry, when there are these big moral failures that he gives the description of, I think, in chapter 5 and verses 20 and 21.

He says, when there's these big failures by these big leaders, there needs to be big accountability. And so here, there are big costs incurred for if all of Israel sins or if the high priest sins in this kind of way.

But the same process is the same all the way through, that you don't, your sin is not excused if you're a common person and your sin is not excused if you're, if it's everyone is doing it or all the leaders are doing it or the high priest did it.

I'm sure God will forgive them. The same process happens for everyone. And it happens through that sacrificial death.

And that's exactly how it is with Jesus. You do not become right with God through your good works, through your actions, through your charitable donations, through your baptism. You get right with God.

You have atonement through the blood of Jesus only. It is only through personally identifying with him, just as this hand was placed on all of these animals that were sacrificed.

When you identify with Jesus and you say, hey, I accept his payment for my sin, I am with him. Much could be said about that that I'm sure we'll continue to look through in the Book of Leviticus. Well, that's chapters three and four.

So we have a peace offering. And as we'll read later in chapter seven, the peace offering is amazing. And I can't wait to dive into some more detail with you all on that.

And then all of the things for the sin offering, for these unintentional sins that sometimes we don't even realize how wicked we are. We don't realize our attitudes are wrong.

We don't realize that our words are wrong, that either things that we do or things that we neglect to do truly do have a damaging relationship on. They damage our relationship with people.

And in some cases, they even kind of damage our relationship, our fellowship with God that we are viewing Him in a way that is not correct. And so we're not able to have that deep fellowship like He wants to have with us.

And I just want to remind us, Jesus is the perfect sacrifice. And as we read through all of these things, all of what it cost to go through life and realize that sin has deep penalties.

Every time that a person had a sin that they realized, oh, yeah, I messed up. I have to bring a burnt offering or I have to bring a peace offering or I have to bring a sin offering.

Every time that they did it, they would have realized, oh, yeah, this is the cost of sin. It's the cost of a life. It's why Paul would say in Romans 623 that the wages of sin is death.

The earnings for our wickedness is death. Because we have now been so incredibly blessed through the sacrifice of Christ, we tend to turn off that thought in our head that we go, oh, well, my attitude towards that person, it's justifiable.

My lack of forgiveness is justifiable. My gossip, my deep hatred of this person is justifiable. My sexual sin is justifiable.

My covetousness, my greed, my selfishness, it's fine.

But we have to realize, as we'll learn later about in the Book of Leviticus, where God outlines a bunch of things of like, hey, here is sin, here is what necessitates all of these sacrifices being made. We ought to realize sin has a terrible penalty.

So let's not live in our sin. Let's live in that right relationship with God that we have been given through Christ. Let us abhor our sin that we don't want it.

And then realizing that we can commit unintentional sins, number one, let's be grateful that Christ gives us grace even in our unintentional, unknown sins. But then let's also be grateful that God tells us what those sins are.

He doesn't leave us in the dark. He highlights them all for us in His Word so that we can know when we have crossed the line.

So let's spend time in God's Word, and let's learn about how He views the world, what His character is, and how we can exemplify that. Thanks for tuning in today. Tomorrow we are, I believe, going to be in chapters five and six.

Should be tomorrow with the guilt offering and some different things. Again, this is like totally into the weeds. I'm going to attach that book in the show notes if you would like some more info or something on the book of Leviticus.

But I hope that you're enjoying this time together. I'm growing in my understanding of God's Word as we're journeying through, and I hope that the same is true for you. Thank you and see you tomorrow.