Leviticus Chapter 7
God gave the priests further instructions on how to handle the sacrifice that was made for a trespass. The guilt offering was described in chapter 5, but now God gave further instruction regarding what they were to do with the fat and the blood from the sacrificed animal. The animal was killed just outside the tabernacle and then its blood was thrown against the side of the altar. You and I know how staining blood can be when it gets on any surface. I’ve often thought about what a mess this would have been with repeated sacrifices made. Perhaps the surface material of the altar being shiny kept the blood from actually staining the altar and it simply ran down the sides to the ground and seeped into the dirt.
For anyone who has ever butchered an animal we know that harvesting the meat is a messy process as well. God wanted only a portion of the animal to be burnt as sacrifice to Him in this particular sacrifice, and that was the fat of the animal. The rest of the animal would be food for the priests as well as the hides could be utilized by the priests.
Let's Reflect
1. What was the meat considered to be that the priests ate from the sacrificed animal?
2. What were the priests allowed to do with any grain offering that were brought for sacrifice?
3. We read in verse 17 that the leftover meat on the third day after the animal was killed was no longer good for eating. God must have been protecting them from disease in this instruction. What were they to do with the leftovers?
4. In the peace offering we know that they were to bring unleavened ingredients but there is also direction to bring bread that was leavened. These two items unleavened and the leavened will be lifted up in a wave offering. We will see this in later chapters of Leviticus. A comparison is demonstrated and acknowledged between the two types of bread ingredients when lifted up before God in a wave offering. What was done with the bread that contained leaven?
5. There is great attention given to a person not touching the meat or partaking of the meat if he has touched anything unclean which would have contaminated things. Again, I believe God was protecting them by creating these rules. What was the rule regarding the person who had touched something unclean?
6. There were strict laws that they were not to eat the fat of the animal nor were they to eat or drink what?
7. The Lord also made it clear that they were to bring the sacrifice to the temple themselves. In other words, they couldn’t send a family member to report that he was making a sacrifice on behalf of his family. What does verse 30 call the sacrifice that the individual brought to the tabernacle?
8. What did God ordain for the priests of the tabernacle from the very first instructions He gave when He instituted the position of the priests?
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