We are not left to our liberty in the solemn acts of religious worship,
but are under obligation to perform them in the manner God directs in His Word.
Leviticus 1
1 Likewise this is the law of the trespass offering: it is most holy.
2 In the place where they kill the burnt offering shall they kill the trespass offering: and the blood thereof shall he sprinkle round about upon the altar.
3 And he shall offer of it all the fat thereof; the rump, and the fat that covereth the inwards,
4 And the two kidneys, and the fat that is on them, which is by the flanks, and the caul that is above the liver, with the kidneys, it shall he take away:
5 And the priest shall burn them upon the altar for an offering made by fire unto the LORD: it is a trespass offering.
6 Every male among the priests shall eat thereof: it shall be eaten in the holy place: it is most holy.
7 As the sin offering is, so is the trespass offering: there is one law for them: the priest that maketh atonement therewith shall have it.
8 And the priest that offereth any man’s burnt offering, even the priest shall have to himself the skin of the burnt offering which he hath offered.
9 And all the meat offering that is baken in the oven, and all that is dressed in the fryingpan, and in the pan, shall be the priest’s that offereth it.
10 And every meat offering, mingled with oil, and dry, shall all the sons of Aaron have, one as much as another.
11 And this is the law of the sacrifice of peace offerings, which he shall offer unto the LORD.
12 If he offer it for a thanksgiving, then he shall offer with the sacrifice of thanksgiving unleavened cakes mingled with oil, and unleavened wafers anointed with oil, and cakes mingled with oil, of fine flour, fried.
13 Besides the cakes, he shall offer for his offering leavened bread with the sacrifice of thanksgiving of his peace offerings.
14 And of it he shall offer one out of the whole oblation for an heave offering unto the LORD, and it shall be the priest’s that sprinkleth the blood of the peace offerings.
15 And the flesh of the sacrifice of his peace offerings for thanksgiving shall be eaten the same day that it is offered; he shall not leave any of it until the morning.
16 But if the sacrifice of his offering be a vow, or a voluntary offering, it shall be eaten the same day that he offereth his sacrifice: and on the morrow also the remainder of it shall be eaten:
17 But the remainder of the flesh of the sacrifice on the third day shall be burnt with fire.
18 And if any of the flesh of the sacrifice of his peace offerings be eaten at all on the third day, it shall not be accepted, neither shall it be imputed unto him that offereth it: it shall be an abomination, and the soul that eateth of it shall bear his iniquity.
19 And the flesh that toucheth any unclean thing shall not be eaten; it shall be burnt with fire: and as for the flesh, all that be clean shall eat thereof.
20 But the soul that eateth of the flesh of the sacrifice of peace offerings, that pertain unto the LORD, having his uncleanness upon him, even that soul shall be cut off from his people.
21 Moreover the soul that shall touch any unclean thing, as the uncleanness of man, or any unclean beast, or any abominable unclean thing, and eat of the flesh of the sacrifice of peace offerings, which pertain unto the LORD, even that soul shall be cut off from his people.
22 ¶ And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
23 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, Ye shall eat no manner of fat, of ox, or of sheep, or of goat.
24 And the fat of the beast that dieth of itself, and the fat of that which is torn with beasts, may be used in any other use: but ye shall in no wise eat of it.
25 For whosoever eateth the fat of the beast, of which men offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD, even the soul that eateth it shall be cut off from his people.
26 Moreover ye shall eat no manner of blood, whether it be of fowl or of beast, in any of your dwellings.
27 Whatsoever soul it be that eateth any manner of blood, even that soul shall be cut off from his people.
28 ¶ And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
29 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, He that offereth the sacrifice of his peace offerings unto the LORD shall bring his oblation unto the LORD of the sacrifice of his peace offerings.
30 His own hands shall bring the offerings of the LORD made by fire, the fat with the breast, it shall he bring, that the breast may be waved for a wave offering before the LORD.
31 And the priest shall burn the fat upon the altar: but the breast shall be Aaron’s and his sons’.
32 And the right shoulder shall ye give unto the priest for an heave offering of the sacrifices of your peace offerings.
33 He among the sons of Aaron, that offereth the blood of the peace offerings, and the fat, shall have the right shoulder for his part.
34 For the wave breast and the heave shoulder have I taken of the children of Israel from off the sacrifices of their peace offerings, and have given them unto Aaron the priest and unto his sons by a statute for ever from among the children of Israel.
35 ¶ This is the portion of the anointing of Aaron, and of the anointing of his sons, out of the offerings of the LORD made by fire, in the day when he presented them to minister unto the LORD in the priest’s office;
36 Which the LORD commanded to be given them of the children of Israel, in the day that he anointed them, by a statute for ever throughout their generations.
37 This is the law of the burnt offering, of the meat offering, and of the sin offering, and of the trespass offering, and of the consecrations, and of the sacrifice of the peace offerings;
38 Which the LORD commanded Moses in mount Sinai, in the day that he commanded the children of Israel to offer their oblations unto the LORD, in the wilderness of Sinai.
Leviticus 1 – J. Vernon McGee
Leviticus 7:1-10 – Laws of the Sin- and Trespass-Offerings
Never was our Lord more absolutely “the Holy One of God” than when He was numbered with the transgressors and bare the sin of many. The Cross was the climax of His obedience. How watchful we should be against anything that might soil us in our handling of sin in its infinite ramifications. As the priests, who dealt with these offerings, were permitted to eat of the flesh, are we not reminded that we derive the richest sustenance of our spiritual life by humble, penitent and thankful meditation on the finished work of the Cross? —Through the Bible Day by Day
Leviticus 7:11-21 – Law of the Peace-Offering
Here begins the law of the peace-offerings, containing additional directions to those given in Leviticus 3. They are classified as (1) thank-offerings, (2) vow-offerings and (3) voluntary-offerings. When the soul is full of gratitude, as was Hannah when Samuel was granted her in answer to prayer, what is more natural than that it should render some tangible recognition to Him, from whom cometh every good and perfect gift!
We are ready enough to cry to God in times of great sorrow, but are too forgetful of His benefits when the cloud passes and the sun shines again. In Israel the recognition took the form of a feast, in which the divine fire and the suppliant seem to feed together. The careful prohibition of the flesh remaining over was probably to teach that fresh mercies call for new songs. It had the further result of enforcing a liberal distribution of food among the poor. See also the connection of this thought with Psalm 16:10. —Through the Bible Day by Day
Leviticus 7:19 – All that be clean shall eat thereof.
In Leviticus 7:13, it is admitted that leaven must be present in this holy feast, inasmuch as it stands for the essential principle of evil, which intrudes into our holiest worship. The self-life is an all-pervasive leaven. We may not be conscious of it; there may be no sufficient recognition of its distastefulness to the holy God: but it follows us even into the Holy place.
The worshipper was not allowed, however, to be knowingly unclean. There must be no stain on the conscience, which he might remove by confession and repentance. If there were, he must be cut off; that is, he must be debarred from all participation in holy rites, and suspended from entering the sacred enclosure of the Tabernacle.
This cutting off answers to the suspension of a believer’s communion with God, because of unconfessed sin. The presence of the leaven of the self-life is no barrier to the enjoyment of the Divine fellowship, for we meet God in Jesus. But permitted sin makes such fellowship impossible, because we have not availed ourselves of the gracious arrangements made by God for the perpetual cleansing of the soul in the precious blood of Jesus Christ. For “it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul” (v. 11).
How many excommunicate Christians there are! You can easily see that they have been cut off; their joyless faces and powerless prayers, their inability to bear testimony for God—all tell the sad story. If you have been cut off, search your past history to discover the cause. Put away your sin, and seek the blessed cleansing of John 13; then come to feast with God, in holy communion, as at a common table. —Our Daily Homily
Leviticus 7:22-38 – Things Forbidden; the Portion of the Priests
The eating of the fat and the blood was prohibited; the first probably during the pilgrimage, the latter in perpetuity. See Leviticus 3:17. When we are told that the disobedient soul must be cut off, it refers probably to the excommunication which the priest pronounced until the offender had repented and was reinstated in the privileges of God’s house. The waving of parts of the victim consisted in the priest placing his hands beneath those of the offerer, who held the piece to be waved, and moving them slowly backward and forward before the Lord, to and from the altar. The heaving was performed by slowly lifting the pieces upward and downward. These movements signified that the pieces, though not burned at the altar, were specially consecrated to God’s service. The shoulder is the emblem of government and strength; the breast of the affections. We specially need to meditate on these aspects of our Lord’s character. It may be that the action referred to in Acts 13:3 meant that the Church waved the two first missionaries as a votive-offering to God. —Through the Bible Day by Day