The Law of the Peace Offering

Continuing a chronological Bible study:

(Leviticus 3:1) "'And if his offering is a sacrifice of a peace offering, if he offers it of the herd, whether male or female, he shall offer it without blemish before the LORD.'"

In the first couple of chapters of Leviticus, God had been telling Moses to instruct the children of Israel on how they were to offer their sacrifices.  Chapter 3 begins with instructions for a peace offering.  The peace offering was sometimes referred to as a thank offering, according to the old commentaries I read.  The 1599 Geneva Bible Translation Notes described it as a "sacrifice of thanksgiving offered for peace and prosperity, either generally or particularly".  Strong's defined the original word "shelem" as a "voluntary sacrifice in thanks, a peace offering".  A peace offering "of the herd" meant of cattle, as in the burnt offerings in chapter 1.  This offering could be either male or female, but it had to be without blemish.  Whereas the burnt offering had to be male, I believe because that represented Christ, the peace or thank offering could be either male or female, indicating that there is no distinction of male and female with respect to blessings from the Lord (Galatians 3:28).

(2) "‘And he shall lay his hand on the head of his offering, and kill it at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation; and Aaron’s sons, the priests, shall sprinkle the blood all around on the altar.'"

The person offering this peace offering was to lay his hand on the head of the animal he was offering, signifying that this sacrifice was his own, and that he was sort of transferring his own thankfulness and also unworthiness onto the animal.  He was to kill the animal at the door of the tabernacle, and then Aaron's sons, the priests, were to sprinkle its blood all around on the altar.

(3) "'And he shall offer of the sacrifice of the peace offering an offering made by fire to the LORD; the fat that covers the inwards and all the fat that is on the inwards, (4) And the two kidneys and the fat that is on them by the flanks, and the caul above the liver, with the kidneys, he shall remove. (5) And Aaron’s sons shall burn it on the altar upon the burnt sacrifice, which is on the wood that is on the fire; it is an offering made by fire, of a sweet aroma to the LORD.'"

"He" seems to refer to the one offering the sacrifice, but it was actually Aaron's sons who did the burning of the sacrifice.  What was to be offered was all the fat on the "inwards", the two kidneys and their fat, and the caul above the liver.  I covered a little more in depth than here what these parts probably were in the study on Exodus, chapter 29, Consecration of the Priests, specifically verse 13.  Basically, I believe these made up the "gut" or middle section of the animal, perhaps representing the center of emotion.  These were to be removed from the animal to be burned in an offering made by fire.  Aaron's sons then burned this offering on the altar "upon the burnt sacrifice", which referred to the ashes of the continual burnt offering referred to in Exodus 29:38, where daily an offering was made, keeping the fire burning continually.  This offering would then be considered a sweet aroma to the Lord, an acceptable sacrifice.

(6) "'And if his offering for a sacrifice of peace offering to the LORD is of the flock, male or female, he shall offer it without blemish. (7) If he offers a lamb for his offering, then he shall offer it before the LORD.'"

A peace offering could also be a sacrifice "of the flock", which meant of the sheep or goats.  It could be male or female, but must be one without blemish.  If a lamb was offered, as opposed to a goat (verse 12), that lamb would be sacrificed as a peace offering before the Lord.  There may be significance in the word "lamb", but I'm not certain that it was a mandatory condition.  Strong's says the word "keseb" means a "young sheep".  Dr. John Gill wrote that according to Maimonides, a Jewish physician and philosopher, and an important figure in the history of Torah scholarship, "lamb" meant one of the flock in its first year and that "that where ever this word is used in the law, it signifies one of the first year".

(8) "‘And he shall lay his hand on the head of his offering, and kill it before the tabernacle of the congregation; and Aaron’s sons shall sprinkle its blood all around on the altar.'"

As with the offering of the herd, the person offering the animal was to lay his hand on the head of the animal and then kill it "before the tabernacle", which probably meant somewhere in the court before the door of the tabernacle.  Then Aaron's sons, the priests, were to sprinkle the animal's blood all around on the altar.

(9) "'And he shall offer from the sacrifice of the peace offering an offering made by fire to the LORD, its fat and the whole fat tail which he shall remove by the backbone; and the fat that covers the inwards and all the fat that is on the inwards, (10) And the two kidneys and the fat that is on them by the flanks, and the caul above the liver, with the kidneys, he shall remove. (11) And the priest shall burn it on the altar; it is the food of the offering made by fire to the LORD.'"

The parts of the lamb that were to be burned on the altar were much the same as those of an animal from the herd, except that the fat tail of the lamb was also burned.  The tails of the eastern sheep were said to be very large and fat, alone weighing 15 pounds and more.  These parts were considered the "food" of the offering made by fire to the Lord.  It was the Lord's food or bread burned to and for Him, whereas the rest fell to the priests, as we are told elsewhere.

(12) "'And if his offering is a goat, then he shall offer it before the LORD.'"

A goat could also be offered as an offering of the flock, and could be male or female, but either must be without blemish, according to verse 6.

(13) "'And he shall lay his hand on its head and kill it before the tabernacle of the congregation; and the sons of Aaron shall sprinkle its blood all around on the altar.'"

Like the lamb, the person offering the goat, was to place his hand on the goat's head and then kill it in front of the tabernacle, and the sons of Aaron, the priests, were to sprinkle its blood all around on the altar.

(14) "'And he shall offer from it his offering, an offering made by fire to the LORD, the fat that covers the inwards and all the fat that is on the inwards, (15) And the two kidneys and the fat that is on them by the flanks, and the caul above the liver, with the kidneys, he shall remove.'"

The same parts of the goat as the parts of the animal offered from the herd, were to be offered and burned.  Nothing is said of the tail, which was peculiar to the sheep.

(16) "'And the priest shall burn them on the altar; it is the food of the offering made by fire for a sweet aroma; all the fat is the LORD’s.'"

These parts were to be burned on the altar by the priest, and was considered the food of the offering made by fire for a sweet aroma to the Lord, or acceptable and pleasing to Him.  All the fat on the animals, especially as described in the parts that were to be burned on the altar, were to be the Lord's.

(17) "'It shall be a perpetual statute for your generations throughout all your dwellings, that you eat neither fat nor blood.’”

It was to be an everlasting statute throughout their generations, not only of the animals they sacrificed at the tabernacle, but throughout their personal dwellings of the animals they killed for their personal use, that they should eat neither fat nor blood.  It is believed that the fat meant was the fat that had been described in the passages above, that it was not meant to include every bit of fat that is marbled in the meat of an animal.  The blood was considered the life of the flesh (Gen. 9:4, Lev. 17:14, Deu. 12:23), and was forbidden to be eaten.

The peace offering was a voluntary offering made to God that appears to have been either in thanksgiving for peace and prosperity or as a vow to make peace and reconciliation with God (Lev., chap. 7).  Albert Barnes, in his Notes on the Bible, pointed out that the peace offering, the burnt offering from chapter 1, and the grain offering from chapter 2, were all spoken of as "if it was familiarly known before the giving of the Law".  The next chapter will begin to discuss a new kind of offering instituted by the Law.