Day after day the sacrifices continued. On the one hand, these are good because they focused the people on sin. God is setting His people apart from the pagans; He is making them understand Holy. Different kinds of offering for different kinds of sin. On the other hand, the sin is simply covered up.....Goat's blood or Ram's blood cannot do what Jesus Christ's blood can do. The rituals all mean something......have you ever gotten to a point where the ritual is nothing but a ritual?......if you are just going through the motions, this isn't pointing you to Christ. God never wanted us to be bogged down in the ritual.....He wants a relationship with us. The Old Testament people were dealing with the consequences of The Fall (Adam and Eve allowing sin to separate them/us from God). What God is introducing is an awareness of sin that separates us from God and a way to get temporary forgiveness...This is all about how to approach God, and the priests were supposed to do this for the people.
Hebrews 9:22 tells us: In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness. Jesus will take care of sacrificing once and for all.....
Did you notice that the fat was not to be eaten...it was considered to be the best part and was God's.....don't you know there was no cholesteral issues here???? Consumption of blood was also forbidden......it was life, and it was God's. God also gives time limits in which the meat can be eaten....He is taking care of the people's health to keep them from disease....and God is teaching how to make restitution to "neighbors" we have wronged.....so:
The Burnt offering showed a person's devotion to God
The Grain offering acknowledged that all we have belongs to God
The Fellowship offering symbolized peace and fellowship with God
The Sin offering restored the sinner to fellowship with God; showed the seriousness of sin
The Guilt offering provided compensation for injured parties.
Look what comes up from the depths of the sea.
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i have a question: All the offerings that the people are making,,,,,are they doing this every time they think they sin? If so, then Moses and Aaron must be very busy with this.....
ReplyDeleteAnd another question.....after all these animals and grains are made as offering to God, what is done with it? Is it for eating and who can eat it?
I know....this is one of my dumb questions, but want to get this straight before I go on further...
No dumb questions!!!! Three of the offerings are voluntary: burnt, grain and fellowship. 2 of the offerings are required: sin and guilt...so yes, the priests were busy and it was a lot of hard work. The unclean parts of the sacrified animal are taken out of the camp, the burnt parts go to God as a "pleasing aroma" to Him. The priests were provided food (a portion of the sacrifices)...check out Leviticus 7: 28-37.....they get a right thigh and a breast....Leviticus 6 addresses the part of the grain offering that the priests can eat (see 15-23)....the sin offering portion is verse 24-30....check out the guilt offering part in 7: 1-10. The fellowship offering is addressed in 7: 15-21...note it isn't just the priests, but anyone ceremonially clean...
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