I must confess that the many different rules and regulations for sacrifices are confusing. I wonder why God specified them?
Without doubt there is a reason for everything that God does, and perhaps the reason is lost to our culture and time. The idea of sacrifice I understand, but I can’t grasp the significance of the details. Sometimes you could eat the meat, other times you couldn’t, sometimes it was good for two days, other times it had to be eaten that night. It just seems like a lot of rules and regulations that could have been simplified.
But maybe that’s the reason for them in the first place…to help the people understand that they weren’t capable of following directions without help. Let’s think about that for a minute:
The sacrifice for sin described here is a beautiful thing. It provides for everyone to be forgiven, regardless of how poor you are. If you can’t afford a sheep then bring two pigeons or turtledoves, if you can’t afford those then bring 2 quarts of flour. Do you get the feeling that God wants the people to be forgiven, and is making it as easy as He possibly can? Now, the priests portion of the sin sacrifice had to be immediately consumed, because it was holy. Further down in our reading it says that any male member of the priests family could eat it.
This reminds me of the passover meal, where the lamb was butchered and eaten completely by the members of the family. It was a holy offering to the Lord, and had to be consumed completely, nothing could be left. Thinking of that points me to what John the Baptist said when he saw Jesus approaching as he was baptizing in the Jordan River, “behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world”.
John 1:29 Fast-forward to Jesus saying to the crowds “unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood you have no life in you” John 6:52-56
And then Jesus stands before His disciples on the night of His betrayal and says “this is my body given for you”. Luke 22:14-23 The lamb was cut apart and offered on the altar.
All of that begins here on Mount Sinai as the Law is being given to Moses. It all points to the Savior, who will one day take away the sin of the world.
I was just thinking that the priests would grasp the bird that was to be offered as a burnt offering and break it open while holding both wings. It’s a rather gruesome thing to think about, actually. But this morning while I was talking about communion, I realized that I go through the exact same motions when I break the bread and offer it to the congregation. 1 Corinthians 11:23-26 When God decreed that the people would offer a bird, and that it’s body must be broken, He was referring to Christ. Could it also be that the broken bird is an allusion to the broken bread?
I doubt that I will ever break the bread into pieces again without thinking about it.
Faithfully,
PR