God provides and cares for us in so many thoughtful, detailed ways that sometimes we miss it. If we don’t look for God at work; we are blind to his miracles provided each day we live on this earth! God is always at work on our behalf with a power that brought Jesus, His Son back to life after being slain by the Enemy. 

God knows what we need when we need it before we know! So many times I look back on what just happened and realize I was protected from harm from what could have been disastrous.  Our family would be provided with a bonus that would be needed to cover an expense that we didn’t know was coming.  God guided us by the power of His Holy Spirit in us to discern impending trouble if we followed a certain route.  God provided rest when we needed it most, sometimes forcing the rest! 

God led us with wisdom, when we asked for it, to avoid the temptations the Enemy uses to distract and deceive us with attempts to destroy our relationship with God.  When something doesn’t seem right to pursue, seek God’s will for clarification and God will always provide!  But even with all these experiences, we humans will still miss God at work in the details. God is in all the details!  Pause to give Him praise even now!

God created all so He knows how His creation works.  God created leaves with veins to carry life from root to stem. God created all plant life with the ability to give life to us! God created animals, fish in the seas and birds of the air to eat; providing protein for our bodies if prepared properly.  Some animals were created simply for our enjoyment. God created strong trees to give us shade as well as to be used to build shelters for our protection. God created the ground we walk on with a rock solid foundation.  God created oceans that renew themselves. God also created rivers, streams and natural lakes to provide water for our thirst. God created our bodies meticulously detailed, in such beautifully intricate ways that those in the medical field are still trying to learn when one part of our body fails us.

So, why share these thoughts as we work our way through God’s regulations in Leviticus to His People?  Look at all the details!  Could God’s regulations for handling raw meat be not only a way to ceremoniously rid the people of their guilt of sin but to also be protected from eating meat not prepared properly?  There are no ways to store meat as they journey through the wilderness. 

And God took care of His servants!  God’s appointed and anointed priests who keep the fires going, grill the sacrificed meat and burn the fat as God commanded have no time for anything else!  So, God provided a share for them to eat and feed their famliy from all the offerings.       

Where God guides. God provides. Always. God is always available to teach us what is good for us and what is not.  God knows how His Creation works best.

Leviticus 7

The Guilt Offering

“‘These are the regulations for the guilt offering, which is most holy: ² The guilt offering is to be slaughtered in the place where the burnt offering is slaughtered, and its blood is to be splashed against the sides of the altar. ³ All its fat shall be offered: the fat tail and the fat that covers the internal organs, ⁴ both kidneys with the fat on them near the loins, and the long lobe of the liver, which is to be removed with the kidneys. ⁵ The priest shall burn them on the altar as a food offering presented to the Lord. It is a guilt offering. ⁶ Any male in a priest’s family may eat it, but it must be eaten in the sanctuary area; it is most holy.

⁷ “‘The same law applies to both the sin offering and the guilt offering: They belong to the priest who makes atonement with them. ⁸ The priest who offers a burnt offering for anyone may keep its hide for himself. ⁹ Every grain offering baked in an oven or cooked in a pan or on a griddle belongs to the priest who offers it, ¹⁰ and every grain offering, whether mixed with olive oil or dry, belongs equally to all the sons of Aaron.

The Fellowship Offering

¹¹ “‘These are the regulations for the fellowship offering anyone may present to the Lord:

¹² “‘If they offer it as an expression of thankfulness, then along with this thank offering they are to offer thick loaves made without yeast and with olive oil mixed in, thin loaves made without yeast and brushed with oil, and thick loaves of the finest flour well-kneaded and with oil mixed in. ¹³ Along with their fellowship offering of thanksgiving they are to present an offering with thick loaves of bread made with yeast. ¹⁴ They are to bring one of each kind as an offering, a contribution to the Lord; it belongs to the priest who splashes the blood of the fellowship offering against the altar. ¹⁵ The meat of their fellowship offering of thanksgiving must be eaten on the day it is offered; they must leave none of it till morning.

¹⁶ “‘If, however, their offering is the result of a vow or is a freewill offering, the sacrifice shall be eaten on the day they offer it, but anything left over may be eaten on the next day. ¹⁷ Any meat of the sacrifice left over till the third day must be burned up. ¹⁸ If any meat of the fellowship offering is eaten on the third day, the one who offered it will not be accepted. It will not be reckoned to their credit, for it has become impure; the person who eats any of it will be held responsible.

¹⁹ “‘Meat that touches anything ceremonially unclean must not be eaten; it must be burned up. As for other meat, anyone ceremonially clean may eat it. ²⁰ But if anyone who is unclean eats any meat of the fellowship offering belonging to the Lord, they must be cut off from their people. ²¹ Anyone who touches something unclean—whether human uncleanness or an unclean animal or any unclean creature that moves along the ground—and then eats any of the meat of the fellowship offering belonging to the Lord must be cut off from their people.’”

Eating Fat and Blood Forbidden

²² The Lord said to Moses, ²³ “Say to the Israelites: ‘Do not eat any of the fat of cattle, sheep or goats. ²⁴ The fat of an animal found dead or torn by wild animals may be used for any other purpose, but you must not eat it. ²⁵ Anyone who eats the fat of an animal from which a food offering may be presented to the Lord must be cut off from their people. ²⁶ And wherever you live, you must not eat the blood of any bird or animal. ²⁷ Anyone who eats blood must be cut off from their people.’”

The Priests’ Share

²⁸ The Lord said to Moses, ²⁹ “Say to the Israelites: ‘Anyone who brings a fellowship offering to the Lord is to bring part of it as their sacrifice to the Lord. ³⁰ With their own hands they are to present the food offering to the Lord; they are to bring the fat, together with the breast, and wave the breast before the Lord as a wave offering. ³¹ The priest shall burn the fat on the altar, but the breast belongs to Aaron and his sons. ³² You are to give the right thigh of your fellowship offerings to the priest as a contribution. ³³ The son of Aaron who offers the blood and the fat of the fellowship offering shall have the right thigh as his share. ³⁴ From the fellowship offerings of the Israelites, I have taken the breast that is waved and the thigh that is presented and have given them to Aaron the priest and his sons as their perpetual share from the Israelites.’”

³⁵ This is the portion of the food offerings presented to the Lord that were allotted to Aaron and his sons on the day they were presented to serve the Lord as priests. ³⁶ On the day they were anointed, the Lord commanded that the Israelites give this to them as their perpetual share for the generations to come.

³⁷ These, then, are the regulations for the burnt offering, the grain offering, the sin offering, the guilt offering, the ordination offering and the fellowship offering, ³⁸ which the Lord gave Moses at Mount Sinai in the Desert of Sinai on the day he commanded the Israelites to bring their offerings to the Lord.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

Jesus was the sacrifice, once and for all, for the sins of the world.  We no longer must bring animals to a priest to atone for our sins.  Jesus provides all we need. He is our burnt offering, and we must yield ourselves wholly to Him. He is our grain offering, the seed crushed and put through the fire, that we might have the bread of life, and we must feed upon Him. He is our drink offering who poured Himself out in sacrifice and service, and we must pour ourselves out for Him and for others. He is our peace offering, making life a joyful feast instead of a painful famine. He is our sin offering and our trespass offering, for He bore our sins on His body (1 Peter 2:24) and paid the full price for our sins (1 Peter 1:18, 19).  The nation of Israel had to offer six different sacrifices to have a right relationship with God, but Jesus Christ “offered one sacrifice for sins forever” (Hebrews 10:12) and took care of our sin problem completely.

God teaches healthy hygiene for good reasons!  God clearly lays down the conditions for the feast following the peace offering, what the people ate, what the priests ate, and what must be done with the leftovers. The blood and the fat were given to God and were never to be used as common food which is why all it was to be burned in the fire and the ashes removed to a place designate outside the camp. This seems reasonable and common to us today as the healthiest way of making sure no uncooked meat or fat was left on the grill to spoil.  This would bring disease into the camp!  God provides good hygienic reasons for His regulations! Anybody who was ceremonially unclean was forbidden to come to the feast and was “cut off” from his people until they decided to obey God’s directions.

God provided for His People and for His priests who carried out God’s regulations for the good of the people and for the glory of God.  That’s how God works on our behalf—our good and His glory!

Lord,

Thank you for all you have done over the years of my life and in the life of my family that I could see. Thank you for all the times I needed rescue, even when I didn’t realize it! Thank you for all you are doing now as you lead and guide us in a new season of life on earth. Thank you for what you will do.  But most of all, thank you for saving my soul and making me whole. Thank you for opening my eyes to see you at work more clearly and more often. Thank you for providing opportunities to tell others of your salvation work within us. Thank you for loving and caring for us in ways that always amaze us!  And when we don’t feel worth all Your care and attention; you remind us that we are Yours. This truth settles my soul with your peace. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

In Jesus Name, Amen