More on the Offerings
Welcome to our second parasha, Tzav. It begins at Leviticus 6:8-8:36. The passage begins by telling the Priest what to wear when doing certain jobs. Sounds like some of your wives, huh:? Up to now, the commandments regarding the offerings were introduced as, 'say', here in chapter six, it uses the word 'command'. This means it is a little more important to listen and get this part correct. The first thing in the morning, the priest was to clear off the ashes from the altar. Notice there was a change of clothes involved in this process. First, the priest put on his linen clothes and moved the ashes to the side of the altar and then he had to change his clothes for the second step. This second step involved taking the ashes outside the camp. The sages say this altar was used for a little over a hundred years, yet it's brass covering never burned through, even though the fire was kept burning continuously. Aharon and his sons were to eat of the grain offering.
It was to be eaten in the Set Apart Place and only with unleavened bread. But when the priest themselves offer a grain offering, it was to be totally burnt up, they were not to partake of any portion of it. Notice there were time restrictions on consuming of some of the offerings. The peace offering could be eaten the same day, or the next day, but could not be eaten on the third day. If there were any left on the third day, it must be burned up. It then became an abomination to YHVH and the person who offered it had sinned. Also, you had to be in a clean spiritual state to eat of the offering. The fat was never to be eaten. You could use the fat of an animal that died on its own for other purposes, or was killed by some other means other than as a sacrifice, but it was not to be consumed. The blood also was never to be consumed. Why do you think the wicked people drink blood? They want to throw this commandment in YHVH'S face. I don't know about you, but I never liked eating the fat on a piece of meat anyway. As far as blood goes, I've always liked my meat very well done. If it was pink in the center at all, I couldn't eat it. I've turned down many pieces of standing rib roast at weddings, because the meat looked like with a little help the animal could've lived it was so rare:. An asham (guilt) offering, was the offering where a sheep was required. The sheep by the way was the only animal whose tail was placed on the altar. If you made a vow to bring a peace offering, then you chose the animal you wanted. This was different than a regular voluntary offering.
If the animal you chose in making a vow with had something happen to it, you are still under an obligation to bring another animal in its place. In the case of a donation however, since the only obligation was that particular animal you had consecrated, its death or loss absolves the person of further responsibility. In the wave offering here, you see the breast and thigh being offered up to YHVH. We have stated previously the wave offerings were offered up and waved in all four directions and then up and down. This signifies that YHVH controls everything from the four corners of the earth, to everything above and below the earth. The breast portion is the area that houses the heart. The thigh represents your walk. Thus you are acknowledging that YHVH controls your life and your walk. If your heart stops, you're in trouble and here you are acknowledging that every beat of your heart is controlled by YHVH. In some offerings, the breast and shoulder were used for the wave offering, others, the breast and thigh. You'll notice that right in the middle of speaking about the offerings, the Scriptures go back into speaking of Moses anointing Aharon and his sons. You can clearly see by this, the Torah is not always written in chronological order. You just previously read about this same ordeal back in Exodus. Maybe it's because there was a priesthood chosen to serve YHVH back in those days and now it's repeating it again as a picture of the final leadership, the Messianics. It's a thought, right:? Notice Aharon and his sons were consecrated for seven days. Seven days, seven thousand years! In the next parasha, we'll get away from the animal sacrifices some (not totally) and explore a little about what should be going into your mouth as food. Oh no, don't tell me I can't have my pork chop or rib dinner:! Well you can have kosher beef ribs, does that ease the pain any:? We'll discuss that next time, see you then. Shalom
It was to be eaten in the Set Apart Place and only with unleavened bread. But when the priest themselves offer a grain offering, it was to be totally burnt up, they were not to partake of any portion of it. Notice there were time restrictions on consuming of some of the offerings. The peace offering could be eaten the same day, or the next day, but could not be eaten on the third day. If there were any left on the third day, it must be burned up. It then became an abomination to YHVH and the person who offered it had sinned. Also, you had to be in a clean spiritual state to eat of the offering. The fat was never to be eaten. You could use the fat of an animal that died on its own for other purposes, or was killed by some other means other than as a sacrifice, but it was not to be consumed. The blood also was never to be consumed. Why do you think the wicked people drink blood? They want to throw this commandment in YHVH'S face. I don't know about you, but I never liked eating the fat on a piece of meat anyway. As far as blood goes, I've always liked my meat very well done. If it was pink in the center at all, I couldn't eat it. I've turned down many pieces of standing rib roast at weddings, because the meat looked like with a little help the animal could've lived it was so rare:. An asham (guilt) offering, was the offering where a sheep was required. The sheep by the way was the only animal whose tail was placed on the altar. If you made a vow to bring a peace offering, then you chose the animal you wanted. This was different than a regular voluntary offering.
If the animal you chose in making a vow with had something happen to it, you are still under an obligation to bring another animal in its place. In the case of a donation however, since the only obligation was that particular animal you had consecrated, its death or loss absolves the person of further responsibility. In the wave offering here, you see the breast and thigh being offered up to YHVH. We have stated previously the wave offerings were offered up and waved in all four directions and then up and down. This signifies that YHVH controls everything from the four corners of the earth, to everything above and below the earth. The breast portion is the area that houses the heart. The thigh represents your walk. Thus you are acknowledging that YHVH controls your life and your walk. If your heart stops, you're in trouble and here you are acknowledging that every beat of your heart is controlled by YHVH. In some offerings, the breast and shoulder were used for the wave offering, others, the breast and thigh. You'll notice that right in the middle of speaking about the offerings, the Scriptures go back into speaking of Moses anointing Aharon and his sons. You can clearly see by this, the Torah is not always written in chronological order. You just previously read about this same ordeal back in Exodus. Maybe it's because there was a priesthood chosen to serve YHVH back in those days and now it's repeating it again as a picture of the final leadership, the Messianics. It's a thought, right:? Notice Aharon and his sons were consecrated for seven days. Seven days, seven thousand years! In the next parasha, we'll get away from the animal sacrifices some (not totally) and explore a little about what should be going into your mouth as food. Oh no, don't tell me I can't have my pork chop or rib dinner:! Well you can have kosher beef ribs, does that ease the pain any:? We'll discuss that next time, see you then. Shalom