Leviticus Lesson #05

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Leviticus

September 21, 2015

Introduction

May 13, 2010

Leviticus Lesson #02

May 13, 2010

RETURN TO SYLLABUS

LEVITICUS 7:11-38
Lesson #05
THE LAW OF THE PEACE OFFERING (Fellowship of Believers)

• Memory Verse: Heb 13:15

• As we have already seen, “the law of the offerings” was a special instruction for the priest. God gives these special instructions along with the description of the offering.
• Jesus Christ is not only our sacrifice but He is also our High Priest during this age of grace.
• Read Heb 8:3-5
• All the sacrifices point to Jesus Christ in some way.
• All the details of the tabernacle and later the temple where these sacrifices were done, are representative of spiritual truths.
• Read Heb 10:5-12
• All scripture points to Jesus Christ, the solution for the sin problem.
• All the sacrifices according to Old Testament law ceased with Jesus Christ, the final sacrifice.
• Read Eph 3:9
• The peace offering represents the fellowship of believers.
• Paul called fellowship a mystery. This is something that was not revealed until the New Testament.
• We see clues to this mystery in the Peace Offering.
• In the peace offering that we studied in our last lesson of Lev 3, we saw that the meaning of the peace offering was to be the model for man obtaining fellowship with God in order to obtain fellowship with other people.
• There is nothing as beautiful as the fellowship that believers have with each other. It makes no difference whether they know each other or not.
• True fellowship is based on some common aspects:
• The common element of the presence of the Holy Spirit in each believer.
• The common element of the forgiveness of sin through Jesus Christ.
• The common element that every believer belongs to Jesus Christ.
• The common element of a new perspective of life based on the things of God.
• The law of the peace offering in Lev 7 is the most detailed of all the laws of the offerings. Why?
• Fellowship among believers is very intricate and subject to man’s capricious nature.
• Therefore, God must make provision for man’s failures. That provision was in the law of the peace offering.

• Read Lev 7:11-21 Law for priests concerning the Peace Offering
• True fellowship depends on a proper attitude
• The peace offering must be voluntary and done with a spirit of thanksgiving to God for what He has done for man.
• Read Psa 116:17
• If there is no thanksgiving, fellowship is not centered in Christ but in man.
• The unity of fellowship puts Christ at the center.
• Worship and fellowship include thanksgiving to God for what He has done in the past.
• The objects and their significance:

The Object	The Representation	The Significance	Scriptures
Unleavened cakes of fine flour	Leaven represents evil or sin. Cake represents the joy of belonging in fellowship. Fine flour is the purity of Jesus Christ without sin.	The believer in Jesus Christ first belongs to the sinless Christ, the basis of Christian fellowship. The believer has the joy of partaking of the righteousness of Christ that gives him the wedding garment of fellowship.	Joh 3:29 Mat 22:11-14
Mingled with oil	Oil is olive oil that represents the Holy Spirit	The Holy Spirit facilitates unity in the body of Christ to promote perfect fellowship.	1Sam 16:13
Leavened bread	Leaven represents evil or sin.	While the unleavened represents Christ’s part in fellowship. The leaven represents man’s part of fellowship subject to sin and evil.	1Cor 1:9 2Cor 6:14 1Joh 1:6-7 Psa 94:20

• The heave offering and the wave offering (14)
• The heave offering was not a separate sacrifice.
• Rather, it was the form or the way a sacrifice was done.
• The offering was lifted up toward heaven.
• The significance illustrates man’s attitude in giving offerings to God.
• It was to designate man’s openness to God for God knows man’s heart and motives.
• Read Psa 139:23-24
• The believer must come to God with openness to the conviction of sin by the Holy Spirit.
• The believer must come to God in fellowship knowing that his sin is forgiven.
• The believer must come to God in thanksgiving because God made fellowship possible for man through Jesus Christ.
• The wave offering (34)
• The same is true of the wave offering. It was not a separate sacrifice, but the way the sacrifice was presented to God.
• The offering was waved before God with hands lifted up.
• The significance illustrates man’s attitude of joy in the peace that man has with God and with fellow believers.
• The shoulder of the sacrifice was heaved up to God because the shoulder represents authority that God gives to man, and man is responsible to God to use that authority in wisdom.
• The breast of the sacrifice was waved before God because the breast represents God’s love expressed to man, and the joy that love brings to man’s heart makes him want to lift up his hands and rejoice before God.
• The peace offering was to be eaten immediately. (15)
• The believer must stay close to Christ to live in the peace of God’s fellowship.
• If the believer does not stay close to Christ in prayer and confession of sin, temptation and un-confessed sin cause a distance between man and God to destroy peace and fellowship.
• Remember that sin separates man from God.
• After two days, the peace offering was corrupted and must be burned.
• The believer that lets too much time pass before he confesses his sin to restore his relationship with God will find that he is cut off from true fellowship with God.
• He loses his peace.
• He loses his joy.
• However, the believer can always get back to close fellowship with God.
• Read 1Joh 1:3-10
• The vow (16)
• If a person made a vow to the Lord to bring an animal sacrifice, he must complete his vow to God by bringing a peace offering.
• The animal brought to fulfill a vow did not have to be a perfect animal without blemish. (Lev 22:23)
• An abomination (18-21)
• The word abomination means = unacceptable; an object of extreme dissatisfaction, defilement or pollution.
• An unclean person that ate of the peace offering was an abomination to God.
• An unclean person that touched the peace offering made the peace offering an abomination to God.
• The unclean person is a non-believer who has not dealt with his sin in the manner that God designated.
• God designated that man deal with the sin problem through these offerings that pointed to Jesus Christ.
• The unclean abomination must be separated from the rest of the congregation because sin is corruptible and contagious..
• The phrase, “…cut off from his people…” (20)
• Sometimes the unclean person was ex-communicated for a specific time period and had to live outside of the camp.(Lev 15)
• Sometimes for the Old Testament Jew, it frequently meant death. (Exo 31:14)
• The significance is that uncleanness of sin separates the unbeliever from God for eternity.
• Eternal separation from God is the second death.
• Read Rev 20:6
• For the New Testament believer in Jesus Christ he is saved from the second death.
• Read Lev 7:22-38
• Food restrictions:
• In the Law of Moses we see many food restrictions that God gave to the Israelites.
• God’s purpose for these restrictions fall into three separate categories:
• =1= God’s care for the physical health of his people.
• For example, verse 24 says that they should not eat animals that died by natural means or were killed by other animals. Why?
• The unknown source or timing of the death of an animal means that any type of disease that caused the death of an animal could be transmitted to the people if eaten.
• =2= God’s concern to keep His people separate from the practices of pagan religions.
• For example, verse 26 forbids the drinking of blood.
• Many cult religions and even Satanic religions today take part in the drinking of blood as part of their practice of worship.
• =3= God’s intention to demonstrate a spiritual truth through a physical symbol or practice.
• For example, verse 23 forbids the eating of the fat of these specific animals.
• God considered the fat the part that belonged to God. Therefore, they were to demonstrate the spiritual truth that you give God the best and what He desires.
• Some of these food restrictions have more than one of these three purposes or can be a combination of two or three of them.
• For example, we have seen that God forbade the drinking of blood because pagan religions practiced it.
• But it also represents a spiritual truth that the life of the flesh is in the blood which points to the truth that spiritual eternal life is in the blood of Jesus Christ.

HOMEWORK
Leviticus 4:1-12
This is a self-study. Please do not send homework answers to the teacher for correction.

• Application of Lev 7
• Are you constant in your close relationship with the Lord?
• Do you periodically ask God for forgiveness of sin?
• Do you rejoice in giving thanks to God for the peace of forgiveness and fellowship?

• Preparation for Lev 4:1-12
• Read Lev 4:1-12 The Sin Offering
• What is the basic nature of man, good or evil? How do you know?
• Why do you think the blood was poured at the foot of the altar of burnt offering?
• Why do you think the remainder of this offering was taken outside of the camp and burned?

Memory Verse: Psa 19:12