Leviticus 7:22-38
Fat and Blood May Not Be Eaten
22 And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 23 “Speak to the children of Israel, saying: You shall not eat any fat, of ox or sheep or goat. 24 And the fat of an animal that dies naturally, and the fat of what is torn by wild beasts, may be used in any other way; but you shall by no means eat it. 25 For whoever eats the fat of the animal of which men offer an offering made by fire to the LORD, the person who eats it shall be cut off from his people. 26 Moreover you shall not eat any blood in any of your dwellings, whether of bird or beast. 27 Whoever eats any blood, that person shall be cut off from his people.’”
The Portion of Aaron and His Sons
28 Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 29 “Speak to the children of Israel, saying: He who offers the sacrifice of his peace offering to the LORD shall bring his offering to the LORD from the sacrifice of his peace offering. 30 His own hands shall bring the offerings made by fire to the LORD. The fat with the breast he shall bring, that the breast may be waved as a wave offering before the LORD. 31 And the priest shall burn the fat on the altar, but the breast shall be Aaron’s and his sons’. 32 Also the right thigh you shall give to the priest as a heave offering from the sacrifices of your peace offerings. 33 He among the sons of Aaron, who offers the blood of the peace offering and the fat, shall have the right thigh for his part. 34 For the breast of the wave offering and the thigh of the heave offering I have taken from the children of Israel, from the sacrifices of their peace offerings, and I have given them to Aaron the priest and to his sons from the children of Israel by a statute forever.’”
35 This is the consecrated portion for Aaron and his sons, from the offerings made by fire to the LORD, on the day when Moses presented them to minister to the LORD as priests. 36 The LORD commanded this to be given to them by the children of Israel, on the day that He anointed them, by a statute forever throughout their generations.
37 This is the law of the burnt offering, the grain offering, the sin offering, the trespass offering, the consecrations, and the sacrifice of the peace offering, 38 which the LORD commanded Moses on Mount Sinai, on the day when He commanded the children of Israel to offer their offerings to the LORD in the Wilderness of Sinai.
The offerings were to be given first to the LORD, then the remainder to the priests offering the sacrifices to be their food to sustain them. The exception was the fat and the lifeblood of the sacrificed animals. To eat the blood in which is the life (Genesis 9:4, Leviticus 17:10, 11) would separate the person eating it from the people of God. The life in the blood was to make atonement for the soul, the life, of the sinner who the sacrifice was killed to cover the sin as God did in the Garden (Genesis 3:21) as He killed the animals to cover the sin of Adam and Eve and as His Son would later do for us on the tree of sin’s curse (Galatians 3:13) inherited from Adam. This prohibition of animal blood is still in effect as we see in Acts 15:29, 21:25 as directed by the apostles for us. The priests then administered the animal and grain offerings with clear instructions and guidelines to bring thanksgiving and confession of sin to be covered with forgiveness in God’s grace seen until Jesus came to fulfill all things (Galatians 4:4) and cover our sin once and for all time, from here to eternity, as our perfect sacrificial Passover Lamb (Isaiah 53:7, 1 Corinthians 5:7) and sinless (Hebrews 4:15, 7:26-27, 2 Corinthians 5:21) High Priest! He alone is worthy to partake of all our offerings of praise and thanksgiving for His atoning mercy and grace to call us out of sin and into His righteousness. It is His lifeblood we have partaken of and remind ourselves of when we share the Lord’s Supper together with Him. May we approach that throne of grace holding nothing back because it is His will and promise to hear and forgive us when we sin. Our great High Priest ever lives (Hebrews 7:24-25) to intercede for us with our Father in heaven with forgiveness and mercy (Hebrews 8:12) on the altar of the cross!
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