Leviticus 3:6-11
EXPLANATION OF TEXT:
This text deals with the “feast peace-offering from the flock…to HASHEM” (STONE). There are descriptions of this offering that apply in a special way to the Gospel doctrines of purity and consecration. Among those descriptions from this text our devotion today emphasizes:
ACTIONS OF THE PERSON MAKING THE OFFERING:
Brings his sacrifice before YHVH;
Presses his hands upon the head of the sacrifice;
Slaughters the sacrifice “before the Tent of Meeting^”
[^Heb., LIFNEI OHEL MOED]
ACTIONS OF THE PRIESTS (THE SONS OF AARON):
Splash the sacrifice’s blood upon the Altar all around;
Certain parts of the animal are to be removed and burnt on the Altar (caused to go up in smoke);
The choicest parts of the animal are to be offered as a fire offering to YHVH (caused to go up in smoke as “food of the fire—for YHVH”)
LET US CONSIDER:
GOD IS “A CONSUMING FIRE”:
When the Lord Jesus said in John 4:24 “God is a spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth” he revealed the nature of God’s essence as DIVINE SPIRIT. We see this in terms of DIVINE FIRE in various places in the Bible such as God’s descent on Mount Sinai in blazing fire. The reality of God manifesting Himself in the creation as Fire can also be seen by the fact that, according to Jewish tradition, the perpetual Fire on the altar burned in the shape of a Lion for over a century, and that fire that consumed the sacrifices never melted the altar’s brass covering nor the acacia wood from which the altar was made. It was a Divine Fire like the Divine Fire that did not destroy the burning bush in Exodus 3:2 where the scripture says, “And the angel of the LORD appeared to [Moses] in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.” Yet in Hebrews 12:28-29 we read, “Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: For our God is a consuming fire.”
So then: for us who are in Messiah, our “living sacrifice” (Romans 12:1-2) is a consecrated body, soul and spirit^ offered up to God upon the Altar of our Hearts in union with the Cross of our Lord. Our sacrifice is made holy and acceptable by the working of the Holy Spirit who through faith imparts to us the holiness of Jesus. In practice, we perform our sacrifice through prayer, worship, and godly service.
[^ 1 Thessalonians 5:23]
Remember that on the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2, the Holy Spirit descended on the waiting disciples in Divided Flames of Fire just as tradition tells us that on the Day when God Descended on Mount Sinai fifty days after the Exodus (“Pentecost”), he spoke the Ten Commandments in letters of visible fire.
Fire is a symbol of Spirit in the Bible.
PERSONAL APPLICATIONS:
We should make our offerings to God acceptably. That includes personally appearing before the LORD in the various ways that he affords to us. Those ways include the privilege of private prayer offered in the Name of Jesus to whom God has assigned oversight of Humanity. When you call upon the Name of the LORD at any time or any place, you are directing your inner man toward God and he hears you when you come to him in the Name of his Son.
Some of our sacrifices are to be conducted as a corporate body when we assemble in the Name of the Lord for consecrated worship. That is why we are exhorted in Hebrews 10:25 to not forsake the assembling of ourselves together, and so much the more as we see the the Day of our Lord’s return approaching. For where two or three of us are gathered together in the Name of Jesus, there He is in the midst of us.* The Fire of His Presence burns intensely within us as we worship together in the unity of the Holy Spirit. All of us have experienced this, and all of us know the truth of this.
[*Matthew 18:20]
We are speaking of the doctrine of the Father and the Son. Our offering is acceptable because of the atonement in the Blood of our Savior. It is the blood of the sacrifice of God’s Son which has been applied to the Altar of our consecrated hearts that provides Life to the believers.
Let there be intensity in your offering. Let the fire of the Holy Spirit burn within you to consume away that which is to be removed. And let the Holy Spirit make the “food” parts of your consecration to be a “sweet smelling savor” unto the Lord as you offer up your life to Him in the fire and smoke of pure devotion.
