Step Into Faith

Chapter Reflection

This chapter lingers over a peace offering, a gift brought willingly from herd or flock, male or female, all without blemish, and presented before the LORD. The worshiper lays a hand on the offering, and blood is sprinkled while the chosen fat and inner parts are given to the fire, rising as a sweet savor. There is a striking tenderness in the repetition: God receives not only what is offered, but the best and richest portions, as though the hidden life of the creature belongs first to Him. The peace offering does not picture distance but communion — a table of reconciliation where life is surrendered, consecrated, and made to ascend in beauty. Yet the chapter also guards holiness: blood is not common food, and what gives life is not to be treated lightly, for peace is only real when it remains ordered toward the Holy One.

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← Leviticus

Leviticus 3

1And if his oblation be a sacrifice of peace offering, if he offer it of the herd; whether it be a male or female, he shall offer it without blemish before the LORD.

2And he shall lay his hand upon the head of his offering, and kill it at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation: and Aaron’s sons the priests shall sprinkle the blood upon the altar round about.

3And he shall offer of the sacrifice of the peace offering an offering made by fire unto the LORD; the fat that covereth the inwards, and all the fat that is upon the inwards,

4And the two kidneys, and the fat that is on them, which is by the flanks, and the caul above the liver, with the kidneys, it shall he take away.

5And Aaron’s sons shall burn it on the altar upon the burnt sacrifice, which is upon the wood that is on the fire: it is an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the LORD.

6And if his offering for a sacrifice of peace offering unto the LORD be of the flock; male or female, he shall offer it without blemish.

7If he offer a lamb for his offering, then shall he offer it before the LORD.

8And he shall lay his hand upon the head of his offering, and kill it before the tabernacle of the congregation: and Aaron’s sons shall sprinkle the blood thereof round about upon the altar.

9And he shall offer of the sacrifice of the peace offering an offering made by fire unto the LORD; the fat thereof, and the whole rump, it shall he take off hard by the backbone; and the fat that covereth the inwards, and all the fat that is upon the inwards,

10And the two kidneys, and the fat that is upon them, which is by the flanks, and the caul above the liver, with the kidneys, it shall he take away.

11And the priest shall burn it upon the altar: it is the food of the offering made by fire unto the LORD.

12And if his offering be a goat, then he shall offer it before the LORD.

13And he shall lay his hand upon the head of it, and kill it before the tabernacle of the congregation: and the sons of Aaron shall sprinkle the blood thereof upon the altar round about.

14And he shall offer thereof his offering, even an offering made by fire unto the LORD; the fat that covereth the inwards, and all the fat that is upon the inwards,

15And the two kidneys, and the fat that is upon them, which is by the flanks, and the caul above the liver, with the kidneys, it shall he take away.

16And the priest shall burn them upon the altar: it is the food of the offering made by fire for a sweet savour: all the fat is the LORD’s.

17It shall be a perpetual statute for your generations throughout all your dwellings, that ye eat neither fat nor blood.

Who God is

What kind of God receives an offering as a sweet savor and still sets a boundary around the blood that belongs to life?

The condition of man

What does it show about you that your peace is not self-made, but must be offered, received, and sanctified before God?