SACRIFICES AND OFFERINGS

In Leviticus, we see God giving Moses explicit details on how various sacrifices are to be made. In Chapter 7, verses 7-8, the Guilt Offering is described (The reasons for giving a guilt offering were provided earlier in Leviticus.), and in verses 11-21 various fellowship (or peace, depending on your translation) offerings are described. God has very specific ideas as to what and how offerings should be made to him – we see this way back in Genesis, in the story of Cain and Abel.

We see that anything offered to God becomes holy, or in the case of the guilt offering, “most holy”. This means they have become God’s and must be treated in a specific way. The sacrificed meat or bread, if eaten, must be eaten in a specific place, by specific persons, within a specific time period – or burned up completely.

I believe there is a parallel for those of us who have put our trust in Christ as our Savior. Through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, we have been made holy – we have offered ourselves to God and belong to Him. We cannot do with ourselves just whatever we please. If we live by God’s ways, the Lord will be pleased, if we do not, He will not. We will still be forgiven, because of Jesus’s sacrifice, but isn’t it better to live a life pleasing to God rather than one that is not?