Leviticus 6:8-9:24
We are in The World Stream reading from the New King James Version this week.
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Commentary by Dr. Drake Travis
God Your will is for us to truly see and know you and walk with you and experience your glory and love. Help us to this place, Lord God. Amen
6 – the rules for the garments and the eternal fire are part of God’s thinking that kept a rich sense of significance in this particular ritual within Judaism. The changing of the outfit and keeping a particular outfit for this phase, another for another phase was meaningful. We have certain outfits for certain tasks – do we not? An outfit for yardwork, a different one for cooking in, a different one for painting in, for church, for hiking, for formal dining. You don’t wear a tuxedo to a baseball game, You don’t go to church in swimwear. I wouldn’t eat at a restaurant where the entire staff wore painter’s overalls and everyone working there smelled like oil-based-primer. You wouldn’t either. Outfits need to be right and all of us feel this way. Now what if God guffawed this matter and just smirked at us while bellowing, “outfits? for church? for worship? for Temple? awww, who cares? wear whatever! I guess…?!” We wouldn’t take God seriously if he was as sloppy about this as a dopey clown. And the fire was always lit because God was “always in”
The Grain and the Sin Offering were initially laid forth in chapter 2 and 4 respectively. God has us learning things incrementally and over time because hardly anyone hears an elaborate task once and then retains is responsively for life. These were what people produced and having portions of the produce set aside for God kept people’s minds on God and what the requirements were for being in fellowship with him.
7 – Notice that this Trespass Offering is most holy to the Lord. And it was required that the fat was required to be burned upon the fire. Fat makes for some rather volatile fuel for the fire that burned with extra heat and crackle. It can be almost as flammable as kerosene or diesel fuel. In fact there is research in process that could in time have certain cars burning fat as their fuel. We can be sure that these Trespass Offerings had everyone’s attention! The Peace Offering was for a thanksgiving offering or voluntary. The rules varied. The issue of timing and consumption on 1st/2nd/3rd day was very strict. God did not want people neglecting these matters, getting an attitude of nonchalance, and also these meats sitting around for days get flies, then maggots and must not be eaten. The blood and fat were not to be ingested. It was not healthy. Fat is used and overused by people who eat too much and/or eat too much of the wrong things. And for blood – it was red and red gets people’s attention. [God used the blood of His Son to get our attention!] And judging by he fact that ingesting blood by eating it cooked or drinking it ‘raw’ is a ritual that most all Satanic cults engage in, God wants all of us to have absolutely nothing to do with any of this or even anything that even remotely resembles this. The Bible states in Lev. 17:11 that “the life is in the blood”. God gives us life and our blood carries this life. Red is an arresting color – it’s all very intriguing. And yet we are to look to God for our answers in life and let Him save us His way. Trying to save ourselves our way leads to wrong thinking and we go amiss quickly. Drinking blood is cultic and wrong and God said it and that settles it for us. The portion offered for the priest; Aaron and sons (and their families) was for them to live on. They were about God’s business all day, each day and this is how they subsisted.
8 – Everything that was instituted for the sacrifices was executed here. We read through all these steps and procedures and here they are commenced upon. The dressing up of the sons of Aaron and Aaron himself for worship had to be rather impressive. These were the garments that were explained in Exodus 28. The gems and colors and layers and the beauty of it was something we do not see these days. The 12 stones representing the 12 tribes and other vestments attached with gold chains testified to the significance of all this. Think of being there for worship, the red sprinkled down the altar, fat on the fire crackling without exploding, the heat and the phases of it all. It’s a stark contrast to so many who attend church but are not “all there” mentally or spiritually because of distraction from anything: hand-held devices or fatigue from being up too late the night before or boredom because church is slumped too far from the biblical model of what church is to be. No one was asleep at these gatherings. Not when they are so significant and there is smoke and fire and the like .At any rate, the steps that were laid out by Moses were all gone through here on this day – in Lev. 8
9 – The ministry began before the people. The rituals sounded very similar as they were laid out in prior chapters and executed as such. Yet this time the people were witnessing it. Moses asserted, “This is the thing that the Lord commanded you to do, and the Lord will appear to you.” So all the offerings were given and made before the Lord. The people were then blessed by Moses and Aaron. And then it happened – The Lord appeared gloriously, and fire came out as God did this to burn up the offering and the fat. What a sight!! The people shouted and fell on their faces in worship. Think of this – if there was something God asked of you to do and stipulated that once this was done, He would then visibly appear to you in an impressive manner that had you wither to the floor overwhelmed and unable to stand you were so moved by the hand of God. Would you do this or just shrug and keep checking you ‘in-box” or browsing the web? God help us see what He is showing us.