Context No. 2734 of 4322 · Leviticus

Leviticus 7:28-38: in context

28The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 29“Speak to the children of Israel, saying, ‘He who offers the sacrifice of his peace offerings to the LORD shall bring his offering to the LORD out of the sacrifice of his peace offerings. 30With his own hands he shall bring the offerings of the LORD made by fire. He shall bring the fat with the breast, that the breast may be waved for a wave offering before the LORD. 31The priest shall burn the fat on the altar, but the breast shall be Aaron’s and his sons’. 32The right thigh you shall give to the priest for a heave offering out of the sacrifices of your peace offerings. 33He among the sons of Aaron who offers the blood of the peace offerings, and the fat, shall have the right thigh for a portion. 34For the waved breast and the heaved thigh I have taken from the children of Israel out of the sacrifices of their peace offerings, and have given them to Aaron the priest and to his sons as their portion forever from the children of Israel.’” 35This is the consecrated portion of Aaron, and the consecrated portion of his sons, out of the offerings of the LORD made by fire, in the day when he presented them to minister to the LORD in the priest’s office; 36which the LORD commanded to be given them of the children of Israel, in the day that he anointed them. It is their portion forever throughout their generations. 37This is the law of the burnt offering, the meal offering, the sin offering, the trespass offering, the consecration, and the sacrifice of peace offerings 38which the LORD commanded Moses in Mount Sinai in the day that he commanded the children of Israel to offer their offerings to the LORD, in the wilderness of Sinai.

This is the law of the peace offering, and it settles a practical question: what does the priest get? The breast is lifted and waved before the Lord and then given to Aaron and his sons; the right thigh is set aside as their portion. The chapter ends by gathering up all the offerings the Lord commanded at Sinai into one summary.

At first it reads like butchery logistics, but there is a quiet dignity underneath. The priests own no farmland of their own. So God gives them a fixed, honorable share out of what the people bring to him, so that those who serve at the altar can actually live from the altar. Their provision is not an afterthought or a tip left to goodwill. It is written straight into the pattern of worship, a permanent portion, because the God who is served also sees to the ones who serve him.

Do I make sure those who serve me spiritually are provided for, or take their labor as if it costs them nothing?

Sources

Leviticus 7:34: "I have taken [the waved breast and the heaved thigh]... and have given them to Aaron the priest and to his sons as their portion forever."
Numbers 18:20: "I am your portion and your inheritance among the children of Israel."
1 Corinthians 9:14: "Even so the Lord ordained that those who proclaim the Good News should live from the Good News."