Scripture Daily

Context No. 445 of 4322 · Leviticus

Context · Reflection

Leviticus 7:16-21: in context

16“‘But if the sacrifice of his offering is a vow, or a free will offering, it shall be eaten on the day that he offers his sacrifice. On the next day what remains of it shall be eaten, 17but what remains of the meat of the sacrifice on the third day shall be burned with fire. 18If any of the meat of the sacrifice of his peace offerings is eaten on the third day, it will not be accepted, and it shall not be credited to him who offers it. It will be an abomination, and the soul who eats any of it will bear his iniquity. 19“‘The meat that touches any unclean thing shall not be eaten. It shall be burned with fire. As for the meat, everyone who is clean may eat it; 20but the soul who eats of the meat of the sacrifice of peace offerings that belongs to the LORD, having his uncleanness on him, that soul shall be cut off from his people. 21When anyone touches any unclean thing, the uncleanness of man, or an unclean animal, or any unclean abomination, and eats some of the meat of the sacrifice of peace offerings which belong to the LORD, that soul shall be cut off from his people.’”

This is a rule about the peace offering, and to appreciate it you have to know that the peace offering was unique among the sacrifices: it was the one the worshiper actually got to eat. Most offerings went up entirely in smoke or went to the priests, but the peace offering, also called the fellowship offering, was a shared meal, a celebration eaten by the family and the community in the presence of God. It was the sacrifice of communion, of enjoying fellowship with God around a table.

And this passage lays down one firm rule about that meal: it has to be eaten fresh. A peace offering was to be eaten the day it was offered and, at most, the next day. Whatever was left by the third day had to be burned, and if anyone ate it on the third day, it would not be accepted, it would be counted as spoiled and detestable, and the offering would not be credited to the one who brought it. The fellowship meal could not be hoarded or stockpiled or lived off of. It was meant to be consumed in its season, in celebration and sharing, and then it was done. This echoes the manna in the wilderness, which bred worms when the people tried to save it overnight. Communion with God, the passage suggests, is a fresh and present thing, meant to be enjoyed and shared now, not preserved and rationed out later. Yesterday's fellowship does not keep.

That has a way of exposing how I often relate to God. It is tempting to live off a stale, hoarded past experience of him, an encounter or a season from years ago that once felt alive, and to keep trying to consume it as though it were still fresh. But the peace offering had to be eaten in its day. Am I trying to survive on old, stored-up experiences of God, treating a past encounter as something I can keep living off of, when the fellowship meal is meant to be fresh, present, shared, and enjoyed now, in its own season?

Sources