Come Dine With Me

How would you cope with four strangers coming to your home, eating food you have spent hours preparing, only to publicly rate your efforts as a cook? What might you feel as the door bell rings, your first guest has arrived, but the sauce has burned and the lamb needs 30 minutes more than you had allowed for!

I confess to enjoying cooking, most of the time, and over recent years have hosted ‘mens meals’ for a dozen or so neighbours. It’s been an interesting experience getting to know neighbours better and to provide an environment for them to interact. There has been a sense of growing community and the wives and girlfriends have sometimes wondered

out loud ‘why don’t we have something like this?’

Eating together is at the heart of relationship building; sometimes it is called ‘table fellowship’. To eat with people takes time; a meal holds people in close proximity, there can be laughter and joy but there is also the possibility for extreme tension.

Regular readers of my blogs will know that I aim to read the whole bible each year. The scheme I use has taken me so far this year (it’s mid April as I write) almost to the end of the book of Deuteronomy. The long wanderings of the the Israelites in the desert is almost at an end, Moses is about to die and Joshua as the new leader is set to take them into the ‘Promised Land’.

The story of Exodus to Deuteronomy has been one of learning and transformation for the Israelites. They have gone from a motley group of slaves to a nation. The tabernacle has been built, laws given and a challenge to remain faithful to God issued. At the centre of their community life was a system of offerings and sacrifices; and the themes introduced here echo through the rest of the bible.

My childhood experience of church was centred on people not buildings. The ‘assembly’ of which I was a part, had a hall in which to meet but no-one would have thought about calling that building a ‘church’. As a community, the assembly was an extended family of ‘uncles and aunts’. Old Testament stories that I heard were an important part of understanding the New Testament and were portrayed as ‘types’ (pictures) of things to come. Visiting preachers would occasionally bring a model of ‘the tabernacle” and use it as a visual aid.

However I don’t remember anyone ever exploring the ‘meal’ aspects of Jewish sacrifices. They just seemed to be glossed over or ignored but, communion with God (table fellowship) seems to run right through the bible from Genesis to Revelation; from Adam and Eve’s conversations in the cool of the day to Jesus standing at the door as depicted by William Holman Hunt in his famous painting ‘The Light of the World’. God’s invitation, “I’m here, let’s eat”, seems ever present.

One of the big contrasts between the ‘epics’ of other ancient near eastern peoples and the Genesis story, is that in them humans are created to ‘feed the gods’ whereas in Genesis God is providing for his creation. The biblical bookends might be describes as God calling “where are you?” Gen 3:9 and Jesus saying “Behold I stand at the door and knock…” Rev 3:20. Between the two we find details of the Jewish sacrificial system, the Passover and the Day of Atonement in the Old Testament followed by enigmatic words from Jesus about eating his flesh and drinking his blood; plus reflections from the apostles Peter and Paul, and the writer to Hebrews on sacrifice and priesthood.

In the New Testament, Jesus is pictured as ‘the High Priest’ and the sacrifice; it goes on to say his blood is better than that of bulls and goats (Hebrews 9 11-14). How do I begin to make sense of the topic of sacrifice?

My aim is simple and I trust helpful, assuming I manage to hit the target. It is to begin to set the sacrifices in the context of relationship with God; to ask for myself “what can I learn from these strange rituals, and how the New Testament comments on them, in a way that will help me live as a disciple of Jesus? My prayer is that some of ‘my learning’ will help your learning and as a consequence your living.

First a little background and some observations:

  • The words ‘sacrifice’ and ‘offering’ are at times used interchangeably but they have potentially very different meanings, and ‘offering’ is much broader than sacrifice.

    • Offering comes from a Latin root which means ‘to present’ whereas

    • Sacrifice comes from a Latin root which means ‘to make holy’

  • In the context of the offerings in Leviticus ‘sacrifice’ is only used in the context of the peace (fellowship) offering.

  • In the Old Testament one often comes across the concepts of

    • ‘Holy’ versus ‘common’ and

    • ‘Clean’ versus ‘unclean’.

    • ‘Uncleanness’ is contagious but ‘cleanness’ is not.

The strict definitions one finds in Leviticus and other parts of the Old Testament can seem very strange to people living in 21st Century Western culture. Why couldn’t the Israelites eat a bacon sandwich and why was working seven days a week such a big sin? However these simple questions don’t begin to scratch the surface of the regulations which at times, as with the vow of the Nazarite, seem to have a ‘snakes and ladders’ feel to them. (Read Numbers 6:1-21 and imagine having to start your period of self denial again because someone drops dead in a room where you happen to be!)

Offerings were the ritual way for Israel to deal with uncleanness. The ‘camp’ needed to be ‘clean’ because God walked in it (Deuteronomy 23:14) and He needed to feel at home. The making of offerings, however, was not a ‘going through the motions’. As one reads through the bible it is clear that the process is intended to be an outward expression of what is in the heart of an individual and the community. Around 700 years after Moses, the prophet Isaiah, reflecting on God’s behalf says, “These people come near me with their mouth and honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me”.In between Moses and Isaiah, King David, while meditating on God, declares in Psalm 40 “sacrifices and meal offerings You have not desired”. David knew, as the prophet Samuel said, when challenging King Saul “Has the Lord as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord?”King David understood that there was something much deeper than the simple performance of rituals.

As a rule we, in the Western world, live very sanitised lives. Food and drink come from the local supermarket and except maybe for a few enthusiasts, the closest we get to food production is an occasional visit to an open farm when on holiday. I don’t milk or feed cows or goats, I don’t feed pigs and I certainly don’t slaughter the animals I eat – but not so the people of Israel.

If you have not done so recently, please let me encourage you to read Leviticus chapters 1-7, they give the details of what is to be offered by various types of people for various reasons, and how it was to be done. In those chapters you will find five different kinds of offerings which provided the Israelites with a means of approaching the Lord. They were instructed to make their offerings at the tabernacle – the place where God’s presence could be seen in the pillar of cloud. The effect of their offerings was maintaining His presence by preserving the purity of sanctuary.

Before I start to look at each type of offering it will be worth thinking about possible concepts behind offering and sacrifice (Different writers treat the theories in slightly different ways but with some overlap. I only have space in this blog for a very brief summary but a helpful article can be found at https://www.biblicaltraining.org/library/sacrifice-and-offerings :

Overview of concepts of offering and sacrifice

  • Gift – The Old Testament and the ancient world has many examples of people giving gifts as a means of approaching a ruler or someone stronger. It could be a means, for example, of expressing homage or seeking favour

  • Communion – reflects the primary concern of ‘right relationship’ that is being at peace. In the Old Testament system the peace offering was one where everyone in the community, who was clean, could eat the meat of the sacrifice.

  • Consecration – there is a sense in which each offering was consecrated to the Lord, but by the person making the offering laying their hands on the head of the animal, they were identifying themselves with it. They were consecrating it to the Lord for the purpose for which the offering was being presented.

There was one thing that was common to all the animal sacrifices and that was the worshipper killed it himself. The priest arranged, on the altar, what was to be burnt and that varied according to the type of offering, but it was the worshipper who not only killed the animal, skinned it, washed its legs but also cut it up. There was no escape from the ultimate reality of what was happening.

The five different types of offering had their own formula and some varied as to who was making the offering and how the blood was used:

  • Burnt offering – the whole animal was burnt up. It was said to make atonement. The question then arises how is it that God and the worshipper are ‘at one’? There are different understandings of the mean of the Hebrew word ‘kipper’. Some argue it means ‘to cover’ others ‘to ransom’ but the basic meaning seems to be ‘to purge’, that is ‘wipe clean’ or cleanse1. There is a totality about the burnt offing as it is all consumed. All of me is in God’s hands, just as the animal, in this instance is a gift to God, so am I. To pick up a tangential thought for a moment, Jesus uses the concept of cleansing/ purging in John 15. He talks about the Father cleansing the vine and then says to the disciples “you are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you”. Abiding in Christ is to be at one with him. Having a close relationship with God means understanding his heart and reflecting his character to the world around. The result is answers to prayer John 15:16. There is a sense in which the burnt offering can be seen as saying ‘Lord pay attention to my prayer.’2

  • Grain offering – each of the animal offerings was accompanied by a grain offering (and drink offering) but there was also an offering of just grain without an animal (Lev ch 2). This is perhaps the most difficult offering to understand but I want to highlight four things

    • Only a handful was to be offered by fire with all of the incense included. This is called a memorial portion. It was to be a ‘reminder’ but it is not clear if it was to be a reminder to the Lord of the person or to the person of the Lord. As family we have always said ‘grace’ before meals. It has and does serve as a reminder to us as to the source of all we have. What things do you use as a reminder of who God is and what he has done for you?

    • The grain provided part of the food allocation for the priests, it is described as ‘most holy’. I made the point in my last blog that I have come to see being ‘holy’ as being a source of life. Here we see grain and by implication bread being given to the priests, it was part of their core income. Those that, in picture today, serve ‘at the altar’ are dependent on the rest of the worshipping community for their income.

    • There should be no yeast in the grain offering. The bread of life cannot be ‘polluted’ in any way. How we live affects others, we do not live just to ourselves.

    • Finally the ‘salt of the covenant’ should be added. I looked at the difference between contract and covenant in a previous blog. The reminder here is that there is a two way commitment to work for good not just a personal protection of my interests.

  • Peace (fellowship) offering – in many churches I suspect that the Old Testament offerings appear little in the sermon topics that are addressed but maybe the ‘fellowship’ offering gets least attention but it figures in some significant and interesting stories which are worth highlighting even if I don’t have the space to examine them in detail.

    • The fellowship offering is the only one where ordinary Israelites ate some of the animal being offered. Special parts of the sacrifice were given to the priests but it was an offering where ‘communion’ (fellowship) between God and his people and between people was celebrated. It was also the type of sacrifice used as part of the offerings at the end of the vow of a Nazarite.

    • It would appear that the Passover was a special ‘fellowship offering’ given that the meat was to be eaten by ordinary people.

    • One of the earliest references in the Old Testament to peace offerings emphasises the sense of ‘communion’ Ex 24:9 says …and they saw God, and they ate and drank

    • The prophet, Samuel anoints Saul as the first King of Israel after they have had a sacrifice at a ‘high place’ see 1 Samuel ch 9 and the anointing of David as king is also in the context of a fellowship offering described in 1 Samuel 16.

    • In summary, the sacrifice3, of a fellowship offering is connected in scripture with being set apart to God, deliverance, communion and tangentially to leadership.

  • Sin (Purification) offering – the meaning of the word that is translated Sin or Purification in the passage that describes this particular set of offerings (Leviticus 4:1 – 5:1) is problematic.4 The concept could be ‘penalty’ for sin or it could be to ‘de-sin’, that is to purify. In some instances the sin offering relates to moral offences but in others to ritual uncleanness such as touching a corpse.5

    • The important thing that I want to note is that the effect of an action (committing an offence of some sort) on the community, seems to be in proportion to the role that the person concerned plays in the community. This is seen in the size (cost) of the offering that the offender is to present. The anointed priest is to offer a bull6, as must the congregation as a whole if the offence is corporate; but a leader of the people is to offer a male goat and an ordinary person a female goat7. The place where the blood of the offering is sprinkled also changes indicating that the uncleanness may have penetrated further into ‘where God lives’ in the case of the offences of the priest and the community. The challenge here is for me to be aware of the way in which my actions can help or hinder the relationship other people have with God.

    • The meat from this type of sacrifice is not eaten when it is a bull offered by the priest or the community but is burned outside the camp.8 However it appears from Lev 6:26 that where the offering is on behalf of a leader or a common person the officiating priest must eat the meat in a holy place in the tent of meeting.

    • As 21st Century believers we are at such a distance from the events described it is difficult to understand what all of these practises would have meant to the nomadic congregation to whom the instructions were given. However in both the concept of penalty and purification the concern was to make sure that God was able to dwell in the midst of His people.

  • Guilt (Reparation) Offering is described in Leviticus chapters 5 and 7. One of the big questions is ‘what is the difference between the sin offering and the guilt offering?’ A number of opinions have been given9 but a detailed discussion is outside the scope of this blog.

    • As mentioned above, the concepts of ‘clean and unclean’ together with ‘holy and common’ were central to the thinking of the Israelite community. The idea of desecration of holy things may be at the heart of the guilt offering. Leviticus 22:10-16 gives a helpful clue as to what this type of offering is about when it talks about food intended for the family of a priest being eaten by ordinary people and thereby desecrated. The desecration results in a fine and restitution needing to be made.

      The principle then is about the need to take special care of what is offered to God, including the income and therefore the well being of those who dedicate all their time to God’s service.

In summary then, the rules and regulations for the life of the Israelite community seem complex to those of us who live in the 21st Century but at their heart God is saying “I want to be with you, don’t keep me away”. And although they appear strange, they provided a way for this new nation, being formed under Moses, to demonstrate the character of the Lord of heaven and earth, to the nations around them.

The goodness of God is well captured by King David, when he says in Ps 23:5 “You prepare a table before me…”

The sacrifices of the temple and tabernacle may have ceased but God’s invitation ‘Come and dine’is still being offered to anyone who will respond. The eating today is done metaphorically by trusting that God is who he says he is!

Jesus said to Philip in John 14:9 “The one who has seen me has seen the Father…” The God who instituted the sacrifices of the Old Testament has now clearly shown who he is in the life and sacrifice of Jesus.

1IVP Dictionary of the Old Testament – Pentateuch p710

2IVP Dictionary of the Old Testament – Pentateuch p712 2.1.3.

3Sacrifice means to make holy

4IVP Dictionary of the Old Testament – Pentateuch p717 2.4.

5Lev 5:2-3

6Lev 4:3

7Lev 4:28

8Lev 4;11-12 & 20-21

9VP Dictionary of the Old Testament – Pentateuch p720 2.5.

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