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Leviticus chapter 7 verses 22
through 38, these are God's words. And Yahweh spoke to Moses saying,
speak to the children of Israel saying, you shall not eat any
fat of ox or sheep or goat, and the fat of an animal that dies
naturally and the fat of what is torn by wild beasts may be
used in any other way, but you shall by no means eat it. Whoever
eats the fat of the animal of which men offer an offering made
by fire to Yahweh, The person who eats it shall be cut off
from his people. Wherever you shall not eat any
blood in any of your dwellings, whether a bird or beast, whoever
eats any blood, that person shall be cut off from his people. Then
Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel,
saying, He who offers the sacrifice of his peace offering to Yahweh
shall bring his offering to Yahweh from the sacrifice of his peace
offering. His own hands shall bring the
offerings made by fire to Yahweh. The fat with the breast he shall
bring, that the breast may be waved as a wave offering before
Yahweh. And the priest shall burn the
fat on the altar But the breast shall be Aaron's and his son's. Also the right thigh you shall
give to the priest as a heave offering from the sacrifices
of your peace offerings. He among the sons of Aaron who
offers the blood of the peace offering and the fat shall have
the right thigh for his part. To the breast of the way of offering
and the thigh of the heave offering I have taken from the children
of Israel from the sacrifices of their peace offerings, and
I have given them to Aaron the priest and to his sons from the
children of Israel by a statute forever. This is the consecrated
portion for Aaron and his sons from the offerings made by fire
to Yahweh on the day when Moses presented them to minister to
Yahweh as priests. Yahweh commanded this to be given
to them by the children of Israel on the day that He anointed them
by a statute forever throughout their generations. This is the
law of the burnt offering, the grain offering, the sin offering,
the trespass offering, the consecrations, and the sacrifice of the peace
offering. which Yahweh commanded Moses
on Mount Sinai on the day when he commanded the children of
Israel to offer their offerings to Yahweh in the wilderness of
Sinai. So far the reading of God's inspired
and inerrant word. may feel like we've been sprinting
through Leviticus. It may feel to you like we've
been going quite slowly. I'm not sure how it feels, but
so far we've just had really three main sections. The first
main section containing the ascension and the tribute and the peace.
And you remember that as we went along We pointed out that the
word offering wasn't actually in those things, it's the ascension,
the tribute and the peace, the way by which God brings us near
to himself a substitute. And then in order that we might
be able to come by way of the ascension and the tribute and
the peace, We heard from chapter 4 through chapter 6 and verse
7 about the atonement and the trespass, or sorry, the sin and
the trespass. Those things for which the priest
was to make atonement, and that wonderful statement, while the
priest is the one who makes the atonement, it shall be forgiven
him. the divine passive there. God,
not the priest, is the one who does the forgiving." And in those
two sections, the instruction had been for Moses to speak to
the children of Israel. Then last week, from chapter
6 verse 8 through chapter 7 verse 21, we noticed that he went from
telling Moses to speak to the children of Israel to telling
Moses to speak to Aaron and his sons. And he gave them instruction
that was for the carrying out of the various sacrifices, but
he especially highlighted to them what their portions were.
That as they were the ones who kept, in particular, the Ascension
burning all the time, the Lord displaying by fire and smoke
to his people right outside in the tabernacle complex in the
midst of the people, that the way is always open to him, that
those whom he had given such a duty and such a privilege,
he had given a portion, especially from the sin and trespass offerings. And one of the main themes then
that we saw in each part and now is concluding again in this
third part, and really this is the conclusion to all three.
As he turns again, you see in verse 22 and 23, in verse 28
to 29, one of the main themes has been what is reserved for
the Lord. The first section ended commanding
that No fat or blood should be eaten. The fat parts were not
to be eaten and blood was not to be eaten. It is reserved for
the Lord. And here again, we have that
warning, that prohibition in verses 22 through 27. In fact, this is reserved for the Lord
in a very serious manner. And then in the middle of our
passage today, we see what is reserved for the Lord's priest
in verses 28 through 29. well really through 36, but 34
and 35 and 36 all being kind of increasing summary statements. And then we see the identification
of this day as a day that is bringing to a conclusion and
we'll actually see the anointing and the consecration of the priests
in chapter 8, but this is bringing to a conclusion God's great work
to his people among his people at Sinai. So first we see that
which is reserved from the Lord, and we see that it's both a consecrated
reminder and a constant reminder. It is first a consecrated reminder
that the fat parts we know belong to the Lord, that is the Lord's
portion. And so he repeats, you shall
not eat any fat of ox or sheep or goat. Even if the animal dies
naturally or is torn by wild beasts, they were not to eat
the fat parts. And the fatty lobe attached to
the liver and the fat that was on the kidneys. And you remember
the various fat parts that were reserved for the Lord. These
were to be burned to go up as a soothing aroma to the Lord
if it was in the peace offering, then the flesh would be for the
people and for the worshiper. We'll get to that in a moment.
But you remember in the sin offering and the trespass offering, it
was especially for the priest. But the fact was lords and blood
also. was a reminder that the Lord
gave life of the creature to be in its blood and that when
the people were substituted in this hand-leaning ceremony, that
God would take their life that had been atoned for by blood
and that God would apply their life to those things that represented
him, taking that which represents them and that which represents
him and bringing them together. communicating to them that he
was bringing them near. But the fat parts then were a
consecrated reminder and so holy were these fat parts that sinning,
whether against the eating of the fat part or the eating of
the blood, was grounds for excommunication. Some people think perhaps even
execution, but verse 25 and 27 mean at the very least excommunication. Whoever eats of the fat of an
animal of which men offer an offering made by fire to Yahweh,
the person who eats it shall be cut off from his people. Whoever
eats any blood, that person shall be cut off from his people."
To eat of the fat part, to treat it as if it were a common thing
instead of a consecrated thing, would be to take lightly the
glory, the grace that the Lord had made a way for bringing his
people near. And so the penalty for taking
lightly or making light of the way that God had given for bringing
his people near was to take away the privilege of being among
the holy people whom he had brought near. It's a consecrated reminder. And then it would also be a constant
reminder. As we've already mentioned, even
when it was not offered to God, the fat parts of the ox or the
sheep or the goat were still so reserved from the people that
they weren't permitted to eat in it. So that means, children,
I know you don't get to see ox or goat or sheep That often,
in fact, has been rare enough in our children's lives that
if they see ox or sheep or a goat out the window in the car, someone
will say, oh, there's a goat, or so forth. We've seen a few
more since we came to Middle Tennessee. But still, this was
a society in which these animals were all over the place. And
everyone they saw, they would remember, that's one of the animals
that you can't eat the fat of. because that's one of the animals
that the Lord has given for these sacrifices by which we are brought
near, whether the ascension or the peace or the sin or the trespass
offerings, all of those ways by which the Lord was bringing
them near. So every time they saw an ox
or a sheep or a goat, they would be reminded, God is a God who
brings us near. There's a constant reminder that
way. Every meal was a reminder that they have a God who is God
over all of their life and who forgives sin. You remember the
first reason that they couldn't eat an animal's blood in Genesis
chapter 9 was because the life of the animal was in the blood.
And they were to view their life not as coming from an animal,
but as coming from God. But the second reason now is
because of the use of the blood in all of these applications,
in atonement for sin and in consecration of the worship, the drawing near
to God and His having drawn near to them. And so they would remember
both by not eating blood. One, they would remember that
God is all of their life, that the food is not their life, the
animal does not give them life, God gives them life by way of
the animal. And to remember that God is a
God who forgives sin. And so they were very much unlike
the other nations, the other cultures around them who would
eat blood. So we see that all of life then
was to remind them that the Lord was the Lord who had brought
them near. Now, you have another reminder, and that is your constant
access to God through the Lord Jesus Christ. Because His blood
was spilt once for all, and He has ascended, and He is your
representative in heaven when you believe in Him. It is as
you doing that leaning ceremony and resting upon Him. And so
one of the things that the Lord has given to you is to follow
the instruction, 1 Thessalonians 5, to pray continually, everything
that you do. You do like Johann Sebastian
Bach when he would compose a piece and he would write at the top
and the bottom, dedications unto the Lord. So you do that by prayer
in your heart, everything you do. whenever something happy
happens or something wonderful happens. Your second thing is
to text your wife or however, store it away to tell your wife
when you get home. I don't know if they're like
anti-texting people. But your first recourse, everything
good, is to give thanks to God for it. Every anxiety, you lift
to Him. Everything that you set out to
do, you go to Him for your strength in it. Every grief, you bear
to Him. He's given you, of course, an
entire book of Psalms. You've just finished singing
at least a half an hour's worth of Psalms, and He gives you always
and every one of these things. How do you come to Him? You come
to Him by yourself? No, of course not. You don't
come to him as you are, you come to him through Christ as he is,
with his righteousness and his blood having been spilt. And
every time you bring anything to God, it comes through Jesus.
It's very similar in kind, isn't it? And so we should have this
coming to God through the Lord Jesus Christ in prayer, this
application of the way by which the Lord has given us to draw
near. Now conscientiously aware that
it's through his son and through his completed work, through his
resurrected life where he sits in glory, every one of your prayers
is mediated that way. And so we come, not just saying
in Jesus' name at the end, but aware that God has brought me
near in Jesus Christ. And so he gives us that continuous
reminder, even as he has given us to have a consecrated life. No longer does he say, you can't
have the fat parts. He says, and this was always
true, of course, it's even more explicit now. He says, your whole
body is a living sacrifice now. God lays claim to you as holy
because you have been joined to Jesus Christ. This is what
the mercies of God have gotten for you, as we'll be hearing
not too many midweeks from now in Romans chapter 12. And so
that's what is reserved for the Lord. And then there is what
is reserved for the Lord's priest. Of course, the Lord had given
the priest many portions, but there's one offering in particular,
one way of coming near to God, that which he called the peace,
in which the Lord has given the fat portions and the worshiper
is given the meat portions, almost. Here we have a raising ceremony
and when he brings the fat then in verse 30, the one who offers
it by his own hands. He brings the fat with the breast
so that the breast may be waived. And the word is one that comes
from the idea of raised. And it's coming with the fat
recognizes that the breast portion is really a portion for Yahweh,
a portion for the Lord. It's lifted up. along with the
bringing of the fat, so that when that becomes the portion
that the priest may have, Yahweh is, as it were, giving his portion
to the priest. But then this second part that
is here called the heed, which is really just a word for contribution. And it's not a heave offering,
there's not some sort of gesture that is done with the right thigh.
He is supposed to just hand it directly to the priest is what
it says here. And so what you see is this fellowship
meal, if you remember back to the peace offering that takes
place where the fat parts go up to God and the meat is for
the worshiper and God gives a portion to the priest and God gives the
worshiper to give also a contribution to the priest. And so the priest,
as it were, is being honored by God for officiating this. The breast portion could be for
all the priests generally, and the right thigh portion that
was just handed directly the contribution. I hesitate to use
such a mundane word for something so rich and holy. The tip for
the officiating priest of the right thigh, appreciating the
role that God has given him in officiating. And so from the
peace offering, the priest would get both. The Lord honors his
servant and he teaches his people to do the same. And how much
more, if this was true, for priests on earth who had to have sin
offerings for their own sin and who were prevented from continuing
in their priesthood by their death, how much more for our
great high priest, who had no sin of his own to offer for and
who always lives to intercede for us. Don't we love for Jesus
to have his portion? We see throughout the New Testament
how much the Father loves to honour his Son. And he leads
us, doesn't he, his people, in honouring his Son, our priest,
as well. So that which is reserved for
the Lord and that which is reserved for the priest. And there are
some forevers here, of course, that are forever throughout their
generations and forever so long as their priesthood continues. But this kind of capstone then,
not just on Leviticus 1-7, but really a capstone that goes all
the way back from when Moses returned up the mountain God
said that he would indeed go with his people and he brings
Moses back up the mountain a second time and gives him all of the
instruction for the tabernacle. This is capping all of that and
what we see is the crescendo You have in verse 34 referring
to the breast and the thigh from the peace offerings and he says,
I have given them to Aaron the priest and to his sons and the
children of Israel by a statute forever. And then not just this
idea of this perpetual statute so long as their priesthood continues.
but Moses presenting Aaron and his sons themselves unto Yahweh. And so you have in this context
the raising of the breast to the Lord while Moses presents
the men to the Lord. This is the consecrated portion
for Aaron and his sons from the offerings made by fire to Yahweh
on the day when Moses presented them to minister to Yahweh as
priests. And then you have the statute
forever and the presentation to Yahweh. And then you have
the day, not just that he presented them to Yahweh, but that Yahweh
presented them to the people by way of anointing. And this
is in verse 36. Yahweh commanded this to be given
to them by the children of Israel on the day that he, that is the
Lord, anointed them. by a statute forever throughout
their generations. And so this provision of the
priest, this presentation of the priest to the Lord, this
presentation by the Lord of the priests to his people, this is
the conclusion to the last half of Exodus and the first seven
chapters of Leviticus. So this is in verse 37, this
is the law of the ascension, the tribute, the sin, the trespass,
the consecrations, the peace. the sacrifice of peace, which
Yahweh commanded Moses on Mount Sinai on the day when he commanded
the children of Israel to offer their offerings to Yahweh in
the wilderness of Sinai. And what does he do here? He
reminds us of where we are. We spent so much time getting
instructions about the tabernacle, and then constructing the tabernacle,
and then getting instructions about the sacrifices that we
might have lost track of the fact that Israel is still at
the mountain to which the Lord had brought them when he brought
them out of the land of Egypt. And so this becomes a conclusion
not just to these seven chapters, but really to the whole of the
book of Exodus and Leviticus up until this point. Here at
Sinai, God provided a consummation of his deliverance of his people.
It was not just, let my people go so that they may be free,
but let my people go so that they may serve me. And he brought
them out of Egypt to bring them to himself. And this he did at
Sinai. At Sinai, he gave them his law.
At Sinai, he gave them his dwelling among them by way of the tabernacle.
At Sinai, now in Leviticus, he has provided for their drawing
near by the ascension and the tribute and the priests and the
atonement and the forgiveness. And he has given them anointed
priests. Now for us, we can look back
and we can say, behold, how merciful the Lord was to these people,
how powerful, how gracious. But shall we not then look at
ourselves and say, how much more? We marvel not only at the greatness
of his provision to them, but the Lord has brought us near
in Christ. The Lord has spoken his law to us in Christ's mouth. He calls it the royal law. He
calls it the law of Christ. It's the same law, but it comes
now to us particularly from the mouth of our Redeemer, the God-man,
who being the God of the law has also been for us the man
who kept the law and in whom we have righteousness. God has
come to tabernacle among us in the Lord Jesus Christ and God
has made it possible for us to draw near to him in the ascended
Christ who is the tribute that we bring. We come with him in
the hand of faith and he is for us peace with God and reconciliation
and he is our atonement and the one who continually cleanses
our conscience by blood that was shed once for all and still
sprinkles our hearts clean even to this day, and he is the priest
who applies all these things to us. Jesus is not just sitting
taking a break in glory until his enemies are made his footstool
for his feet. He is always living to intercede,
saving us to the uttermost by the power of his indestructible
life, continually by his spirit applying to us the work that
he has done. And we long for him to have his
portion, even as God has given him his portion, and his portion
is, of course, heaven and earth, and all that is in him, all that
is in them. But most of all, he's taken for
us himself a bride that he purchased, and that he's perfecting, and
that when he is done, he will present to himself as his portion. We can hardly believe, and only
by the grace of the Spirit begin to believe, the privilege that
the Lord has given us to be even our priest's portion. Shall you
not love the God who has brought you near and the God man by whom
he has brought you near? Let us marvel not only then at
the greatness of his provision here to Israel, but the greaterness
of his provision to us in giving us all of these things in Christ.
Amen, let's pray. Father, we thank you and praise
you that while every priest is selected from among men, you
gave your son to become a man. in order that he might be our
priest and that you have given him this charge and that he,
for the joy set before him, not only offered the sacrifice, but
was and is the sacrifice. And we pray that as you open
our eyes to see the greatness of your grace to Israel, even
by the shadows of the picture book, that you would open our
eyes all the more to see your great grace to us, that our hearts
would be full, and that you would enlarge our hearts to enjoy and
thank you and praise you all for ourselves with all that we
are, who have done the full and final redeeming in your son,
our Lord Jesus Christ. So grant these things we ask
in his name, amen.
Treasuring Him Who Draws Us Near: Learning from God to Treasure Christ as Our Priest
Series Leviticus
The Lord, to Whom we belong entirely, teaches us to treasure Christ, our Priest Who brings us near.
| Sermon ID | 82823112221688 |
| Duration | 27:41 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - PM |
| Bible Text | Leviticus 7:22-38 |
| Language | English |
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