Sacrifices To Ask The Lord’s Blessing

Leviticus 3:1–17
» View this passage in NIV (Bible Gateway)

III. THE PEACE (HEAVE) OFFERING - Chapter 3

The “peace (fellowship) offering” is the third sacrifice of worship. It represented the personal fellowship between God and each Israelite person that resulted from the relationship that God had established with the redeemed individual (Rom. 5:1). Hands were laid on the head of the animal and its blood sprinkled while the body was burned on the altar. This points to peace with God through Christ. This is not referring  to the peace of forgiveness. It is not peace with God; it is the peace of God we are talking about here. It is peace not in the sense of hostility ceased but in the sense of emotional stability, of an untroubled heart. That is what we need – a sense of security, of well-being, of confidence that things are under control and that it is all going to work out. That is the kind of peace this offering represents.

They could offer either a bull or a cow, but there must be nothing wrong with the animal (v.1). A priest from Aaron’s family was to splatter its blood against the sides of the altar (v. 2). They were to offer all of the fat on the animal’s insides (v. 3), also the liver and the two kidneys with their fat (v. 4). The priests were to lay these pieces on the altar and send them up in smoke, together with the sacrifice that is offered (v. 5).

Instead of a bull or a cow, you could offer any sheep or goat that had nothing wrong with it (vv. 6-11). If you offered a goat, you must also present it at the entrance to the sacred tent the same as with the bull or cow (vv. 12-16). They must never eat any fat or any blood, not even in the privacy of their own homes (v. 17).

Application