Leviticus 3--Laws for Peace Offerings (Fellowship Offerings)

Leviticus 3
English Standard Version
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Laws for Peace Offerings
3 “If his offering is a sacrifice of peace offering, if he offers an animal from the herd, male or female, he shall offer it without blemish before the Lord. 2 And he shall lay his hand on the head of his offering and kill it at the entrance of the tent of meeting, and Aaron's sons the priests shall throw the blood against the sides of the altar. 3 And from the sacrifice of the peace offering, as a food offering to the Lord, he shall offer the fat covering the entrails and all the fat that is on the entrails, 4 and the two kidneys with the fat that is on them at the loins, and the long lobe of the liver that he shall remove with the kidneys. 5 Then Aaron's sons shall burn it on the altar on top of the burnt offering, which is on the wood on the fire; it is a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord.

6 “If his offering for a sacrifice of peace offering to the Lord is an animal from the flock, male or female, he shall offer it without blemish. 7 If he offers a lamb for his offering, then he shall offer it before the Lord, 8 lay his hand on the head of his offering, and kill it in front of the tent of meeting; and Aaron's sons shall throw its blood against the sides of the altar. 9 Then from the sacrifice of the peace offering he shall offer as a food offering to the Lord its fat; he shall remove the whole fat tail, cut off close to the backbone, and the fat that covers the entrails and all the fat that is on the entrails 10 and the two kidneys with the fat that is on them at the loins and the long lobe of the liver that he shall remove with the kidneys. 11 And the priest shall burn it on the altar as a food offering to the Lord.

12 “If his offering is a goat, then he shall offer it before the Lord 13 and lay his hand on its head and kill it in front of the tent of meeting, and the sons of Aaron shall throw its blood against the sides of the altar. 14 Then he shall offer from it, as his offering for a food offering to the Lord, the fat covering the entrails and all the fat that is on the entrails 15 and the two kidneys with the fat that is on them at the loins and the long lobe of the liver that he shall remove with the kidneys. 16 And the priest shall burn them on the altar as a food offering with a pleasing aroma. All fat is the Lord's. 17 It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations, in all your dwelling places, that you eat neither fat nor blood.”

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The next section (and our last large category of offerings before we get into more specific types of offerings) is the instructions for the "peace offerings" or "fellowship offerings" (depending on your translation).  We'll see specifics coming up in Leviticus in when peace offerings needed to be offered, but they basically are for situations where someone has sinned against another person and fellowship needs to be restored.

The instructions are very similar to that of a burnt offering where someone offers a sacrifice for sin they have committed against God because all sin is a violation against God's Law and is a transgression against God.  David will later say of his sin in committing adultery and murder to God, "Against You and You only have I sinned."  The main difference here is the that the animal to be sacrificed may be either male or female where with the burnt offering, only a male could be offered.  Another difference here is that there is no "poor man's" offering here of birds as a burnt offering.  The animal must be from the person's own cattle, sheep or goats.  Restoring fellowship with another brother is always going to be costly.

We also see a commandment here that the people of God are never to eat the fat or blood of an animal because the fat portion belongs to the LORD and the life is in the blood--we've actually had the commandment not to eat blood since the Noahic covenant in Genesis 9.  


Genesis 9:3-6
English Standard Version3 Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. 4 But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. 5 And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man.
6 “Whoever sheds the blood of man,
    by man shall his blood be shed,
for God made man in his own image.
So, God is setting rules and boundaries that may not make sense to the people as they know they've eaten these portions before when they lived in Egypt and they know that these parts taste good, but God knows that not only is eating fat not good for them, but the blood and the fat are the parts that are most likely to carry diseases.  Beyond this we also know that we are supposed to be willing to give our best to the LORD, so these people would always offer the fat and the fatty portions (liver, kidneys, and entrails) as a burnt offering to the LORD and would not eat it.  It was the LORD's portion (along with the thigh, as we saw in Genesis based of the LORD touching Jacob in the thigh and dislocating his hip).

Again, this reads much like an instruction manual and I'm not sure there's a lot of application here other than to say that we too must remember that it may be costly to restore fellowship, and that Jesus died to restore fellowship between God and man and to make peace and reconcile us.  This also allows those of us who were far off from each other and enemies of each other to be brought near and become one family and be at peace with each other through the blood of Jesus.