I wonder if it might be helpful to look at today’s passage from the perspective of the symbolism we attach to our own faith.  When we commit our lives to Christ we usually like to symbolise it in some way, and we are instructed to do so through baptism.  We might even choose to wear a cross.  We meet together to share the bread and the wine to remind ourselves of all Christ has done for us, and even to make a fresh commitment to serve Him each week.  When we get it wrong we humbly pray to God for His forgiveness, and claim the grace that is offered through Christ.

I don’t know about you, but I often spare a thought for the priests when reading these passages.  I mean, they had a messy job!  They had to deal daily with the blood and the carcasses of the sacrificial animals.  They had to know which parts were for the altar and which parts weren’t.  They had to know what to wear and where and when.  Once the sinner had done their part it was really on the priests to ensure the sacrifices were acceptable to God.  So we arrive at today’s passage with yet more criteria for burnt offerings that had to be overseen by the priest, and the key instruction seems

You may be feeling ‘off the hook’ in relation to today’s passage.  You can reflect on the past week and think “Well I haven’t robbed anyone, so I’ve had nothing to swear falsely about, and I didn’t find and keep anything that didn’t belong to me, and so I’m on pretty good terms with the people that I had fellowship with today at church, that part of Leviticus I like!”  Sometimes we like to check boxes and feel we’re doing well, rather than explore the character of God behind the verses and allow ourselves to be challenged just a little.  Remember God, through Moses, is speaking to the c

Today’s sacrificial ‘guilt offering’ relates to sins regarding ‘any of the holy things of the Lord’ (v.15) and sins relating to the ‘Lord’s commandments’ (v.17).  A skim of Exodus from chapter 35 onwards paints God as quite the interior designer in his instructions regarding the tabernacle and the tent of meeting.  God took the contributions of his people (Exodus 35: 4-10) to create the place of worship where His people would come with these sacrifices to seek forgiveness and reconciliation.  The tabernacle and all that was within it was precious to God, perhaps partly because of the labour

So far, in these ‘acts of atonement’, we have learned that the sacrifices of the intermediaries had to be greater; that the sacrifice accomplished complete forgiveness; and that it is always the Lord who provides the way for our reconciliation (i.e.

This chapter continues to detail how sin is to be dealt with throughout the hierarchy of Israel (the hierarchy relating to positions of leadership rather than positions of class).  We learn that the sacrifices of the intermediaries between God and his people had to be greater.  How clearly this points to the perfect sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ who acts as our intermediator to a holy God.  We are also reminded that the offering achieves complete forgiveness, and therefore a restoration of the Israelite’s relationship with God.  This is what the Lord’s sacrifice has accomplished for us

 We now move from ‘freewill’ offerings to absolutely essential acts of atonement.  In the previous chapter (Leviticus 3: 5) we learn that the peace offering could only be made on top of the burnt offering, emphasising that freewill offerings could only be accepted, and indeed enjoyed, if a broken relationship with the Lord had been restored.  We will see from the passages over the next few days that there are many ways in which our relationship with God needs continually restored, both at an individual and corporate level.  However we should also see in these passages that it alway

So far, the sacrifices we have read about are those that can be termed ‘freewill’ offerings.  That is to say they are offered voluntarily and often spontaneously as acts of worship and thanksgiving, that are simply responsive to God’s unending goodness.   Today’s ‘peace offering’ falls into the same ‘freewill’ category, and when read together with the Lord’s instructions for those parts not to be burnt on the altar (Leviticus 7: 11-21), this offering speaks volumes of how God was transforming this offering into a blessing for His people; the blessing of community. 

There are some recurring themes in today’s passage which I hope serve to remind us of God’s inclusive invitation to those who would turn to Him.  In today’s class structured society it might be easy for us to perceive a hierarchy in the sacrifices we have read about so far, and to see today’s grain offering as a ‘poor relation’ to the herd and the flock.  However the character of our Lord Jesus Christ teaches us this is not His perception of His people’s offerings.  His commending of the poor widow’s offering (Mark 12: 41-43), and the sinful woman who prepared Him for burial with her expens