Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Leviticus 7:7-11

7 As the sin offering is, so is the trespass offering: there is one law for them: the priest that maketh atonement therewith shall have it.

8 And the priest that offereth any man’s burnt offering, even the priest shall have to himself the skin of the burnt offering which he hath offered.

9 And all the meat offering that is baken in the oven, and all that is dressed in the fryingpan, and in the pan, shall be the priest’s that offereth it.

10 And every meat offering, mingled with oil, and dry, shall all the sons of Aaron have, one as much as another.

11 And this is the law of the sacrifice of peace offerings, which he shall offer unto the Lord.

These verses repeat that the priests would eat their portion as part of the sin and meat offerings. It is new information at this point that the priests would also take part of the burnt offering, specifically the skin. While we do make food from the skin of some animals today, it does not seem likely that the priests would eat this portion. Notice that it says the priest is to “have it to himself,” suggesting that it became a possession. The skins would likely have been made into leather and crafted, or sold for money.

It does seem strange that we are finding out details of each sacrifice in such a piecemeal fashion. Why not hear everything about a burnt offering in one set of instructions, rather than getting one part here and one part there? Personally, I think it doubtful that the original instructions were so fractured. We have already seen elsewhere that the books of Moses seem to be composited together from multiple separate accounts, and I assume that that is what is happening here also.

That being said, the fractured form that we see in the Bible today is not a bad analogy for the experience of anyone seeking truth. Typically, principles and doctrine are not appreciable in their entirety all at once. We have to learn progressively, “line upon line; here a little, and there a little” (Isaiah 28:10). From many sources and lessons, we accumulate a coherent model of God and His truths, rather than receiving it whole at once. Again, I don’t necessarily think this was an intended symbol, but it is fitting, nonetheless.

Burnt offeringGiving our life to God’s purposes
Ram, BullockMale, without blemishGive our very best
Hands placed on head, slaughteredAnimal takes the place of us
Slaughtered on the NorthRecommitment on the side of our journey
Blood sprinkled around altarOur life is sprinkled over God’s work
Cut in pieces, and washedEach part of us measured and made clean
Skin given to priestsOuter behavior that supports the mission of God
Pigeon, TurtledoveCrop pulled off, torn nearly in halfEach inner part of us exposed to God’s purifying fire
The whole thing burned on the altarOur lives consumed in service to God
Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Leviticus 7:1-6

1 Likewise this is the law of the trespass offering: it is most holy.

2 In the place where they kill the burnt offering shall they kill the trespass offering: and the blood thereof shall he sprinkle round about upon the altar.

3 And he shall offer of it all the fat thereof; the rump, and the fat that covereth the inwards,

4 And the two kidneys, and the fat that is on them, which is by the flanks, and the caul that is above the liver, with the kidneys, it shall he take away:

5 And the priest shall burn them upon the altar for an offering made by fire unto the Lord: it is a trespass offering.

6 Every male among the priests shall eat thereof: it shall be eaten in the holy place: it is most holy.

We heard about the trespass offering in the past two chapters, but there were limited descriptions on how the ritual was actually carried out. The assumption was that the sacrificed animal was handled much the same as other offerings. Today we get those fuller details, and the assumption is proven correct.

Importantly, this offering matches the burnt offering in how the blood was to be sprinkled around the altar, but matches the sin offering in how the fat, kidneys, and other minor parts were burned on the altar. It also matches the sin offering in how a portion of the meat was to be eaten by the priests.

These details make perfect sense, given what we noted earlier. The trespass offering was really two offerings in one: the burnt offering and the sin offering. Thus, some offerings were more fundamental (sin and burnt offering), and more complex offerings were composed of them (trespass offering). Not only this, but those fundamental offerings were themselves composed of specific ritualistic expressions (sprinkling of blood, burning of fat, priests eating of meat, etc.). From this we see that there was a grammar to the Hebrew sacrifices, and by becoming literate in the basic parts, we can use them to spell out more complex expressions.

SacrificeEligible oblationStepsExplanation
Trespass offeringFor minor offenses and mistakes
Lamb, young goatFat and kidneys burned on altarCleansing our behavior and desire
Blood sprinkled around altarOur life is sprinkled over God’s work
Portion given to priestsPriests share the burden of the sin
Two turtledoves, two pigeonsOne bird for a sin offering, one for a burnt offeringGiving up of offense and recommitment to the Lord
FlourSome of the grain for a sin offering, some for a meat offeringGiving up of offense and shared communion with the Lord
Posted on by Abe Austin

The Wisdom Inside

The fact that you can recognize wisdom in others, means that those same insights already exist within you. If they didn’t, you would have no reference to recognize it in others. All the realizations that we find by exploring the world can also be found by exploring within.

Posted on by Abe Austin

True Connection Through Vulnerability

True connection with another cannot come from surface-level interactions. To have a bosom friend requires knowing one another at the level of the soul. Real connection like that comes only through vulnerability, and vulnerability always involves risk. If there wasn’t risk, it would not, by definition, be vulnerable. This is why making true friends is not easy, it is a dangerous business. It means giving others ample opportunity to really hurt you and hate you, but trusting that they will honor you instead.

And, of course, some of the people that we are vulnerable with will let us down. They will betray our trust; they will wound us in our tender places. Being willing to still trust anyone after that is hard. It may go against our natural instincts. It is like being struck on one cheek and then turning the other. But, of course, that is exactly what we are called to do.

True connection with God is no different. It comes by going with Him into most vulnerable of places: our shames and our sins. By acknowledging and confessing these worst parts, we give Him every justification to hurt us and damn us, but we trust that He will forgive and heal us instead. Coming to God is a dangerous business, but it is the only way to become His true child.

Posted on by Abe Austin

The Unraveling of Trust

A System of Trust)

For a society to function properly, its people must cooperate with one another. They must share a ruleset. They must have mutually beneficial expectations, and those expectations must be honored. All of this is necessary, because the world is too large and too complex for each of us to handle all aspects of it on our own. The advantage of a well-functioning society is that certain people can dedicate themselves to understanding one particular system and then disseminate to everyone else the essential information without them having to repeat the work. Shared rules also allow us to take complex interactions and reduce them to simple predetermined actions.

From what movies we watch, to how we navigate the road, to how we prioritize world affairs, “trusting the experts” and following predefined rules is the optimal strategy. I do not have enough time to watch every film, so I read reviews to only watch the best ones. I trust the rules of the road, so I can navigate complex group operations, like two lanes merging into one. I listen to news reports so that I know which issues I want to help my society overcome. I have not personally verified all of this information, but I trust in those that have, and assume my life will be optimal as result.

Trust Exploited)

But implicit trust is the most valuable commodity in the entire world, and the exploitation of it can be very lucrative.

What if a movie studio realizes that it can buy falsely positive reviews? The trust of the people will lead to increased ticket sales.

What if a driver realizes that he can hurriedly follow the car in front of him during a zipper merge to advance a space in traffic? He gets to his destination faster.

What if a news agency realize that they can sensationalize the news and fabricate outrage? Their ratings and ad revenue increase.

In each case, trust is turned into advantage, and one party is progressed beyond what could be achieved by honest means. Perhaps the short-term gain is justified by the assurance that one infraction is not going to break the whole system. The general populace will still benefit by trusting the institutions, and this one dishonest gain will amount to little more than a rounding error in the ledgers of society.

But when trust is exploited by one party, others will realize what has happened, and some will want to tip the scales in their favor also. Experience has proven that when the bond of trust has been broken once, and successfully profited from, a mass of other bad actors will soon follow.

Trust Broken)

And what happens when trust is broken repeatedly? It dies.

I watch a string of bad movies that came highly recommended, and I stop going to the movies altogether.

I get cut off in traffic repeatedly, and I start competing with every other driver on the road.

I realize the causes I supported made me a pawn in some party’s power grab, and I stop listening to the news media entirely.

I do not “trust the experts” anymore. I do not engage in the systems and rules as designed. And I am not the only one becoming cynical. Once enough of us are bitter and disillusioned, the movie industry collapses, violence becomes rampant on the roads, and conspiracy theories abound. The society stops being a society, and becomes instead a mass of angry individuals, all distrusting of one another. Divisions and public violence increase, and eventually the entire nation faces its demise. Perhaps strangest of all, there might even still be a majority of people who want to be honest and want to engage with the systems as intended, but the risk of trust outweighs its benefits, and so separating, not uniting, becomes the new norm.

When one is raised in a cohesive society, it is easy to take its trust systems for granted, but in truth, they must be guarded most carefully. For when they are broken, everything is lost. I do not know how far things can go and still be repaired, but at some point, the death of the nation must become inevitable.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Why You Do Right

When you do what is right and suffer for it, what follows will reveal the purity of your motivations. Either you will feel regret, and know that you are only a fair-weather disciple, or you will feel conviction, and know that your commitment is true. Without being tried like this, your sincerity is only theoretical.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Leviticus 6:27-30

27 Whatsoever shall touch the flesh thereof shall be holy: and when there is sprinkled of the blood thereof upon any garment, thou shalt wash that whereon it was sprinkled in the holy place.

28 But the earthen vessel wherein it is sodden shall be broken: and if it be sodden in a brasen pot, it shall be both scoured, and rinsed in water.

29 All the males among the priests shall eat thereof: it is most holy.

30 And no sin offering, whereof any of the blood is brought into the tabernacle of the congregation to reconcile withal in the holy place, shall be eaten: it shall be burnt in the fire.

I discussed yesterday how the animal to be sacrificed not only stood in for the sinner but was also symbolic of purification as well. Today’s verses continue to make that dual meaning even clearer. It is a symbol from man of what is wrong, what he must give up, but it is also a symbol from God of what is right, what He gives to us out of mercy. How fitting a duality, given that it is in our broken and wrong places that so many of us truly discover the Lord.

Verse 28 emphasizes the purifying quality of the sacrificed animal in an interesting way. It talks about how if a clay pot held the meat at any point, it must be broken, whereas a brass pot could be reused, though it had to be scoured first. Some scholars have suggested that this scouring was not about removing impurities from the brass vessel, but to removing purity. The brass pot had to be reclaimed them from its exalted state to one of regular, earthly use, whereas the clay pot had to be broken was because its material was porous, thus the residue holiness couldn’t be scrubbed out.

That interpretation might be accurate, though I see another possibility as well. Perhaps the two different treatments were symbolic of the differing effects that God’s purification has on His children. Some people receive the purification of God as a condemnation because they are still united to their sin, thus the purifying process breaks them. It would make sense that cruder, “earthen” vessels would be used to symbolize that. Meanwhile, the other effect of God’s purification is that those who are already more aligned to Him survive and become improved by the experience. That is represented by the more durable, refined brass pot.

And, of course, this pattern continues fractally. Even inside the righteous soul that survives God’s purification, there is still the part that is broken and the part that is improved. Both exist within the same person. Part of us is shattered and discarded when we meet the Lord, but part of us finally comes into its own and shines.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Leviticus 6:24-26

24 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,

25 Speak unto Aaron and to his sons, saying, This is the law of the sin offering: In the place where the burnt offering is killed shall the sin offering be killed before the Lord: it is most holy.

26 The priest that offereth it for sin shall eat it: in the holy place shall it be eaten, in the court of the tabernacle of the congregation.

We gain a new detail on the sin offering in these verses. First, though, to recap all that we have learned of how the offering was performed so far, we first learned how the blood of the animal was smeared on the horns of the altar and the fat and kidneys were consumed by the flame. We elsewhere also heard that the skin, flesh, and dung of the animal was burned outside of the camp. And now, here for the first time, we also hear about a portion of the offering being eaten by the priest. In Leviticus 10 it will also be made explicitly clear that this was a part of the ritual for a common sin offering, and it will state there that the representation of this was that the priest was to bear the iniquity of the sinner.

However, the priest taking the burden for all that is wrong, is not the only symbol in this act. Notice how in today’s verse 25 it mentions that the slaughtered animal is also a vessel of purification, and tomorrow’s verses will go even more heavily into that theme.

This makes sense when we consider the ultimate sacrifice, Jesus Christ. On the one hand we are told, “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us” (Galatians 3:13), which matches the idea of Christ taking the burden of every man’s evil, but at the same time, his innocence and purifying power are made clear when we are told, “he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter…with his stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:7, 5). He is both the condemned and the redeemer all at once, and so is the meat of this offering.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Leviticus 6:19-23

19 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,

20 This is the offering of Aaron and of his sons, which they shall offer unto the Lord in the day when he is anointed; the tenth part of an ephah of fine flour for a meat offering perpetual, half of it in the morning, and half thereof at night.

21 In a pan it shall be made with oil; and when it is baken, thou shalt bring it in: and the baken pieces of the meat offering shalt thou offer for a sweet savour unto the Lord.

22 And the priest of his sons that is anointed in his stead shall offer it: it is a statute for ever unto the Lord; it shall be wholly burnt.

23 For every meat offering for the priest shall be wholly burnt: it shall not be eaten.

In addition to the burnt offering of a lamb, once every night and once every morning, there was also to be a meat offering of flour every night and morning. The flour was to be baked first, then burned as a bread or a wafer until fully consumed.

We have already heard that when the meat offering was from a common Israelite, there was a portion given to the priests. But since the meat offering described here was from the priests themselves, there was no portion for them, and all of it was given to the Lord. There can be seen in this a hierarchy, a flow, moving upwards and ultimately finding its destination in God. Just as God is the originator of all things, He is the terminus of all things as well.

All of our creations stem from the first creation made by God. And all of our sacrifices ultimately find their rest in Him. We come and go as links in a chain. At the beginning of the chain is a post, and at the end of the chain is a post, and both posts are God.