Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Leviticus 1:10-13

10 And if his offering be of the flocks, namely, of the sheep, or of the goats, for a burnt sacrifice; he shall bring it a male without blemish.

11 And he shall kill it on the side of the altar northward before the Lord: and the priests, Aaron’s sons, shall sprinkle his blood round about upon the altar.

12 And he shall cut it into his pieces, with his head and his fat: and the priest shall lay them in order on the wood that is on the fire which is upon the altar:

13 But he shall wash the inwards and the legs with water: and the priest shall bring it all, and burn it upon the altar: it is a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the Lord.

Now we hear the variant of the burnt offering where a sheep or goat is used, and it matches the first description that we heard back in Exodus. There is one new detail here, though, that of the offering being slaughtered on the north side of the altar.

We learned earlier that the tabernacle itself was oriented from East to West, with the entrance being on the East side, facing the rising sun. The altar was a square, and it was aligned with the walls of the tabernacle. Thus, the slaughter was performed not on the side of the altar pointing towards the entrance, nor the one pointing towards the holy place, but on the left-hand side.

That orientation perhaps suggests that our sacrifices occur along the way from the beginning of our faith to our ultimate reward. As we traverse from the entrance, continuing towards our destination, we must occasionally stop to make a sacrifice on the side, to rededicate ourselves to the journey.

Another possible meaning comes from understanding the symbolic significance of the cardinal directions to the ancient Jew. East was often seen as the good direction, progressing forward, the direction of new beginnings. In many ways it was viewed similarly to how we view North today. Whereas to the ancient Jew, North represented the mysterious and the unknown. Thus, the slaughter on the North side might be linking the animal’s death to the great unknown, the great mystery of where we go to after this life is over.

I have updated our table of sacrifices with this new information, marking the new portions in bold. The entire table can be viewed at any time at this link.

SacrificeEligible animalsStepsExplanation
Burnt offeringRam, BullockGiving our life to God’s purposes
Male, 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
The whole thing burned on the altarOur lives consumed in service to God
Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 16:13-15

13 And it came to pass, that at even the quails came up, and covered the camp: and in the morning the dew lay round about the host.

14 And when the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing, as small as the hoar frost on the ground.

15 And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, It is manna: for they wist not what it was. And Moses said unto them, This is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat.

Quails came for the meat in the evening, and manna appeared in the morning for bread. However, the Israelites did not even recognize that the manna was the promised bread from God at first. Moses had to explain to them that that was what the small, round thing was for, that it could be processed as a food.

I see in this a symbolism for the manner in which God answers prayers. Sometimes He delivers exactly what we have asked for, but we do not recognize it as such. What we have received seems strange until someone points out to us that our problem has already been solved, we just haven’t recognized it yet.

In any case, now Israel understood how the Lord would provide for them, and Moses would go into greater detail about the rules they had to follow in relation to this food source.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Genesis 10:25

25 And unto Eber were born two sons: the name of one was Peleg; for in his days was the earth divided; and his brother’s name was Joktan.

Genesis Chapter 10 is another genealogical chapter, giving the descendants of each of Noah’s children. And I find it very interesting this verse tucked away in the middle of it all, making a casual reference to the time when the earth was divided, which some have interpreted as meaning the supercontinent Pangaea splitting into the seven continents we know today.

Alternatively, it could also mean this was when humanity dispersed itself into different nations, after the confounding of the languages at the Tower of Babel, which we will soon read of. But in either case, what struck me about this verse was that many generations of humanity and hundreds of years are history are being flown by, with virtually no information of what transpired. The scriptures that we have, and also the history we books we have, only ever provide the smallest window into what was really going on in those ancient days.

Later books, such as those of the New Testament, take place in societies where we have a pretty good idea of what they were like. But the stories in Genesis we have little or no context behind. No wonder these tales take on such mythic proportions then, because we don’t even know how to properly conceptualize them.