Leviticus 7

Jewish tradition says the psalm was recited in the temple when thank offerings were brought.

Leviticus 7 describes the thank offering.

It was a kind of peace offering.

The worship would bring a sacrifice and then eat with his family and friends.

I'm going to read it to you.

In Leviticus chapter 21 and verse 10, where it says, the priest who is chief among his brothers, that's the high priest, on whose head the anointing oil is poured.

And who has been consecrated to wear the garments shall not let the hair of his head hang loose nor tear his clothes.

So there was a distinction in the way that he was anointed, that this oil was actually poured over his head.

Verse 14 tells us, it clarifies, it says, this is a sin offering.

And then Moses is to take some of the blood of the bull and put it on the horns of the altar.

Leviticus chapter 8 and verse 15 says the purpose of this is to cleanse the altar itself.

And so the altar itself is even seen as something that is tainted with the sins of this world.

Oh, my heavens.

When you unpack what he just said in Leviticus 7, it can change your life.

Yes.

He tells his people, "When you're bringing an offering of gratitude, let me give you the parameters." By the way, Leviticus, the whole book is an invitation.

God says, "When you're in that place and you want to come thank me, you come with meat."

Yeah.

In the context of Leviticus 7, if you had bank, you brought a cow.

Yeah.

Yes, Leviticus 18.22 says it's an abomination for a man to lie with another man.

But pro-homosexuals will say, well, why do you just single out that verse from Leviticus? Why do you cherry pick the verses you're going to obey and ignore other verses? For example, Leviticus 7 verse 21 says, if you touch an unclean animal, you shall be cut off from your people.

That means every time you watch your favorite football team on television, They are sinning against God because they are touching a pigskin.

And the word of God says that's a sin.

In Exodus 19, there's an encounter with God on Sinai on the third day.

In Numbers 19, Leviticus 7, the ritualistic purification laws, when somebody touches a dead body, it's on the third day that they are cleansed and can go back with the people.

Esther approaches the king.

Sorry to steal a little thunder from Rex, but Esther approaches the king to give freedom and salvation for the people of Israel on the third day.

mainly sheep and goats and cattle, and disproportionately, slightly disproportionately, say 57%, something like that, from the right side, 43% from the left side.

I bring that up because the Bible says in Leviticus 7, that the right side of the animal is the priest's portion, and there were priests who lived at Shiloh.

And so when we have 10,000 bones, it can't just be an accident.

If that's not the explanation, there has to be another one.

But based on what you have so far, what would you say just to a lay Christian or even a non-archaeologist like me, what you think is the significance of what you've discovered?

Well, if let's say that one is a Christian, you think about faith connections.

I mentioned Leviticus 1711 earlier, but just think about the incarnation.

When John is grappling in John chapter one with a way to to communicate the incarnation to his audience, he says that the word, the logos of God.

This is a reference back to those early chapters of Leviticus.

The sweet smelling offering of Leviticus 7.

And all offerings in the Bible, when offerings were given in the Bible, there was always blood on the hands of I don't know what you think it is to be sacrificial.

But this Philippian church, although they were very poor, although they did not have much going for them economically, Paul says you gave and you gave and you gave and you gave and you gave until there was blood on your hands.

Stop.

Why does that matter? Because in Leviticus 7, everybody say Leviticus.

You're going to learn today from Leviticus, okay? Leviticus 7.

The priest had very specific instructions.

You do not take your allotted portion of until the fat has already been burned and offered to the Lord.