Fat-Free Offerings

Leviticus 3

This chapter spells out the specifics of offering "fellowship offerings." The most significant piece of information missing from the directions is what exactly fellowship offerings are. A wild guess is simply an offering showing a desire to be close to God- showing goodwill and kinship to the one receiving the sacrifice. But that's a stab in the dark- there's not much here to spell it out.

These fellowhip offerings follow the same format as the offerings mentioned back in chapter one with a few exceptions- or at the very least extra detail. If the animal is from the herd, after the slaughter and blood sprinkling they are to take all the fat that covers or is connected to "the inner parts" and the liver covering and the kidneys and this is what gets burned.

If the animal is from the flock it is to be a male or female without defect. The slaughter of the lamb is the same as before except this time all the fat gets chopped off too- at least the tail, fat that covers the inner parts, both kidneys and the liver covering. A goat works the same way except no tail. Jana says goat tails aren't very long- this could be the reason for the omission.

Finally this ordinance goes to generations to come- wherever they live- don't eat fat or blood.

That sounds like a healthy choice but not a very fun one. I'm guessing a juicy steak, medium rare from Outback with really flavor-filled fat would have been right out. And not only would the Israelites have missed out on some good food- logistically, this complicates things. Food becomes harder to prepare. And if food preparation becomes a matter of faith and law rather than one of preference, the pressure of getting it right has to increase too.

But why these specifications? Is God trying to keep His people healthier? Is he stressing the sanctity of blood? It's for healing not for eating. Is he teaching them discipline?

Think about trying to avoid blood and fat in your diets today? How can you be sure that no blood is in your meat? You can get it cooked well-done, but does that get it all out? Wouldn't it require that the blood be drained a certain way? If you didn't do the draining, how can you know? Is God trying to teach them to be self-reliant? Kill your own food. Drain your own meat.

Let's not even get into eating no fat. Good luck. And sad days.

Are these laws even worth bothering with in our culture? I'm not Jewish, but later on blood is still a sacred emblem. But later on the rules change regarding what can be eaten. It's still a little fuzzy.

I suspect a theme of this book is going to be...good luck, you can't do it. There are so many specifics to keep up with that even if you memorized the law, it would be impossible to keep it all straight. Maybe, once again, it's all pointing back to the need for grace- the acceptance that you can't do it without Jesus.