Leviticus 3:1-17 And if his oblation be a sacrifice of peace offering, if he offer it of the herd; whether it be a male or female… How are we to conceive of the sacrificial feast of the peace-offering? Was it a feast offered and presented by the Israelite to God, or a feast given by God to the Israelite? In other words, in this feast who was represented as host and who as guest? Among other nations than the Hebrews it was the thought in such cases that the feast was given by the worshipper to his god. This is well illustrated by an Assyrian inscription of Esarhaddon, who, in describing his palace at Nineveh, says: "I filled with beauties the great palace of my empire, and I called it 'the palace which rivals the world.' Ashur, Ishtar of Nineveh, and the gods of Assyria, all of them, I feasted within it. Victims, precious and beautiful, I sacrificed before them, and I caused them to receive my gifts." But here we come upon one of the most striking and instructive contrasts between the heathen conception of the sacrificial feast and the same symbolism as used in Leviticus and other Scripture. In the heathen sacrificial feasts it is man who feasts God; in the peace-offering of Leviticus it is God who feasts man. Do we not strike here one of the deepest points of contrast between all of man's religion and the gospel of God? Man's idea always is, until taught better by God: "I will be religious and make God my friend by doing something, giving something for God." God, on the contrary, teaches us in this symbolism, as in all Scripture, the exact reverse — that we become truly religious by taking, first of all, with thankfulness and joy, what He has provided for us. A breach of friendship between man and God is often implied in the heathen rituals, as in the ritual of Leviticus; as also in both a desire for its removal and renewed fellowship with God. But in the former man ever seeks to attain to this intercommunion of friendship by something that he himself will do for God. He will feast God, and thus God shall be well pleased. But God's way is the opposite. The sacrificial feast at which man shall have fellowship with God is provided, not by man for God, but by God for man, and is to be eaten, not in our house, but spiritually partaken in the presence of the invisible God. (S. H. Kellogg, D. D.) . Parallel Verses KJV: And if his oblation be a sacrifice of peace offering, if he offer it of the herd; whether it be a male or female, he shall offer it without blemish before the LORD. |
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