Leviticus 1-7
These chapters deal with giving
animals or grain to God in sacrifice 7 chapters on burning things! (which is why I don't really want to spend a week on these chapters.)
The First question in the open letter to Dr Laura is from this chapter - "When I burn a bull on the
altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates a pleasing odor for the Lord (Lev 1:9). The problem is my
neighbors. They claim the odor is not pleasing to them. Should I smite them?"
There appears to be an answer to this question in these chapters – A person must bring a sacrifice to the designated alter of God and
the descendants of Aaron must make the offering to God. it is strictly forbidden for anybody apart from an ordained priest from the family of Aaron to sacrifice at any place that is not the tabernacle or temple in Jerusalem. Neither of which exist any more.
Sorry letter writer, but I think the smiting may come your way!
These days we do not really
approve of animal sacrifice, though the long history of bloodsports that only fairly recently have become illegal in the UK would seem to indicate that some people are not
totally averse to animal sacrifice in the name of entertainment or sport.
There are various type of
ceremony dealt with – burned offerings, peace offering, sin offering, guilt
offering and ordination offering.
A sin offering is designed to
make a person right with God if they refuse to give testimony, touching
something unclean, or make a foolish promise that you cannot fulfil.
A guilt offering seems to be for
slightly more serious crimes, such as dishonest trading, taking lost property
and lying in court
In all these cases the priest is
given some of the offering as his payment but with instruction that the
offering must be treated as holy.
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