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Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents
3:1-17 The Peace Offering. This offering achieves and expresses peace or fellowship between an offerer and the Lord. The ritual as a whole symbolizes a communion meal that is held between the offerer, the officiating priest, and the Lord. In OT times such meals were a means of affirming a covenant relationship (Gen. 26:28-30). Generally speaking, then, this offering was a time to remember and reaffirm the covenant relationship between the Lord and Israel (cf. 1 Cor. 10:16-18; 11:23-26). As with the burnt offering, there are various specific motives for offering a peace offering, ranging from petition to praise. In this chapter, though, the entire emphasis is on the procedure for the offering, with a special focus on the burning of the fat.
3:1-5 The procedure of this ritual involving a bull is the same as that of the burnt offering, up until the shedding of blood. Only the fatty parts of the animal, instead of all of it, are to be burned up. The fat in ancient Israel represented the very best part of the animal (cf. the "fat of the wheat," Num. 18:12). The "fat" would be like filet mignon, i.e., the most succulent and savory part of the animal. To present this to the Lord was a way of acknowledging that he was the One worthy of most honor. (When Eli allows his sons, as priests, to eat the fat of the sacrifices, he is rebuked for honoring his sons above the Lord [1 Sam. 2:29].)
3:6-17 Almost the same procedure is prescribed here for the offering of a sheep or a goat.
3:16-17 Since the peace offering was the one offering of which the offerer partook, it makes sense for this chapter to end by underscoring the two parts of the animal of which the offerer was never to partake, namely, the fat and the blood. The fat represented the very best part of the animal (see note on vv. 1-5). As such, it was to be given to the Lord as the One worthy of most honor (thus all fat is the Lord's). The blood was reserved for a very special purpose: atoning for the life of the Israelites. As a result, it too must not be consumed (see notes on 17:11; 17:12).
