The Five Offerings Of Leviticus Part 7 of 10: The Peace Offering

#4.  The Peace Offering (Zevah haShelamiym זֶבַח הַשְּׁלָמִים )

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Leviticus 3:1-15
“‘When his offering is a sacrifice of a peace offering, if he offers it of the herd, whether male or female, he shall offer it without blemish before the Lord. ² And he shall lay his hand on the head of his offering, and kill it at the door of the tabernacle of meeting; and Aaron’s sons, the priests, shall sprinkle the blood all around on the altar. ³ Then he shall offer from the sacrifice of the peace offering an offering made by fire to the Lord.
The fat that covers the entrails and all the fat that is on the entrails, ⁴ the two kidneys and the fat that is on them by the flanks, and the fatty lobe attached to the liver above the kidneys, he shall remove; ⁵ and Aaron’s sons shall burn it on the altar upon the burnt sacrifice, which is on the wood that is on the fire, as an offering made by fire, a sweet aroma to the Lord.”
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Now we’re going to study the Peace Offering.  It is placed in the middle of the five offerings for a very important, very beautiful reason.  As with the Burnt Offerings and the Grain Offering, some of the things they had to do to prepare this one are just as strange.  But, as usual, the Holy Spirit, our Master Story Teller, has great purpose in everything He does! 💖

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Recap.
Let’s do a quick review.

In the order of His book, the Burnt Offering and Grain Offering are listed first because, from God’s point of view, they are most important.  God puts Jesus’ death first (The Burnt Offering), then His life (The Grain Offering), to allow us to better appreciate the life He lived to qualify for the death He died on our behalf.
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Man, we discovered, does not come to God via these two offerings. We approach Him from the opposite direction:  Via the sin and Trespass offerings.  For both God and for us in order of our experience, the Peace offering comes third.  Why?  Because when we “experience,” that we are forgiven of all our trespasses (what we do), and sins (what we are), now we can relax!  😍 For God, His heart is so satisfied with His Son’s sacrifice and perfect life that He is now at rest, too.  Now that we have peace with God and He is at peace with us, we can enjoy sweet fellowship with each other. The war is over. 🙌🏻💖

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All of this results in joy and celebration, and that’s what this offering is all about: CELEBRATION! 🎉🎉🎉

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Peace With God. 

We can have peace with God because the whole issue of sin has been settled at the cross; and it isn’t only our past sins up till now.  😮

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Think about it: When Jesus died 2,000 ago, ALL OUR SINS WERE FUTURE. But Jesus is 100% God.  He lives outside time, therefore the cross is outside time.  To God, Who is outside time, there is no past or future, only present.  So when He said all our sins are put away, He meant “ALL.” Just as time is a composite whole, so your sins of your ENTIRE LIFE are a composite whole to Him.
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Some say that telling people, “All your sins for your entire life are cleansed,” means that you are saying that God has gone soft on sin. AS IF!!! 😲  WASH YOUR MOUTH OUT WITH SOAP!  

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NO!  God has NOT gone soft on sin! 🤨  He saw all your sins…..every single one of them…..and punished Jesus for them ALL.  Not one was left unpaid. If even one sin was overlooked, God would legally not have been able to raise Jesus from the dead.
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In the cross, all extremes meet.  God demonstrated His Holy, inflexible righteousness when He allowed Jesus to die on our behalf.  He demonstrated His great love for you and I by not killing us!  Thank you, Jesus!  Still as we walk through life, we sin from time to time.  But we can be assured that we are covered by the blood of Jesus, as we saw in the Bullock offering.  We can pick ourselves up and go on. 💖
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Types Of Acceptable Animals.
This offering could be any animal of the herd or the flock, either male or female, and also without defect. God makes a point of saying that the animals chosen for sacrifice must be from the HERD OR THE FLOCK, meaning, again, that they must be domesticated animals.

As we learned in Part 2, wild animals cannot represent Jesus, Who was perfectly submissive and obedient to His Father’s will. Wild animals are not domesticated nor can most of them be tamed. Definitely NOT a picture of Jesus.
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In this offering, however, a bullock, a lamb, or a goat is acceptable but birds are not.  The doves or pigeons offered in the burnt offering represent believers who have a small concept of God as someone way up in heaven, far away.  They have little appreciation of the blood as well.

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One of the reasons the Shelamim was offered was in thanksgiving for something God did for you.  How big is your concept and appreciation of God when He heals you or your family member of a sickness or disease, or if you are spared from a terrible accident?  REALLY, REALLY BIG, much larger than a dove or pigeon  would portray!  That’s why birds were not acceptable.

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The Law Of The Peace Offering.

Though the Peace offering is outlined in chapter 3, in chapter 7 we find “The Law of the Peace Offering.
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Leviticus 7:11-14

“This is the law of the sacrifice of peace offerings which he shall offer to the Lord: If he offers it for a thanksgiving, then he shall offer, with the sacrifice of thanksgiving, unleavened cakes mixed with oil, unleavened wafers anointed with oil, or cakes of blended flour mixed with oil. 

Besides the cakes, as his offering he shall offer leavened bread with the sacrifice of thanksgiving of his peace offering. And from it he shall offer one cake from each offering as a heave offering to the Lord. It shall belong to the priest who sprinkles the blood of the peace offering.

Notice in this offering, LEAVENED BREAD is allowed!  What a surprise! 😳 Why?  Because in our most fervent thanks and praise, there is always a little leaven mixed in because we are imperfect.

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For example:  In the middle of singing songs of praise, your thoughts can wander:  “I wonder what we’re having for lunch?”  Or thoughts about “Why is so-and-so dressed like that?”  Maybe you don’t care for the music you are hearing.  Whatever your internal monologue, God has you covered!  He knows that we are weak humans, so we need not fear.

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The thanksgiving offering must first be offered with UNleavened cakes or wafers mixed with oil OR cakes of blended flour MIXED WITH OIL.  The first two represent Jesus as the perfect man that He is, but the cakes of blended flour depict His birth as being mixed or brought forth by the Holy Spirit.

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That’s what oil in the Bible represents:  The Holy Spirit, whether inside a person…when you are born again…or anointed with the Holy Spirit, meaning The Power of the Holy Spirit resting ON you in power.  Inside and outside!

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You see, not every believer has the Holy Spirit resting ON them.  That’s where the real power is, as I said.  This is another whole topic in and of itself which is covered in greater detail, believe it or not, in the story of Noah and the great flood.

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(You may follow the link below and read all about it if you like:

https://emmausroadministries.international/2016/04/13/the-dove-and-the-olive-branch-flood-series-part-4/)
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Jesus was born with the Holy Spirit inside, unlike us who are born in sin, and anointed outside upon His baptism given the Spirit WITHOUT MEASURE.  We receive those things upon accepting Him as our Lord and Savior at conversion.

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Notice the bold phrase in red:

“The flesh of the sacrifice of his peace offering for thanksgiving shall be eaten the same day it is offered.  He shall not leave any of it until morning.”  What does this mean for us today?

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We must DAILY thank and praise God for His blessings and protection.  The day you confess divine health, that day you will eat of what you have confessed.  If you have confessed God’s blessings and protection today, TODAY you will eat of it’s benefits.  There is no such thing as thanking Him for tomorrow’s blessings.  Whatever you thank Him for today:  Health, prosperity, provision, protection, you will eat of the benefits of your offering for today and today only.  It does not hold over until tomorrow.
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But there was another reason to offer the Peace Offering.

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Vows And Voluntary Offerings.

Leviticus 7:16-17

“But if the sacrifice of his offering is a vow or a voluntary offering, it shall be eaten the same day that he offers his sacrifice; but on the next day the remainder of it also may be eaten; the remainder of the flesh of the sacrifice on the third day must be burned with fire.”

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If the offering was for a vow or a voluntary offering, THE REMAINDER COULD BE EATEN THE NEXT DAY.  WOW!

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We really don’t make vows today.  We do, however, make voluntary offerings.  For instance, when you promise your wife or husband on your wedding day that, come what may, you will remain faithful to him or her till death do you part.  That “offering” may be “eaten” on the second day (i.e. for the rest of your life) but not on the third day.  The third day when Jesus returns!

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ShelamayIM – Many Kinds Of Peace.

In Hebrew, the word for peace offering is, “Shelamayim.”  It is plural.  Whenever you want to make a word plural in Hebrew, you add “im,” at the end.  Technically you could say, “Peace(s)” offering (plural) in English.

There are many kinds of peace gained by Jesus’ death.  You have peace with God, peace in your conscience, peace within yourself, peace within your family, and among your friends.  But the word can also be translated, “Prosperities,” so, peace and prosperity in your finances as well.  The Psalm says, “The LORD is my Shepherd, I SHALL NOT LACK.”

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Whereas in the case of the Burnt Offering where it must always be a male animal, the Peace offering could be either male or female.  As we learned earlier, “Male” is how the Bible describes something that benefits God; in other words, “Godward.”  It also depicts spiritual maturity and strength.  Female depicts “man-ward,” or of benefit to us, as well as weakness, spiritually speaking.
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Female Portrayed AS Weakness.

Remember, these are typologies. Nothing against females here, simply Biblical means of explaining spiritual concepts.   Women are portrayed “AS” the weaker sex, not because they actually “ARE” weaker, you understand.  Who says that carrying a baby for nine months and delivering that baby is not strength?  We are treated “AS” weaker, but that isn’t the same as actually being weak.

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Everyone Has His Food.
In the Peace Offering, God has His food:  The fat is offered to Him; The priests (depicting saved individuals) have their food:  and the Offerer has his food, meaning you, the saved individual!
You AND your family get to eat of it.  Everyone gets a portion, unlike the Burnt Offering, which all goes to God.  This was offered and eaten in celebration of whatever it was that God did for you.

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Remember the father calling for the fatted calf when the Prodigal Son returned home?  He was offering the Peace Offering to God.  But there are even more amazing secrets in the Hebrew text!

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This is my FAVORITE part!!  You read that fat is mentioned three times as being offered and burnt on the altar but also the “kidneys” and the “fatty lobe attached to the liver,” (King James calls it, “The caul.”)  These words in Hebrew paint even more beautiful pictures of Jesus!

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Leviticus 3:3-5
“3 Then he (the priest) shall offer from the sacrifice of the peace offering an offering made by fire to the Lord. The fat that covers the entrails and all the fat that is on the entrails, ⁴ the two kidneys and the fat that is on them by the flanks, and the fatty lobe attached to the liver above the kidneys, he shall remove; ⁵ and Aaron’s sons shall burn it on the altar upon the burnt sacrifice, which is on the wood that is on the fire, as an offering made by fire, a sweet aroma to the Lord.”

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The word in Hebrew for fat is, “cheleb,” which means “the best or finest.”  If you owned a home say, in the Hamptons, for instance, it could be said that you owned the “fat” of the land.  It is prime property.

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The word for kidneys is, “·kelayot,” from the root word, “kalah: Complete.”

Flanks is the word, “kesalim,” from the root word, “kasal: Confidence.”  There is an “im” at the end of the word because it is plural.  Hebrew uses “im” like we use the letter “s.”  Kesalim signifies Jesus’ inward “confidences” in His Father.

Finally, what is offered to the LORD on the altar is the “fatty lobe attached to the liver.”  The word in Hebrew for this “fatty lobe” is “Yoteret,” from the root word, “yatar.”

Remember when Boaz sent Ruth home with a whole lot of food?  She went back to her mother-in-law and said, “Look at all this ‘yatar: More than enough/Super abundance.”

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But watch what happens when you couple that word with the word for “liver: kabeed.”  It comes from the root word, “cavot,” which means, “Glory.”

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All of these things remind the Father of the glories, the confidences, and completeness of His Son.  He, of course, knows all of them already but he LOVES to be reminded of all that Jesus is and all that He has done.

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Thank you, Jesus for being our Peace Offering!

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You may proceed to Part 8 by following the link below.  We’ll be discussing the Sin offering: