The Peace Offering

Celebrating the restoration of shalom with the King and with our neighbors.

Leviticus 3:1-3 "If you present an animal from the herd as a peace offering to the LORD, it may be a male or a female, but it must have no defects. 2 Lay your hand on the animal's head, and slaughter it at the entrance of the Tabernacle. Then Aaron's sons, the priests, will splatter its blood against all sides of the altar. 3 The priest must present part of this peace offering as a special gift to the LORD. This includes all the fat around the internal organs,

---

From my previous post, you may get the idea that sacrificing animals began in the book of Leviticus but sacrifices have already been around ever since the first sin while man was still living in the Garden of Eden. Right after they left Eden the Bible moves on to Cain and Abel worshiping God and somehow they knew that they shouldn't approach God without a sacrifice.

The first sacrifice that the book of Leviticus shows us is the Burnt Offering which was a gift wholly given to God, they did not approach God casually like we do today. Next was the Grain Offering that was given to show our gratitude to God for providing for our needs.

After the worshiper finished the obligatory Burnt and Grain offerings it was natural to celebrate their renewed fellowship with God. It wasn't enough to have peace with God and just keep it to yourself, to receive shalom and not celebrate it would be a sign that you don't really appreciate the amazing deed that God has done for you.

Since God is the host of this party the food must be eaten in his house. Parts of the sacrificed animal belong to God, other parts to the priest and other parts to the person bringing the offering. It reminds me of the covenant meal that God served to Israel's leaders when they ratified the covenant at Mount Sinai.

Exodus 24:11 And though these nobles of Israel gazed upon God, he did not destroy them. In fact, they ate a covenant meal, eating and drinking in his presence!

All of the religious systems around God's people had sacrifices and celebrations but none of them had the demand from God to be ceremonially clean and celebrate by his rules. This celebration time had to be free from the immoral practices that Israel had learned from the culture. (Leviticus 7:19-21)

Luke 1:78-79  Because of God’s tender mercy, the morning light from heaven is about to break upon us,  79  to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, and to guide us to the path of peace.

God has done everything necessary to give us the only way to obtain peace with him.

The solution to our sin problem could only come from God and it was always his intention to go to the extreme to restore our relationship. Only the perfect sacrifice that God provided could provide our pardon and bring back the shalom that was lost in the garden.

God provided my peace offering which isn't really mine unless I accept it, I need to admit that Jesus is my only way to have fellowship with God, and he is the only way that I can come to the table and eat the bread and drink the cup. Do you have peace with God? (Romans 5:1-2)

God has done everything necessary for us to obtain peace with everyone. 

The peace that I have with God should naturally bring joyful, peaceful and loving relationships with my enemies, my neighbors and especially with the rest of God's family. True peace should bring an amazing joy that has to come out and be shared with others. (Matthew 5:9)

When my sins, which are way more offensive to God, are forgiven how can I refuse to forgive other sinners who have sinned against me? If I cannot forgive the sins that have been committed against me, which are so small, then I must not appreciate the undeserved forgiveness that I received. (Matthew 18:21-35)

As a priest of the king of kings I need to do my job, showing the world the only source of everlasting peace with God that will bring great joy. (Mark 9:50 / 1 Peter 2:5, 9 / Colossians 1:19-20)

RELATED ARTICLES

Leviticus Chapter 3 – The Peace Offering (meetinggodinthemargin.com)

What is a peace offering? (gotquestions.org)

The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant (tabletopmagazine.com)

God's Wonderful Gifts

I don't deserve them but God has given me the best gifts ever.

Luke 2:20  The shepherds went back to their flocks, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen. It was just as the angel had told them.

1 John 1:1-4 We proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning, whom we have heard and seen. We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands. He is the Word of life. 2 This one who is life itself was revealed to us, and we have seen him. And now we testify and proclaim to you that he is the one who is eternal life. He was with the Father, and then he was revealed to us.

3 We proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4 We are writing these things so that you may fully share our joy.

---

Everybody has had their share of disappointments because something isn't as good as it seemed to be. Sometimes good news isn't so good and sometimes good gifts are not really good at all.

The shepherds received great news that may have seemed too good to be true but when they went to the manger to check it out they were not disappointed. While other people were indifferent to the news, they believed that they received the greatest, most perfect gift ever! 

I have to wonder what ever happened to all of the people that the shepherds shared the good news with? (Luke 2:17-18) They must have thought that these shepherds had spent too many lonely nights outside with the sheep. How could any good Jew believe that the same God that created the universe was a human baby laying in a manger?

John 1:17-18 For the law was given through Moses, but God’s unfailing love and faithfulness came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God. But the unique One, who is himself God, is near to the Father’s heart. He has revealed God to us.

But eventually the news got out to the right people and they did check out the news and found out that the boy in the manger really is God. It is so easy to see from John, the beloved disciple and author of four books of the Bible, that he became convinced that the great news of Christmas is for real.

The book of First John begins with what looks like a sworn deposition for a courtroom trial, John gives his testimony of what he has seen and heard from three years of almost constant companionship with Jesus. John's testimony states that he has met God, not the way that people meet God today, he had a close physical interaction with him, he saw him daily, heard him teach and even him.

John spent the rest of his life writing books and telling anybody that would listen that Jesus is God, the creator of life was revealed to him and we could not keep quiet about it. John tells us even better news than that, Jesus is not only God but he is also a tremendously loving God that is here in our world on a mission. Whoever heard of a God that is so full of love for his creation that he is willing to go to such great lengths to fix the mess that we made?

Why is Jesus called the Word?
Our words reveal to others just what we think and how we feel. Christ reveals to us the mind and heart of God. He is the living means of communication between God and men. To know Jesus Christ is to know God! -Warren Wiersbe

God wrote himself into our story so that we can learn about him and get to know him. We can only know God because he revealed himself to us. But it wasn't enough that God revealed himself in creation, God also revealed himself much more fully by coming to be God with us in the form of a vulnerable baby in our desperate world. (Romans 1:20, John 14:9)

All of that is wonderful news but that's not the end of the list of the gifts that God has given us. Because his son Jesus came into our world it became possible to receive even more wonderful gifts!

God Has Given To Us:

Heaven - I have a priceless inheritance because of Jesus.

Salvation - The redeemed will sing forever "Jesus saves!"

Mercy - Our mistakes do not have to haunt us.

Hope - No matter what is going on around me.

Love - The greatest gift that will last forever.

Peace - We can all use some more peace on earth.

Wisdom - So much better than the world has to offer.

What more could you ask for? What else do you really need to have? Why are so many of God's children so unhappy and struggling to find the gifts that he is already offering to us? God's children are the most blessed and therefore they should be the happiest people on earth.

Do you have "fellowship with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ?" (1 John 1:3) This fellowship is offered to anyone that is willing to accept Jesus work on the cross as the only way to have peace with God.

RELATED ARTICLES

Best Gift Ever (diggingtheword.blogspot.com)

Best Giver Ever (diggingtheword.blogspot.com)

Confession Is Good

Confession brings forgiveness, cleansing and eternal life.

1 John 1:8-10  If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth.   

9 But if we confess our sins to Him, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.   

10  If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that His word has no place in our hearts.

---

We have all heard that confession is good for the soul, even modern psychology believes that confession is valuable, the problem is they don't know why confession is so valuable and they definitely don't know who it is that you need to confess to.

Sin gets in the way of our ability to have fellowship with God and confession is the way to make the relationship right again. It sounds like a great idea to live in fellowship with God but too many of us are content to live without fellowship because we are not willing to give up our selfish ways and our pride.

We only have a small glimpse of what the Garden of Eden was like before God closed it so it is difficult to understand what the world was like before sin broke everything. We cannot fully comprehend how bad sin is, to us sin is our normal routine and not sinning is the thing that we struggle with, it is difficult for us to see sin as God sees it. God sees sin as being so bad and so evil that it cost Jesus his life, there wasn't a quick and easy fix for sin, it took something as drastic as God on a cross to undo it's effects on us.

Proverbs 28:13  People who conceal their sins will not prosper, but if they confess and turn from them, they will receive mercy.

Our attitude towards our sin determines whether we can enjoy fellowship with God. Some of the ways that we can deal with sin in our life:

✔  Pretend like you have never sinned

✔  Claim that you have stopped sinning
✔   Ignore your sin and refuse to deal with it

✔  Confess your sin

If we don't confess our sins then in essence we are disagreeing with God and telling him that he is wrong. It sounds pretty arrogant but sometimes we go to great lengths to avoid admitting that we blew it. The devil loves it when we behave like he does and exhibit the same characteristics that he has.

If we do confess then there is a promise from God that he will forgive. How much easier could God make it?  But don't think that you can keep it shallow and get any results, God wants us to be real, it's easy to say, "I am a sinner," but if confession is to be real it must mention exactly what you did wrong.

The first confession
Romans 10:9-10  If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.  10  For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved.

If Jesus is not your Savior then there isn't any forgiveness from God for you. Before we can expect to receive forgiveness there is another confession that must come first. We must confess that Jesus is God's son that was crucified to pay the penalty of sin for us, he was raised from the dead to offer a guarantee that we would be raised as well.

I want to have fellowship with God because of the incredible gift of salvation that he gave to me. I need to live for him so that the fellowship will not be broken.

Famous People Need Friends To

Men of the Bible Series - Onesiphorus was a close friend to the apostle Paul

2 Timothy 1:16-18  May the Lord show special kindness to Onesiphorus and all his family because he often visited and encouraged me.

He was never ashamed of me because I was in chains. When he came to Rome, he searched everywhere until he found me.

May the Lord show him special kindness on the day of Christ’s return. And you know very well how helpful he was in Ephesus.

---

Even though you may be surrounded by people everywhere that you go, it doesn't mean that you have a good friend, someone that will pick you up and encourage you and be with you no matter what. That kind of person can be difficult to find.

The apostle Paul had people all around him and no doubt many of the people were friendly, after all he brought good news everywhere that he went and people were being changed by the gospel, they had every reason to be friendly. But would they be there when the chips were down? What would happen when the rocks started being thrown and the beating started?

Paul spent several years in Ephesus and there was a great revival there. Paul said that Onesiphorus was helpful to his ministry in Ephesus, maybe that was where their friendship began. Onesiphorus was an encouragement to Paul, he visited him and built Paul up, he was even there for him when Paul was bound in chains. Paul's popularity was probably at it's lowest time then but Onesiphorus was humble and courageous and wasn't afraid to be associated with Paul. 

When the polls are up you can ride high and enjoy the popularity but if you do not take the time to develop real friends then a day will come when the polls will plunge and then you will be left alone. Take some time to look past the shallow acquaintances that fill your Facebook friend list and establish some real friends that will be there for you no matter what.

I need to be a real friend, Lord help me to be a loyal friend that will help when the rest of the world runs away.

You might like to read: Men of the Bible blog series.

God's Lost And Found

Scripture

---

Luke 15:23-24, 31-32  We must celebrate with a feast, 24 for this son of mine was dead and has returned to life. He was lost and is found.' So the party began.

31 " 'Look, dear son,' his father said to him, 'you and I are very close, and everything I have is yours. 32 But it is right to celebrate. For he is your brother; and he was dead and has come back to life! He was lost and is found!' "

Observation

---

Everybody loves to find something valuable, God finds great value in you and I and when we come to him with humility he is ready to forgive us and take us back into fellowship with him. He is ready to celebrate when we return because we are his most valuable creation.

Just look at how much he loves us!
1 John 3:1  How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!

Just look at all the things that he does for us!
Psalms 103:1-5,8-13  I bless the holy name of God with all my heart. 2 Yes, I will bless the Lord and not forget the glorious things he does for me.

3 He forgives all my sins. He heals me. 4 He ransoms me from hell. He surrounds me with loving-kindness and tender mercies. 5 He fills my life with good things! My youth is renewed like the eagles! 8 He is merciful and tender toward those who don't deserve it; he is slow to get angry and full of kindness and love. 9 He never bears a grudge, nor remains angry forever. 

10 He has not punished us, as we deserve for all our sins, 11 for his mercy toward those who fear and honor him is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth. 12 He has removed our sins as far away from us as the east is from the west. 13 He is like a father to us, tender and sympathetic to those who reverence him. 

Application

---

I will remember how much love that you have for me and all the many things that you do for me.

Prayer

---

Help me to always see your love and how well you treat me, even when life does not seem fair.