The Law of the Reparation Offering
Leviticus 7:1-10 (ESV)
7 “This is the law of the guilt offering. It is most holy. 2 In the place where they kill the burnt offering they shall kill the guilt offering, and its blood shall be thrown against the sides of the altar. 3 And all its fat shall be offered, the fat tail, the fat that covers the entrails, 4 the two kidneys with the fat that is on them at the loins, and the long lobe of the liver that he shall remove with the kidneys. 5 The priest shall burn them on the altar as a food offering to the Lord; it is a guilt offering. 6 Every male among the priests may eat of it. It shall be eaten in a holy place. It is most holy. 7 The guilt offering is just like the sin offering; there is one law for them. The priest who makes atonement with it shall have it. 8 And the priest who offers any man’s burnt offering shall have for himself the skin of the burnt offering that he has offered. 9 And every grain offering baked in the oven and all that is prepared on a pan or a griddle shall belong to the priest who offers it. 10 And every grain offering, mixed with oil or dry, shall be shared equally among all the sons of Aaron.
This is the offering of reconciliation and restitution. This offering was used mostly when someone had cheated or defrauded another out of material goods. For the priest, he had to discern genuine repentance verses false repentance. He would advise the sinner on how to make restitution. Once true repentance took place and full restitution made then the priest would assure them of God’s forgiveness.
In the case of theft, repentance is seen when the guilty party brought his own sacrifice and offered it to God. Then went to the priest for instructions on restitution. For example, if he stole 1,000$ then he had to repay that plus some. So, repentance is seen when he voluntarily goes to the priest offers a sacrifice and pays back more than he took.
By the very act of the Israelite bringing this sacrifice was a good indication that his repentance was genuine. He was voluntarily willing to lose the money for the sacrifice and pay back what was stolen plus more. For a thief to pay back more than he took was an indicator of repentance.
1. The Importance of the Blood (7:1-2)
7 “This is the law of the guilt offering. It is most holy. 2 In the place where they kill the burnt offering they shall kill the guilt offering, and its blood shall be thrown against the sides of the altar.
I’m not sure if you’ve noticed or not, but God goes to great lengths and is very specific when it comes to the blood of the sacrifice. Here the Guilt Offering, Reparation Offering or sometimes called the Trespass Offering, God is very concerned that the blood of the sacrifice be treated as holy.
We see first, that this is the torah or law concerning the Reparation Offering. What this means is that this is the part that concerned God’s Priests. These are the details they had to be concerned with. The Israelite bringing this offering did not have to know all these details, this was the torah for the Priests.
The sacrificial animal was killed inside the holy place, at the same place where the burnt offering sacrifice was killed. It was killed within the courtyard of the Tabernacle. Then its blood was taken and thrown against the sides of the altar.
Let’s recreate a little bit what the priest who served in the Tabernacle saw. To make it very clear they saw blood. It was everywhere. Think of the blood-stained ground. The spot where the sacrifice was killed. All the sacrificial animals were killed in the same spot. The ground must have been saturated with blood. Fresh blood and not so fresh blood. Probably when the priest stood in the spot the ground would have been like a sponge with blood oozing out when they stood there. Then there were bowls of blood ready to be thrown against the altar. Then there was the altar itself with blood on the horns and on the sides. Blood was everywhere and it was considered holy. It was never to leave the holy place.
For the sinner who has repented and been accepted by God the blood was the most beautiful sight his eyes could see. The reason is he realized that justly should have been his blood on the ground in the bowls and thrown against the altar. He should have suffered for his sin not the sacrificial animal substitute.
Here’s a Psalm that shows us the worshipper’s attitude as he saw this Tabernacle and later the Temple and all the blood…
Psalm 84:1–2 (ESV)
1 How lovely is your dwelling place,
O Lord of hosts!
2 My soul longs, yes, faints
for the courts of the Lord;
my heart and flesh sing for joy
to the living God.
How lovely, we might say, is the foot of the cross. How lovely is the Savior hanging there dying. How lovely is His shed blood and broken body. How lovely is the grace of God for sinners who come to Christ by faith. How lovely is it when by faith God applies the blood to us to reconcile us to Himself.
Colossians 1:19–20 (ESV)
19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
Ephesians 1:7 (ESV)
7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,
Hebrews 9:22 (ESV)
22 Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.
2. The Lord’s Food Offering (7:3-5)
3 And all its fat shall be offered, the fat tail, the fat that covers the entrails, 4 the two kidneys with the fat that is on them at the loins, and the long lobe of the liver that he shall remove with the kidneys. 5 The priest shall burn them on the altar as a food offering to the Lord; it is a guilt offering.
We have seen that the sacrifice was killed on the holy spot. Its blood sprinkled on the altar. Now let’s look to God’s portion.
The fat and the kidneys and liver placed on the altar and burned as a food offering to God. When the Priest placed these portions on the altar and burned them this was confirmation that God accepted the offering and forgiveness was granted.
There was a strict prescribed procedure. People must come to God on His terms not on their terms. The priest received the offering and God also received the offering. Repentance was exhibited as the sinner made restitution to the offended party.
This demonstrates God’s wondrous love–that we have a God that is so concerned that sins are forgiven but also that we would be assured when we have come with a right heart to worship the Lord that our sins are forgiven. Not only does God forgive but also grants us assurance that we are forgiven. It’s amazing that God forgives and even more amazing that He forgives me.
It also reminds us of the seriousness of sin, doesn’t it? —that the Lord has to go into this intricate detail in order to bring about a restoration of the believer with Himself, or with his brothers whom he has wounded and wronged.
3. The Priest’s Portion (7:6-10)
6 Every male among the priests may eat of it. It shall be eaten in a holy place. It is most holy. 7 The guilt offering is just like the sin offering; there is one law for them. The priest who makes atonement with it shall have it. 8 And the priest who offers any man’s burnt offering shall have for himself the skin of the burnt offering that he has offered. 9 And every grain offering baked in the oven and all that is prepared on a pan or a griddle shall belong to the priest who offers it. 10 And every grain offering, mixed with oil or dry, shall be shared equally among all the sons of Aaron.
What we should see here is that the priest has the right to what belongs to him. He was the one who made the atonement according to the Father’s will. He killed the Ram. He cut it up as God prescribed. He placed the blood on the sides of the altar and he burned the fat portions as God’s food offering. The rest belonged to him.
We see something mentioned here that should spark our imagination and memory. The priest would receive the meat from the offering and something else. The priest would also receive the skin of the burnt offering.
The priest received the skin of the sacrifice. It would be used for clothing for himself and his family.
As we think about this picture of skin of the sacrifice used for clothing, it takes us back to the Garden of Eden and then it will also take us ahead, into the future. So, let’s do a brief biblical survey of the skin of the sacrifice and being clothed.
Genesis 3:21 (ESV)
21 And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.
God clothed their nakedness. In order to do that what had to happen to the animals that the skin came from? They were killed to clothe Adam and Eve. These animals were not killed for food but for clothing.
The covering of nakedness was the covering of sin. This would be a shadow of the covering the sacrificial system would achieve and then ultimately later, the removal of sin through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
We must remember that Jesus is the High Priest. The garments belonged to the priest and what would our Great High Priest do with these garments? He would clothe the nakedness of our original parents. So, we see that these animal skins have a deeper spiritual meaning. They were used to clothe the sin of Adam and Eve.
Genesis 3:7 (ESV)
7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.
Earlier they had made for themselves clothing because they knew they were naked. Sin brought on this realization and taken Adam and Eve from innocence to the realization of knowing good and evil and to judgement. However, man’s attempts to clothe himself; to cover his sin will never be sufficient for God. We cannot remove our own sin nor can we cover it. God had to do it for Adam and Eve and He must do it for us. We cannot make things right between us and God.
God has clothed us who believe…
Galatians 3:26–27 (ESV)
26 for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. 27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
If we are clothed with Christ then we are His. We belong to Him.
1 Corinthians 6:18–20 (ESV)
18 Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. 19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
Just like Adam and Eve were clothed by God so too we are clothed by God with Christ. We wear white robes when God sees us. He does not look on our sin but sees us as holy.
God received His portion and the rest of the sacrifice belonged to the priest. He was to keep the skin. What does our High Priest do? He gives it to us to hide our nakedness. We are clothed with Christ.
Revelation 7:9–10 (ESV)
9 After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
Resources Used:
Leviticus by Andrew Bonar
Leviticus by Allen Ross
Teaching Leviticus by Geoffrey Harper
Leviticus by Wenham
Leviticus by Rooker
Genesis by Candlish
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