February 1, 2018 Bible Study — Basic Rules on Sacrifices

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Leviticus 1-4.

    Today’s passage contains the basic instructions the Israelites were to follow to make offerings to God. I find it noteworthy that in all of the animal sacrifices the priests were instructed to splash the blood of the animal against the side(s) of the altar. In addition, all of the fat was to be burned on the altar, even from those sacrifices of which parts were to be eaten. Specifically, the Israelites were instructed never to eat either the blood or the fat of an animal. Then we get to the instructions concerning the grain offerings which were never to contain yeast or honey. I was more or less aware of the prohibition on yeast and its significance in Jewish dietary law. I remember previously reading about honey being excluded from the grain offerings, but it is not something I ever noticed before. In particular, yeast and honey were excluded from offerings of which portions were going to be burned on the altar. In all of that I would be hard pressed to explain why this is significant, but I am sure that it is.