Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible
Leviticus 7:11-21
The Law of the Sacrifice of the Peace Offerings (Leviticus 7:11).
Finally the peace or wellbeing sacrifices are dealt with. These are of three types, the thanksgiving offering, which was a way of expressing thanks to God for particular blessings received, the votive offering or offering in respect of completing a vow, and the freewill offering, which was simply offered with the purpose of paying tribute to God and acknowledging Him as Lord, an offering made simply out of love for God.
‘And this is the law of the sacrifice of peace offerings, which one shall offer to Yahweh.'
The purpose of what follows is to explain further concerning the peace or wellbeing offerings. The first type is the thanksgiving offering. This was a common offering as any animal that was put to death had to be offered in one way or another, and where there was no special reason for making an offering, thanksgiving might be an obvious choice. It would partly depend on how long he wanted his feast to last.
‘If he offer it for a thanksgiving, then he shall offer with the sacrifice of thanksgiving unleavened cakes mingled with oil, and unleavened wafers anointed with oil, and cakes mingled with oil, of milled grain soaked. With cakes of leavened bread he shall offer his oblation with the sacrifice of his peace offerings for thanksgiving.'
If his offering is a thanksgiving sacrifice he is to offer with it unleavened cakes mingled with oil, wafers anointed with oil and milled grain cakes soaked in oil, and with these he is to offer cakes of leavened bread. A full feast is being provided for those who will partake. As suggested earlier, leaven can be offered because this is a thanksgiving offering.
But there is no mention of the offer of a memorial portion (Leviticus 2:2), what is offered to the priest is said to be for his consumption. The provisions for grain offerings earlier may suggest that here the leavened bread is not to be offered as a sacrifice made by fire (Leviticus 2:11). Note the wording which keeps the leavened bread separate from the other grain offerings. Does ‘with cakes of leavened bread he shall offer his oblation' indicate that they are brought along to be added once the oblation has been offered? Or is the memorial portion of the oblation not offered at all? The quantity of different types of grain offerings might make that difficult. It would require a handful of each. The probability therefore is that the leaven is not offered by fire.
‘And of it he shall offer one out of each oblation for a contribution to Yahweh. It shall be the priest's who sprinkles the blood of the peace-offerings.'
And of these cakes that are brought the priest is to have his portion. He is to have one of each type of oblation (the grain ‘contributions' or ‘heave offerings'). It may be that he waves these before Yahweh to indicate that they have been offered to Him and then he retains them for his own use. It would seem therefore probable that these oblations are not offered on the altar. (This is not a whole offering to Yahweh). The remainder are available for those invited to the feast or asked to share the meat. Of the meat of the sacrifice he receives the special portions reserved for the priest, the breast and the right thigh (Leviticus 7:32; Exodus 29:26). The remainder is available for the feast, which may be held where the offerer desires, or for giving to those present at the sacrifice for them to take home.
‘And the flesh of the sacrifice of his peace-offerings for thanksgiving shall be eaten on the day of his oblation; he shall not leave any of it until the morning.'
The whole feast must be finished off before morning. Nothing must be left. It is a thanksgiving offering and therefore the offerer should be generous in his invitations. The whole picture is an incitement to generosity and hospitality. Those who have much should share it with others in order to show their genuine gratitude to God.
‘But if the sacrifice of his oblation be a vow, or a freewill-offering, it shall be eaten on the day that he offers his sacrifice; and on the morrow that which remains of it shall be eaten, but what remains of the flesh of the sacrifice on the third day shall be burnt with fire.'
On the other hand in the case of the votive or freewill offering the meat may be allowed to last two days. But no flesh from the peace sacrifice shall be left for a third day. What is left until then must immediately be burned. This provision has in mind that the cooked meat in a hot country would tend to become uneatable by the third day, and even dangerous to eat. The purpose was to save those who ate the meat from partaking of bad meat.
‘And if any of the flesh of the sacrifice of his peace-offerings be eaten on the third day, it shall not be accepted, neither shall it be imputed to him who offers it: it shall be an abomination, and the soul who eats of it shall bear his iniquity.'
Indeed if the eating of the meat continues into the third day it will both annul the sacrifice and bring judgment on the offerer. His offering will not be accepted, nor will the benefits that should have accrued from it in atonement and acceptance of worship offered be forthcoming. There will be no peace or wellbeing, only judgment. All who partake of it then must take what is coming. The point here is not to spoil the party but to ensure that no one ever does keep the cooked meat until the third day. The judgment on them may well simply be the consequences of their action resulting in stomach problems, severe food poisoning or even death.
“It shall be an abomination (piggul).” This is a technical term used to describe the condition of sacrificial meat which has not been eaten in the proper time (Leviticus 19:7; Isaiah 65:4; Ezekiel 4:14). The root probably signifies impurity.
Further Pointers.
‘And the flesh which touches any unclean thing shall not be eaten; it shall be burnt with fire. And as for the flesh, every one that is clean shall eat of it.'
All who are clean may eat of the sacrificial flesh, thus anyone in an unclean state is excluded. However, in minor cases of uncleanness, cleansing from uncleanness was finalised by the evening (‘shall be unclean until the evening') so that such people merely have to wait until the evening, around nightfall.
But any of the flesh which touches anything unclean is to be burned with fire. This is first because what is unclean is not fit to come in contact with what has been made holy, even the lowest level of holiness, so that the holiness is marred by the uncleanness. Man are being made to face up to what God is. So these laws are intended to make people continually aware of, and to think about, the holiness of God. But it also has in mind that such contact might have made the flesh hygienically dangerous. This contact with what was unclean might occur while carrying the meat to their houses. Whatever flesh touches anything unclean must be burned.
The concept of cleanness and uncleanness is a complicated one, and connected with the idea of holiness. Just as there were grades of holiness, so there were grades of cleanness and uncleanness. We will come across it in more detail later. Much of it had to do with death in one way or another, or that which was seen as grossly unpleasant. They had to see that such things were in total contrast to the living God, and must be kept apart from what was separated to Him. God was clean. But within the idea undoubtedly lay questions of hygiene. God protected people through his religious laws. No people washed more than Israelites, even though the washing was not strictly for hygienic reasons. But we need not doubt that God had that in mind.
‘But the soul who eats of the flesh of the sacrifice of peace-offerings, which pertain to Yahweh, having his uncleanness on him, that soul shall be cut off from his people.'
Furthermore any who deliberately come to partake while in an unclean state are to be ‘cut off from among the people'. This is a warning to take uncleanness seriously. The person who is unclean must not partake until their uncleanness has been ‘cleansed'. For many that will be when evening comes. But for those whose uncleanness is to last more than a day, it is clearly of a more serious nature. They may be a danger to others as well as to themselves. They therefore must not participate of the holy flesh. ‘Cut off' probably indicates the death sentence (Leviticus 19:8). It is a serious offence. But it may indicate expulsion from the camp, or even a period of exclusion, to be then remedied by a guilt offering.
Such uncleanness can arise in various ways. Making love with one's wife while she was menstruating, having certain skin diseases, having a discharge from the sexual organ, menstruating, coming in contact with dead matter, and so on.
‘And when any one shall touch any unclean thing, the uncleanness of man, or an unclean beast, or any unclean abomination, and eat of the flesh of the sacrifice of peace-offerings, which pertain to Yahweh, that soul shall be cut off from his people.'
Indeed no one who has touched anything unclean, whether man's uncleanness, or an unclean beast, or an unclean small creature may partake of the peace sacrifice. Such people are defiled and not fitted to eat what has come from the tabernacle. They may also bring and spread disease. The ‘abomination' may refer to some well known vermin. Once again God's holiness is brought to man's attention, but once again also possible sources of disease are avoided.
All these laws of uncleanness taught people to keep to that which was wholesome and good, and to avoid things that might cause harm to the people as a whole. Much disease might have been avoided had they been followed. Especially in the wilderness avoiding these things could only be a good thing, and this was one of the purposes of the laws.