The Law of Peace Offerings
The peace offering could be a male or female. The offering must come from the heard of cattle, the flock of sheep or be a goat. No matter the animal. The man making the sacrifice was to bring the animal to the doorway of the tent of meeting. He then laid his hand on the animals head and slay it at the doorway. The priest sprinkled the blood around on the altar. The two kidneys, the liver, the intra-abdominal fat and all the fat is offered up to the Lord on the altar as smoke. The blood and fat of the sacrifice belongs to the Lord but the man may eat of the meat.
This is a peace offering, an offering that may happen in fellowship, when the sons of Israel come together as a congregation. The meat for the meal must be sacrificed in this way. The blood and the fat are the Lord’s but the meat is given to man. I believe that this goes back to Noah. God gave Noah and his sons the living animals as food. Prior to this, God had only given man green plants for food. (Gn.9:3) The sons of Israel were restricted from every animal, but of the animals that they could eat, they were to understand that death is a result of sin. Man had to eat meat because man was no longer in the garden. Something had to die in the garden to cloth the man and his wife’s nakedness. (Gn.3:21) Sacrificing an animal in this way, for a fellowship meal, would cause one to recall the Scriptures and fear the Lord.
