Guilt and Restitution
This text indicates that deception about securities, robbery, extortion, and lying about lost things are actually acts of unfaithfulness against the Lord. Whatever a person does wrong to his or her neighbor is it to the Lord. Jesus said that whatever we do or not do for the least of his brethren, we did it to him. (Mt. 25:40, 45)
In this Levitical law, the guilty person is to restore whatever they took from another person. On the day that he brings the guilt offering before the Lord, he is to restore whatever he took from the other person and add one-fifth to the value. Then he is to bring a ram as a guilt offering before the Lord. Jesus Christ is our guilt offering. Therefore, we repent of our sins and trust in his sin sacrifice but we still need to make restitution to those whom we have hurt.
The Work of the Priest’s
The fire on the altar was to be kept burning day and night. The burnt offerings were laid on the altar in the morning and kept there throughout the night. Every morning, the priest was to put on his linen robe with under garments next to his flesh. Then he took up the ashes reduced by the fire on the altar and placed them beside the altar until he changed his garments. Then he carried the ashes to a clean place outside the camp.
We should remember that when the grain offering was given, the priest took a handful and offered it up to the Lord in smoke on the altar but the remainder belonged to the priest. Now the priest portion is to be eaten as unleavened cakes in the court of the tent of meeting. Only the sons of Aaron may eat it. However, when the priest makes a grain offering, it was to be entirely burnt, none of it was be eaten.
The burnt offerings and the sin offerings were to be slain in the same place. The priest who offers the sin offering was the priest who ate it, in the court of the tent of meeting. Anyone who touches the offerings, whether grain or animal offering, once they have been offered up in smoke to the Lord was consecrated. Sacrifices brought into the tent of meeting, to make atonement, were not to be eaten but entirely burned on the altar. The priest’s sin sacrifice was one of those brought into the tent of meeting; therefore, the sacrifices for the priest was entirely burnt. The priests were to wash whatever the blood sacrifice splashed on. If the meat is boiled in pottery, the pot was to be smashed, but if it was boiled in a kettle, it was to be scoured and rinsed in water.
The New Covenant
Sacrifices should be understood as food. This is the reason that Jesus instituted the Lord’s supper: (1 Cor. 11:24-25)
He broke it and said, “This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” (NASB)
Just as we understand that whoever touched and ate the grain offering or sin offering was consecrated to the Lord. We should understand that the Lord’s supper is holy and whoever takes part in it is consecrated to the Lord; therefore, it should only be eaten in reverence to the Lord. This also shows a change in covenant because in the first covenant only the priests could eat, but in the new covenant all believers shall eat.
