Acceptable Offerings
The LORD Is Holy
19:1 And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
2 “Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them, tYou shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy.
5 And fif ye offer a sacrifice of peace offerings unto the LORD, ye shall offer it gat your own will.
You Shall Be Holy
22 o“You shall therefore keep all my statutes and all my rules and do them
17 “Speak to Aaron, saying, None of your offspring throughout their generations who has a blemish may qapproach to offer the bread of his God.
18 For no one who has a blemish shall draw near, a man rblind or lame, or one who has a mutilated face sor a limb too long,
19 or a man who has an injured foot or an injured hand,
20 or a hunchback or a dwarf or a man with a rdefect in his sight or an itching disease or scabs or tcrushed testicles.
21 No man of the offspring of Aaron the priest who has a blemish shall come near to uoffer the LORD’s food offerings; since he has a blemish, he shall not come near to offer the bread of his God.
22:17–25 These verses offer guidelines for acceptable offerings. According to v. 18, the entire nation is in view. Thus, legal stipulations are not merely the responsibility of the priesthood. Verses 22–25 lists specific defects that are only generally referenced in vv. 17–21.
The central message is that God is holy and he requires his people to be holy. The book also shows that God graciously provides atonement for sin through the shedding of blood.
3:1 “If his offering is ia sacrifice of peace offering, if he offers an animal from the herd, male or female, jhe shall offer it kwithout blemish before the LORD
2 “Speak to the people of Israel, saying, uIf anyone sins unintentionally1 in any of the LORD’s commandments vabout things not to be done, and does any one of them,
3 if it is the anointed priest who wsins, thus bringing guilt on the people, then he shall offer for the sin that he has committed xa bull from the herd without blemish to the LORD for a sin offering.
15 u“If anyone commits a breach of faith and sins unintentionally in any of the holy things of the LORD, vhe shall bring to the LORD as his compensation, a ram without blemish out of the flock,
10 “If any one of the house of Israel or of the strangers who sojourn among them deats any blood, I will eset my face against that person who eats blood and will cut him off from among his people.
11 fFor the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar gto make atonement for your souls, hfor it is the blood that makes atonement by the life.
12 Therefore I have said to the people of Israel, No person among you shall eat blood, neither shall any stranger who sojourns among you eat blood.
17 Theni Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,
18 “Speak to Aaron and to his sons and to all the ⌊Israelites⌋,j and say to them, ‘Anyone from the house of Israel ork from the alien in Israel who presents his offering for any of their vows orl for any of their freewill offerings that they present to Yahweh as a burnt offering,
it must be without defect ⌊to be acceptable for you⌋:m a male among the cattle, among the sheep, orn among the goats.
Even aside from sacrificial animals, castration of animals was broadly forbidden—possibly because it altered the natural creation.
Le 22:17–33. THE SACRIFICES MUST BE WITHOUT BLEMISH.
19. Ye shall offer at your own will—rather, to your being accepted.
a male without blemish—This law (Le 1:3) is founded on a sense of natural propriety, which required the greatest care to be taken in the selection of animals for sacrifice. The reason for this extreme caution is found in the fact that sacrifices are either an expression of praise to God for His goodness, or else they are the designed means of conciliating or retaining His favor. No victim that was not perfect in its kind could be deemed a fitting instrument for such purposes if we assume that the significance of sacrifices is derived entirely from their relation to Jehovah. Sacrifices may be likened to gifts made to a king by his subjects, and hence the reasonableness of God’s strong remonstrance with the worldly-minded Jews (Mal 1:8). If the tabernacle, and subsequently the temple, were considered the palace of the great King, then the sacrifices would answer to presents as offered to a monarch on various occasions by his subjects; and in this light they would be the appropriate expressions of their feelings towards their sovereign. When a subject wished to do honor to his sovereign, to acknowledge allegiance, to appease his anger, to supplicate forgiveness, or to intercede for another, he brought a present; and all the ideas involved in sacrifices correspond to these sentiments—those of gratitude, of worship, of prayer, of confession and atonement [BIB. SAC.].
23. that mayest thou offer, &c.—The passage should be rendered thus: “if thou offer it either for a freewill offering, or for a vow, it shall not be accepted.” This sacrifice being required to be “without blemish” [Le 22:19], symbolically implied that the people of God were to dedicate themselves wholly with sincere purposes of heart, and its being required to be “perfect to be accepted” [Le 22:21], led them typically to Him without whom no sacrifice could be offered acceptable to God.
1:19 precious blood of Christ Refers to the sacrifice of Christ on the cross (see v. 2 and note). First Peter often highlights the costly nature of Christ’s sacrifice and the salvation it made possible (see vv. 7; 2:4–7).
unblemished and spotless lamb This may refer to a lamb qualified for sacrifice. Here Peter likens Christ’s sacrifice to that of a lamb offered according to the OT sacrificial system (see Lev 22:21; 23:12; Exod 12:5; Num 6:14) or, more likely, the Passover lamb in the exodus narrative. In the NT, Christ is depicted as the perfect Passover lamb whose sacrifice redeems believers from the slavery of sin (see John 1:29, 36; 1 Cor 5:7 and note; compare Heb 9:14; Isa 53:10 and note)
Christ’s sacrifice is compared to a lamb without blemish or spot. The references to “lamb” and “blood” point to the OT sacrifices and especially to Christ as the Passover Lamb (Exodus 12) and the servant of the Lord (cf. “lamb,” Isa. 53:7). As the perfect sacrifice, Christ atoned for the sins of the unrighteous (cf. John 1:29; 1 Pet. 3:18).