Today we begin Leviticus Chapter 7.
For the Complete Jewish Bible, click here.
For the King James Bible, click here.
“Every male from a family of cohanim may eat of the Reparation Offering; it is to be eaten in a holy place; it is especially holy. The reparation offering is like the purification offering; the same law governs them — it will belong to the cohen who uses it to make atonement.”-Leviticus 7:6-7
Recall that Chapter 7 is just a continuation of Chapter 6
These two chapters (Leviticus chapters 6 and 7) should be treated as one section that deals with the Priestly protocol for the five sacrificial categories which are as follows:
OLAH-Burnt Offering
MINCHAH-Grain Offering
ZEVAH-Peace Offering
HATTA-AT-Purification Offering
ASHAM-Reparation Offering
Chapter 7 begins with the priestly instructions for the ASHAM.
Most Bible translations will call this the “Guilt Offering”, but I have chosen to call it the “Reparation Offering” for reasons already discussed.
The first point I want you to notice is that the Lord calls the meat from this offering “especially holy” or in Hebrew KODESH KODASHIM.
Now what other sacrifice was also called “especially holy”?
The HATTA-AT, right?
Since both the ASHAM and the HATTA-AT are designated as being KODESH KODASHIM (especially holy), we can deduce from this that the sacrificial conditions for both of these offerings are identical.
Both the ASHAM and the HATTA-AT are blood sacrifices and the animal for both sacrifices is slaughtered on the north side of the Brazen Altar.
For both of them, the internal organ fat has to be removed and burned up on the altar.
And if the sacrificial animal is a sheep, then the fat tail also has to be burned up on the altar.
Finally, the remaining portions of meat not placed on the Brazen Altar were to be given to the priests for food, which had to be eaten inside the Tabernacle area.
Let’s next take a look at verse 8.
“The cohen who offers someone’s burnt offering will possess the hide of the burnt offering which he has offered.”-Leviticus 7:8
Here we see that the precious hide of the animal was NOT to be sacrificed on the Brazen Altar.
It was to become the priests’ property.
The priests could use the hide for bartering or sell it for money.
The principle being established here is that the needs of God’s priests are to be taken care of by the congregation…
…which brings me to my next point.
Our modern day pastors are NOT the equivalent of Levitical priests.
I’m not saying that modern day pastors should not be supported to some degree.
But based on the New Testament, today’s pastors would be more like teachers of the Word rather than priests.
It would be better to equate the pastors of today to Rabbis instead of priests.
That is if they would only properly teach the Word.
Going back to the hide of the offering, we are told that it doesn’t matter whether the sacrificial animal for the HATTA-AT or ASHAM is brought by the worshipper or the priest.
In both cases, the priest gets to keep the hide.
This is different than the rule governing the receiving of food which says that the priests can only eat food brought from the lay worshippers.
There is one general exception to this rule however.
If the killed animal is burned up NOT on the Brazen Altar but OUTSIDE THE CAMP on a regular wood fire, then the rule doesn’t apply.
So how would a modern day Messianic Cohaine purify himself in preparation for the Passover? Yes, I am a Cohaine and Messianic. There are a few of us in existence.
So if you’re a Cohaine and a Messianic I would think you would know the answer to your own question much better than me. So how would you answer the question “how would a modern day Messianic Cohaine purify himself in preparation for the Passover?”?