Two questions from Reid please

[Waylonf15]

Hello all,

I have two questions from our reading that are confusing to me and would like your take.

1. Consecration. Our God demanded that Moses and Arron "consecrate" each and every part of the tabernacle (the tent of meeting).
Question, what exactly does the act of "consecrate" mean? I read about how they "consecrated" the tribe of Juda by shaving all their hair (HUGE) and then water and words of some institution. We talk about "consecrated" elements of bread and wine, and we should not take "unconsecrated" elements. Can anyone "consecrate" elements?

2. Offering. What is a "wave" offering? How does that differ from a "heave" offering? What is a "heave" offering?

Thank you ahead of time.

Reid

[Waylonf15]

So wait,
Let me ask again more,
Types of offering
- Burt offering
- Grain offering
- Peace offering
- Sin offering for offering sins
- Graded offering for intentional sins
- Guilt offering

How did these Levites keep all the different procedures and types of offering strait?

Thank you Lord for being all of them together for us. Cool.

[Waylonf15]

OKAY, so if they goof it up, like the two sons of Arron did, they die.

I suspect after the two sons who offered wrongly, there was GREAT attention to the procedures that God directed them.

I still wonder why God make so exacting procedures for the different offerings? How does that point to Jesus and His work on the cross? I know one of the offerings the priests were covered in blood of the animal, so that perhaps that would point to the blood of Jesus.

Hey, I read what a "wave" offering is, you take the dead carcass and wave it to the Lord, probably above their heard.

[Robinsoncp]

I, too, am amazed about the detail in how to make the specific offerings.

[Tom Tighe]

I'm not sure the Levitical sacrifices are pointing to or foreshadowing Jesus, rather they are building the context in which His sacrifice can be understood. Maybe that's pointing, I'm not sure. I'm certainly not an expert but here are a couple of things I get from this.

First, the wages of sin are death. By putting hands on the animal to be sacrificed, you are transferring your sins to the animal, which then dies for those sins. Some believe this was modeled by God in the Garden when He made clothing of skins for Adam and Eve after they realized they were naked (Fig leaves are so out of style). God doesn't need the sacrifices, they are for our benefit

Second, the whole point of the Exodus time period (in my opinion) was to teach faith, trust, and confidence in God. This is often summed up in English with the word fear. A big part of that was training the idollic ideas out of a people who had really only lived in an Egyptian culture based in idolatry. (see commandment #1) To explain what I mean I have to give my views of idolatry. Sorry, but..

I see idolatry as realizing there is a greater power, but instead of obeying it, substituting something for God then make up rules for how they can influence their creation to let them have what they want. (Do you ever think your team will lose if you don't wear your lucky socks while you watch a game on TV?). This boils down to doing things you decide upon to influence God, and to make it even easier, to substitute your own god that follows your rules. In Leviticus 10 we see Nadab and Abihu offering unauthorized fire. God (via Moses) was pretty explicit in what was to be done for Him (for our benefit). Are they trying to earn extra credit? Extra credit to gain influence over God? That's the very seed of idolatry. If you don't think that seed will take root, look how long it took their dad, the one whose staff brought forth the plagues, to decide to build the calf.

Some of the Levitical rules have practical benefits to the Hebrews we can easily understand today, especially the food rules. The "unclean" animals often carried diseases or had toxins that would require special care to be safe to eat. Other rules are there to teach us to trust God through our obedience. Again, the specific, explicit, and detailed sacrifices are for our benefit, not His.

[Tom Tighe]

oh, and my best guess on a heave offering is that it was essentially a wave offering with something to big to hold over your head.