Chapter 3

Peace offerings.  Per JSB, this offering was voluntary, and brought by those moved to express both love and gratitude for Adonai's goodness and to be drawn closer to him.  As with the korban offering the peace offering helps the worshiper draw closer to God.  This offering derives from shalom, because it describes the nature of the relationship between the one offering the sacrifice and God. 

2023 - So...not to MAKE peace, but to celebrate peace.  That is much different than how I'd thought of it before.

Male or female. Burn the fat that is on the entrails - not the entrails themselves, the kidneys with their fat, the long lobe of the liver with its fat.  This was for cattle offered.  If from the flock (as opposed to the herd?) the whole fat tail is also to be burned, along with the parts detailed for animals from the herd.

2024 - I just noticed that the burnt offering - from either herd or flock - has to be male.  But this peace offering can be either.

2024 - If the peace offering is from the flock, it is killed at the entrance to the tent of meeting, a different place than the burnt offering from the flock.

And the priest shall burn them on the altar as a food offering with a pleasing aroma. All fat is the Lord 's. It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations, in all your dwelling places, that you eat neither fat nor blood."

Leviticus 3:16‭-‬17 ESV

I don't remember reading this before.  This is a direct indictment of the keto diet, carnivore diet, and so on.  Jews were to keep fat out of their diets because fat belonged to God.  There was also the introduction to this book from the MSB saying all this law was specifically abrogated in the NT.  So we can eat fat now...but if the Jews weren't to eat it, should we eat it?

2021 - I am still intrigued by this statement that the fat is the Lord's throughout all their generations.  It would seem that kidneys and the long lobe of the liver are also the Lord's.  But...it could be that the fat specifically mentioned is the "best of the fat" and that was to be reserved for God, rather than all fat.  It is not possible to eat domesticated meat that has no marbling, no fat of any kind.  Just can't really be done.  Would they have just thrown away this best fat from animals that were slaughtered for food rather than for sacrifice?  Maybe it was only the sacrificed fat portions that were reserved for God forever and not all fat.  Hmm...that's what it has to mean.  Because in the prodigal son, the fatted calf was prepared.  It was deliberately made fat so it would be better eating, and we see no indication anywhere of fat being shunned, either in the OT or the NT.  It was only the sacrificial fat that was 100% reserved for God. 

I also don't really understand about the fat covering the entrails and kidneys.  I've never seen that.  Deer apparently do not have any fat in those places because I never saw any fat at all when I field dressed the deer I killed.  I saw a YouTube video of a woman rendering pork fat into oil, and she said it was the fat from the kidneys that was best for this.  It probably seems a bit weird, but I think I will try to find a video of how to butcher a lamb that might show what this fat looks like and where it is located. 

I also think this is saying that if you want to offer a peace offering, you offer a burnt offering first, and then the fat and such from the peace offering is laid atop the burnt offering and burnt also.  The whole animal is burnt in the burnt offering, entrails and all.  Only fat, kidneys, and the long lobe of the liver are burnt in the peace offering. 

2023 - Maybe the way to see this is that those particular parts of "free fat" belonged to God, but well marbled meats were ok to eat.  That would still make some sense.

2023 - Look how the verse is worded, though.  "...in all your dwelling places, that you eat neither fat nor blood".  So the fat of animals slaughtered strictly for food and not for sacrifice was not to eaten, nor was their blood.  This was not just about sacrificed animals.  Maybe this is WHY they fattened calves, because otherwise there was no fat at all in their diets, other than marbling.  A strange thing.

2024 - I have made much of the fact that before Jesus, the blood was never to be consumed...or according to this verse, eaten.  But now I see this about fat...Does that further complicate a situation I cannot figure out anyway?

2024 - MSB says that it was only the fat specifically set aside for these offerings that they were never to eat.  So they never were to eat the fat on the kidneys, whether the animal was a sacrifice or not.  but other fat - the brisket for instance - they could eat.  Surely does seem like a lot of calories that weren't used.  Apparently, they couldn't even render that fat and use the oil in anything.  Why not???

2025 - And if they were allowed to eat other fat, if a distinction was made here, then we still have to deal with the injunction against eating blood, from any animal at any time anywhere.  I guess blood is characteristically different.  You don't have red blood here and blue blood there.  It's all the same.  And they specifically drained the blood and sprinkled it on the altar before the rest of the sacrifice.  Perhaps that is the basis for saying some fat can be eaten but never any blood.