December 24, 2024

Passage Read: Exodus 39 - Leviticus 2
Meditation Verses: Leviticus 1:11-13

Thought

This aspect of the priest's job sounds pretty gruesome. They're not unlike a butcher, except they're only cutting the offering into smaller parts for burning, not carving it up to sell as meat. Killing, draining blood, skinning, cutting it into sections, gutting, cleaning, burning. You've got to have a stomach for that work. You either become numb to it, daily dealing in death, or you become sobered by it, realizing how awful our sin and uncleanness are to God.

Application

I can't imagine doing that job. And yet people go hunting and fishing all the time, clean their prize and happily consume them. We'd have nothing but fruits and grains and vegetables to eat, if not for butchers. I can't imagine doing something like this, but I appreciate the benefit to me at the grocery store. These sacrifices were supposed to be illustrations of the evil of sin, that only death can pay for it, but would it really disturb anyone in an agrarian society? They're surrounded by it, why would they think anything of it? Perhaps the only real cost is in terms of lost income from sacrificing it to the Lord instead of selling the animal for profit. How easy it is to lose sight of the cost of sin. I don't want to become numb to it.