Leviticus 3:6 - Meaning and Application

These directions are about the peace offering, when the animal was a sheep or a goat. Turtle-doves or young pigeons could be brought for whole burnt offerings, but not for peace offerings. They had too little fat to burn on the altar, and they would be too small to divide according to the rules for peace offerings.

The rules for a lamb or goat peace offering are much the same as those for a bull. So there is not much more here, but a few points deserve notice. First, the rump of the sheep was to be burned on the altar with the fat from the inner parts (Leviticus 3:9), because in that land it was large and very fatty. Even something that seems unimportant can be honored when God sets it apart for his service. In that way, God gives special honor to the part that seemed to lack it (1 Corinthians 12:23-24).

Second, what was burned on the altar is called the food of the offering (Leviticus 3:11, 16). It fed the holy fire and was acceptable to God, much as our food is acceptable to us. Since God was, in a sense, living among them in the tabernacle, the offerings on the altar showed him keeping a good table, like Solomon’s royal court (1 Kings 4:22).

Third, there is a general rule here that all the fat belongs to the Lord (Leviticus 3:16). On that basis, God gave a law that they must not eat either fat or blood, even in their own homes (Leviticus 3:17). The fat here does not mean the fat mixed in with the meat, which they could eat (Nehemiah 8:10). It means the fat of the inner parts, the suet, which was always God’s portion from the sacrificed animals. They must not eat that fat, even from animals killed for ordinary use, because God wanted to keep the honor of what was holy to himself.

They also must not eat blood, for the same reason. Blood was God’s part of every sacrifice. The heathen, the pagan nations, drank the blood of their sacrifices, and Scripture speaks of their drink offerings of blood (Psalm 16:4). But God would not allow the blood that made atonement, that is, made covering and payment for sin, to be treated like an ordinary thing (Hebrews 10:29). Nor will he allow us, even though we enjoy the benefit of that atonement, to claim any share in the honor of making it. Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord, and let all the blood be poured out to his praise.