The Grammar of Gratitude: The Peace Offering Text: Leviticus 7:11-21
Introduction: The Meal at the Center of the World
We modern evangelicals have a tendency to treat the book of Leviticus like an old, dusty attic. We know it's part of the house, but we don't go up there much, and we're a little embarrassed by what we might find. It seems filled with strange rituals, bizarre prohibitions, and a great deal of blood. But if we want to understand the New Testament, we must first learn to read the Old. Leviticus is not an obstacle to the gospel; it is the dictionary that gives the gospel its meaning. Words like sacrifice, atonement, holiness, and blood are not abstract theological concepts; they are defined for us here, in vivid, earthy detail.
The sacrificial system was the liturgy of Israel. It was their worship. And it was not all about sin, gloom, and judgment. While the sin and guilt offerings dealt with the problem of estrangement from God, the peace offering was about something entirely different. It was a celebration of fellowship. It was a sacred meal, a communion feast, shared between God, the priest, and the worshiper. The peace offering was the joyful culmination of the sacrificial system. After sin was dealt with (guilt offering) and the worshiper was wholly consecrated to God (ascension offering), the result was peace, fellowship, communion. This is why our own worship follows this same pattern: confession, consecration, and then communion. The peace offering is the ancient root of our Lord's Supper.
But this peace was not a vague, sentimental feeling. It was a structured, ordered, and conditional peace. The laws surrounding this offering teach us that fellowship with a holy God is a glorious gift, but it is not a casual affair. There are rules for this meal. There is a grammar to this gratitude. To violate that grammar is not just bad manners; it is to treat the holy as common, which is the very definition of profanity. This passage in Leviticus 7 gives us the fine print on the peace offering, and in it, we learn profound truths about the nature of true thanksgiving, the danger of corruption, and the absolute necessity of holiness if we are to have table fellowship with the living God.
The Text
‘Now this is the law of the sacrifice of peace offerings which shall be brought near to Yahweh. If he brings it near for thanksgiving, then along with the sacrifice of thanksgiving he shall bring near unleavened cakes mixed with oil and unleavened wafers spread with oil and cakes of well stirred fine flour mixed with oil. With the sacrifice of his peace offerings for thanksgiving, he shall bring near his offering with cakes of leavened bread. Of this he shall bring near, one of every offering as a contribution to Yahweh; it shall belong to the priest who splashes the blood of the peace offerings.
‘Now as for the flesh of the sacrifice of his thanksgiving peace offerings, it shall be eaten on the day of his offering; he shall not leave any of it over until morning. But if the sacrifice of his offering is a votive or a freewill offering, it shall be eaten on the day that he brings near his sacrifice, and on the next day what is left of it may be eaten; but what is left over from the flesh of the sacrifice on the third day shall be burned with fire. So if any of the flesh of the sacrifice of his peace offerings should ever be eaten on the third day, he who brings it near will not be accepted, and it will not be counted to his benefit. It shall be an offensive thing, and the person who eats of it will bear his own iniquity.
‘Also the flesh that touches anything unclean shall not be eaten; it shall be burned with fire. As for other flesh, anyone who is clean may eat such flesh. But the person who eats the flesh of the sacrifice of peace offerings which belong to Yahweh, in his uncleanness, that person shall be cut off from his people. When anyone touches anything unclean, whether human uncleanness or an unclean animal or any unclean detestable thing, and eats of the flesh of the sacrifice of peace offerings which belong to Yahweh, that person shall be cut off from his people.’
(Leviticus 7:11-21 LSB)
The Breads of Fellowship (vv. 11-14)
We begin with the various kinds of peace offerings and the bread that accompanied them.
"If he brings it near for thanksgiving... he shall bring near unleavened cakes... and cakes of leavened bread." (Leviticus 7:12-13)
The peace offering could be brought for one of three reasons: for thanksgiving, in fulfillment of a vow, or as a freewill offering. The first, and highest, is the thanksgiving offering. This was an expression of gratitude for an unexpected blessing or a specific deliverance. With this offering, the worshiper had to bring three kinds of unleavened bread, all prepared with oil, and one kind of leavened bread.
This is highly significant. Unleavened bread in Scripture is the bread of haste, the bread of affliction (Deut. 16:3). It represents a clean break from the corruption of the old life, like Israel fleeing the "leaven" of Egypt. It points to the sinless perfection of Christ, our Passover Lamb, who is the true unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. The oil, consistently in Scripture, represents the Holy Spirit. So, the unleavened bread speaks of our justification and sanctification through the work of Christ and the Spirit.
But then, uniquely, leavened bread is also required. Leaven, or yeast, often represents the pervasive influence of sin (1 Cor. 5:6-8). But it can also represent the potent, unstoppable growth of the Kingdom of God (Matt. 13:33). So what is it doing here? The worshiper, having been accepted on the basis of the perfect, unleavened Christ, now brings himself to the table. The leavened bread is a picture of the worshiper himself. We are still works in progress. We are justified, yes, but sin still dwells in us. We are potent with the new life of the kingdom, but we are not yet perfected. The presence of leavened bread is a humble acknowledgment that our thanksgiving, our worship, is itself imperfect and mixed. Yet, wonderfully, God accepts it. He invites us, leaven and all, to His table, because we come with the unleavened bread of Christ.
A portion of this offering, one of each kind of cake, is given as a "contribution to Yahweh," which then belongs to the priest (v. 14). This establishes a critical principle: our fellowship with God is inextricably linked to our fellowship with and support of His ministers. You cannot claim to be at peace with God while being at war with the church He has established. The priest who splashes the blood, who ministers the atonement, gets to eat from the resulting meal. This is the basis for the New Testament principle that those who preach the gospel should make their living from the gospel (1 Cor. 9:13-14).
The Urgency of Gratitude (vv. 15-18)
Next, we are given strict time limits for consuming the meal.
"Now as for the flesh of the sacrifice of his thanksgiving peace offerings, it shall be eaten on the day of his offering; he shall not leave any of it over until morning... what is left over... on the third day shall be burned with fire." (Leviticus 7:15, 17)
The rules are precise. The thanksgiving offering, the highest form, must be eaten on the very same day. Votive and freewill offerings could be eaten over two days. But under no circumstances could any of the holy flesh be eaten on the third day. If it was, the offering was not accepted, it was considered an "offensive thing," and the one who ate it would bear his iniquity.
What is the logic here? First, there is a practical element. This was a large quantity of meat. The worshiper had to invite his family, his friends, and the poor to help him eat it all. This forced the blessing to be shared. True thanksgiving is never a private affair; it is communal and celebratory. It overflows. Hoarding God's blessings is a sin.
But there is a deeper, theological point. The time limit signifies urgency and guards against presumption. Fellowship with God is a present reality, to be enjoyed now. You cannot put it in the refrigerator for later. Gratitude has a shelf life. Leftover grace becomes entitlement. The memory of the blessing fades, and the holy food becomes just common meat. To treat it as such is to profane it.
And the prohibition against the third day is a stark, prophetic warning. The flesh on the third day represents corruption and decay. What happened on the third day? Our Lord Jesus Christ rose from the grave. He is the one who saw no corruption (Psalm 16:10; Acts 2:27). To eat the flesh on the third day would be a denial of the resurrection. It would be an attempt to have fellowship with God on the basis of a dead, corrupted sacrifice. But our peace is made by a living Savior who conquered the grave. To be "not accepted" and for the sacrifice to be an "offensive thing" is the state of all who try to approach God apart from the resurrected Christ. Their worship is an abomination because it is fellowship with death, not life.
The Necessity of Holiness (vv. 19-21)
The final section deals with the absolute requirement of ceremonial cleanness for partaking in this sacred meal.
"But the person who eats the flesh of the sacrifice of peace offerings which belong to Yahweh, in his uncleanness, that person shall be cut off from his people." (Leviticus 7:20)
The law is clear and severe. If the holy flesh touches something unclean, the flesh becomes defiled and must be burned. More seriously, if a person who is himself unclean eats the holy flesh, he is to be "cut off from his people." This is excommunication, the most severe penalty short of death. It meant being cast out of the covenant community, away from the presence of God and His people.
The holiness code of Leviticus, with its distinctions between clean and unclean, was a great object lesson. It taught Israel that God is holy, and that sin is a contaminating, defiling power. To be "unclean" was not necessarily to be sinful, but it was to be in a state that was incompatible with approaching the holy things of God. It was a picture of our fallen condition.
This principle is directly applied to the New Covenant communion meal by the Apostle Paul. In 1 Corinthians 11, he warns the church about partaking of the Lord's Supper in an "unworthy manner." He is not talking about some kind of abstract personal perfection. He is talking about coming to the table while being in a state of unrepentant sin, or being in conflict with your brother, or treating the meal as a common thing. To do so is to eat and drink judgment on yourself. The penalty in Corinth was severe: many were weak, sick, and some had even died (1 Cor. 11:30). This is the New Testament equivalent of being "cut off."
This is a terrifying warning against casual Christianity. We cannot live like the world all week, embrace what God calls unclean, harbor bitterness in our hearts, and then waltz up to the Lord's Table as if it were a buffet line. To do so is to profane the body and blood of the Lord. It is to eat the peace offering while in a state of uncleanness. The command is to examine ourselves, to confess our sins, to be reconciled with our brothers, and only then to come to the table. Fellowship with God requires holiness. Not a perfect holiness, but a declared holiness in Christ, and a pursued holiness in our lives.
Conclusion: The True Peace Offering
As with all the Levitical sacrifices, the peace offering finds its ultimate fulfillment in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is our peace (Eph. 2:14). He is the one who made peace through the blood of His cross (Col. 1:20). The sacrifice has been made, once for all. God the Father received His portion, the "food of God," in the perfect obedience of His Son, a pleasing aroma. The priest, our great High Priest Jesus, received His portion in the resurrection and ascension. And we, the worshipers, receive our portion every Lord's Day when we come to this Table.
Here, we feast on Christ. We eat the flesh and drink the blood of the true peace offering. We do it with thanksgiving, remembering His mighty act of deliverance. We do it as a votive offering, renewing our vows of covenant faithfulness to Him. And we do it as a freewill offering, delighting in the sheer grace and goodness of our God.
We come with our leavened bread, acknowledging our own sin and imperfection, but we are accepted because we are joined to the unleavened Bread of Heaven. We come with urgency, knowing that this fellowship is for today, a foretaste of the marriage supper of the Lamb. And we come having examined ourselves, confessing our sins, because we dare not treat this holy meal as a common thing. To be cut off from this Table is to be cut off from Christ, which is to be cut off from life itself. But to come in faith is to have true peace, true communion, and true fellowship with the Father, and with His Son, Jesus Christ.