Companion: Deep Study
A condensed companion to the full study. For each section of the expanded outline: key insights, applications, and the application questions for discussion.
Section 1 — The Offering Presented and the Hand Laid On (Leviticus 3:1–2)
Key Insights
- The peace offering (zevach shelamim) is the third of the freewill offerings and the only one the worshiper eats.
- The plural shelamim comes from the root for wholeness and names the whole round of well-being that a right relation to God produces.
- God allows male or female here, unlike the burnt offering, because this sacrifice exists primarily for the worshiper’s benefit.
- What God will not relax is the unblemished animal, the hand laid on its head, and the blood thrown against the altar.
- Christ is our peace offering, for He made peace by the blood of His cross and we celebrate a peace we did not make (Colossians 1:20).
Applications
- Answer an accusing conscience with Christ’s finished work, never with your own record of obedience.
- Hold secondary matters loosely and the gospel immovably, learning from what God relaxed and what He would not.
- Come to Christ the way the worshiper leaned on the victim, putting your whole weight on Him.
- Do not read the freedom of verse 1 as permission to reshape worship at will, since every other element of the rite was fixed.
Application Questions
- When my conscience accuses me, do I answer it with my own record of obedience or with the finished work of Christ?
- Where am I treating a matter of Christian freedom as though it were a matter of the gospel, or a matter of the gospel as though it were negotiable?
Section 2 — The Fat Given to God on Top of the Burnt Offering (Leviticus 3:3–5)
Key Insights
- God claims the chelev, the richest and innermost fat, together with the kidneys and the lobe of the liver.
- Keil notes that these four portions took all the separable fat inside the animal, so nothing that could be given was kept back.
- The fat is burned on top of the burnt offering, on a fire already lit for atonement.
- Poole’s conclusion is the theological point: without expiation and atonement no peace could be obtained.
- The layered fire pictures Christ’s self-sacrifice as the cause of the peace that now exists between God and man.
Applications
- Give God the fat of your time, money, and affections rather than what is left when everything else is spent.
- Remember that your offerings are acceptable because they rest on a fire already burning, not because of their quality.
- Ask both questions this week: what am I withholding, and on what am I resting?
- Never turn “God deserves the best” into a doctrine of merit, since the fat was burned on the burnt offering and not instead of it.
Application Questions
- What is the fat in my life — the best and innermost portion — and am I actually giving it to God, or only my surplus?
- Do I approach God’s presence as something I must first make possible, or as something Christ has already made possible?
Section 3 — The Same Way for the Flock: A Lamb Brought Before the LORD (Leviticus 3:6–8)
Key Insights
- The poorer worshiper’s lamb receives exactly the ritual given to the wealthy man’s bull.
- Birds were not permitted for this offering, because a pair of pigeons could not furnish a sacrificial meal.
- The contrast is instructive: atonement is scaled to the worshiper’s poverty, while the feast is scaled to the table.
- Every peace offering had to be brought to one altar, which Calvin saw as the safeguard of Israel’s unity in the faith.
- The Lamb of God is the one victim at the one altar to whom rich and poor alike must come (John 1:29).
Applications
- Treat the gathered worship of the church as the appointed place of fellowship, not as one option among several.
- Refuse to rank fellow believers by what they can bring, since the altar makes no such distinction.
- Guard against the opposite error of using the one altar to bind consciences where Scripture has not spoken.
Application Questions
- Do I treat the gathered worship of the church as essential to my fellowship with God, or as one helpful option among many?
- Am I evaluating other believers by what they are able to bring rather than by the Christ they come to?
Section 4 — The Whole Fat Tail and the Food of the Offering (Leviticus 3:9–11)
Key Insights
- The sheep’s ritual adds the alyah, the broad fat tail that was the prized delicacy of the region.
- God therefore claims precisely the portion the worshiper most looked forward to eating himself.
- Verse 11 calls the altar portion God’s food, using the ordinary Hebrew word for bread.
- Calvin defends the metaphor while guarding God’s self-sufficiency, saying that God deigned to become the messmate of His worshipers.
- The risen Christ makes the picture literal when He promises to come in and eat with anyone who opens the door (Revelation 3:20).
Applications
- Identify your own fat tail, the thing you most want to keep, and hand it over deliberately this month.
- Replace the picture of God as an inspector with the picture Scripture gives of a host who delights in His people.
- Let grimness in obedience send you back to the table, since gratitude is what sustains a lifetime of service.
- Do not press the metaphor into any notion that God is dependent on our worship.
Application Questions
- What is the one thing I am most reluctant to hand over to God, and what would it look like to give it this month?
- Does my picture of God allow Him to delight in me, or only to inspect me?
Section 5 — The Goat, and All the Fat Is the LORD’s (Leviticus 3:12–16)
Key Insights
- The goat’s ritual repeats the pattern without the fat tail, which in goats is worthless.
- Verse 16 gathers the chapter into one claim of ownership: all fat is the LORD’s.
- Barnes reads the shared animal as symbolizing communion between the Lord, His ministers, and His worshipers.
- Calvin declines the allegorical readings and finds the plain lesson in honor to God and training in restraint.
- Gill sees in the choicest portion a shadow of Christ, whose sacrifice is the best and most excellent of all.
Applications
- Treat your income, abilities, and years as God’s property entrusted to you rather than your own with a tax owed.
- Give God your strongest competence, not the capacities your employer has already rejected.
- Let the three parties at the table shape your view of the church and its ministry.
- Never turn God’s claim on the best into a promise of return for the giver, since the fat was burned and not invested.
Application Questions
- Do I think of my possessions as mine with a portion owed to God, or as God’s with a portion entrusted to me?
- Where am I giving God my weakest capacities while spending my strongest elsewhere?
Section 6 — A Statute Forever: Neither Fat nor Blood (Leviticus 3:17)
Key Insights
- The closing statute reaches beyond the sanctuary into all your dwelling places, governing the ordinary family meal.
- The fat is withheld because it is the LORD’s portion, claimed by right in the previous verse.
- The blood is withheld because it is the vehicle of life given on the altar to make atonement (Leviticus 17:11).
- Matthew Henry draws the enduring lesson: we enjoy the atonement without claiming any share in the honor of making it.
- What was forbidden for fifteen centuries Christ hands to His people in the cup of the new covenant (Luke 22:20).
Applications
- Live in your kitchen the way you live in the sanctuary, since God claims the hours nobody observes.
- Speak of your salvation in the passive voice, as one sought, bought, and brought in.
- Receive the Lord’s Supper with reverence, remembering what it cost that a cup should be safe in a sinner’s hand.
- Do not mistake this for a dietary rule, since the regulation was imposed only until the time of reformation.
Application Questions
- Is my obedience the same in private, where no one from church will ever know, as it is on Sunday?
- In what ways do I quietly claim credit for my own salvation?
Peace with God is made at the altar and enjoyed at the table: Christ is both our peace offering and our host, and the meal He spreads now will end at the marriage supper of the Lamb.
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