Blog In Audio:
Greetings,
I have just finished my third weekend in Portugal. I have been blessed to be with many churches as well as many pastors and leaders of different streams of God’s life here in Portugal. Another training course has been recorded and mostly edited. It has been a fruitful time here and a wonderful time of connection with my Portuguese family in Christ. I look forward to my next time here.
I believe that we are in a season of God revealing to us greater peace. Peace is not the absence of conflict; it is the presence of God in His wholeness in all things. Our oneness with Him causes us to celebrate the life that He has and gives to us in all things.
I believe that the peace offerings of the Old Covenant were a shadow of the peace that has been given to us as the body of Christ. Although the people of God in the Old Covenant heeded the letter of the ceremonies of a peace offering, they did not likely understand the truth that cast the shadow of the ceremony. We can know the truth and the truth can make us free!
The peace offering was not an offering to make peace with God. It was an offering to celebrate the peace that God gives. It was a thanksgiving and praise for who God is and who God made each member of His family to be. The authenticity of each member inspired each member of the family to worship God in the earnestness of their hearts. I believe the unleavened cakes and wafers of the peace offering depicted a testimony of sincerity of the heart.
Leviticus 7:11 This is the law of the sacrifice of peace offerings which he shall offer to the LORD: 12 If he offers it for a thanksgiving, then he shall offer, with the sacrifice of thanksgiving, unleavened cakes mixed with oil, unleavened wafers anointed with oil, or cakes of blended flour mixed with oil. 13 Besides the cakes, as his offering he shall offer leavened bread with the sacrifice of thanksgiving of his peace offering.
Jesus revealed to us that God, our Father, seeks those who worship Him in spirit and truth. This is the qualifying testimony for becoming a temple of His presence. The unleavened cakes and wafers were anointed with oil. When we seek God in the sincerity of our hearts, He freely gives us the anointing of His eternal life from heaven.
John 4:23 But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. 24 God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
The peace offering had an element of leavened bread, but that leaven was a testimony of the bread of the Body of Christ as we are joined to God and to one another by the life of God’s Spirit. We come to Him as unleavened meal of sincerity and His presence empowers us to become the bread of life for those who knock on our door in life. Because we come to Him for who He is, He transforms us to become new creations that offer living bread to the world in which we live.
The peace offerings didn’t just depict a connection to God. They also depicted our connection to one another. There was an element of submission to God through our submission to one another. Peace is a testimony of connection.
Leviticus 7:14 And from it he shall offer one cake from each offering as a heave offering to the LORD. It shall belong to the priest who sprinkles the blood of the peace offering.
The peace offering depicted a submission to God and to one another through the giving of a heave offering. What was lifted to God, became a provision for the priestly believer.
Leviticus 7:15 The flesh of the sacrifice of his peace offering for thanksgiving shall be eaten the same day it is offered. He shall not leave any of it until morning. 16 But if the sacrifice of his offering is a vow or a voluntary offering, it shall be eaten the same day that he offers his sacrifice; but on the next day the remainder of it also may be eaten; 17 the remainder of the flesh of the sacrifice on the third day must be burned with fire.
Leviticus 7:29-34 (NKJV) 29 “Speak to the children of Israel, saying: He who offers the sacrifice of his peace offering to the LORD shall bring his offering to the LORD from the sacrifice of his peace offering. 30 His own hands shall bring the offerings made by fire to the LORD. The fat with the breast he shall bring, that the breast may be waved as a wave offering before the LORD. 31 And the priest shall burn the fat on the altar, but the breast shall be Aaron’s and his sons’.
The potency of the offering was not a testimony of the strength of the flesh. The flesh was to be consumed in the day of the offering in the case of a peace offering given for thankfulness. The peace of God comes because there is no longer a judgment given to us by God. No one is judged according to the flesh because the perfect flesh of Jesus Christ has made us one with God and with one another according to the life of the Spirit. No flesh was to be eaten after day three, since the resurrection life of Christ on the third day released all men from the need to die according to the flesh.
Jesus became our offering of peace to God. He was perfect flesh, and He gave the life of His flesh to God for the sake of our peace. As sinless humanity, He was the best of humanity. He gave His life as both the blood and the fat. His death, burial, and resurrection from the dead proved that He destroyed the condemnation of the flesh forever. He made a judgment of mercy for us that we might know God’s grace and peace multiplied in our lives.
Leviticus 3:17 “‘This shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations in all your dwellings: you shall eat neither fat nor blood.'”
Colossians 1:19 For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, 20 and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. 21 And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled 22 in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight— 23 if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.
True peace is found in Christ and the testimony of that peace is revealed through our faith towards God and our faith towards one another as the body of Christ. We are the community of God justified by God’s mercy and empowered by God’s grace to be life and to bring life to our world.
Blessings,
Ted J. Hanson
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