What is a peace offering?

The term "peace offering" conveys a wrong thought concerning the sacrifice spoken of in the scriptures which we have just read. Many persons take it for granted that this offering typifies Christ making our peace with God. But that is not a correct thought. The peace offering is rather an offering of thanksgiving or praise. "Sacrifice of prosperity," as it is translated in French, better expresses the thought. The peace offering typifies our communion, as saints of God, on the ground of the value of the work and precious blood of Christ before God — our communion with God Himself, our communion with the Lord Jesus, and our communion with one another as priests of God. That is what is set forth in the peace offering. It is really a communion sacrifice, and thanksgiving and praise naturally flow from communion. Consequently, we have that expression, "If he offer it for a thanksgiving" (Lev. 7:12). Praise and worship necessarily flow from communion. The ground of it all is the value of the work of Christ in the sight of God. That, no doubt, is why we find in chapter 3 that the peace offering is founded, as it were, upon the burnt offering.

THE PEACE OFFERING. This is distinct from both the burnt offering and the meat offering, though founded upon them. Its object was not to show how a sinner might get peace, nor to make atonement: it was rather the outcome of his having been blessed — the response of his heart to that blessing. The soul enters into the devotedness of Christ to God, the love and power of Christ as the blessing of the priestly family, and its own sustainment in life where death has come in. The peace offering might be of the herd or of the flock, male or female. The offerer laid his hands on the head of the offering and killed it. The blood was sprinkled round about the altar. All the fat, the two kidneys, and the caul above the liver were burnt upon the altar, an offering made by fire of a sweet savour unto the Lord. These were God's portions, literally His bread. The breast of the offering was waved for a wave offering, and was then food for Aaron and his sons and daughters. The right shoulder was a heave offering, and was for the offering priest. The offerer and his friends also ate of the offering on the same day; or, if it were a vow or a voluntary offering, it might be eaten on the second day. What remained was burnt with fire: indicating that communion to be real must be fresh, and not too far separated from the work of the altar.

The peace offering was accompanied by a meat offering, namely, unleavened cakes mingled with oil, and unleavened wafers anointed with oil; together with leavened bread. The last named recognised the existence of sin in the worshipper (1 John 1:8), which, if inactive did not disqualify, though sin on him did disqualify. All that typified Christ was without leaven. That the peace offering typified communion is plain from the directions as to its disposal: part of it was accepted of God on the altar, called 'the food of the offering'; part was the food of the priest (Christ), and the priest's sons (Christians); and part was eaten by the offerer and his friends (the people, and perhaps also the Gentiles, who in the kingdom will 'rejoice with his people'). This thought of communion finds expression in the Lord's table, in the communion of the blood and of the body of the Lord. 1 Cor. 10:16. It is said of the peace offering that it 'pertains to Jehovah:' so all worship pertains to God: it is the fruit and expression of Christ in believers. Lev. 3; Lev. 7:11-21, 28-34.

The "peace-offering" (Lev. 3) might be somewhat mistaken. The phrase used in the authorised version does not fully if it truly convey the force, as it appears to me at least. The real idea of it is a feast, or communion sacrifice. It is not a question merely of the word, but of the truth which is intended by it. In no way does it indicate the means of making peace for a sinner with God, though it may, as in the plural, imply things relating to peace, of which communion and thanksgiving are chief. The ground of peace for us laid in the blood of the cross so naturally suggested by the common rendering, is what one would guard souls against: it could only mislead. The thought seems to be a feast-offering. It is not here all going up to God (Christ surrendering Himself to God up to His death); nor only has God His portion, but the priestly family have theirs (Christ surrendering Himself in His life); but Christ is alike the means and object of communion. It rightly therefore follows both the offerings of a sweet savour, — the holocaust and the oblation; it approaches the former, in that it supposes the death of Christ; it resembles but it surpasses the latter, in that if part is for God there is part for man. It was pre-eminently therefore what united all who partook of it in joy, thanksgiving, and praise. Hence the fellowship of God, the priest, the offerer and his family, is the impression engraved on it. We need not anticipate more of the details now, as it is in the law of the peace-offering that we find the particulars just referred to.

In illustration of what is meant I would point out that the blood is mentioned in the burnt-offering, the sin-offering, and the peace-offering, but it is dealt with more specially in, and so may be said to characterise, the sin-offering. Again, burning as producing a sweet savour to God, is common to all the offerings, but in the smallest degree to the sin-offering, so that the other three have been rightly classed together as sweet savour offerings in distinction from the sin-offering; but still the fat of the sin-offering was burnt upon the altar for a sweet savour to Jehovah. (Lev. 4:31.) But of all the offerings that which was most characteristically a sweet savour, and all the Lord's, was the burnt-offering. "He shall burn all upon the altar a burnt sacrifice of a, sweet savour unto Jehovah." It set forth Christ in death wholly devoted to God and glorifying Him about sin in His death. Yet the blood was there, and the burnt-offering made atonement for the offerer. In this respect it may be said to overlap the sin-offering. Now the peace-offering has an element in common with the burnt-offering, for the fat is burnt as a sweet savour to Jehovah, and it was burnt upon the altar, upon the burnt-offering. That is to say, that which was characteristic of the burnt-offering was found in the peace-offering, although it is not the most prominent feature of it. The same is true of the relationship of the peace-offering to the sin-offering. The blood, which is characteristic of the sin-offering, is found in the peace-offering. But the peace-offering, while it has points in common with the other offerings, has its own special peculiarities, which I wish to point out. If one word might give a key to its leading feature, it would be, I think, communion. It is communion over the work of the Lord in death, and hence inseparable from worship. This, I think, the study of details will bring out.

The name peace-offering is apt perhaps to mislead. But attention to the sacrifice will readily show that the thought is not to present Christ as meeting the guilt of the sinner, and so making peace with God, which is the sin-offering, but it is enjoyed in peace. There are two varieties of peace-offerings. The one for thanksgiving, and the other a vow, or voluntary offering. These show us the character of the offering. A man prospering in his herds brings a beast as a thanksgiving to Jehovah. So some have called it a prosperity-offering. Or again, a man like Jonah makes a vow in the day of his trouble, and when he is delivered he pays his vows, and this sacrifice would probably be a peace-offering. Jephthah's vow was, I suppose, of this character. It is an offering sacrificed in peace - not to make peace.

Communion characterized it, and this is expressed in eating. Eating is the expression of communion or fellowship. This is understood in religion and in nature all the world over. No one asks any but a friend to eat with him, though he may feed his enemy. So in religion the Jews, the heathens, and the Christians, all have their altars, or tables, at which eating and drinking take place, and are expressive of fellowship with the religious system which each table represents. This 1 Cor. 10 insists upon. You cannot be a partaker of the Lord's table and of the table of devils. These things show us the symbolical force of eating. Now eating is not peculiar to the peace-offering, but it characterizes it as it does no other. We find the ordinary meat-offering was eaten by Aaron and his sons, that is, by all the priests. (Lev. 6:14-18.) And the ordinary sin-offering was eaten by the priest that offered it. Eating is absent in the burnt-offering, which was peculiarly Jehovah's - God glorified in the cross. But in the peace-offering the eating was more general than in any other, for every Israelite might eat of it.

"Though ye offer me burnt-offerings and your meat-offerings, I will not accept them; neither will I regard the peace-offerings of your fat beasts." Such was God's announcement to Israel by the prophet Amos. (5:22.) The two former of these offerings we have looked at; we would now consider the peace-offering, as it is called in the A. V., but which would be better understood if translated requitals, or recompences, as the Hebrew word Shelamim signifies; for, as the reader may see in Leviticus 7:12, 16, it was offered on private occasions, either for a vow, or for a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and has nothing to do really with the idea of peace.

The Peace-offering speaks of peace with God accomplished, on man's part reconciliation, salvation realized, the theme of the third gospel. Hence, as characteristic of it, the offering, instead of all going up to God as with the burnt-offering, or being simply given to the priest, as with the meal-offering, furnishes, as it were, a table at which God, the priest, and the offerer meet together. For if we have peace with God, it cannot be merely peace: God in the work of salvation satisfies His own heart and brings ours to Him. Thus the peace-offering is also the praise-offering, and more perhaps than any other the expression of the free-will of the offerer, while it is (along with the burnt- and meat-offering) a sweet savor to God.

(2) The Peace Offering. The peace offering, as its name suggests, speaks of reconciliation effected. In this sacrifice, the inwards and the fat were burnt upon the altar after the manner of the burnt offering. A part also went to the priest, and all the rest to the offerer; so that we have beautifully set forth the participation in communion with God, with Christ, and the believer sharing with the divine Persons in this communion. How God has found His delight in the work of His beloved Son!

The peace offering does not signify the making of peace with God, which has been most blessedly and vitally accomplished, but rather the sharing in precious communion with God, of all that wondrous peace and favour before Himself, that the death of Christ has brought us into.

Fundamentally, all were voluntary offerings, and of two classes, either burnt offerings or peace offerings. The distinction between the burnt offering and the peace offering was in Jehovah having the whole of the offering, whereas in the peace offering, the priestly family, the offering priest and the offerer shared with Jehovah what was offered in sacrifice to Him. In other words, the burnt offering was a sacrifice of worship to Jehovah, and the peace offering a sacrifice of communion. Each is perfect in its place, and both bring before us what belongs to the believer as a divine privilege. We can both be before God as worshippers, worshipping Him in spirit and in truth, and also as having fellowship with the Father and the Son. Our worship and our fellowship with God both rest on the sacrifice of His own Son upon the cross.

In the law of the sacrifice of Peace offerings (Lev. 7:11-21) we find this distinction in point of character or motive. They might be offered for a thanksgiving with their appropriate unleavened cakes mingled with oil, and unleavened wafers anointed with oil, and cakes mingled with oil, of fine flour soaked, but not without cakes of leavened bread also; for man's taint is in his rendering of thanks. In this case the flesh of the sacrifice had to be eaten on the day of the offering, and none of it was to be left until the morning. But if the sacrifice of this offering were a vow or a voluntary offering, not only the flesh might be eaten on the day that it was presented, but the remainder of it on the morrow also, though the rest, if any, must be burnt on the third day. For if eaten then, so far from being accepted, it should be imputed an abomination to the offerer, and he that ate of it should bear his iniquity, just as uncleanness upon the eater would bring on him cutting off from his people. Thanksgiving is simple, and looked for from the simplest believer; but it has no such sustaining power as that devotedness of heart which Christ and His sacrifice more deeply known create in some that know God's grace better. There is no real communion apart from faith in Christ's sacrifice and the thanksgiving it calls forth. Separate from Him and the faith that owns His work, it is fleshly, abominable to God, and ruinous to man; but the energy of the Spirit which fills the heart with Christ and forms devotedness has greater permanence; and it produces greater vigilance against all that defiles, though this in principle is true of those born of God, however feeble they may be.

It is in the appendix of the same chapter (Lev. 28-34) that we find the distinctive communion that belonged to the Peace offering. The offerer's own hands were to bring the first offering to Jehovah. The breast, for Aaron and his sons, was to be waved before Jehovah, as the fat was to be burnt upon the altar. The right shoulder was to be as a Peace offering to the offering priest. The rest was for the offerer, his family or friends. Thus Jehovah had His portion, Christ as signified by the priest that presented the blood and the fat, He and His house ("whose house are we"), and the believers one with another, all entering into and enjoying the fellowship of Christ's work. But all uncleanness is peremptorily treated as incompatible with the feast on that sacrifice. If man's communion be prominent, the more care is taken that he forget not what is due to God and His holiness.