Concise Bible Dictionary:
See OFFERINGS.
From Manners and Customs of the Bible:
Leviticus 7:11. This is the law of the sacrifice of peace offerings.
Peace offerings were of three kinds: 1. Thank offerings; 2. Free-will offerings; 3. Offerings for vows (Lev. 7:12,16). The peace offering might be either of the herd or of the flock, and either male or female (Lev. 3:1,7,12). The offerings were accompanied by the imposition of hands, and by the sprinkling of blood around the great altar, on which the fat and the parts accompanying were burnt (Lev. 3:1-5). When offered for a thanksgiving a meat offering was presented with it (Lev. 7:12-13). A peculiarity of the peace offering was, that the breast was waved and the shoulder heaved (Lev. 7:34). According to Jewish tradition this ceremony was performed by laying the parts on the hands of the offerer, the priest putting his hands again underneath, and then moving them in a horizontal direction for the waving, and in a vertical direction for the heaving. This is supposed to have been intended as a presentation of the parts to God as the supreme Ruler in heaven and on earth. The “wave-breast” and the “heave-shoulder” were the perquisites of the priests (Lev. 7:31-34). The remainder of the victim, excepting what was burnt, was consumed by the offerer and his family, under certain restrictions (Lev. 7:19-21). It has been suggested that this ceremony of eating the peace offerings by the offerer and his family may have given rise to the custom among the heathen of eating flesh offered to idols in an idol temple (1 Cor. 8:10). See Brown’s Antiq. Jews, 1, 376.
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Ministry Nuggets:
• The burnt offering, you are aware, typifies Christ offering Himself to God in death for a sweet savor, and in the very place where He was made sin for us bringing fullest glory to God. There surely we find the foundation for everything—for all our joys, all our communion, all our worship, and all our praise. The foundation of all is the burnt sacrifice. (“Christ as Seen in the Offerings: Peace Offering” by R.F. Kingscote)
• "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. (“Christ as Seen in the Offerings: Peace Offering” by R.F. Kingscote)
• It typifies communion, because all the persons concerned partook of the same sacrifice. God had His portion, the priest had his, Aaron and his sons had theirs, and the rest of the animal was eaten by the one that brought it, and by those with him. (“Christ as Seen in the Offerings: Peace Offering” by R.F. Kingscote)