I've been reading through Leviticus, and I came to chapter 7 today. The first few chapters of Leviticus are all about how the priests were to carry out the various types of sacrifices. The first ten verses of chapter 7 are about the guilt offering, but there in verses 3 and 4 is this statement, which actually appears in ALL of the descriptions of the various sacrifices:
And all its fat shall be offered, the fat tail, the fat that covers the entrails, the two kidneys with the fat that is on them at the loins, and the long lobe of the liver that he shall remove with the kidneys.
Now, in our 21st century mindset, we may puzzle over this requirement. In most cases, large portions of the animals that are sacrificed were to be eaten by the priests as their due or payment for their work. This required burning of the fat, all of the fat, means that they never consumed the fat portions of the meat. For us, this doesn't seem like much of a sacrifice. We tend to search for low-calorie, low-fat everything, right? Let me tell you a story from Central Asia to help you see why they were different.
In the open air markets we shopped in, I was super aware of the meat area. To be completely honest, I've always had a problem with raw meat. I can cook it, but if I've handled it much in the process before dinner time, I'm usually not in the mood to consume it. This rule does NOT apply to steak, however. I know, I'm messed up! Anyway, the meat market smelled strongly of blood and was a huge vision of raw meat. The next thing I noticed was children walking around with something that looked like a cross between beef jerky and raw bacon. It was relatively firm, yellowish in color, and almost translucent. I asked our leader about it and found out that it was dried beef fat. Nothing in it that we would really call meat - just fat. These kids were eating it a lot like children in the US would consume a snack cake or candy of some sort. It was clearly a snack they loved.
After another question, the reason for this was apparent. In a land where most people don't get enough calories, a snack like dried beef fat is a true luxury, and the people never worry about low-calorie or low-fat anything.
Now, back to the priests and their sacrifices. When they were required to give all of the fat to God, they were being asked to give the best to Him. Their basic dietary situation would have normally been much more like what I saw in Central Asia than in the USA. They needed the calories they could get. Why else would God have chosen to "pay" them for their service in meat? But the best always belonged to God.
So, we, too, are always asked to give our best to Him. To some, this might seem like a trick, but to a believer this makes so much sense. First, of all, we have the example of Christ. Can any of us say that He didn't always give His very best to the Father? He certainly did. But, beyond that, we also find that when we give our best to God, we are rewarded with something better still. We receive Him. I don't mean in a technical sense, like He has become our Father. No, I mean that He is actually with us, and we are actually with Him. We know Him, and all that we come to know, we love.
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