Torah: Leviticus 1:1-6:7(5:26)
Haftarah: Isaiah 43:21-44:23

I want to thank my regular readers for your patience as I have not kept up with the portion the last couple of weeks. Life is real, and the holidays we just had were very busy as I am the woman of the house. This is one of my ministries, but family takes precedence. As I’ve said before, I don’t get paid to do this.

This post is a continuation of my exploration of the Torah portion Vayikra (He Called), which was scheduled for Mard 21 this year. I’m behind, but I’m making sure I go through this part thoroughly to uncover Messiah in all the sacrificial instructions, because He is there, even in the details. Sounds like a song I hear on the Christian radio station. In my post about Leviticus chapter 1, The Burnt Offering He Called for, I focused on the burnt offering and how it represents both Jesus and the spiritual and sometimes literal self-sacrifice God requires of believers. In my last post about Leviticus chapter 2, The Grain Offering He Called for, I focused on how the unleavened bread for grain offering and the bread offered as firstfuits represent Jesus in His different aspects. For this post, I will focus on Leviticus chapter 3 and how the peace offering foreshadows the work of Messiah.

The Peace Offering

The Hebrew words translated as peace offering are zevah shelamim (“sacred gift of greeting”). What is the Hebrew greeting? Shalom. What does shalom mean? Peace. This peace is a wholeness of being in body, mind, spirit. The shelamim, translated as peace offering, “expresses the peaceful, or harmonious, relationship between the worshipper and God, brought about and reaffirmed by the sacrifice itself” (JPS Torah Commentary: Leviticus, 15). It makes sense to me. I will come back to this concept at the end.

The peace offering had to be an animal from the herd without blemish. I have already discussed what this means in my post about chapter 1. For more details, visit my post of Leviticus 1 and Bo (Go). Jesus was born of the herd of humanity and He was without blemish, that is, without sin.

The worshipper had to lay his hands on the peace offering before killing it, an act that became known as semikah. For more details about this ritual and how it applies to Jesus being dedicated to the purpose of dying for the sins of the world, please read more details in my post about Leviticus chapter 1.

Select fatty parts and organs of the peace offering were burned on the bronze altar, which I argue is symbolic of what Jesus would experience internally on the cross. The Hebrew word for kidneys, kilyah, is oftentimes translated “heart” into English for us to understand better in our linguistic and cultural context. But kidneys were seen as the seat of emotion and moral discernment, representing the innermost being of a person. And get this: in Deuteronomy 32:14, it is used as a metaphor to refer to choice wheat. This then ties the kidneys to the minhah! Confused? Check out my post about Leviticus 2, the grain offering, and how the choice wheat represents Jesus. Now let’s get back to the fat. Fat, I argue, can represent the strength and reserves of someone or something. Indeed, “[f]rom the cultic perspective, a food’s desirability was not a function of the usual dietary considerations but of its symbolic value. Deuteronomy 32:14, for example, refers to the finest quality of wheat as the ‘fat’ of the wheat, where fatness is a symbol of energy and blessing” (JPS Torah Commentary: Leviticus, 17). In the words of the father in My Big Fat Greek Wedding: “So there you go.” Jesus, therefore, offered His finest, His energy, His blessing. His kilyah is the finest, fattest, best. He sacrificed His heart, mind, and strength in submission to the will of the Father (Lk. 22:42) that was to crush Him for our sins (Is. 53:10). Heart, mind, strength. That sounds a lot like the shema, doesn’t it? Jesus said that summarized the Law and Prophets (Mt. 22:40), which He also said spoke about Him (Jn. 5:39). Psalm 22, which Jesus began to quote from the cross (Mt. 27:46), says this:

my heart is like wax;
    it is melted within my breast;
¹⁵ my strength is dried up like a potsherd, (vs. 14b-15a).

Like the peace offering, the inner parts of Jesus’ passion and strength were offered on the altar. During the time around this reading, Easter time, Christians put on “passion” plays, reenacting the crucifixion. This tells us what was going on inside Jesus. It was like being burned.

The blood was drained from the sacrifice and splashed on the altar during the offering of the peace offering. Though parts of the peace offering were to be consumed by both the contributor and the priest officiating the sacrifice, the blood was not acceptable at any level of human consumption in any circumstance.

¹⁷ It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations, in all your dwelling places, that you eat neither fat nor blood” (Lev. 3:17).

This is a stipulation of the Noahic covenant harkening all the way back to the flood.

But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood (Gen. 9:4).

At least back to the flood, blood and life were tied together. This connection is progressively stated in later portions of the Torah.

For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life (Lev. 17:11)

For the life of every creature is its blood: its blood is its life. Therefore I have said to the people of Israel, You shall not eat the blood of any creature, for the life of every creature is its blood. Whoever eats it shall be cut off (Lev. 17:14).

Only be sure that you do not eat the blood, for the blood is the life, and you shall not eat the life with the flesh (Deut. 12:23).

You can imagine then, the shock of the Jews at some of Jesus’ teaching:

⁵² The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” ⁵³ So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. ⁵⁴ Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. ⁵⁵ For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. ⁵⁶ Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. ⁵⁷ As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. ⁵⁸ This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” ⁵⁹ Jesus said these things in the synagogue, as he taught at Capernaum. ⁶⁰ When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” ⁶¹ But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this? ⁶² Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? ⁶³ It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life… ⁶⁸ Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, ⁶⁹ and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God” (Jn. 6:52-63, 68-69).

I’ve been going for months now about how Jesus fulfills the Torah and was Jewish in every way and is the Jewish Messiah. This seems like a big problem and a big contradiction with for that ongoing thesis. It certainly gave me pause initially. There are a couple of things here that I’d like to elaborate upon, but first, I want to point out that we have to read the larger context of what Jesus is talking about. Jesus said, “The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.” His words speak of spiritual things, not literal blood. If the life of the flesh is in the blood (Lev. 17:11), then the life of the spirit is in Jesus. Jesus was known to use physical realm concepts to explain spiritual principles. His conversation with Nicodemus about being born again is a perfect example (Jn. 3:1-7). Jesus came to give spiritual life. Blood is a symbol of physical life. That’s why He used blood to describe the life He gives. He used physical things to teach spiritual truths. After talking with my husband about this, he told me some things I thought were very helpful. Sorry, feminists. The Bible tells wives to ask their husbands about things that they don’t understand (1 Cor. 14:35). That’s not chauvinism. That’s the Bible. That’s the order God set up. It’s not any more unnatural than expecting children to go to their parents about questions of faith. So when I ask my husband about Biblical things I’m struggling with, God blesses his words. My husband will often say I know more about the Bible than he does (and I’m not so sure I’d agree with that because we have different strengths), but that doesn’t keep me from respecting his opinion. So here is the blessed answer God gave him to me, translated into my words.

God’s prohibition against blood and Jesus’ instruction to drink His blood tells us that God wants no other life in us but His life. There is only one throne in our hearts, and that belongs to God. It doesn’t belong to animals, nor does it belong to other people. No other creature’s life may enter your body. Spiritually speaking, no other spirit belongs in our bodies either. That’s called demon possession, and those who worship demons practice blood-related rituals. Only one Spirit belongs in the heart of humans: God’s Spirit, the Holy Spirit. That is the Spirit that seals us for eternal life (Eph 1:13, 4:30) even when physical life with literal blood ceases.

Jesus’ blood is unique and special. His blood, His life, is the only one people can partake of as permitted by God (spiritually speaking) and live. Hebrews 10:4 says,

For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

No other blood in the universe but Jesus’ can give life to another. I’m not talking about blood donors, I’m talking spiritually. I’m very grateful for blood donors. My husband has regularly given when he can. I would give if I could, but I don’t weigh enough (fun fact). They do have a minimum weight requirement. When I told you before that I’m small, I wasn’t joking or exaggerating.

So we’ve looked at the particular method of offering the peace offering and how that represents Jesus’ passion. We’ve also looked at the prohibition of blood consumption and how that foreshadows the unique life-giving blood of Jesus. I want to bring this discussion full circle back to the purpose of the peace offering, that its English translation “expresses the peaceful, or harmonious, relationship between the worshipper and God, brought about and reaffirmed by the sacrifice itself.” Colossians 1:19-20 summarizes this sentiment and applies it to Jesus perfectly:

¹⁹ For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, ²⁰ and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross (Col. 1:19-20).

The peace offering could be eaten from by priests and worshippers. Jesus invites all to partake of His sacrifice to receive eternal life. And when you believe, you become a type of priest (Rom. 15:16; 1 Pet. 2:5, 9), so whether layman or priest, we all have the same sacrifice we can partake of that puts us at peace with God and one another if we eat together. And in that is true peace, true shalom. Isaiah 53:5 says,

“But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed” (my emphasis added).

Jesus’ peace was taken from Him in the most extreme way so He could give us peace with God the Father. Jesus said,

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid” (Jn. 14:27).

These are just some observations. I know there is a lot of material out there about it, also written in a much more technical format. This is not meant to be comprehensive, but the beginning of one believer’s interpretation digging deeper into passages that most Christians fly over and shy away from. This is God’s Word, and none of it should be neglected. My church is studying Numbers right now, and week after week, I hear them jokingly say things like, “What could we possible learn from Numbers?” or, “Don’t tell me you’re going to preach from Numbers today.” I commend the pastor for deciding to preach through the Bible, but the attitude that is used to frame the approach to the Torah troubles me very much, because in effect they are saying by default some parts of God’s Word (like the New Testament) are more important and meaningful that other parts of God’s Word (like the Torah). This should not be, and it’s coming from the pulpit. We have to adjust to the Bible (Rom. 12:2), not adjust the Bible to our own liking. The more I’ve studied the Torah, the more I appreciate it and can actually understand better the psalmist of Psalm 119 who loved it so much.

Soon, I will publish my post concerning the sin offering and the guilt offering. I don’t know that it will be this week. It takes time to lay the foundation for understanding the differences between all these offerings, but by doing this now, it should make the rest of Leviticus easier to digest. The ancient audience had the context of these sacrifices. Modern readers have to recover it. Until next time, God bless.

Sources

The Bible. English Standard Version. Biblegateway.com. Accessed 28 Mar. 2026.

Baker, Warren and Eugene Carpenter. The Complete Word Study Dictionary: Old Testament. Chattanooga, AMG Publishers, 2003

The Complete Jewish Study Bible. Peabody, Hendrickson Publishers, 2016.

The Interlinear Bible. ed. Jay P. Green Sr. USA, Hendrickson, 2010.

The JPS Torah Commentary: Leviticus. Philadelphia, The Jewish Publication Society, 1989.