5 ‘Now when you offer a sacrifice of peace offerings to the LORD, you shall offer it so that you may be accepted. 6 ‘It shall be eaten the same day you offer it, and the next day; but what remains until the third day shall be burned with fire. 7 ‘So if it is eaten at all on the third day, it is an offense; it will not be accepted. 8 ‘Everyone who eats it will bear his iniquity, for he has profaned the holy thing of the LORD; and that person shall be cut off from his people.
The sacrifice of peace offerings to the LORD was a burnt (animal) sacrifice offered by the worshipper to the Lord in celebration of the fellowship and atonement (the peace) that was enjoyed by the worshipper (See Lev 3:1-17). The sacrifice itself did not achieve this fellowship, but was a celebration of it, offered completely by the free will of the worshipper. But the sacrifice was not to be taken lightly: the worshiper was not to offer a large, impressive animal and then live on the leftovers for the rest of the week! Instead, he and his family and friends would enjoy the meals that that sacrifice provided, but dispose of the leftovers after three days. To neglect or “blow off” such a treasure as the restoration between the believer and God was a terrible crime, a public travesty, and such a person would be cut off from his people—in other words, the community would break off peaceful, harmonious relations with the person. He would lose the community peace that was the privilege of God’s people. The reason for the rule concerning how long the food could be eaten was tied to the worshipper’s commitment to treat the Lord as holy, and the treat his restoration and fellowship with the Lord as a very precious thing.
For the Christian, Jesus Christ Himself as become our sacrifice of peace, and was raised on the third day as a result and sign of God’s acceptance of the sacrificial death of His Son for sinners (Col 1:20, Eph 2:14, Rom 4:25). If the ancient Israelites were strictly commanded to treat their peace offering to the Lord with the utmost sincerity and care, how much more should we spend our lives in enraptured in wonder and gratitude that we now enjoy restoration and peace with our God, solely on the basis of our eternal Peace Offering, Jesus Christ? And how might our fellowship with other believer’s be strengthened and blessed as we keep our focus on reconciliation given to us by the cross? Also, how might our fellowship be injured and sullied by our neglect to continually acknowledge and live in celebration of this restored peace with God?
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