Tag: offerings

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Apostolic Writings Discussions Prophets and Writings Torah

From messing up to making it right: Understanding the Bible’s guilt offering (Leviticus 6; Jeremiah 7; 1Peter 2)

This digital painting in a thick, oil palette knife style shows a rugged hillside at sunset glowing with warm oranges and golds. In the foreground, a single sheep walks carefully along a rocky path away from a cliff’s edge toward an ancient Israelite shepherd standing beside an open wooden gate set into a low stone wall. The shepherd, dressed in earth-toned robes, extends a welcoming hand, guiding the sheep into a सुरक्षित enclosure beyond the gate. In the far distance, a faint but distinct rectangular Tabernacle courtyard is visible, with the inner sanctuary positioned toward the rear, softly illuminated by the fading light. The scene uses textured strokes of green, ochre, and amber to create a sense of depth and restoration. The image was created by ChatGPT and includes the text overlay: “From messing up to making it right: Understanding the Bible's guilt offering (Leviticus 6; Jeremiah 7; 1Peter 2).” A “Hallel.info” watermark appears in the lower right corner.

In Leviticus 6–7, the “guilt offering” is not a harsh relic of the past but a detailed roadmap from sin and shame to real peace with God and others. We explore why God highlights lies, broken trust, and hidden theft — then requires both confession and restitution with 20% added. Alongside Jeremiah 7 and 1Peter 2, we see how repentance, restoration and reconciliation via the Messiah form one journey from acting unfaithfully to living in shalom (peace).

Categories
Discussions Prophets and Writings Torah

Get real about faith: God doesn’t want — or need — your virtue signals (Leviticus 6–8; Hosea 6)

Virtue signal: God does not want (or need) yours

We may soothe ourselves by saying, “I’m glad we don’t do that sacrifice stuff anymore!” But at key lesson of the Torah reading צו Tzav (“command,” Lev. 6:8–8:36) is that God is concerned about how we bring our offering of ourselves — who we are on the inside — on top of the instructions for the what and the how of the offerings.

We all need to figure out what our offering to God will be. Will our offerings be of shallow faith, shallow love, shallow actions? Or will our offerings come from a deep faith, deep action, deep love for God?