Who May Eat the Sacred Offerings
22: 10-16
Who may eat the sacred offerings DIG: Who could eat the sacred offerings? Who was prohibited from eating it? What would happen if someone ate it accidently? Where was the mitzvot of the priest’s daughter? Why wasn’t the death penalty imposed for violators?
REFLECT: What happens to us at the moment of faith? Who is supposed to partake of the sacred food today? Who should not partake of it? Why? Who is our Great High Priest? Do you feel like a priest of the Most High God? Does Scripture overrule your feelings on that?
Our adoption into the family of God allows us to eat at the Lord’s table.
The regulations limiting the food of the sacred offerings (to see link lick Ah – The Offerings from the People’s Perspective) to members of a priest’s family resemble those who may not eat of the Passover. “But if anyone has a slave he bought for money, when you have circumcised him, he may eat it. Neither a traveler (Hebrew: tosab) nor a hired servant may eat it” (Exodus 12:44-45).
Who may (and who may not) eat the sacred offerings (22:10-13): No one who is not a priest may eat anything holy, nor may a tenant or employee of a priest eat anything holy (22:10). Note the tenant (Hebrew: tosab) here in 22:10 and the traveler in Exodus 12:45 translate the same Hebrew word tosab. Therefore, the offering to the God of the Passover as the family celebrated the feast, transfers to the sacred offerings of Isra’el, and they become available to the priest’s family and the permanent bondservant (see Cz – The Hebrew Slave). But if a priest acquires a slave who ends up being a bondservant, either through purchase or through his being born in his household, he may share his food (22:11). A bondservant in a Jewish home is also required to be circumcised (Genesis 3:17:12-13). Presumably the slave received the privilege of becoming a member of the household and being attached to the priest’s family in a way that other ordinary workers were not.
A priest’s daughter who married outside the priesthood must not eat of the food, the sacred offerings, because she no longer fell within the responsibility of her father’s household. If the daughter of a priest is married to a man who is not a priest, she is not to have a share of the food set aside from the sacred offerings. But if the daughter of a priest is a widow or divorcee, and she is sent back to her father’s house as when she was young, she may share in her father’s food; but no unauthorized person is to share in it (22:12-13). But there is one exception, she must have no children from the marriage. This suggests that any such “seed” compromises her complete loyalty to her father’s household. In such a case, her children continue the line of her husband, and his family assumes the responsibility of her well-being and that of her family. Compare 21:14-15, where the offspring constitute the rationale for prohibiting the high priest from marrying a widow or divorced woman.397
Eating a sacred offering by mistake (22:14): This verse envisions the possibility that someone may accidently eat of the sacred offerings. This could easily happen if a person ate food grown in Isra’el which had not yet been tithed.398 In such a case, the reparation offering (see Am – The Guilt Offering: Evidence of Repentance) must be used to overcome the guilt. If a person eats holy food by mistake, he must add one-fifth to it and give the holy food to the priest. This normally involved a ram and an additional 20 percent restitution. But the requirement of the ram was replaced with the demand to return to YHVH the equivalent of the food eaten.399
The Pharisees took special precaution in this regard, refusing to eat food unless they were certain it had been already tithed on. They even tithed a tenth of their spices – mint, dill and cumin (Matthew 23:23a), before eating any of them. The Master agreed with their concern for keeping the mitzvah, but condemned them for ignoring the weightier matters of the Torah (see the commentary on The Life of Christ Jd – Seven Woes on the Torah-Teachers and the Pharisees).
The pharisaic necessity to be certain that all food was properly tithed forced them to eat only within their own fellowships where those concerns could be monitored. However, when Messiah sent out His disciples, He dismissed this stringency saying: Eat what is set before you (see The Life of Christ Gv – Jesus Sends Out the Seventy). Nevertheless, the principle is one of placing the things of the Kingdom before our own needs. The tithe and priestly portions must be separated out first. So too, the priorities of the Kingdom must be set ahead of our own. Seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well (Matthew 6:33).400
Summary: the priest’s responsibility (22:15-16): These verses warn that the lack of care when eating the sacred offerings could lead to profaning them. In this case, however, the result envisions the need for a payment of restitution rather than death as in 22:3 and 9. They are not to treat the sacred offerings as everyday items, thus profaning them by allowing common Israelites to eat them. The priests had a special responsibility to guard the LORD’s holy things. Doing so meant that they were actually protecting the Israelites from sin (see the commentary on First Corinthians By – Issues Surrounding the Lord’s Supper). ADONAI’s shepherds are responsible for the spiritual well-being of their sheep (Malachi 2:7-8; Acts 20:28; First Timothy 4:16; Hebrews 13:17). If they failed to do so, it would cause the common Israelites to bear their guilt requiring a guilt offering (see above).401 Why should the Israelites obey these mitzvot? Because I am ADONAI, who sets them apart to live in a holy manner.
Once we are adopted into the Body of Messiah (see The Life of Christ Bw – What God Does For Us at the Moment of Faith), Yeshua Messiah becomes our Great High Priest (see the commentary on Hebrews Ay – Messiah’s Qualifications as our Great High Priest), and we can partake of the holy food of the Lord’s Supper: the bread (see The Life of Christ Kj – Breaking the Middle Matzah) and the wine/grape juice (see The Life of Christ Kk – The Third Cup of Redemption) because we are a kingdom of priests. The Bible tells us that we are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, that we may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called us out of the darkness into His marvelous light (First Peter 2:9), and made us a kingdom of priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen (Revelation 1:6). However, those who are not believers, like those who were not from the household of priests (22:10-13), should not partake of the Lord’s supper, for they are not of the family of faith.
Dear Heavenly Father, Praise You that You are always Holy! Thank you that Your Holy Ruach lives inside Your children to help us live holy lives and conqueror temptations (First Corinthians 10:13). Sometimes we hear so much about Your great love, which is a fantastic steadfast love, that we forget our part of the covenant is to love You back. Receiving Your gift of love happens by someone moving beyond intellectual agreement. They love you so much for forgiving their sin that they eagerly follow You as their Lord and Savior (Romans 10:9-10).
Knowing about you is wonderful, but head knowledge can never unite any two people. Being one in union takes a heart of love. Someone may like someone else, but that is not being one in union with them. Your purpose and plan, which you set forth in Messiah for all who love you, is to unite them into one with Him. For those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be in us, I in them and You in Me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that You sent Me and loved them even as You loved Me (John 17:20b-21b, 23).
How gracious You are that You open the door of union with You, to Jews and Gentiles. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus (Galatians 2:28). But now in Messiah Yeshua you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Messiah . . . For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father (Ephesians 2:13, 18). We are so thrilled to be united to You in Messiah and we desire to live our lives pleasing to You, honoring You with holy living, with hearts quick and eager to obey and actions that lift up Your holy Name. In Yeshua’s holy Name and power of His resurrection. Amen
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