A Holy Diet - Giving the Fat to God (Leviticus 3)
/I need a "Skinny Mirror"! Amazon used to sell one, but now it is listed as out of stock with the disclaimer, "We don't know when or if this item will be back in stock." [This is a mirror that, with a slight vertical extension caused by bending the glass, gives the appearance of a slimmer me.] Maybe it would be just an appearance, but surely it would suffice to a self-deceptively satisfying degree.
I know that a healthier option would be to actually attain the truth of the vision that I seek in the mirror. It would be healthier because where the slimming of my frame is concerned, the shedding of pounds would be required. If my motivation to slim comes from health reasoning, this is a noble and respectable effort. Though, if like many of us, the "look" outweighs the "feel," I would have to admit that my motivation would be more from vanity. But, either way, the end result of losing weight delivers me having to carry that luggage around. I may look better, but I would also BE better!
Slimming down, in my case, would mean that I would have to divest myself of excess fat. Diet helps (else, getting rid of it just to replace it with more would be a frustration of futility), but I've got to get rid of what I have now! That means exercise, which unfortunately doesn't come easy for me (motivation, work, family... I can "legitimize" any excuse.) Wouldn't it be easier if I could, some way, say to someone, "here, just take my fat," and they would? IM-possible! Who would want more fat?
While reading Leviticus 3, I was struck by an answer to that (not that I was looking). Leviticus 1 and 3 describe God's directions, given to Moses, about sacrifices. There's the burnt offering, an atonement for sin (chapter one), and a peace offering, given in thanksgiving and in petition (chapter three). With the burnt offering, the whole animal was to be sacrificed, burnt upon the altar by the priests. The wholeness of it was burnt because our sins are present in the wholeness of our body. The peace offering, though, was to be split between God (and burnt upon the altar), the priest and the one presenting the offering. It was to be divided because in peace (thankfulness) we all feast together, in communion and friendship. The priest and the offerer got the meat, and God got...yep, the fat.
God wants the fat, though. In fact, that was His command, to give Him the fat. But, why? Well, for a few reasons:
- The fat of the animal is actually the most flavorful. What we give to God should be the best of what we have (which was given to us by Him in the first place).
- As described in chapter 3, this fat is of the "inward" parts of the animal. God is concerned with our inward parts, He sees our inward parts where no one else does, and that is the part of us He wants - not our external appearances.
- Being the most flavorful, the fat also represents our desires for "flavor," or our "affections and lusts," or the corruptness of our inward parts. He wants us to turn that over to Him - to be burnt upon the altar.
What should we do in response to this? Well, first, be thankful that He wants to help us lose weight - the weight of our sin - to get healthier, to look better, to BE better. We should also be obedient and actually hand over our fat to Him, to subdue our "corrupted nature." We should be obedient because, well, He tells us to, but also because only by doing so can we be truly thankful (otherwise we continue to deceive ourselves, by thinking we are deceiving Him). And also because only by doing so will we be prepared to receive further mercies from Him. He requires the fat be burnt so that our hearts be saved.
Thankfully, we don't have to physically sacrifice animals any longer - Christ took care of that for us by offering Himself upon the altar for our salvation. But we do have to accept His sacrifice. When Moses recorded God's instructions for His people, these sacrifices were to be made at the doorway of the tabernacle. The people couldn't enter the tabernacle, only the priests could, so that was the nearest to God they could get. But Jesus invites us in, through the doorway -
"I am the door; by Me if any man enter in, he shall be saved." (John 10:9)
Accepting His sacrifice, entering the door, receiving the salvation He offers, costs us but choosing Him. Choosing Him means we give Him our fat. And who doesn't want to get slimmer?