Psalm 50:14

Psalm 50:14

Thank Offerings

The “Thank Offering” (also called the Fellowship Offering) was a voluntary offering that anyone could present to the Lord. You can read in detail about this in Leviticus 3 and 7. The offeror could bring any animal without defect to the Lord as well as various breads. These were brought to the Temple as an act of thanksgiving and fellowship. Part of the offering was to God, part to the priests, the rest was for the offeror who would take his share home for a communal meal. 

Did you know that the only meat which an Israelite ate from their herds was that which was offered as a Peace Offering? All their flocks and herds were kept simply for offerings. I know this is hard to believe, but listen to the command of God as given in Leviticus chapter 17:

“Any man from the house of Israel who slaughters an ox, or a lamb, or a goat in the camp, or who slaughters it outside the camp, and has not brought it to the doorway of the tent of the meeting to present it as an offering to the LORD before the tabernacle of the LORD, blood-guiltiness is to be reckoned to that man. He has shed blood and that man shall be cut off from among his people” (Lev. 17:3-4).

The story of the “Prodigal son” takes on even more significance once we understand the nature of the Peace or Thank offering. What was it that the son missed do much in that far off foreign land, when he longed to eat the pods which the pigs were eating? It was his father’s table. And what was it that angered the older brother? It was the slaying of the fatted calf. Now, in the light of what we know about the Peace offering, what would the father have had to do, before the fatted calf could be eaten? He would have offered it first, as a Peace offering at the Temple. What then did the fatted calf in the story signify? It was that fact that the son had been accepted by his father, there was peace in the family again. The Peace / Thank offering deepens our grasp of the significance of meals in the time of Jesus. 

 

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