WAVE AND HEAVE OFFERINGS

WAVE AND HEAVE OFFERINGS

They were not separate offerings, but sometimes certain portions of an offering were waved or lifted before the Lord.

Thus, at the consecration of Aaron and his sons, the fat, the tail with its fat, the fat, the kidneys with their fat, and the right shoulder of the ram, together with a cake of bread and another of bread kneaded in oil and a puff pastry, all of which were waved by Aaron and his sons before the Lord, and were then burned as a burnt offering on the altar (Lev. 8).

The breast of the ram was also waved as a wave offering before the Lord, and the shoulder was lifted up as a wave offering; All of it was eaten by Aaron and his sons (Ex. 29: 23-28). Of the peace offerings, the breast was always a wave offering, and the right shoulder a heave offering, and they were for the priests (Lev. 7:30-34).

The rabbis explain that the raised shoulder was moved up and down, and the chest rocked was moved from side to side. These actions were done “before Jehovah,” and seem to symbolize that those who moved the offerings were actually in his presence, with hands full of Christ.

Christ is thus the Antitype of all sacrifices: in them his consecration to death is prefigured; the perfection and purity of his life of consecration to God; the basis and subject of communion of his people and, finally, the elimination of sin by sacrifice.

In the Epistle to the Hebrews the contrast between the position of the Jew, for whom all sacrifices had to be repeated (the typological system existing through repetition), and the position of the Christian, who through the single sacrifice of Christ (who admits of no repetition) remain perfect forever, and they also have access to the Most Holy Place, because the great High Priest has entered it.

Thus, Christ having appeared “in the end of the ages” to “take away sin by the sacrifice of himself,” there remains no more sacrifice for sins (Eph. 5:2; Heb. 9:26; 10:4, 12, 26). Without faith in the sacrificial death of Christ there is no salvation, as is clear in Rom. 3:25; 4:24, 25; 1 Cor. 15:1-4.

The Christian is exhorted to present his body as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which constitutes the rational worship of him (Rom. 12:1; cf. 2 Cor. 8:5; Phil. 4:18). . With this he offers Christ the sacrifice of praise to God, and acts of kindness and communicating his own to others are sacrifices pleasing to God (Heb. 13:15, 16; cf. 1 Peter 2: 5). .

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