More regulations, do this, do that, at this time and that time.
Some of us spend our days free of appointments, responsibilities, deadlines and “lists”. Others of us are not so, some of them are so busy they don’t have time to rest, mourn or plan. People who have fulfilled and satisfying lives tend to be those from the second category. Not that they don’t have time for themselves and loved ones, or they run around frantically to the point of eternal exhaustion. There is much to draw from life, its fullness, in how much we put ourselves in it.
Leviticus 6:19-23 is another set of instruction. OK, this instruction is again about sacrifice, and yes, it is different to those earlier verses, here, it is about Aaron’s (and his sons’) sacrifices.
The sacrificial law is different: 10% of an ephah of choice flour. You can find out what ephah means, essentially it’s a unit of measurement.
Why is the sacrifice made by Aaron (priests) as different to others, this is a topic that will take pages and days to go through. It requires our attention, but we need to pace it – your homework!
The detail of having half of the sacrifice in the morning, and the other half in the evening, is a massive undertaking. That practically means Aaron (priests) are not likely to wander away from their station too far or too long.
There is a danger here to reading the text as the focus of the details; well, to some extent, it is where our attention should be drawn to. The context of the writing, however, is something that will go on for several pages / hours. For now, it’s crucial that we understand the setting of this law which is against a backdrop of the life of Aaron, his sons and descendants.
We should not assume that this is the first time the community knows the benefits of regularity of life and so implement it. Their days and weeks are probably as full of deadlines and lists as how some of us lead our lives today.
God looks forward to our act of spending time with him. He asks for something from us, because there is value in the doing of giving. This could mean finding something, making it, praying about it, processing it, applying our creativity and thoughts, trying it out, perfecting it, and then presenting it to God.
Twice a day? Weekday and weekend? Well, the details does not matter. Leviticus provides for occasions when offerings were missed.
God desires a measure of our life, here, 10%. It’s not a rule, he does not demand a lot. Twice a day, that’s not a rule.
