Read Leviticus 17 here or at Bible Gateway.
The Hebrew paragraph:
17:1-16 {p} The law of the slain animal
Lev 16:1-18:30 makes a Chiastic Structure, with Leviticus 17 as its central portion.
In the ancient world, the culture surrounding the Israelites was pagan; every open field, every (ever)green tree, every grove was sacred to many and multiple deities. In that culture, every animal that was killed to be consumed, was first offered to a deity, so that there were many many places of offering to the many many gods of paganism. We learn from this chapter, that these deities were in reality demons.
God was breaking His people of the habits that surrounded them in Egypt, and that were going to surround them in Canaan, by prescribing ONE place, the door of the tabernacle of meeting, to offer their sacrifices to the ONE God of Israel.
They did not have to offer every animal they hunted or every animal of their livestock that they were going to eat to YHVH. Those that were not offered, their blood was to be poured out onto the ground. But if an animal was offered as a sacrifice, it had to be offered to YHVH, at the door of the tabernacle of meeting.
It is Messiah’s blood, without blemish and without spot, which has been offered upon the altar, the true altar in heaven, as the one in the tabernacle being merely a copy and a shadow, to make atonement for our souls. Messiah Yeshua is the substance which cast the shadow of the Day of Atonement.
If there are questions, these are good resources:
Proverbs 2, And to be cut off (Hebrew Root Word parable) – Christine Miller
Goat demons, then and now – Christine Miller
The first appearance of “goat-demon” in Scripture is in Lev 17:7. The above is an explanation.
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