Certain parts of the fellowship offering were called 'the food of God's offering.' The fat, the covering over the inwards, the two kidneys with their fat attached, and the liver. These inner parts were reserved for God. The phrasing is striking: this is God's food. He eats, which sounds strange to our ears.
But the language points to something important. God receives nourishment from His relationship with His people. Their worship feeds Him in some deep sense. The most vital parts of the animal, the organs essential to life, were offered. It's not that God literally needs food, but that He values the parts we might otherwise ignore. We offer Him not just surface-level devotion but our deepest parts.
This has echoes in Jesus's teaching about eating His flesh and drinking His blood. He positions the relationship as a kind of mutual feeding. He nourishes us; we nourish Him through our worship and devotion. There's reciprocal intimacy here. We're not servants delivering a package. We're participants in relationship where both parties are nourished by closeness to the other.
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