I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Leviticus 8-9.

Over the last few years I have had a growing awareness that the times of offering sacrifices was also a time of feasting.  With a few notable exceptions, each offering was divided into three portions.  One portion was burned on the altar, one portion went to the priests (this portion was where most of the food for the priests came from), and one portion was eaten by those who offered it (and their households).  In this passage today, the offering for their ordination was only to be eaten by the priests.  However, for the seven days of the ordination the priests being ordained were to remain at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, where the people could come and meet with them.  It seems to me that the intention was for the people to be able to interact with those who were about to become priests so that these newly ordained priests would understand the people to whom they would minister.  At the end of the seven days on the eighth day, the newly ordained priests would offer sacrifices for all of the people…sacrifices which would be the basis for a feast and celebration for the people.  So, the sacrifices formed a bond between the people who offered the sacrifice, the priests who performed the sacrifice, and God.