The King’s Invitation
God invites His people to celebrate peace with Him, with generosity, purity and reverent obedience.
Leviticus(13) (Part of the Leviticus(10) series)
by Marc Webb(146) on February 15, 2026 (Sunday Morning(420))
The King’s Invitation
Imagine receiving an invitation in the mail—not a casual text, not an invitation but a real invitation with your name on it. Inside it says: God invites you to celebrate peace at His table. The invitation tells you it’s for one day only that a meal is provided that the host has already paid for. It tells you that only those who are properly prepared may attend and that you must come in a way that honors the host. Now imagine ignoring those details. You show up late. You bring leftovers from another meal. You assume the host will be fine with however you come. No one would say you misunderstood the invitation. They would say you disrespected it. That’s exactly what Leviticus 7:11-21 is showing us. God says to His people: Peace has been made. A sacrifice has been offered. You’re invited to eat at My table. This is not a punishment or a cold ritual. This is a celebration of restored fellowship with God. But God also makes something clear: this invitation is not permission to be careless and so He gives instructions. You are to come with generosity as the bread is to be shared, the priest is provided for and the meal is communal. You are to come in purity because what is unclean cannot come to the table. And you must come with reverent obedience in that the meal must be eaten on God’s terms and in God’s time. The invitation is gracious and our response must be faithful. These rules don’t cancel the celebration. They protect it by ensuring the meal reflects gratitude instead of entitlement, purity and holiness instead of presumption, and obedience instead of self-expression.
We are also invited to come to God’s table of peace or fellowship. We are invited to worship the Lord every day of the week but especially times such as Sunday worship, mid-week Bible studies and Communion. We are also invited by the Lord to serve Him and to tell others about Him as we pursue, grow and multiply disciples. So, the question for all of us who call Jesus our Lord and Savior is how will we respond to these invitations? Will we come grateful or casual? Will we come ready or assuming? Will we come on God’s terms or our own? God is not asking us to earn a place at His table, because Christ has already made the sacrifice, but He is calling us to respond rightly. We must come to His table with generosity, thankful for the grace and fellowship we did not earn. We must come with purity and holiness, examining ourselves and trusting God to deal with what needs cleansing. We must come reverently, obeying not because we have to but because we love God and peace has already been made for us. Grace writes the invitation, peace sets the table, and when we come celebrating generously, purely and reverently in obedience it shows we honor and respect the Host and are at peace with Him. And that brings us to our big idea this morning that God invites His people to celebrate peace with Him with generosity, purity, and reverent obedience.
Let’s pray: Heavenly Father, we want to hear from you this morning. So, we pray that your Holy Spirit will fill us with your wonder and majesty and open our eyes and ears to your Word. Give us wisdom and discernment and help us to apply what you teach each one of us to our lives this week. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
This morning, we are studying Leviticus 7:11-21. Our first point, What, is found in verses 11-14. Follow along as I read those verses. This is what God’s Word says, “These are the regulations for the fellowship offering anyone may present to the Lord: “‘If they offer it as an expression of thankfulness, then along with this thank offering they are to offer thick loaves made without yeast and with olive oil mixed in, thin loaves made without yeast and brushed with oil, and thick loaves of the finest flour well-kneaded and with oil mixed in. Along with their fellowship offering of thanksgiving, they are to present an offering with thick loaves of bread made with yeast. They are to bring one of each kind as an offering, a contribution to the Lord; it belongs to the priest who splashes the blood of the fellowship offering against the altar.”
We have seen God’s instructions to the Israelites about how they were to worship Him with burnt, grain, fellowship or peace, sin and guilt offerings. Then He instructed the priests in how they were to properly conduct these offerings as the people worshipped the Lord. Today we will study the peace or fellowship offering and what it was to consist of and who could present one before the Lord. This was a voluntary and spontaneous offering, and we were told that anyone could present one of these offerings to the Lord. There were three different types of peace or fellowship offerings. The first is called the “thanksgiving” fellowship offering. The word for “thanksgiving” comes from the word for “praise” and gives the sense of “throwing or casting.” In giving this sacrifice of “thanksgiving” there is a “throwing or casting” out of “praise” to the Lord. This was not a simple expression of thanksgiving but an expression of overwhelming praise from the worshipper’s heart for what God has done for them. Psalms 107:22 says, “They shall also offer sacrifices of thanksgiving, and tell of His works with joyful singing.” This offering was not something you did every day because of the time involved, the value of the sacrifice, and because of the other offerings that were to be given. This was an offering given to the Lord for bestowing a blessing on you that “made your day.” Examples would be a special mercy or favor or deliverance from sickness or captivity. Praising the Lord with words was not enough, the worshipper was so overwhelmed with gratitude that they needed to make an outward expression of it. 1 John 3:18 says, “Little children, let’s not love with word or with tongue, but indeed and truth.”
In Leviticus 3 we learned that a fellowship offering was to consist of a male or female herd animal, flock animal or goat without blemish. Now we learn that the offeror was to bring bread offerings as well. It was normal practice to bring a burnt offering of meat and an offering of grain together with the grain offering burned on top of the burnt offering. This signified that the worshipper was wholly devoted to God, there was reconciliation between the worshipper and God, and now being at peace with God the worshipper was able to partake of the Lord’s fellowship meal. This sacrifice of bread and meat together reminds us of meals with meat and potatoes or a burger with a side of fries. These bread offerings were to consist of thick loaves made without yeast and with olive oil mixed in, thin loaves made without yeast and brushed with oil, and thick loaves of the finest flour well-kneaded and with oil mixed in. Each of these types of grain offerings was a picture of Jesus Christ as the Bread of Life and the oil was a picture of the Holy Spirit at work. There is no mention of the number of breads that was to be offered. It depended on how grateful the worshipper was for what God had done for them.
We also learn that along with their animal sacrifice and the fellowship thanksgiving offerings of unleavened bread, they were to also present an offering with thick loaves of bread made with yeast. This is only one of two times that bread with leaven was allowed to be brought as an offering to the Lord. The other was at the feast of Pentecost. This seems strange as Leviticus chapter 2 prohibits the bringing of a bread offering made with yeast. But what this signified was that God had accepted the worshipper’s fellowship offering despite the worshipper’s sin. God does not disregard our sinful offerings if we come before him celebrating peace with Him in the proper way with generosity, purity, and reverent obedience. (Big Idea) The offeror was to bring one of each kind of bread offering, as a contribution to the Lord. The word “contribution” means “uplifted offering” implying that the priest lifted the bread symbolizing that it was given to God. For us it symbolizes that we can’t hide our sin, so we need to give it to the Lord in confession and repentance. The reason it was lifted was because leaven was not allowed to be offered on the altar of burn offering. Because it was the Lord’s contribution, he could then “set it apart” to be consumed by the priest, specifically the priest who splashed the blood against the altar. This would have been the priest who performed the animal sacrifice. After the sacrifice, the implication was, according to Jewish tradition, that the rest of the grain fellowship offering was given back to the worshipper.
That brings us to our second point, When, found in Leviticus 7:15-18. This is what God’s Word says, “The meat of their fellowship offering of thanksgiving must be eaten on the day it is offered; they must leave none of it till morning. “‘If, however, their offering is the result of a vow or is a freewill offering, the sacrifice shall be eaten on the day they offer it, but anything left over may be eaten on the next day. Any meat of the sacrifice left over till the third day must be burned up. If any meat of the fellowship offering is eaten on the third day, the one who offered it will not be accepted. It will not be reckoned to their credit, for it has become impure; the person who eats any of it will be held responsible.”
Here we learn when the meat of the fellowship offerings was supposed to be eaten and that there were two other kinds of fellowship offerings and what they were to be brought for. This was important for both the worshipper and the priests to know so that they were in complete compliance with God’s commands. The meat of the fellowship offering had to be eaten on the same day it was offered to the Lord. None of it could be saved till the next day it was to be completely eaten. This reminds us of the regulations for eating the Passover Lamb in Exodus 12 and for eating the manna in the wilderness in Exodus 16. Those were both types of Christs and so it is reasonable to assume that the “praise” thanksgiving offering pointed to Christ as well. We see this in that the regulations for the other two fellowship offerings were less stringent. Why did this offering have to be eaten on the same day it was offered? Again, this offering would have been given for an expression of overwhelming praise from the worshipper’s heart for what God has done for them. It wouldn’t have been appropriate to not completely acknowledge the blessing that God gave the worshipper. This is what it would signify by not eating the entre offering on the same day.
This command also gave an opportunity for the offeror to invite their family and friends to the King’s table and share in God’s blessings with them. Really anyone in the tabernacle area would be allowed to partake of the blessing God gave to the worshipper. A lot of times this was the way that the poorest Israelites in the community were fed including the orphans and widows. To not generously share this offering of praise with others would not be showing the overwhelming thanksgiving that giving the offering implies. It would be hypocritical of the worshipper. Deuteronomy 12:7 says, “There, in the presence of the Lord your God, you and your families shall eat and shall rejoice in everything you have put your hand to, because the Lord your God has blessed you.” In the same way, we need to first give God praise for what He has done for us and then look for ways to bless others with what God has blessed us with. We should be practicing generous sharing as a natural overflow of God’s blessing and love for us. Hebrews 13:15-16 says, “Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name. And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.” Some tangible ways we can do this is with our resources, our time, our home, or the gospel itself. We can let someone know who is hurting, that we are praying for them. We can visit someone who may be lonely and needs a listening ear. We can invite someone to our home for dinner or take them out for a meal just to enjoy fellowship with them. We can intentionally pursue, grow and multiply disciples as the Great Commission commands, sharing the hope of Christ with someone who needs it. God has freely given us salvation, and we should be willing to share the hope that we have with everyone especially those who do not know Jesus as their Savior and Lord. Practical generosity shows that we truly recognize God as the source of every blessing. That brings us to our first next step which is I will practice generosity this month as a natural overflow of God’s blessing to me.
Now we are introduced to the other fellowship offerings, the vow and the free-will offerings. The vow fellowship offering was given for God answering the worshipper’s prayer. It was given because the offeror had made a vow to God to give it when his prayer was answered. The free-will fellowship offering was given “just because” and for the simple things in life. For example, a worshipper who woke up, grateful to God for another day of living, another day of breath, might bring a free-will offering to give God glory and honor. Psalm 119:108 says, “Be pleased to accept the voluntary offerings of my mouth, Lord, and teach me Your judgments.” There were different regulations for the vow and free-will offerings compared to the thanksgiving offering. For them both, if all the meat was not eaten on the same day it was offered, it could be left over and eaten on the second day. This would not have disrespected the Lord. But two days was the limit. If any of the offerings were left over till the third day it had to be burned up; it could not be eaten. There was a practical reason for this. In the wilderness climate, the meat would spoil quickly and be unfit to eat. There were also ritual or spiritual reasons as well. First, it was a question of obedience to the Lord. It would become ritually corrupt and to be disobedient would have corrupted the worshipper. Second, the priest may have wanted to save some just in case there would not be any other fellowship offerings for a while. Of course, this would show that the priest was not trusting the Lord to provide for them. Third, this points us to Christ our sacrifice and his time in the grave. Psalm 16:10 says, “For You will not abandon my soul to Shaol or Hell; You will not allow Your Holy One to undergo decay.” Jesus was resurrected on the third day and therefore was not corrupted. There were also consequences for disobeying God and eating the vow or free-will fellowship offering on the third day. The person who ate it suffered three penalties.
First, the worshipper who offered it would not be accepted by God, and second, their offering would not be reckoned to their credit. It would be like they never gave the offering in the first place even though God had blessed them and or they had made a vow to the Lord. Imagine making an offering to the Lord, pure and undefined, and then allowing it to rot. This would be like Ananias and Sapphira giving their offering to the Lord but lying about it and keeping a portion selfishly for themselves. This would tell God that making a show of giving the offering was more important than the purpose of the offering which was to be at peace with Him. The reason their offer wasn’t accepted was because it had become impure. Another word for impure would be “abomination” or “putrid” which would be something dead that had started to stink. Third, the worshipper who ate of these offerings on the third day would be held responsible meaning they would “bear guilt” for how they handled the Lord’s offering. This would have been such a serious matter that the priests probably warned the worshippers about this when they accepted the offering.
That brings us to our third point, Who, found in Leviticus 7:19-21. This is what God’s Word says, “Meat that touches anything ceremonially unclean must not be eaten; it must be burned up. As for other meat, anyone ceremonially clean may eat it. But if anyone who is unclean eats any meat of the fellowship offering belonging to the Lord, they must be cut off from their people. Anyone who touches something unclean—whether human uncleanness or an unclean animal or any unclean creature that moves along the ground—and then eats any of the meat of the fellowship offering belonging to the Lord must be cut off from their people.’”
Here the Lord introduces the concept of clean and unclean. Clean and unclean were ritual states that related to the everyday life of the Israelites and tabernacle access. Following God’s laws of being clean or unclean was intended to keep the Israelites physically and spiritually "set apart" or holy before God. Unclean items could render holy things "common" or profane, and so holy things were not allowed to touch unclean things. If any of the meat of the fellowship offerings touched anything ceremonially unclean, it was not to be eaten and had to be burned up. This could happen in various ways such as the meat touching an unclean person, or animal or by encountering an unclean bowl, garment, etc. If this happened, the offering could not even be given to the dogs because it was intended to be a pure offering to the Lord himself. The only meat that was allowed to be consumed was meat that was ceremonially clean and the only people who could partake of it were those who were ceremonially clean themselves. In verse 20 we see an overarching general statement that if an unclean person ate any meat of the fellowship offering, they were to be “cut off from their people.”
And in verse 21 we see the specific ways a person could become unclean. They became unclean by touching one of three unclean things. The first was human uncleanness such as encountering death, bodily discharges, or specific diseases like leprosy. The second was an unclean animal and third was any unclean creature that moves along the ground. Examples of such were pigs, camels, rabbits, rodents, shellfish, birds of prey, and reptiles. Anyone who had become unclean couldn’t enter the tabernacle area and couldn’t partake of the fellowship offerings until they were healed and cleansed. It would be an offence to our holy God to mix the holy with the impure when it was God who sanctified the offering. This would dishonor and disrespect the Lord. If a person touched any unclean thing and then ate of the fellowship offering, they were to be cut off from their people. Why was this so important to God that he mentioned it numerous times? First, the fellowship offering belonged first and foremost to the Lord. It was His and He graciously allowed His people to partake in it. Second, God was trying to teach His people the difference between living a holy life and not living a holy life. One more caveat about this: these were unclean, knew it and still intentionally ate of the Lord’s fellowship offering. Imagine if a groom ate of his wedding cake and yet was having an affair, he mocked the very thing the cake stands for which is his exclusive commitment of love to his bride.
The same is true here: the worshipper brings a “voluntary” offering before the Lord knowing he was ceremonially unclean. He was disobedient, he dishonored and disrespected the Lord on purpose. God sees our hearts. He knows our intents and motivations for everything we do or say. This kind of behavior from one of God’s children would bring severe consequences. Now if the worshipper had inadvertently eaten of the fellowship offering while unclean, the punishment would have been to bring a guilt or reparation offering to the priests. Twice, the Israelites were told about the consequences for those who were ceremonially unclean and intentionally ate of the fellowship offerings. The consequences were that they would be “cut off from their people.” To be “cut off from their people” could mean a couple of things, none of which were good for the person who violated God’s commands. At the very least to be “cut off from their people” could mean banishment from the Israelite community and at the worst it meant death. It could also have meant that God would cut off their family line. Whatever punishment was handed down, to be “cut off from their people” meant that the ruling came from the hand of God and not a human court. This was a violation against the holiness of God and He would hand out the punishment. This was not something to play around with. God was deadly serious when it came to cleanness and uncleanness especially when it came to knowingly partaking of His sacrifices while unclean. Before coming to the King’s table, the Israelites were required to be ceremonially clean.
While we are made clean through Christ, we are still called to examine ourselves honestly. Before we come to worship, before daily fellowship with God, or serving and before Communion we must examine our lives for areas that compromise our spiritual purity. We need to regularly spend time asking the Lord to reveal any unconfessed sin, divided loyalties, or careless attitudes toward holiness. Then we must confess what He reveals and trusts Him to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Coming into fellowship at the King’s table with generosity, purity and reverent obedience honors the Host and protects the joy of being at peace with Him (Big Idea). That bring us to our second and last next step which is I will examine my life for areas that I have compromised my spiritual purity and confess it before God.
In Leviticus 7, the meat could not be eaten on the third day because it became unclean. In the gospel, Jesus rose on the third day, and His sacrifice never spoils, never expires, and never loses its power. Leviticus 7 reminds us that God invited His people to a party at His table—a fellowship offering that was joyful, generous, and shared. It was a celebration of peace with God. But it was not a careless party. It was a thanksgiving party of gratitude expressed in action, a timely party as the food could not be saved for later, a holy party as only the clean could participate, and a serious party because treating it lightly brought serious consequences. The Peace or Fellowship Offering should remind us of Communion and how we are to come to the Lord’s table. When we come to the Lord’s Supper, we come in fulfillment of that party. The Lord’s Supper is not a funeral meal, though it remembers a death. It is not a casual snack, though it uses simple elements. It is a celebration of restored fellowship—peace made possible through the sacrifice of Christ. Just like the fellowship offering, this table calls for gratitude. Jesus said we are to “Do this in remembrance of Me.” This table calls for urgency — “Today, if you hear His voice…” which emphasizes immediate obedience rather than delay. This table calls for reverence as we are to examine themselves. And this table calls for holiness — not perfection, but honest repentance before partaking.
So, this is God’s party, hosted by grace, paid for by blood, open to the repentant and meant to be received with joy and reverence. Next time we come to the Lord’s Supper table, let us not come not casually, but thankfully. Not pretending we are clean but trusting the One who makes us clean. Not as spectators, but as invited guests. Let us be people, who as we are invited by the King’s invitation to come to His table, will celebrate peace and fellowship with Him with generosity, purity, and reverent obedience.
As Roxey comes to lead us in a final hymn and the ushers prepare to collect the tithes and offerings, let’s pray: Gracious God, we thank You that You are the One who makes peace and then invites us to Your table. We did not earn the invitation and we do not set the terms. You welcomed us because of Your grace. So please forgive us for the times we have treated holy things casually, for coming without gratitude, for assuming instead of examining, for receiving grace without reverence. Teach us to honor You as the Host. Shape our hearts to respond with generosity, not holding back what You have freely given us. Cleanse us so we may come with purity, trusting not in ourselves but in Your mercy. And lead us in reverent obedience, not because we fear rejection, but because peace has already been made for us. Today we receive Your invitation with joy and humility. Help us to celebrate peace with You in a way that honors Your holiness and reflects Your grace. We pray this in the name of Jesus, the sacrifice who made the invitation possible. Amen.
