Today's Scripture Reading (December 12, 2024): Leviticus 1
I have a complicated relationship with … birds. A part of me loves to hear and see them around my house and office. Some years ago, we rented a place with a couple of bird-feeding stations on the back deck for a couple of weeks. The result was that a series of different species of birds visited the deck to find food during the day. My backyard has a bird feeding station, although it seems to appeal only to one kind of bird.
However, I am a little uneasy when crows or magpies gather around the door to my office. My problem is that I have been attacked by crows protecting their turf. I was walking in the area of my home a few years ago when the crows started to dive-bomb toward my head. Later, I discovered that some kids had been throwing stones at their nest, so they had taken the fight to humans. They never connected with me, but it was still an adverse experience. There is a tree just outside my office that is often the resting place for a magpie or a crow. They voice their displeasure whenever I pass by the tree, and I have to admit that I often wonder if it is time to duck.
Several regulations govern the sacrifices of Israel. Most of them are the same regardless of what animal might be killed. But there are a couple of changes if the animal happens to be a bird. And the first is the way the bird is to be killed. Modern translations often say that the priest would "wring off the head" of the bird. And while that is descriptive, it isn't quite right. The seventeenth-century English theologian John Trapp (1601-1669) reminds his readers that the priest was to pinch the bird's neck to allow the blood to drain from the bird without breaking any bones. Trapp argues that this foretells how the Messiah would die without breaking a bone, much as the Passover Lamb was to meet its end without breaking a bone. According to Trapp, it also predicts that Jesus would go to his death without dividing the Godhead from the manhood of Jesus, which speaks directly to early heresies that argued that Jesus the man died on the cross, but Jesus the Son of God, or the Christ, could not be killed. The Christ or Messiah left Jesus the man at some point before his crucifixion and death.
The second difference concerns the disposition of the blood. For other sacrifices, blood is to be poured at the sides and horns of the altar. But a bird does not have enough blood to cover the altar and the horns. So, instead, the blood is to be squeezed out of the bird against the side of the altar. And that will be considered to be enough.
Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Leviticus 2
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