The Fat Goes to the Lord

12 Now the sons of Eli were useless men; they did not know the LORD. 13 And this was the custom of the priests with the people: when anyone was offering a sacrifice, the priest’s servant would come while the meat was cooking, with a three-pronged fork in his hand. 14 And he would thrust it into the pan, or kettle, or caldron, or pot; everything that the fork brought up, the priest would take for himself. They did so in Shiloh to all the Israelites who came there. 15 Also, before they burned the fat, the priest’s servant would come and say to the man who was sacrificing, “Give the priest meat for roasting, as he will not take cooked meat from you, only raw.” 16 And if the man said to him, “They must burn the fat first, then take as much as you desire,” then he would say, “No, but you must give it to me now; and if not, I am taking it by force!” 17 And so the sin of the young men was very great before the LORD, for the men treated the offering of the LORD disrespectfully.

1 Samuel 2:12-17

The fat of the offering was supposed to be offered to the Lord. The best part of the sacrifice was the fatty part of the meat. It was the part that would turn to smoke and would be a pleasing aroma to the Lord. The son’s of Eli were the priests in that day, and would steal the best portion of the sacrifice from the people. They were supposed to allow the one who was coming to offer a sacrifice to the Lord to offer up the sacrifice first, and then the priest could stick a fork into the offering and whatever his fork grabbed he would pull out and that would be what the priest would eat. What the son’s of Eli did was take the fatty portion of the sacrifice first while it was still raw. They did this before the person was able to offer that best portion to the Lord! The priests action was described as a sin that was “very great”. The reason it was very great is explained in the scripture. It was because they treated the offering of the Lord “disrespectfully”. The hebrew word translated disrespectfully is the word na-as. That word means to despise or reject with contempt. The action of the priest was simple. They took the offering that the people brought to the Lord, and robbed it of the best part. The rebellious in heart always see the great offering to the Lord as wasteful and unnecessary. Just like Judas who despised the expensive perfume that was poured out on Jesus feat, the sons of Eli saw no purpose for the best part to go to the Lord. The second we forget that worship is ministering to the Lord and that the offering of ourselves to the Lord is for Him and His pleasure. We will turn worship into a genre and a church into a social club. We take the holy time meant for Him and use it to feed our own soul.

Jeremy Klepal