No matter what the Law of Moses says, God’s people don’t need to offer bloody sacrifices of animals any longer. In fact, as the writer to the Hebrews reminds us, “It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins” (Hebrews 10:4). No, all those Old Testament sacrifices pointed forward to the final, sufficient sacrifice of Christ: “By one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified” (Hebrews 10:14). Jesus’ death thus rendered the whole Old Testament sacrificial system unnecessary.

But that doesn’t mean we can’t learn some important lessons from the ceremonial law, the part of the Law of Moses that described how all those sacrifices were to be offered. For example, verse 18 tells us that leaven, or yeast was not to be offered to God. Paul uses the same image but in a spiritual sense, encouraging the Corinthian believers to put away their sin: “Clean out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” (I Corinthians 5:7-8).

Just so, verse 19 says that Old Testament believers were to bring the best of their produce as an offering to God, to support the priests and Levites as they carried out all the prescribed sacrifices. New Testament believers are called to make a broader, deeper, more inclusive sort of offering: “I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect” (Romans 12:1-2). In other words, we are to offer our best, all we are and all we have, to the One Who has given His life for us.

Nevertheless, this passage reminds us that some things about the way God wants us to worship Him remain mysterious. No one really knows, for example, just why God prohibited His people from boiling a kid in the milk of its mother (v. 19). Just so, we don’t need to let what we consider to be rational or attractive govern the way we worship God. Instead, we need to let God’s Word regulate not only everything we believe about Him and His Work, but also everything we do to express our thanks and praise to Him.

So, if Jesus wants us to eat a bite of bread and a sip of juice, or to pour water over new believers or to listen to His Word and pray, let’s do that. Indeed, let’s consider everything we do a form of worship, giving to God and to one another the best of our time, our talent, and our treasure. What better way could we have to demonstrate our love?

Exodus 23:18-19 (NAS)

18 “You shall not offer the blood of My sacrifice with leavened bread; nor is the fat of My feast to remain overnight until morning.
19 “You shall bring the choice first fruits of your soil into the house of the LORD your God. You are not to boil a kid in the milk of its mother.