Ritual Offerings: A Picture of the Cross!

Offering is the “Old Testament” (OT) were commanded as a way to seek forgiveness and a way to praise God for the things he had done. Offerings were ceremonial, given in a cleansed body with cleansed utensils, on an acadia or natural stone altar, were given by the priests and were to be with utmost reverence. Any violation or offering made which differed from God's instructions were presumptuous and blasphemous. Some died because they failed to follow directions!
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There are two types of movements in making offerings in the OT, heave offerings and wave offerings:

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Leviticus 7:32 “And the right shoulder shall ye give unto the priest for an heave offering of the sacrifices of your peace offerings.”

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Leviticus 8:26 “and from the basket of unleavened bread that was before the Lord he took one unleavened cake, a cake of bread anointed with oil, and one wafer, and put them on the fat and on the right thigh; 27 and he put all these in Aaron’s hands and in his sons’ hands, and waved them as a wave offering before the Lord. 28 Then Moses took them from their hands and burned them on the altar, on the burnt offering. They were consecration offerings for a sweet aroma. That was an offering made by fire to the Lord.”

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Heave offerings were made by the priests in and up/down motion. Heave offerings were a present to the Lord, obviously to please and revere Him. A heave offering is to God, ruler of Heaven. The heave offerings were the first-fruits, the right shoulder, offered in harvest time.

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Wave offerings were made by the priests in a a swinging horizontal direction back and forth. A wave offering was to God, the ruler of the earth. Wave offerings were peace offerings and consisted of the grain first-fruits Wave offerings became the property of the priest and could be eaten by them.

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If one examines the offerings taken together there is much to learn! The up/down motion (heave offering) paired with the horizontal motion (wave offering) together provide a picture of the cross of Jesus crucifixion with its vertical member crossed by the horizontal. God knew what he was doing when he delegated early man in the worship of the Savior to come! But there's more!

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The right shoulder of the animal was heaved in praise of the Lord. It was of the first-fruits (first born) and was without blemish! Jesus was the first-born of God and was without blemish. He was sin free and made the sacrifice in our place! Jesus was the present (grace) provided by God that offered the ultimate sacrifice for us. Whereas the priests made the sacrifice at harvest time, God made His sacrifice once and for all! We aren't expected to continually ask for His sacrifice over and over. Today Jesus rules in Heaven at the right hand of His Father. The heave offering celebrates his majestic position reflected by the right shoulder of the firstborn form the flock!

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Grain made into bread with pure ingredients was the wave offering. The bread represents the body of Christ and we do that in remembrance of Him even before the cross and forever thereafter! Like us, the priest was allowed to partake of the bread. Wave offerings, celebrating the ruler of the earth, was a picture of Christ incarnate! Wave offerings represented the “Son of man” nature of Christ and the heave offering the “Son of God” nature of Christ. Wave offerings were a peace offering. All mankind has sinned against God and the wave offering was to make peace with a gracious God, not unlike the death of Christ on the cross which made peace between man and God to get for us a place in Heaven. It's a thank you for His grace!

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Isn't God wise? Wasn't His plan merciful? Our forebears had a gracious God who promised them a Messiah through their ritual sacrifices by the priests in a rudimentary tabernacle. Modern man was a recipient of that promise through the dispensation of grace: Christ's death on the rudimentary cross! We no longer need the priests to make our repeated sacrifices for us. We offer our self one time and are rewarded by becoming of the royal priesthood ourselves, and Jesus mediates our thanks and requests to God. Aint God great?