Fire Consumes the Offerings

“The Lord will appear to you today.” That’s what Moses told the people of Israel in Leviticus 9:4. God had given Moses lengthy and detailed directions for how the people were to worship Him and make amends for their sins. (Leviticus 1 – 9) Each family was to bring a male goat for their sin offering, a perfect one-year old calf and lamb for the burnt offerings, an ox and a ram for peace offerings, as well as an offering of grain mixed with oil. The animals were killed and the priest had to sprinkle the blood on the altar of God. (Leviticus 9:12) Why the killing of the animals? “Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness,” the Bible says in Hebrews 9:22. These sacrifices are what God specified to clear the people of their sins and return them to good standing before Him.

All the parts of the sacrificed animals had to be handled as God commanded. Some were “offered up in smoke on the altar” (Leviticus 9:10, 13-14, 20) and other parts burned outside the camp, and still other offerings were “waved” before the altar. (Leviticus 9:21)The ox and ram and the grain offerings expressed worship and thanksgiving and devotion to God.

When all this was completed, Moses and Aaron blessed the people and then “the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people.” (Leviticus 9:23) Now here’s the impressive part: “Then fire came out from before the Lord and consumed the burnt offerings and the portions of fat on the altar; and when all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces.” (Leviticus 9:24) How awesome it must have been to stand in the crowd outside the tent of meeting and see fire come down and consume the offerings! No wonder the people fell on their faces out of holy reverence for God!

The fire, scholars say, indicated that God was pleased with the offerings. We don’t need to offer animal sacrifices or expect fire to come down, because God was pleased with the one sacrifice which was better and to which the system of animal sacrifices pointed: Jesus Christ. Jesus, God’s Son, willingly gave himself as the perfect sacrificial offering for all time. (See Hebrews 7:27, 9:14, and 10:12.) Jesus’ sacrifice was better because it totally removed sin and the guilt of sin, so it cleared the conscience of the sinner. This was something the animal sacrifices could not do. (Hebrews 9:14, 10:4). John the Baptist referred to Jesus as “the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29, italics added) When someone believes in Jesus as God’s Son who takes away his or her sins, the person is sanctified – made clean- and put right with God. (Hebrews 10:10) That person’s sin is gone and he or she has a new start and new, eternal life. Now that is reason to fall down before God in worship, thanksgiving, and praise!

He (Jesus) finished all sacrifices, once for all, when he sacrificed himself on the cross. Hebrews 7:27b The Living Bible

God sent fire to consume the offerings on the altar. Your body “burns” the food you eat to provide energy for daily activities, exercise, and basic functioning. This week let’s take a look at some of these energy requirements.

Your body requires a sizeable amount of energy, measured in that familiar unit of energy, the calorie, merely to exist. Just for fun, here’s how many calories some of our essential organs use each day. This is based on a 150 pound man if he were just lying in bed all day (all given in calories per day):

Brain - 365, Heart – 180, Kidney – 120, Liver – 560 – Lung - 160, Other tissues – 370.

The number of calories needed each day for your body’s essential functions (breathing, pumping blood, maintaining cells, etc.) is called the Resting Metabolic Rate, or RMR. You can get an approximate number for your RMR by multiplying your healthy weight (in pounds) by ten. So if your healthy weight is 120, your RMR is 120 x 10 = 1200 calories. This would be what your body needs if you were simply resting all day. (If you are overweight, choose a weight that is half way between your current and your healthy weight. So if you weigh 170 lbs but your healthy weight is 130, use 150, and your RMR is 150 x 10 = 1500.)

Your daily activities burn calories too. To approximate this, we use a percentage of the RMR. For sedentary people, we use 20 to 40% of the RMR. Let’s use 30%. So a sedentary person with an RMR of 1200 calories would need 30% of 1200, or 400 calories per day for normal activities

such as dressing, cooking, reading, light-duty chores and working. These daily activity calories are added onto the RMR. This person’s daily requirements would be 1200 + 400 = 1600 calories per day. (Note this does not include exercising. We’ll get to that in a moment.)

People who are moderately active use about 50% of their RMR for daily activities, while very active people (for example those with physically demanding jobs) use 60 to 80% of the RMR. A very active person with an RMR of 1200 calories may need 60% of 1200, or 720 calories for normal daily activities. This person’s caloric requirement would be 1200 + 720 = 1920 calories. (This compares with 1600 for the sedentary person. So you can see what a difference lifestyle activity makes in how many calories you burn.)

Now what about calories burned in exercise? This will vary widely, depending on the person’s size and how hard he or she is working out. If you weighed 150 pounds, this shows how many minutes you would need to work out continuously to burn 300 calories. (Remember this is approximate, all given in minutes.)

Riding a stationary bicycle - 53
Walking 3 mph - 76
Water aerobics - 66
Lap swimming - 33
Lifting weights - 44
Golfing (without a cart) – 59
Raking leaves – 66
Vacuuming or sweeping - 106.

If your exercise session burns 300 calories, you may add this to your daily caloric requirement. So the example from above of our sedentary person with an RMR or 1200, plus 400 calories for daily activities, plus 300 calories for exercise, has a daily requirement of 1200 + 400 + 300 = 1900 calories. In an earlier post, I talked about activities you could build into your schedule to burn extra calories in your day.

Again, all these calculations are approximate. But this provides a tool for you to see how many calories your body burns. At the very least, you can see that you need good quality fuel to function properly! The way your body is made and functions is wondrous. Taking care of your body, spiritually and physically, is one of the goals of Length and Strength from the Inside Out.

Information about caloric consumption is from Nancy Clark’s Sports Nutrition Guidebook, 3rd edition, by Nancy Clark, MS, RD, Human Kinetics, 2003.

Photo credits: biblewalk.wordpress.com, edwebproject.org, who.int, all from CreativeCommons; L.E. Lang collection