Prostitute Themselves

Leviticus 17:5-7 – This is so the Israelites will bring to the Lord the sacrifices they are now making in the open fields. They must bring them to the priest, that is, to the Lord, at the entrance to the tent of meeting and sacrifice them as fellowship offerings. The priest is to splash the blood against the altar of the Lord at the entrance to the tent of meeting and burn the fat as an aroma pleasing to the Lord. They must no longer offer any of their sacrifices to the goat idols to whom they prostitute themselves. This is to be a lasting ordinance for them and for the generations to come.’

Leviticus 3:1 – “‘If your offering is a fellowship offering, and you offer an animal from the herd, whether male or female, you are to present before the Lord an animal without defect.

Exodus 34:15 – “Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land; for when they prostitute themselves to their gods and sacrifice to them, they will invite you and you will eat their sacrifices.

Leviticus 20:6 – “‘I will set my face against anyone who turns to mediums and spiritists to prostitute themselves by following them, and I will cut them off from their people.

Application:

• ·         Two basic ideas are included in the fellowship offering: peace and fellowship. The traditional translation is peace offering, a name that comes from the Hebrew word for the offering, which in turn is related to the Hebrew word shalom, meaning peace or wholeness. Thus the offering perhaps symbolized peace between God and man as well as the inward peace that resulted. The fellowship offering was the only sacrifice of which the offerer might eat a part. Fellowship was involved because the offerer, on the basis of the sacrifice, had fellowship with God and with the priest, who also ate part of the offering. At the dedication of the temple, Solomon offered 20,000 cattle and 120,000 sheep and goats as fellowship offerings over a period of 14 days.
• ·         Partaking of food sacrificed to a pagan deity invites compromise.
• ·         Consulting a medium was no less a sin than being one. Only God was to be consulted—through either the priest or a prophet.

All Scripture verses taken from ESV