Boil בָּשַׁל

We are in chapter eight of Leviticus with our word for today. בָּשַׁל boil, seethe, grow ripe, cook, roast. It is used 28 times in the Old Testament. Our word is used in the sense of to be ripe, to be fully developed or matured and ready to be eaten or used. Joel 3:13 Put in the sickle, for the harvest בָשַׁ֖ל is ripe. Go in, tread, for the winepress is full. We also see our word referring to the ripening process. Genesis 40:9-10 So the chief cupbearer told his dream to Joseph and said to him, “In my dream there was a vine before me, and on the vine there were three branches. As soon as it budded, its blossoms shot forth, and הִבְשִׁ֥ילוּ the clusters ripened into grapes. We find our word used in the sense to roast, to cook with dry heat over a fire. 2 Chronicles 35:13 וַֽיְבַשְּׁל֥וּ And they roasted the Passover lamb with fire according to the rule; and they בִּשְּׁל֗וּ boiled the holy offerings in pots, in cauldrons, and in pans, and carried them quickly to all the lay people. Did you see that our word is used twice in this verse but in two different senses? The other sense is how our word is used most of the time which is to boil, to immerse or be immersed in a boiling liquid. And most of these uses refer to the offerings of sacrifice as part of the tabernacle and temple worship. This is how our word is used in our chapter today. Leviticus 8:31-32 And Moses said to Aaron and his sons, בַּשְּׁל֣וּ “Boil the flesh at the entrance of the tent of meeting, and there eat it and the bread that is in the basket of ordination offerings, as I commanded, saying, ‘Aaron and his sons shall eat it.’ And what remains of the flesh and the bread you shall burn up with fire. Notice the detail instructions that anything left over was to be burned. This was a special ordination offering to consecrate the priests. Again the whole point of all of this was to connect people to God in worship through the sacrificial system set up during that time period. Here is a bad example of priests who failed to serve God in connecting people to him through worship. 1 Samuel 2:12-17 Now the sons of Eli were worthless men. They did not know the Lord. The custom of the priests with the people was that when any man offered sacrifice, the priest's servant would come, while the meat כְּבַשֵּׁ֣ל was boiling, with a three-pronged fork in his hand, and he would thrust it into the pan or kettle or cauldron or pot. All that the fork brought up the priest would take for himself. This is what they did at Shiloh to all the Israelites who came there. Moreover, before the fat was burned, the priest's servant would come and say to the man who was sacrificing, “Give meat for the priest to roast, for he will not accept boiled meat from you but only raw.” And if the man said to him, “Let them burn the fat first, and then take as much as you wish,” he would say, “No, you must give it now, and if not, I will take it by force.” Thus the sin of the young men was very great in the sight of the Lord, for the men treated the offering of the Lord with contempt. The reason this was so evil was that the very people who were to help others connect to God in worship we actually getting in the way. We see another similar situation when Jesus notices those who were supposed to help people connect to God in worship but instead were making it more difficult and were getting in the way. I’ll close with this great passage. Matthew 21:12-13 And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.”