Kidneys כִּלְיָה

We are in chapter seven of Leviticus with our word for today. כִּלְיָה kidneys, reins, innermost, most secret part of man. It is used 31 times in the Old Testament. Our word is used in the sense of conscience a person’s inmost being where people know right from wrong and experience feelings conceived of as the kidneys. Job 19:27 כִלְיֹתַ֣י My heart faints within me! Psalm 16:7 I bless the Lord who gives me counsel; in the night also כִלְיוֹתָֽי my heart instructs me. Our word is used in the sense of either two bean-shaped excretory organs that filter wastes (especially urea) from the blood and excrete them in water in urine. Lamentations 3:13 He bent his bow and set me as a target for his arrow. He drove בְּכִלְיוֹתָ֔י into my kidneys the arrows of his quiver. Job 16:13 His archers surround me. He slashes open כִּ֭לְיוֹתַיmy kidneys and does not spare. We find our phrase used with the guilt offering. This is how our phrase is used in our chapter today. Leviticus 7:1-6 This is the law of the guilt offering. It is most holy. In the place where they kill the burnt offering they shall kill the guilt offering, and its blood shall be thrown against the sides of the altar. And all its fat shall be offered, the fat tail, the fat that covers the entrails, the two הַכְּלָיֹ֔ת kidneys with the fat that is on them at the loins, and the long lobe of the liver that he shall remove with the kidneys. The priest shall burn them on the altar as a food offering to the LORD; it is a guilt offering. Every male among the priests may eat of it. It shall be eaten in a holy place. It is most holy. It is interesting that part of this guilt offering has to do with the inner part of the animal as a sacrifice for guilt. The tabernacle worship was set up so people could connect with God from their inner part. Because of sin our inner selves become hardened toward God and he needs to find a way to get our hearts working again. He does this by poking or pricking our conscience with pain. Psalm 119:67, 70-71 Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep your word … their heart is unfeeling like fat, but I delight in your law. It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes. Let’s look at another use of our word that shows this exact thing God does to get our hearts open toward him. Psalm 73:21-26 When my soul was embittered, when I was pricked לְבָבִ֑י וְ֝כִלְיוֹתַ֗י [literally in heart and kidney because we have both words used] in heart, I was brutish and ignorant; I was like a beast toward you. Nevertheless, I am continually with you; you hold my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Notice that this pain in the conscience or heart or kidney was used by God to bring David to himself. We see this same pain of conscience or being pricked in the heart leading to connection with God when the church started in Acts. The point of Peter’s sermon was that Jesus who you crucified is the Messiah. Notice the reaction of those that heard this truth. I’ll close with this great passage. Acts 2:37-39 Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”