7 ‘Now this is the law of the guilt offering; it is most holy. 2 In the place where they slay the burnt offering they are to slay the guilt offering, and he shall sprinkle its blood around on the altar. 3 Then he shall offer from it all its fat: the fat tail and the fat that covers the entrails, 4 and the two kidneys with the fat that is on them, which is on the loins, and the lobe on the liver he shall remove with the kidneys. 5 The priest shall offer them up in smoke on the altar as an offering by fire to the Lord; it is a guilt offering. 6 Every male among the priests may eat of it. It shall be eaten in a holy place; it is most holy. 7 The guilt offering is like the sin offering, there is one law for them; the priest who makes atonement with it [a]shall have it. 8 Also the priest who presents any man’s burnt offering, [b]that priest shall have for himself the skin of the burnt offering which he has presented. 9 Likewise, every grain offering that is baked in the oven and everything prepared in a [c]pan or on a griddle [d]shall belong to the priest who presents it. 10 Every grain offering, mixed with oil or dry, shall [e]belong to all the sons of Aaron, [f]to all alike.
Throughout Leviticus, when the priest’s share of the sacrifice is mentioned, it tells us that it is holy. Which is only natural, since it has been presented to God. But it most certainly wasn’t to be taken lightly. In other passages, we read that if someone even touched the food, they would become holy as well. Not that they were without sin, but partaking in the holy things absolved their sin in God’s eyes. I think the reason this is mentioned, is that it was the priests responsibility to ensure that the sacrifice didn’t impart holiness at random, but that it would be on purpose. Satisfying the death penalty for sin wasn’t supposed to be something you stumbled upon. It was a deliberate act to appease the wrath of a holy God. On the other side of that, it wasn’t that God WANTED to hand out the death penalty (and it isn’t even so much about physical death, as a spiritual death/separate from God). It was that God loved His people, and WANTED them to be reconciled back to Him, so that they could fellowship with Him. It’s never about the punishment, it’s always about the love of God.