Butchering

I’m reading through the Bible this year using the New Living Translation.  This month, the Israelites are traveling through the Sinai wilderness.  God ‘lays down the law’ to His chosen people.  Included are the laws governing animal sacrifices.  Several times a day, a priest will “lay his hand on the bull’s head and slaughter it… put some of the blood on the horns of the alter… remove the fat of the bull… the fat around the internal organs, the two kidneys and the fat around them near the loins, and the long lobe of the liver… whatever is left of the bull – it’s hide, meat, head, legs, internal organs, and dung – and carry it away...” (Lev. 4).  Pretty gory stuff!

But this made me think of my precious daughter, Hannah.  Why?  Well, this month, Hannah celebrated her 29^th birthday.  While most young people would be enjoying cake and ice cream with their family and friends, Hannah spent her birthday butchering a hog.  It was part of her job.

Hannah

Recall that over a year ago Hannah became a Texas Park Ranger, managing the Sauer-Bechmann Living History Farm, adjacent to the LBJ National Historical Park just outside Fredericksburg, TX.  Maintained as it was in 1910, Hannah and her staff wear period clothing doing the farm and household chores as they were done at that time.  Daily visitors step back in time over a hundred years to experience life without electricity and other modern conveniences.  

Back then, hogs were butchered in mid-winter so their meat could be cured and processed in cold temperatures and more easily preserved in hog fat for the rest of the year. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ETggLBwv3Y  So, for her birthday, Hannah and her staff killed, cut, scraped, and processed the guts and meat of the sacrificial hog.  Visitors got to see where their bacon and sausage comes from.

On other days Hannah and her staff milk the cows, feed the chickens, slop the pigs, harvest the garden, preserve the vegetables, and cook their lunch from the produce of the farm using a wood burning stove while the many visitors observe and learn.  Fortunately, the Texas Park Service provides days off for Hannah to pursue other interests. 

Hannah and a friend have an organization called ‘Museums Unbound’ that provides professional training for museum managers and staff from around the world.  Last week Hannah was in Slovenia (do you know where that is?), her 3^rd trip to Europe.  Of course, each trip includes some amazing sight-seeing tours.  In September, she and Daniel will travel again to Europe, but this time with me as we enjoy a 2 week vacation in Switzerland!  How’s that for perks.

But back to the Old Testament.  I can just imagine (Hannah can imagine it better) the daily scenes in the wilderness Tabernacle as bulls, lambs, and other sacrificial animals were butchered throughout the day.  Smelly blood, flesh, fat, hides, and raw meat were all over the place.  No wonder God rewarded the priestly Levites so much for their work.  What a vivid picture of the ugliness and cost of sin.  And how grateful I am than God sent His Son to pay the ultimate price for my sin.  There was and never will be a greater sacrifice.