The Book of Leviticus has in view a people in covenant relations with God, in whose midst God dwells, and who have movements of heart Godward. God had said to Moses, "When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain" (Exodus 3:12). He had said to Pharaoh, "Let my son go, that he may serve me" (Exodus 4:23). Here we see the manner and order of that service -- the service of a free and willing people; and we learn that every outgoing of heart in the service of God is concerning Christ. Blessed service! Blessed those whose privilege it is to take it up!
What we get here about the offerings has its place in the forty-nine days during which the cloud rested on the tabernacle (see Numbers 10:11); a time typical of the complete period of tabernacle service in the wilderness.
The instruction in Leviticus is for us; it is doubtful if the children of Israel ever carried it out. In a coming day when Israel's heart turns to the Lord they will enter into the meaning of these types. The veil will then be taken away from their heart, and they will read Moses, seeing the Lord as the end of the old
covenant, and the Spirit of all the Old Testament Scriptures. In the meantime, saints of the assembly, being in the good of the ministry of the Spirit and of righteousness, are able to read the old covenant without a veil, and find their affections quickened in the apprehension of the Lord as the Spirit of it all. Nor do I doubt that the church's apprehension of these types has a fulness and expansion which goes beyond what Israel will apprehend in the coming day.
God speaks from the "tent of meeting"; the appointed centre to which His people gathered, where He met them, and where they came into contact with one another in relation to His things. The communication of His mind was found there.
"The assembling of ourselves together" (Hebrews 10:25) answers, I think, to the "tent of meeting". We also get many references to saints coming together in 1 Corinthians 11, 14. Saints are taught of God to love one another, and if this divine teaching were not neutralized by human influences it would bring all christians together in every city, town, or village where they are found. The "tent of meeting" would thus have its antitype in every local assembly. Things are very broken today, but it is still possible, through infinite mercy, for saints to come together as loving one another in relation to God, and as they do so they get instruction and enlargement in the knowledge of God. He has great pleasure in seeing His saints together in love; it sets Him free to communicate His mind to them.
If we think of our own times it is as saints have come together in love to one another as being of God's assembly that there have been communications of God's mind; great light has been given in regard to
Christ and the assembly. We ought to recognize that the privilege of the "tent of meeting" has been restored in these last days. Saints can come together as saints, and in the truth of their relations with God and with one another, and this in the wilderness. If believers disregard the "tent of meeting" they will not get much increase of divine light, and what they possess of Christ will not be available for the common good, or for God's praise in the assembly of His saints.
The "tent of meeting" suggests the coming together of saints according to divine order, not human arrangement or organization. The word translated "meeting" means what is set or appointed; it is used of the feasts of Jehovah (Leviticus 23) and other divinely-appointed occasions. To have the good of the tent of meeting it is not enough that saints should be together in one room. They must be together in accord with divine principles, and the truth of God's assembly. Every principle connected with divine order in the assembly is really essential to the safeguarding and development of spiritual affections. There must be holy conditions if God is to meet His people. If saints are at variance with one another they must settle their differences before they can really "come together". We cannot offer at the altar if we remember that our brother has aught against us. We could not be there in the undistracted appreciation of Christ. If we speak of being gathered together to the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ it necessitates that ourselves and our associations must be suitable to that Name.
These early chapters of Leviticus have to do with movements of heart towards God on the part of His people. They suppose that Christ has been received, for if one is not in possession of Christ he
has nothing to bring. The morning and evening lamb of the continual burnt-offering (Exodus 29:38 - 46) give us rather the divine side -- the burnt-offering in its abiding and unchanging perfection as the ground on which God meets His people, and speaks to them, and dwells with them. "A continual burnt-offering throughout your generations". It is necessary to be established in the grace of that before we contemplate what is before us in these chapters.
But on our side we have been the subjects of divine working, and the result of this is that certain exercises have been produced in our souls to which Christ is the answer. One exercise is as to acceptance, and Christ as the burnt-offering is the answer to that. Another is with regard to perfection in an object for the heart, and the meat-offering is Christ as the answer to that exercise. A third is with reference to fellowship, and the peace-offering is Christ in relation to that. And, lastly, there are exercises arising from the humbling discovery of what is in ourselves, and the consciousness of our own failure, to which the answer is Christ as the sin-offering. All God's called ones have these exercises; I believe the germ of them is inherent in that divine teaching which all His people have; though there may be with many saints a lack of spiritual diligence to follow them up, and to gain Christ as the answer to them. Our acquisition of divine wealth depends on the diligence with which we pursue the exercises which God gives us. In proportion as they are followed up, and Christ apprehended in relation to them, we have material for offerings, and are able to take part in the service of God according to His pleasure.
The consideration of this will make it apparent that
every acceptable offering has cost the offerer something. David said, "I will not take that which is thine for Jehovah, to offer up a burnt-offering without cost" (1 Chronicles 21:24). It is true that, in a very blessed sense, the gospel furnishes us with everything. It brings Christ to us in all His fulness and perfection, and by the hearing of faith we receive the Spirit. But there is a history of exercise behind every true acquisition of Christ, so that the soul has a real sense of the value of what it has gained. See Proverbs 23:23; Revelation 3:18. As to what grace has made available for us, there is no difference and no limitation; it is the infinite fulness and blessedness of Christ. But as to the actual wealth of souls in the knowledge of Christ many of us are far short of the full measure of grace. Many of God's people have not had "the fulness of the blessing of Christ" (Romans 15:29) presented to them, and many others who have been more favoured in this respect have only received in their souls a small part of what has been set before them. Hence there are different measures of apprehension of Christ, and no one can bring more than he has got. The consideration of this is very exercising, for it raises the question as to how much I can bring to the "tent of meeting" as an offerer? If my offering is small, is it that my heart has not been prepared for the cost at which a larger one might have been acquired?
I have often thought of the people we read of in the Gospels who came on the scene with appreciation of Christ. What a volume of spiritual history lies behind the record of each incident! Would you not like, for instance, to get alongside the woman of Luke 7 -- we shall in courts above -- and ask her how she was led to such a blessed appreciation of Christ?
And there was a corresponding history in the case of each man and woman who came to light as having an appreciation of Him. A similar history of divine instruction and spiritual acquisition lies behind each offering that we bring to the tent of meeting. Of course it is ever true, as David said, "All is of thee, and of that which is from thy hand have we given thee". It was God's, and through grace it has become ours, and now we bring it back to God for His pleasure and service.
There is a beautiful word in Jeremiah 30:21, 22. "Who is this that engageth his heart to approach unto me? saith the Lord. And ye shall be my people, and I will be your God". As the blessedness of the covenant is known we shall surely engage our hearts to approach God. It is delightful to God to see His people, moved by His known grace and love, thus engaging their hearts. God has engaged Himself to us in the most blessed way, and the effect of our knowing it is that we engage our hearts to approach Him both as offerers and priests. May it be ever more so with us, to His glory and praise!
The burnt-offering comes first, the offering for acceptance. The sin-offering comes last; it is only as we know Christ as set forth in the previous offerings that we can rightly estimate sin. It is in the light of the obedient and perfect One that we can alone truly learn the character of the lawless one. In the light of One wholly devoted to God in obedience and love we discern how hateful lawlessness is, and how intense, searching and all-consuming is the judgment which has come upon sinful flesh.
The offerer in this chapter has the consciousness that he approaches God in divine favour. In the priest we
see typically a further thought, for he had been washed, clothed in holy garments, anointed and consecrated. All this suggests moral suitability to God; a state in which God can be complacent. Such can minister in holy things for God's pleasure. And then in Aaron's "sons" there may be a hint that it is our privilege to be with God in the relationship of sons for the satisfaction of His love. Saints are entitled to be offerers, priests, and sons; they are three different thoughts. But the ground on which we can approach with acceptance as offerers, or serve acceptably as priests, or taste the blessedness of acceptance in the Beloved as sons, is the perfection of Christ and the infinite value of His death.
"He shall present it a male without blemish: at the entrance of the tent of meeting shall he present it, for his acceptance before Jehovah" (Leviticus 1:3). The offerer is possessed of perfection, and brings it to God with holy delight; all his thoughts of acceptance centre in Another in whom is found unblemished personal excellence. He is entirely on the ground of Christ; he "leans with his hand" on the bullock. What could be more blessed than to come near to God with one's hand upon Christ! To be consciously identified with Him, the heart having possessed itself of Him, and having no thought of any other? Unblemished perfection is there, God's full delight in Man, and this brought into the world in that holy and glorious Person to furnish through His death acceptance of a most blessed nature for men. So that, as to acceptance, we have but One to consider, and the heart engages itself with Him, and with Him only, in its movements Godward.
And, blessed be God, it is possible for us to do so in
the deepest spiritual reality. We do not need to hide from ourselves the truth as to what we are according to the flesh. "It shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him". The word "to make atonement for him" suggests that there is that in the man himself which is unsuited to be brought near to God. All that we were as in the flesh was unfit for His eye to rest upon, but the only way in which we consider it, when serving God, is as having been covered -- nay, more than covered, absolutely removed -- in the death of Christ to His glory. No self-deception darkens the heart as we draw near, for we realize that holy love has taken its own way to judge and remove all that we were. We fully own what existed on our part, but the great and blessed fact that we engage our hearts with is that even that has brought to view in a glorious way the perfections and love of the Son of God. He has given Himself for us, and our hearts are entitled to dwell on this, and they delight to dwell on it, in the presence of God. And if I know Christ for my own acceptance, I view all my brethren in the same light, and this gives them a wonderful place in my heart. Indeed, the way we regard our brethren reveals where we are in our own souls.
The offerer kills the bullock, and flays it, and cuts it up into pieces (verses 5, 6). What holy and spiritual exercises are here suggested! Saints drawing near to God with true and Spirit-given thoughts of the death of Christ; with intelligent and adoring hearts that realize something of its blessed character and meaning as manifesting the obedience, devotedness, love and glory of that One Man who has lain in death for the glory of God, and to accomplish His will! How that death has revealed the perfection of all the inward
and hidden parts of Christ! Every detail of thought and feeling and purpose and judgment perfect! All can be uncovered without any discovery of imperfection, even when tested by the absolute purity of God's testimonies -- washed in water. Every divine testimony as to what is suitable to God in the state of man inwardly found its full answer in the hidden parts of that blessed One. How delightful it is to God to be served by those who come to Him with the appreciation of all this in their hearts! And what deep consciousness of acceptance fills the hearts of those who approach, identified in thought and affection with the preciousness of Christ! Many can look back to a moment when they touched this joy, but it is not maintained with them because they have not cultivated those movements of heart Godward in which the consciousness of acceptance is renewed and deepened.
But if we approach God with the appreciation of Christ in our hearts it involves the displacement of self. We must be prepared to be tested by Christ. Are we prepared to have all laid bare? To have thoughts and motives as well as words and acts all judged in the light of what He was? He could say, "I seek not mine own glory". It was at all points a giving up of Himself for the glory of God. As we enter into that it must affect us morally.
But saints are privileged to be priests as well as offerers. These types run one into another; the man in conscious acceptance becomes a priest, for he only has it in nearness to God, and one who is there is a priest. God's original thought was not a separate priestly family, but that all Israel should be "a kingdom of priests" (Exodus 19:6). And it is remarkable
that we find priests in Israel before the calling and consecration of Aaron and his sons. See Exodus 19:22. "And the priests also, who come near to Jehovah, shall hallow themselves". There was no official order of priesthood as yet, but there were those who came near to Jehovah, and all such were priests morally. Moses was really a greater priest than Aaron, for he enjoyed personally greater nearness to God. Hence it is written, "Moses and Aaron among his priests" (Psalm 99:6). It is most blessed that God should have brought us to Himself, not merely for our deliverance and happiness, but that we might minister to Him as priests for His pleasure. And every movement of heart that ministers to God's pleasure must be concerned with CHRIST.
The priest in the early chapters of Leviticus is not Aaron, but one of his sons, so that he is not typical of Christ but of spiritual persons who can take up things with spiritual intelligence for God's pleasure. It is the privilege of all saints to be priests, but even if all are not in priestly state the gain of the tent of meeting is that all, in a way, get the benefit of the priestly element. It would hardly be the tent of meeting if there were no priestly element there, and if there, it is there for the good of all, as well as for the pleasure of God. It has been said that the most spiritual person in a meeting -- whether brother or sister -- gives character to the meeting. Every spiritual person contributes that which tends to make others spiritual.
Each individual brings his offering -- his apprehension and appreciation of Christ -- but the fact that all bring their offerings to a common meeting-place would indicate that the bearing of it is collective. Whatever
individual exercises we may have, they are all intended to be contributory to what is collective.
I suppose we all look to get some good out of our personal exercises and discipline, but it is well to have before us that the saints are to benefit by the fruit of those exercises. The assembly is the centre to which all the varied lines of private exercise converge. We may see this even as to the sin-offering exercise which is brought before us in Psalm 51. It leads to what is collective -- the good of Zion, and the building of the walls of Jerusalem. And it indicates, too, that if one goes through a sin-offering exercise with God it ends with a burnt-offering. "Then shalt thou have sacrifices of righteousness, burnt-offering, and whole burnt-offering; then shall they offer up bullocks upon thine altar".
There is priestly ability in spiritual persons to take up every apprehension of Christ and present it to God in praise so that it is fragrant before Him, and at the same time is helped and enlarged in the souls of the saints. Thus the service ministers to God's pleasure, and at the same time edifies the saints. The assembly is the place to increase spiritual wealth, for the apprehension of Christ which each has brought there becomes available for all. So that each time we come together we should become richer in the knowledge of Christ, and thus able to bring larger offerings. One delights to think of the assembly as a spiritual commonwealth. The wealth of the assembly is the aggregate of what is known of Christ in every heart. Spiritual men can bring there a large appreciation of Christ, but as it finds expression it becomes available for the enrichment of all, as well as for the service and pleasure of God.
The priest is one with spiritual intelligence, and apprehension of what is for God. He has spiritual affections and capability, and knows how to handle what is pleasurable to God. He presents the blood -- the witness of death; he has the sense that Christ has been in death entirely for the will and pleasure of God. "I come to do thy will, O God". This does not weaken the sense of acceptance; it intensifies it by connecting it with God's pleasure and glory, and this is a great enlargement. With what unbounded liberty and delight can we approach God when we realize that our acceptance is according to His pleasure in Christ!
In Exodus, as we have observed, the altar is the place where continual sweet odour affords the basis on which God ever meets His people, and speaks in grace to them. See Exodus 29:42, 43. But in Leviticus it is the place of offering on our side. It is Christ viewed as the One by whom every spiritual sacrifice is offered to God. See Hebrews 13:15 and 1 Peter 2:5. Not only is Christ the Substance of every offering, but He is also the Altar. This secures divine holiness, for the altar is "holiness of holinesses; whatever toucheth the altar shall be holy" (Exodus 29:37). All must be brought to the test, and to the blessedness; of God's Anointed Man. Nor would a true heart wish it to be otherwise.
Every spiritual apprehension of Christ can be brought to the Altar, for it is holy, but nothing can be placed on the Altar that does not accord with it. The best sentiment of the natural mind, even in regard to Christ, could not be placed there for a moment. Nothing really has any place in the service of God, or in the assembly of God, that is not in keeping with Christ as the Altar. The altar being "at the entrance
of the tent of meeting" intimates that we come there with a profound sense of the holiness of God, and that it is essential that every movement should be in accord with Christ, and with His cross and death. Nothing that is spiritually unreal can be placed on the Altar. It is possible to use expressions which are not the genuine language of the heart at the moment. The outward service may go beyond the measure of faith and spiritual power. But this will not do for the Altar of God; it cannot be offered "by Jesus Christ". It is better that the words used should be consciously inadequate to express the heart's apprehension of Christ than that they should be high-sounding but unreal. The Altar tests everything, and cannot be touched by what is unholy and unsuitable to God; but it also sanctifies every true gift that is placed upon it. The smallest and feeblest true apprehension of Christ can be offered "by Jesus Christ"; it will bear the holy test of that Person, and of His death, and its sweet odour comes before God as sustained in the power and worth of that Blessed One. The Altar involves the absolute withering and refusal of all that is of the mind and sentiment of the natural or carnal man, but it sustains in sanctification and acceptability every apprehension of Christ that is real and Spirit-given.
Then the fire and the burning on the altar suggest priestly understanding of the intensity of the test which was applied to Christ. He was in the place of sin and death, and all that God is as "a consuming fire" was there. But there was more there than sin and its judgment. We see this in the sin-offering burned without the camp. But in the burnt-offering we see that infinite perfection was there, and that the
fire brought out the sweet odour of it. Everything in Him was found, even in that place of supreme testing, perfectly responsive to God in obedience, devotedness, and love, and though all was offered to God it was for us. How wondrous the privilege to bring the memorial of it to God for His delight, and for our conscious acceptance!
The bullock is what we might call the normal offering, but, alas! how few are possessed of such a large appreciation of Christ as the bullock would set forth. The sheep is a smaller measure of apprehension. There is no leaning upon the victim. The sense of Christ's death and of His perfection is there, but not the sense of personal identification. There is a pious appreciation of the perfections of Christ, but not the happy consciousness of being altogether on the ground of what He is. Still the offerer of the sheep has a certain power of discrimination, and a recognition of perfection in each feature of Christ that his soul takes knowledge of, but he is altogether smaller in his apprehension of Christ.
Then when we come to the fowls it is feebler still. The priest has to do almost everything in this case. In the offerer there is the sense that any sweet savour for God must be from Christ, but there is not much apprehension of Him. There is lack of ability to uncover the inward parts of Christ, and to appreciate His inward perfections. In the Psalms personal to Christ there is a wonderful uncovering of His inward perfections. To seek them out with intelligent and affectionate appreciation is a profound study for the spiritual mind. Believers in general are too indefinite; they have a sense of the perfection of Christ, but do not devote themselves to the uncovering
and searching out of it in detail. It demands spiritual maturity to take account of what was inward in that blessed One -- His affections, His sensibilities, His thoughts and feelings. The offerer of the fowls is not equal to this; the victim is not even divided asunder. And not only is his measure small; but there would appear to be that which is natural mixed with his apprehension of Christ -- that which cannot be offered as sweet savour, and which the priest has to cast aside.
What we see in this type is that a priest knows how to make the best of the offering of a poor person! If you come to the tent of meeting with a small thought of Christ -- and every saint comes with some thought of Christ -- you will find a priest there who can help you because he apprehends according to God what is perhaps feeble and vague in your soul. You will find that somebody will take part in a way that brings before God the very thought that was in your mind; but, if he is in true priestly competency, he brings it out according to God, and free from the natural element which was perhaps along with it in your mind. It thus gets enlargement in your soul, and if rightly exercised you get such increase that next time you can bring a sheep! It was never God's thought that any of us should remain poor in the spiritual Israel.
But, while increase should be desired and looked for, it is very blessed to see that the turtle-dove or the young pigeon is spoken of in precisely the same terms as the sheep or even the bullock. It is called "a burnt-offering, an offering by fire to Jehovah of a sweet odour". This is most encouraging, for it shows that the smallest appreciation of Christ is acceptable to God, and that His grace estimates the offering
according to the means of the offerer. He does not expect that in a "babe" which He would look for in a "father". The thought of His gracious consideration is "good to the feeblest heart", and it encourages all to approach in liberty.
This chapter brings before us the saints' apprehension of Christ in His personal perfection. It is not a question of atonement or acceptance, but the heart delighting in a perfect Object, and engaging itself with that Object in its movements Godward. Presenting an "oblation" or "gift" supposes that one is consciously in the acceptance of the burnt-offering as seen in chapter 1. There is entire freedom from every question that might arise as to one's own acceptance. We are not now thinking of sin, nor of how it has been dealt with, nor even of the way in which God has been glorified as to it. We are occupied with what is perfect under the eye of God, and under our eye, in a Man here on earth.
We may notice as to the "oblation" that it suggests preparation at home. It was there the Israelite had his flour and oil and frankincense; it was there the cakes were baked; all was prepared before it was brought to the tent of meeting. If we are not engaging ourselves with Christ at home, or in private, there will be no gift to bring to the tent of meeting, and no sweet odour for God. How blessed to be engaged with Christ in secret!
"Fine flour" is the basis of the oblation in each case, save that of the first-fruits, which stands by
itself. Then what marks the oblation generally is that, while there was a memorial burned as sweet savour to Jehovah, it was given as food to the priests. It speaks of Christ in an aspect in which He can be the food of saints, and particularly of saints viewed as spiritual persons in charge of the testimony and service of God.
There is a difference between Christ viewed as the "manna" and Christ as typified in the "oblation". The manna was given from heaven to sustain men in wilderness conditions. But in the oblation we see rather what there was in Man viewed as "the fruit of the earth" -- this expression is applied to Christ in Isaiah 4:2 -- for the delight of God, and to engage the affections of all who are divinely taught to appreciate it. It is what can be offered as a sweet odour for the pleasure of God, and what becomes, as such, the food of the holy priesthood.
When at the baptism of Jesus the voice came out of heaven, "Thou art my beloved Son, in thee I have found my delight", the fine flour of the oblation was there with the oil poured on it, and the frankincense was there also, for He was praying (Luke 3:22). But when, tempted of the devil, He answered, "It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God", we see Him true to the wilderness place into which He had come, and sustained there "by every word of God". Probably each saint has known what it is to be sustained by some word of God, but with Him it was "every word". He lived by it; every minute detail in His life was formed by the word of God. If He had not a word from God He did nothing. "Every word of God" found its perfect answer in Him, and came into expression in
His life. That is the "fine" grain of the manna. (Compare Deuteronomy 8:3.) It suggests perfection in minute detail "on the face of the wilderness". In the pathway of Jesus we see a life sustained from above, and which was in every way the perfect expression of that which sustained it. Now He is in heaven to minister from thence to His saints here so that they may live in the wilderness in the strength of that grace which was so perfectly expressed in Him.
But the "fine flour" of the oblation speaks of what has sprung up here and come to maturity, in the Person of Jesus, for the delight of God. It is viewed in this type as apprehended in the minute detail of its perfection and evenness. This is the fruit of a precious occupation of heart and spiritual intelligence. What a study of the perfections of Jesus does it necessitate! What more delightful engagement of affectionate meditation could there be?
We may trace it in numberless features in the Gospels; the law of Moses, the prophets, and the Psalms are full of presentations in detail of that which is for God's delight in man; and every exhortation which the Epistles contain as to the spirit and walk which are comely in saints is an unfolding of the perfections of Jesus. I am not speaking, for the moment, of His official dignity or royal glory, but of His moral perfection. Everything which Scripture presents from Genesis to Revelation as being morally excellent in man, and for God's pleasure, had its place in that unique Manhood of which the "fine flour" is typical. It can only be brought as an offering by the saint who has apprehended it, and in the measure of his apprehension. But this should surely be, with each one of us, continually increasing.
We lose a great deal by not paying more attention to the perfection of Christ in detail. We should make it the study of our hearts. For example, take the First Book of the Psalms (Psalm 1 - 41) and ponder every separate quality of Christ that you find. There will expand in your soul the apprehension of a Blessed Man who always lived in relation to God -- a Man marked by separation, meditation, obedience, dependence, delighting in good; and ever finding His place with those who feared and loved God. The following scriptures in that book may be considered amongst others: Psalm 1:1 - 3; Psalm 3:4 - 6; Psalm 4:3, 7, 8; Psalm 5:1 - 3, 7, 8, 11; Psalm 6:8, 9; Psalm 7:1, 4, 8; Psalm 9:1, 2, 13, 18; Psalm 11:1, 2; Psalm 13:5; Psalm 16:1 - 11; Psalm 17:3 - 6, 8, 15; Psalm 18:1 - 6, 18 - 24, 30 - 36; Psalm 19:7 - 11, 14; Psalm 20:1 - 6; Psalm 21:1 - 7; Psalm 23:1 - 6; Psalm 25:1 - 5, 9, 10, 12, 14, 16, 17; Psalm 26:1 - 8, 11, 12; Psalm 27:1 - 8; Psalm 28:6 - 8; Psalm 31:1, 5 - 7; Psalm 34:1 - 3; Psalm 38:13 - 15; Psalm 40:4, 9, 10; Psalm 41:12.
As born into this world He was "the holy thing" (Luke 1:35), and could truly be presented as holy to Jehovah (Luke 2:22, 23). Excellence was found here as "the fruit of the earth" in Him. Even as a child He was filled with wisdom, and God's grace was upon Him (Luke 2:40). At the age of twelve we find Him occupied in His Father's business, sitting in the temple in the midst of the teachers, hearing them and asking them questions, and astonishing all who heard Him by His understanding and answers. Yet would He keep the place suited to One of such an age: "He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and he was in subjection to them" (Luke 2:51).
Then, at the age of thirty, we see Him going along with those in whom grace had wrought repentance, and being baptized. Not, surely, that He had personally
anything to repent of, but the movement in their souls was of God; it was for them the path of righteousness, and He would walk with them in it. Not patronizing them, as some great one of the earth might condescend to consort for a season with those far beneath him, but going along with them because they were to Him the saints on the earth, the excellent and all His delight was in them (Psalm 16:3).
Then it was characteristic of Him that He should be seen as praying at the time of His baptism. It was no new attitude of spirit for Him, for His language, as given prophetically, was, "Thou didst make me trust, upon my mother's breasts. I was cast upon thee from the womb; thou art my God from my mother's belly" (Psalm 22:9, 10). From His mother's breasts to the last cry upon the cross, "Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit", He was never for one moment removed from the spirit of dependence. There was not only perfection in every detail of the life of the Holy Child and Youth and Man, but it was perfection that had all its spring and strength in God. God was a necessity to Him at every moment; His object, His delight, the One whose will was His only guide and rule, His resource for all things and at all times.
How fragrant to God was this entire dependence of One who took up every detail of His path and every exercise in the affections proper to a Son! I think the apprehension of this is typified by the frankincense put upon the fine flour, all of which was burnt as sweet odour on the altar. There was not a movement of the spirit of Christ inwardly or outwardly -- whether the thoughts of His heart or their expression in word or deed -- that did not first breathe itself out to God in prayer, and find its strength in so doing.
So that every movement of His heart and spirit was not only perfect in itself, but perfect in its reference to God, and in the dependent affections which characterized it. We may see this in the frequent mention of His praying in Luke's gospel, and we see it brought out with peculiar fragrance in John 11:41, 42, and 12: 27, 28.
"And he shall pour oil on it". God would have us to recognize the perfect suitability of that blessed Man to be anointed by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit could come into contact with every grain of that "fine flour"; all was suitable. There was no necessity in His case for "the Holy Spirit and fire" to set aside in consuming power through self-judgment a mass of unsuitability such as we find in ourselves. "The Holy Spirit descended in a bodily form as a dove upon him" (Luke 3:22); He could come into sympathetic contact with every exercise in the heart of that blessed One. Love made Him a mourner in a world of woe, and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in a form sympathetic with His sorrow, but as power that God might be made known in a world of human woe in the way of gentleness and grace and healing and deliverance. In the Person of Jesus the Holy Spirit came upon a Man who felt according to God everything that was in a world of sin. A Man in perfect sympathy with God as to everything here, was the suited Vessel in whom all the grace of heaven could come near to men in dove-like gentleness.
The offerer pouring oil on the fine flour is typical of the saint coming, as divinely taught, into the apprehension and appreciation of Christ as the blessed Man marked by perfection in every minute detail, and thus suitable to be anointed by the Holy Spirit. A
Man who is the contrast in every way to the man after the flesh. It is the work and delight of God to bring us to appreciate Him -- to bring us, in measure, to His own appreciation of Him -- so that He may become the Substance of affectionate movements on our part Godward. Then, in result, all this becomes "most holy" food for the priesthood. The heart that assimilates it, and is nourished by it, acquires capability for sanctuary service. It is strengthened to understand spiritually God's pleasure in Christ, and to serve Him in a priestly way with reference to it. Probably the lack of vigour for priestly service amongst christians generally is largely due to the absence or feebleness of those apprehensions and appreciations of Christ which would manifest themselves in movements answering to the offering of an oblation.
Then in verses 4 - 10 we get a further aspect of the oblation as baken or prepared in different ways under the action of fire "in the oven", "on the pan", or "in the cauldron". This would seem to indicate the desire of God that His saints should apprehend the perfection of Christ as it came out under different kinds and degrees of testing. "Unleavened cakes" set forth the entire absence of any element of inflation or corruption. But "mingled with oil" suggests the positive energy of the Spirit as giving character to His Manhood. "Mingled" is more than "anointed". It is the same word in Psalm 92:10, where it suggests that "the whole system is invigorated and strengthened by it: it formed his strength", see note to Leviticus 2:4, in the New Translation. That which was begotten in the virgin was of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 1:20). The angel Gabriel said to her, "The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and power of the Highest overshadow
thee, wherefore the holy thing also which shall be born shall be called Son of God" (Luke 1:35). The true and holy humanity of the Lord Jesus is to be cherished and sacredly guarded by the faithful affections of His saints in face of the infidelity which abounds. It is as essential to Christianity as His deity. Both, alas! are called in question in religious high places. But it is in the spiritual apprehension of a Manhood that derived its character and energy from the Holy Spirit that we can understand the delight of God in Him, and bring our oblation as "a sweet odour".
One would suggest that the most complete apprehension of Christ in oblation character is set forth in that which is "baken in the oven". This would be according to the analogy of the other offerings, where in each case the greatest apprehension is the one first presented. There is also a definiteness of form in "cakes" and "wafers" which is lacking in the succeeding offerings. The offerer has typically a very definite apprehension of Christ as imbued with the Holy Spirit or as anointed, and subjected to the most intense testing. The "oven" being an enclosed chamber would suggest what was hidden from public view -- the secret testings through which He passed, which were the most intense of His personal sufferings, with the exception of His atoning sufferings, which are not presented in this type. Those secret testings require the deepest spirituality for their apprehension and for the discernment of how the Lord's perfection came to light in them. His feelings and sensibilities were as perfect as His works and words. What must it have been to God to have One here in Manhood who felt about everything just as it ought to be felt about.
The feeding on Christ as thus known would give us priestly sensibilities. Natural feelings, with reference to what is trying, lead to impatience and irritability. They lack reference to God, and the sobriety which His presence gives. But the offerer who brings "an oblation baken in the oven" has apprehended spiritually emotions and feelings brought out in Christ under testing which were in perfect contrast to all that is natural in man, and which were wholly delightful to God. And the priest who burns the memorial of it has presented it to God with holy and reverent appreciation, and is to feed on it for his own inward nourishment and formation. But spirituality in both offerer and priest is needed for this, for it is "most holy of Jehovah's offerings".
For example, to enter into how He "suffered, being tempted" (Hebrews 2:18) requires great spirituality. The positive suffering that it was to Him to be tempted could only be understood by one who was, at least in measure, a partaker of God's holiness. Then how He felt the rejection of Israel, not merely because they rejected Him -- though surely He felt this deeply -- but because His heart entered into all that His rejection means for them. Then the unbelief and lack of understanding in His own, so often manifested; the inability of those He loved to watch with Him one hour; the treachery of Judas. Then the bearing in His own spirit the weight of every infirmity and disease which He removed by His power -- that found expression in His groan over the deaf man (Mark 7:34), and His groan over the unbelief of that generation (Mark 8:12), and His being "deeply moved in spirit" in presence of the desolation and power of death (John 11:33, 38). All these things show how
deeply He was tried in His own spirit by that which He passed through, but they are to be apprehended as bringing out nothing but unalloyed perfection for the delight of God in that blessed One. A deeper testing still remained for Gethsemane, where all the terribleness of death, and of what was involved in drinking the cup, was known by Him in anticipation with unutterable agony. But what did the testing bring out? "Not my will, but thine be done".
These things would all belong, as it seems to me, to the "oven" character of the oblation. The thinness of the "cakes" and "wafers" would perhaps suggest how completely every part of the humanity of our blessed Lord was brought under the action of intense trial.
Then the "oblation on the pan" would have reference to such testings as were more public, requiring less spirituality for their apprehension. Such would be the daily contact with the contradiction of sinners, the varied forms of open or concealed enmity by which He was confronted, His being reviled, etc., the demands of many kinds from many quarters. Each separate part is seen in this type as distinguished, and as apprehended to be in the power of the holy anointing.
And, finally, the offering prepared "in the cauldron" lacks the definiteness and discrimination of the two previous forms of the oblation. It corresponds thus with the burnt-offering of fowls as compared with the sheep or bullock of chapter 1. It suggests an apprehension of Christ as characterized by the Spirit which is true as far as it goes, and therefore acceptable, but which lacks maturity in development, and in power of spiritual discrimination. Nevertheless it is the
perfection of Christ that is apprehended, and the Holy Spirit in relation to Him, however feebly estimated by the offerer, and this constitutes it an offering "of a sweet odour". How precious the grace that gives to one a more mature appreciation of Christ! And how precious, too, the grace that accepts the feebler apprehension of another because it is the perfection of Christ that is apprehended and not that of self. Every apprehension of Christ that is brought to the tent of meeting contributes "sweet odour" to God, and food for the priesthood. But we must not forget that an apprehension of Christ, which might be delightful and acceptable in a newly converted soul, might be the sad evidence in an older saint of spiritual indolence and of the allowance of things that have hindered divine growth.
Then no oblation was to be made with leaven; "for no leaven and no honey shall ye burn in any fire-offering to Jehovah" (verses 11, 12). "Leaven" is the corrupting and inflating principle of self-importance which is never absent from man in the flesh. It could not possibly have place in a "most holy" offering. It was entirely absent from Christ, and it must be entirely absent from those movements of heart Godward which have Christ only as their Theme and Substance. I think leaven might come into our oblation if we say more than is really true. There might be an attempt to make our apprehension of Christ appear to be greater than it really is. This would be a puffing up of the flesh in a very sorrowful way. It is possible to say wonderful things of Christ which we have heard other persons say, or which we have read in books, but if they are beyond our own apprehension they are not a true "gift". There
would be danger of it becoming like Psalm 78:36. "But they flattered (the word means"make pretence,"elsewhere"entice,""deceive") him with their mouth, and lied unto him with their tongue; for their heart was not firm toward him, neither were they steadfast in his covenant". How blessed that we can read on, "But he was merciful; he forgave the iniquity and destroyed them not"! "Honey" represents the sweetness of nature as found in amiability and natural affections. It may be agreeable, and even refreshing, in its own sphere, and given of God in mercy; but it enters not into the oblation. When it is a question of what God delights in, the line is sharply drawn between the natural and the spiritual, and the former is excluded. "Honey" would be the intrusion of natural sentiment, which I am afraid often comes into hymns and prayers. It may be sweet, but it is the sweetness of nature. When Peter said, "God be favourable to thee, Lord; this shall in no wise be unto thee" (Matthew 16:22), it was a sweet sentiment, but it was nature. There was no savour of the salt of the covenant about it, and it was an offence to the Lord.
"The offering of the first-fruits" refers to the two wave-loaves of Pentecost (Leviticus 23:15 - 17) which were baken with leaven. That was "a new oblation to Jehovah", representing the assembly as composed of those in whom leaven had once been active, though now rendered inactive by self-judgment in the power of the Spirit. But leaven being recognized they cannot be "offered upon the altar for a sweet savour", though presented to Jehovah as first-fruits. The Spirit of God would thus lead us to distinguish between Christ Himself, who can alone be "offered upon the altar for
a sweet savour", and the assembly which is of Him, and in which He is reproduced as "a new oblation", but which cannot be a "fire-offering".
"And every offering of thine oblation shalt thou season with salt; neither shalt thou suffer the salt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking from thine oblation; with all thine offerings thou shalt offer salt". "The salt of the covenant of thy God" is an expression which arrests attention. It suggests that an offering can only be acceptable as being offered in true faithfulness of heart to the covenant relations in which divine grace has set us, and to which we have committed ourselves. I think "salt" is the preservative power of fidelity and purpose of heart to be true to the covenant. It includes self-judgment, but it involves also a faithful purpose to accept and adopt in our own hearts and lives that which is in accord with what we offer. It is that principle of faithfulness which shuts out the activities of the flesh, and brings in Christ in a practical way. For example, if I offer to God in praise an apprehension and appreciation of Christ as the One who was ever about His Father's business, the "salt" that must be with it to make it acceptable is the faithful purpose to be on the same line -- to maintain dedication to the interests and pleasure of God. If my oblation is to praise God for the meekness and gentleness of Christ the "salt" would be that I am fully set to cultivate and exhibit a like spirit. This is the test of the reality of the offering, and it indicates whether one is faithfully committed to the covenant. In a word, it tests whether we really appreciate the Christ that we offer, and whether we prefer Him to ourselves. In many things we may come infinitely short of what we appreciate in Christ,
but the "salt" is that we are set in purpose of heart to pursue moral conformity to Him.
The "oblation of thy first-fruits" seems to come in as a kind of appendix, and I think it presents Christ as apprehended by Israel as their First-fruits. God had looked for His pleasure in a peculiar way in Israel; as regards the earth Israel was to be, and will yet be, "the first-fruits of his increase" (Jeremiah 2:3). But Israel will become this as they learn, under divine teaching, to regard Christ as their First-fruits. What a day it will be for them when they see that all in which they have so miserably failed to answer to God's pleasure has been secured for Him in Christ! All that should mark the "Israel of God" has appeared in this world in the Christ of God. No trace of it could be seen in Israel after the flesh. But Israel viewed as "the children of the promise" are entitled to regard Christ as their First-fruits, and in a coming day they will do so. As they learn to give Christ this place, they will, through Him, become fruitful for God. The after-fruits will follow, and take character from the First-fruits.
The "green ears of corn" would suggest the freshness and vigour of life in which everything wherein Israel had failed to answer to the pleasure of God was found here in Christ. But "roasted in fire" would indicate how the nation after the flesh had treated Him. Instead of the First-fruits being appreciated, and ripening amidst a responsive people into the fruition of the kingdom, they were "roasted in fire". I take it that this corresponds with the action of fire as seen in the oven, the pan, and the cauldron, only now it is in an intensified degree; it is subjected to the direct action of fire.
We may repeat, What a day it will be for Israel when they see that the very intensity of their hatred and rejection has brought out the holy perfection of Him whom they will then gladly recognize as their First-fruits! "Corn beaten out of full ears" speaks of the maturity and fulness in which God's delight was found in Him. Israel will learn, too, to give the oil and the frankincense their place in relation to Him. There will be affectionate movements of approach to God in reference to all this when Israel presents the oblation of his first-fruits. But before that day it is the privilege of saints of the assembly to present an oblation, and as priests to bring it to the altar and offer it as "a sweet odour", and to make it their "most holy" food. May we have grace to take up this hallowed service!
The offerer of a peace-offering desired to be in communion with the altar. "See Israel according to flesh: are not they who eat the sacrifices in communion with the altar?" (1 Corinthians 10:18). Offering precedes eating. Indeed, we do not get the eating in this chapter; it is"the altar" here; the eating or communion is in chapter 7. The one gives character to the other. Though it may be noted that "all that are clean may eat the flesh" (7: 19). That is, the communion is not limited to the offerer or the priests, but it is available for "all that are clean". No doubt there is instruction in this.
To be an offerer supposes some degree of spiritual wealth in the apprehension of Christ, and an energy
in the affections Godward that brings one near the altar to present to God that which has been found in Christ through death for Him. In approaching us God had nothing to say to us about anyone but Christ, and if we approach God what we say to Him in adoration and praise is the echo of what He has first said to us in grace and love. Christ came to us from the heart of God in the unspeakableness of divine giving, and we bring Him back to God in grateful affection and praise. But what we thus bring to God forms a divine bond of communion between saints. We cannot spiritually take up with one another what has not first been taken up with God. He must have the first and best portion. But Christ being brought in, the communion which can be enjoyed together is extended to "all that are clean". Even those who were poor in Israel could partake, if clean, of that which another had brought, and enjoy the privilege of communion with the altar. What a character of grace this gives to the communion of saints! The prosperity in Christ of one becomes the joy and gain of all! But that which is enjoyed has no divine value unless its immediate relation to God as offered on His "most holy" altar is maintained in the consciousness of those who partake of it. And to bring what is unclean into connection with it is to be "cut off from his peoples".
The offerer in this case commits himself to communion with the altar of God. It is emphasized that "his own hands" were to bring Jehovah's offerings (Leviticus 7:30). There is a definite personal committal first of all at the altar; that is, with God. Then in the eating we commit ourselves with our brethren to communion with the altar. If we are committed with
God and with our brethren to such a holy communion it determines the character of our associations. Hence Paul says, "Ye cannot drink the Lord's cup and the cup of demons: ye cannot partake of the Lord's table and of the table of demons". And he adds to this a very solemn enquiry, "Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? are we stronger than he?" (1 Corinthians 10:21, 22).
All who have broken bread have committed themselves to this, that they have done with the world as a source of happiness. "The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of the Christ?" The One on whom we feed as the Source of our enjoyment, and who is the Substance of our communion with God and with one another, has died out of this world and has no part in it whatever. We have a happiness which is of the deepest character, for it is a divine happiness known in nearness to God and shared with our fellow-saints, but it is a happiness completely outside the world. "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of the Christ?" He went into death according to God's will that He might open up to us an entirely new character of joy -- joy in God as revealed in infinite love.
If we consider the intense holiness of the altar, how absolutely exclusive it is of all that is not in accord with it, we must understand that there can be no playing fast and loose as to communion with it. At the altar it is Christ and His death bringing in blessing according to the holiness of God. Every element in this world is idolatrous and unclean. How can the two be linked together? How could a soul pass from the one to the other, and have its portion in each? It is morally impossible.
The burnt-offering for acceptance, whether of the herd or of the flock, must be "a male without blemish". For conscious acceptance there must be the apprehension of Christ in the energetic activity in which He was found here to do the will of God. But the fact that the peace-offering might be either "male or female" would suggest that the offerer in this case might have Christ before him either from the side of what was taken up for God in "male" energy, or from the side of what was necessitated by the state of fallen humanity. The known reference of the female in types to state would lead one to conclude that the "female" as an offering might intimate what was connected with the latter side. The "female" offering for the sin of "any one of the people of the land" (Leviticus 4:28, 32; Leviticus 5:6), and the "red heifer" of Numbers 19 would perhaps confirm this.
The spiritual action typified in this chapter is of great importance, for it is the basis of fellowship in the souls of saints. It is only hearts that have Christ before them that can know what fellowship is in any true or divine sense. I take it that this is the import of the offerer's hand being laid on the head of his offering. He is fully committed to Christ, not only for acceptance, but as his present portion and joy with God, and as the substance of his communion with fellow-saints. We identify ourselves with Christ; we commit ourselves to Him in relation to the question of communion or fellowship.
A faithful God has called us into the "fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord" (1 Corinthians 1:9). That shows the greatness and dignity of the fellowship into which we are called. But in 1 Corinthians 10:16 we bless the cup, and we break the bread. It is what we do. Each
one who drinks of the cup and eats the bread puts his own hand to it, and commits himself definitely to Christ, and to all that is the fruit of His death. And that constitutes the essence of our fellowship with one another. The exercise as to fellowship is often later in the soul's history than that as to acceptance, and as to perfection in an Object for the heart. But there is an intuitive desire in saints for enjoyment in common of that which is our portion with God, and that which binds us together in separation from all that is of the world. If one had no desire to share spiritually with others it would indicate that he had not as yet much personal enjoyment of Christ. Even in the world it is recognized that company is essential to enjoyment. Man is so constituted that he derives the greatest part of his pleasure from sharing it. One may safely say that an isolated man has very little true enjoyment. One might have a crowd of people round one and yet be completely isolated because none of them shared one's thoughts and feelings. "In the day of your gladness" (Numbers 10:10), and "Thou shalt sacrifice peace-offerings, and shalt eat there, and rejoice before Jehovah thy God" (Deuteronomy 27:7), and other passages show how peace-offerings were connected with the happiness of the people. The formal organizations of the religious world deprive those who are in them of a great deal of spiritual happiness because they furnish so little opportunity for christian fellowship.
If Christ has become our consciously enjoyed portion with God it kindles desire for the fellowship of saints -- for participation in a holy partnership here in which we can feed on Christ together. Christian fellowship is in reference to Christ; the apostles' doctrine forms
the fellowship. It is not so many persons agreeing to walk and act on certain principles together; still less is it agreeing to differ: but it is that Christ has got a place with each one. It is all hearts appreciating One Person, and preferring what is of that Person to what is of the natural thoughts and tastes of men. Not all having the same measure, but all having the same Person in view, and declining to give place to any other.
The offerer's purpose in offering is that he and others may eat together in communion with the altar. He desires a fellowship that is uncontaminated by the selfish and idolatrous associations of the world. He has found that which he can hold and enjoy with God.
Christian fellowship is the fellowship of the death of Christ; it is the fellowship of His body and of His blood. This is indicated by the offerer killing the animal which he offers. He discerns, in type, the Lord's body given in death. How completely this removes the fellowship from all that is natural and material! The offerer recognizes that he could have no peace or prosperity, no festivity or communion of divine character, apart from the death of Christ. Indeed if we could conceive of Christ as excluding all thought of His death He would be of no value to men. In order to accomplish the will of God and our blessing He has died here. Are we in communion with that? Not simply owning that it is the ground of our blessing, but in communion with it? It puts one in spirit outside all that is of the world.
Then the priests "sprinkle the blood on the altar round about". This implies spiritual intelligence as to the import of the act, for "the priests' lips should keep knowledge" (Malachi 2:7). In 1 Corinthians 10:15, 16, we read, "I speak as to intelligent persons: do ye judge what I say. The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of the Christ?" The blood of the Christ has borne witness to all the wealth of new covenant blessing in the heart of God and has shown that God would bless men infinitely through death. Now there is priestly ability to spread abroad, as it were, the witness of what is in His heart.
The blood presented on man's side Godward is for atonement; it is wholly for God. Hence "no blood shall ye eat". So long as man is on the earth he must own the rights of God over life. The blood is for atonement, and therefore reserved for God. But in the New Testament we learn that the blood which has made atonement is also the witness of the love of God. This is what the blood is on God's part towards us -- the new covenant in the blood of Christ. This can be drunk; indeed, a man has no life if he does not drink it; it is open to us to appropriate it freely and fully. The cup of the new covenant in the blood of Christ is a cup of blessing, and we bless -- eulogize -- it. It speaks of all that is in the heart of the blessed God for men, now expressed in the blood of the Christ. This is the basis of our fellowship. It speaks of blessing outside the sphere of sin and death -- blessing of a spiritual order which we can enjoy together -- what God is as revealed in grace and love. The hearts of the saints break forth to speak well of all that the cup expresses; we bless the cup, and rejoice in the infinite
thoughts of love which have come to light through the death of Christ.
Those who have to do with God in relation to Christ in peace-offering character can bring near to Him their apprehension of how the death and blood of Christ have made possible for men a new and divine joy in the blessing of God. The blood round the altar in this type intimates that it is God known in blessing that we approach, but that it is blessing that cannot be intermingled with the festivities of an idolatrous world. His blessing coming through death is spiritual; it lies outside the region of sight and sense; it is of a nature that death cannot touch. All this is realized by the one who draws near with his peace-offering, for the altar is that most holy spot where things are known with God in their true value and blessedness. We must know first what is true of us at the altar -- that is, in nearness to God -- before we can be marked in this world as those who have their associations in communion with the altar.
Then there is the presentation and burning of the fat of the peace-offering. It is that which the blessed God feeds upon, and in which none other can participate. Our communion together would lose its true and holy character if we did not think first of God's portion; and if we did not recognize that it is due to Him that the richest and most excellent portion in Christ should be His. There is a peculiar joy in the recognition of this -- that there is that in Christ which is reserved for God's delight. If we think of WHO He was it must be so. Because all that He was in His Person gave character to what He became, and who but God could appreciate and appropriate all that? I say "appropriate" because
it is twice in this chapter called the "food" or "bread" of the offering.
Think of the Person who said, "Lo, I come to do, O God, thy will": His was a perfect and holy will, but it was surrendered in devoted obedience, at all possible cost to Himself. We see something of the cost in Gethsemane. In the world where man had been saying for four thousand years, "My will be done" -- and that the will of a fallen and corrupt being -- we see a Divine Person come in flesh, with a perfect and holy will, subordinating that will entirely, and saying in the supreme moment when all the cost of doing God's will was present to His spirit, "Not my will but thine be done!" Do we not realize that there was something in that which it is beyond the creature to appropriate? We cannot measure what was given up for God's glory, and therefore we cannot estimate what its giving up in sufferings and death was to God. But we can delight to offer it, and to know that the very mention of it is unspeakable delight to God. It is a very blessed feature of our fellowship.
There is infinitely much that we can enjoy together, and that we can appropriate as the food of our souls, in that holy Person who offered Himself, but our enjoyment of it is enhanced by the thought that there is that in His offering which only God can estimate at its full worth, and which is God's peculiar portion and delight. We have communion with God, for we feed on the same blessed Person, but we love to own adoringly that there is that in Him, and in His offering, which is beyond us, and which is wholly for God. We cannot appropriate it, but we can offer it. Wondrous privilege! that we should be priests to offer that
which only God can feed upon! "All the fat shall be Jehovah's" (verse 16).
"And Aaron's sons shall burn it on the altar upon the burnt-offering which lieth on the wood that is upon the fire". What we have apprehended of Christ in burnt-offering and meat-offering character, as seen in chapters 1 and 2, is carried on in our souls, and underlies the peace-offering. What a wondrous basis the three offerings constitute for the communion of saints -- the sweet odour of Christ on the altar! We shall find much instruction as to communion with the altar when we come to the seventh chapter.
This chapter sets forth exercises which we all have to take up personally, for James tells us that "we all often offend". Wilful sins are not referred to here, for God would not contemplate His people sinning wilfully or presumptuously. Wilful sin in Scripture is really apostasy. I believe the working of the will is typified in leprosy (Leviticus 13, 14), and when leprosy breaks out we do not know what the issue may be. Healing can only be brought about by God's sovereign mercy and power. In such a case man is powerless. Here it is, "If a soul shall sin through inadvertence against any of the commandments of Jehovah in things that ought not to be done, and do any of them". It refers to sins which are committed through unwatchfulness, through lack of proper exercise in the fear of God. The loins have been ungirded, and what is of nature has been allowed, leading to something being done that ought not to be done. The most serious
aspects of such a case are presented first -- the sin of the priest that is anointed, of the whole assembly, and of a prince. There are degrees of exercise according to the greater or less responsibility of the position held by the one who sins.
"The priest that is anointed" is the first case considered. It is very sad when such a one sins "according to the trespass of the people". For a saint who has known what it is to be anointed -- to have the Spirit, and to be in priestly relations with God as one possessed of holy knowledge -- to forget, as it were, the anointing, and act wrongly like a common person, is very serious.
Do we always remember the peculiar and blessed place that we have as being anointed? I like to remind myself sometimes as I go along that I belong to the Man at God's right hand! I am of that Man, and I have His Spirit! Paul, referring to the saints, says, "So also is the Christ" (1 Corinthians 12:12); the saints are the anointed company down here. "Praying in the Holy Spirit" (Jude 20) implies that we have a priestly place with God, and that our desires do not move outside the region of the Spirit. There is no sinning there. Jude contemplates the possibility of God's called ones, preserved in Jesus Christ, being kept without stumbling. The second epistle to the Corinthians speaks of the saints as anointed by God, and the anointing confers priestly capability. For such to sin is a very grave defection. It is -- for the moment, at any rate -- a bringing into evidence of the fallen man, not the Man at the right hand of God. It is not merely that I have done wrong and I am sorry for it -- a man of the world would go as far as that -- but my deep concern is that I have allowed something
of the man who is under judgment with God. And the sin of a priest has an additionally grave character, inasmuch as it directly affects the service of God, and the whole assembly suffers in relation to that service. So that, in its issues, it is much more than a personal fault.
It is noticeable that in connection with the priest it does not speak -- as in the case of the assembly, the prince or one of the people -- of his sin becoming known. This supposes, in their case, a certain interval between the sin and its becoming known to them as such. But the omission of this statement when the priest is in question seems to suggest that the anointed priest would realize at once, intuitively, that he had done what he ought not. This implies a holy sensitiveness in the priest that one would covet. It implies such habitual nearness to God that if, in an unguarded moment, one has done what ought not to be done, it is felt at once, and the soul immediately turns to God about it. My impression is that the degree of a believer's holiness -- the degree in which he has truly known what it is to be an anointed priest -- can be measured by his sensitiveness as to sin.
When there have been actions or words or feelings that are of the flesh it is often some time before there is any true movement of self-judgment. This indicates that nearness has not been known or preserved, or the distance that sin produces would be more quickly and keenly felt. In such a case the believer has got away -- as to the condition of his soul -- from his place with God as an anointed priest, though he may have formerly known that holy and near position and character. If we are not habitually near to God we may go on a long time with what is
really of the flesh, and not perceive it. It may need a sharp word to our consciences, or perhaps a sharp stroke of discipline, to bring it home to us. "Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep thy word". Our true liberty is to judge what is of the flesh inwardly, so that, though it is fully discerned by us and we are humbled by discerning it, it does not come out to be a public reproach.
If a priest sins he cannot go on with the service of God, but to a sensitive priestly heart restoration is not necessarily a long process. It is indeed a grave fault for such a one to sin "according to the trespass of the people", but the scripture supposes that he is marked by the sensitiveness which properly belongs to the priestly anointing. It is very sad if this sensitiveness is lacking; such a condition really belies the character of the anointing.
The moment there is the consciousness of having sinned the divine provision is available. Christ is at once introduced in sin-offering character. Such is grace -- the blessed grace of our God! He does not say that the priest must repent deeply for three months, and then, when he has truly and deeply judged himself, he may bring a sin-offering! That might be our way, but it is not God's. Deep and holy and divine self-judgment is not brought about by thinking of the sin, but by apprehending Christ in relation to it, and by taking up with God what it has cost Him to deal with it and put it away. Christ is available through divine grace. Let us never forget that! Let us turn to God at once when there has been a movement of the flesh, and avail ourselves of Christ in sin-offering character! Let us beware of Satan's effort to keep sin before us, and darken our
souls by it, and hinder us from turning to God so that we may learn the value of Christ in relation to it!
The first movement in regard to the sin of a believer is on the part of Jesus Christ the righteous. We have Him as "a patron with the Father" (1 John 2:1). His advocacy results in suitable exercises being produced in the soul of the one who has sinned, and those exercises are presented typically in Leviticus 4. We take them up in the light of the grace that is in "Jesus Christ the righteous", and it is really the fruit of His present service in grace that we are able to take them up. To be carried in that way through the exercise of a chapter like this -- humbling though it surely is to us -- leads to great growth in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. If I have sinned it is very humbling to me, but God intends to make Christ better known and more appreciated in my heart, through that sin. It is the exposure to me of what I am, but if I turn to God about it He will use it to enlarge my knowledge and appreciation of Christ. In the case of the priest a large apprehension of Christ is suggested -- "a young bullock without blemish". The special seriousness of sin in such a one has its answer in a specially large apprehension of Christ in relation to it.
The sin-offering in each case is brought to the entrance of the tent of meeting, or to the place of the burnt-offering. This seems to indicate a readiness to be perfectly open and candid about the matter. If I have really learned something more of the value of Christ through my sin I can afford to be quite open about it. I do not mean that it is necessary, or desirable, to speak of one's wrong-doing to everybody, but there is a preparedness to do so if any occasion for
it arises. It is just the opposite to the attempt to cover up things that we may appear to be better than we really are. If saints were more prepared to own things which they know in their consciences to be wrong it would greatly promote fellowship. Of course, all must be "before Jehovah" to have true moral value.
Think of the impression that would be made on all Israel as the anointed priest was seen bringing his sin-offering "to the entrance of the tent of meeting before Jehovah"! It is true that he has sinned, but he has something greater before him than his sin. He is "before Jehovah", and he is in possession, typically, of a large apprehension of Christ. His soul is filled with the apprehension of Christ in relation to his sin. Do you not think that would take away the fleshly reluctance to own the wrong that he had done? I do not think Peter minded his fault being put on record for the church. As to Moses and David, it is themselves who have told, in the most public way, the story of their faults. This shows how completely they were morally apart from the sin by self-judgment, so that they had no thought of preserving their own reputation.
If I became possessed before God of Christ in sin-offering character I am sure it would give candour and transparency. I should be ready to listen to James, who says, "Confess therefore your offences to one another, and pray for one another, that ye may be healed" (James 5:16). If we were more free to make confession of faults it would lead to more prayer for one another. The confessional is the devil's travesty of this, designed to bring people under the power of a false priesthood. James says, "Confess
... to one another". Those who go to "confession" are as much entitled to hear the confession of the so-called "priest" as he is to hear theirs.
If I have done wrong there is moral elevation in owning it, but the flesh regards it as degradation. If I have apprehended Christ in sin-offering character in relation to my sin it will deliver me from the pride of the flesh that would refuse to acknowledge the wrong.
The priest laying his hand on the bullock's head and slaughtering it expresses the sense that he has of the necessity for Christ and His death in relation to the sin committed. It is a deep exercise to have to own to God that one has done something for which Christ had to die -- one has given place to the man He died to remove. It may be I have spoken a hasty word or allowed a wrong feeling! Where did it come from? The man in Psalm 51 traces his sin to its root. "Behold, in iniquity was I brought forth, and in sin did my mother conceive me". My sin is the manifestation of the fallen and sinful man whom Christ died to remove. We are not right with God until we acknowledge this.
Christ has borne the judgment of sin; He has died to close the history sacrificially of the man who is only evil continually. If I have allowed something of that man to come into evidence, God would use the very exercise occasioned by this to give me a new lesson in the appreciation of Christ and His death. The death of the bullock, the blood, the burning outside the camp signify the complete removal from before God in sacrificial death and judgment of the man after the flesh. In being brought to appreciate the death of Christ we are brought into harmony with God as to the sin, and as to the source from which it proceeded, and as to the way God has dealt with it.
We learn to hate sin; it becomes only a grief to us. Jabez prayed "that thou wouldest keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me! And God brought about what he had requested" (1 Chronicles 4:10). When evil is only a grief to us, because of what it cost Christ to remove it, we can return consciously to priestly nearness. Perhaps this is the reason why it is not said of the priest that is anointed, as it is of the other cases, that his offering makes atonement for him, or that his sin shall be forgiven. In bringing his offering the priest returns consciously to priestly relations with God. That involves atonement and forgiveness; the greater includes the less. The priest takes up his holy service with a deepened spirituality, as having acquired an apprehension of Christ in relation to what is in himself which he had not before.
The priest brings the blood into the tent of meeting, and sprinkles it seven times "before Jehovah before the veil of the sanctuary". Not once or twice, but seven times! Indicating how God would have the soul take up before Him a sense of the perfection of the efficacy of the blood of Christ to remove the stain from before Him of what has now come on the conscience. This is not being washed again in the blood, or a re-application of the blood to us, as some people unscripturally teach. As to justification, or the non-imputation of sins, the believer is "perfected in perpetuity" by the one offering of Christ; his sins and his lawlessnesses God will never remember any more to lay them to his charge. See Hebrews 9, 10. The efficacy of the blood never diminishes or changes on God's side, and the believer is in all its sin-cleansing efficacy in perpetuity. But when he sins he cannot go on with God apart from moral exercises by which
he apprehends afresh with God the precious and holy value of the blood of Christ.
The blood put "on the horns of the altar of fragrant incense" would intimate that the offerer returns to liberty and confidence in prayer, which he could not do while his heart condemned him. He does not ignore his sin, but it has led -- through grace -- to an apprehension of Christ which sets him free with God.
I have heard that a broken bone when healed is stronger in that place than anywhere else, and this seems to be suggested as the fruit of a sin-offering exercise by David asking "that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice" (Psalm 51:8).
Then all the blood of the bullock being poured out "at the bottom of the altar of burnt-offering" seems to provide a basis, as it were, for the offering of the fat. The blood has so fully vindicated every righteous claim of the altar that the offerer can now get an apprehension of the excess. If CHRIST is known as the sin-offering, His value could not be limited to the removal of what is obnoxious to God. The very way it was done, and the excellence of Him who offered Himself, were such that infinite satisfaction and good pleasure were secured for God. That is the fat. It forms, in a certain sense, a link with the burnt-offering. Restoration to full liberty with God is not complete until there is an apprehension of how the offering of Christ for sin has brought in delight for God. Instead of the moral corruption of the man who has come into evidence in the sin, and who has been sacrificially ended in the death of Christ, there is the supreme excellence of One delightful to God, and its holy fragrance. The priest would resume his service in the blessed consciousness of this.
If we have sinned, the way to get right with God, and to please God, is to avail ourselves of Christ as the sin-offering. Sometimes a great deal of the regret which is felt is not really "grief according to God", but the mortification of wounded vanity. This may lead to a resolve to be more careful another time, but it does not lead to increased apprehension of Christ, and it does not put the soul right with God.
The complete consumption in holy judgment of what was offensive to God is seen typically in the burning of the whole bullock outside the camp. This implies a deep sense in the soul of God's entire rejection of the man from whom the sin proceeded. The wrong thing done is traced to the root, as we may see in Psalm 51, and the soul is brought into harmony with God as to the character of the man after the flesh and as to the judgment which has come upon that man in the death and judgment-bearing of Christ. It is there that we really find "a clean place", for the man of sin and shame and defilement is ended in a holy sacrifice, and the "ashes" speak of judgment eternally exhausted.
The case of the priest comes before that of "the whole assembly", for priestly exercise and discernment would be needed to take right account of the sin of the whole assembly, so that the sin-offering as in view of priestly sensibilities and restoration of priestly service comes first. It remains for us to note the application of the same principles to the different cases which follow.
The sin of "the whole assembly" is a very serious matter, because, like the sin of the anointed priest, it interferes with the service of God. If the whole assembly sins against "any of all the commandments
of Jehovah in things which should not be done", it must affect the service of God. The thing may be "hid from the eyes of the congregation", but it is not hid from the eyes of the Lord, and instead of that being before Him which is for His pleasure, there is that which is an offence to Him.
I doubt whether we are sufficiently exercised about the sin of "the whole assembly". Revelation 2 and 3 shows us the sin of the whole assembly. It is hid from the eyes of many, but it has really "become known"; the Lord has made it known. Would any one venture to say that the present state of "the whole assembly" gives God pleasure? No, it is an offence to Him. It has left its first love, it has ceased to be in subjection to Jesus as Lord, it does not hold Christ as Head, nor does it own in a practical way the blessed reality of the presence of the Holy Spirit. There is an order established generally which is of man and not of God. The mustard seed has become a great tree. All this is a very grave sin, and the Lord has made it known that there might be opportunity to repent. In the epistles to five of the assemblies (Revelation 2, 3) there is a call to repent. "The elders of the assembly" have had the opportunity to come with the sin-offering and lay their hands on its head. If there is no repentance the Lord will assuredly remove the candlestick, and spue the assembly out of His mouth. Things are just on the eve of this being done.
Many will admit that things are not what they ought to be, but will excuse them on the ground of human infirmity, or errors in judgment, or want of light. The Lord Himself, in grace, takes account of the sin in Leviticus 4 as done "inadvertently". But the
plain fact is that all the things in the Christian profession of which the Lord disapproves are SIN. Place is given everywhere to the man who was condemned at the cross. Whatever is wrong in the christian profession, and contrary to the commandments of the Lord, springs from man after the flesh. The one who brings the sin-offering judges this in the light of the fact that Christ bore the judgment of that man and died to bring him to an end before God. In the recognition of this he can call on the Lord out of a pure heart, as morally apart, by the death of Christ, from that man. But this makes the sin of "the whole assembly" a very grave matter, and when we see it in this light we must take the path of separation.
I would put it to any heart that loves the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity, Would you like to go on with something of which He disapproves? If the congregation and the elders of the assembly will not bring the sin-offering of the congregation, the faithful individual must. And how could we call on the Lord out of a pure heart if we go on with things which He has made known to us to be sin? Hence 2 Timothy comes in. We are to withdraw from iniquity, to separate from vessels to dishonour, and to turn away from those who have a form of piety but deny its power.
Those who own the sin of the whole assembly, and avail themselves of Christ as the "sin-offering of the congregation", can truly "call on the Lord out of a pure heart"; and I do not doubt that such can know something of forgiveness in an assembly sense. If the spiritual features of the assembly are found amongst saints in some measure, and the service of
God, and the enjoyment of assembly privilege, it is blessed evidence of forgiveness and of restoring mercy. I think many have tasted something of the reality of this.
In the early part of the last century many godly persons felt deeply the sin of the assembly; not merely their personal failures but that "the whole assembly" had departed from God's thoughts. Priestly exercise was brought about as to what was suitable to God, and much light was given as to His ways and purposes, and as to Christ and the assembly. This led to a judgment of things in the light of the death of Christ, and to a movement of separation, and the result has been a revival, in measure, of the true spiritual features of the assembly, and of the service of God, and of the enjoyment of assembly privilege.
There is such a thing as assembly exercise as well as individual exercise, and it is deeper than anything purely individual could be, because it is connected with what is suitable to God in His house. So that for saints who are professedly walking together as owning the truth and principles of the assembly to "do somewhat against any of all the commandments" of the Lord -- however inadvertently done -- is a serious matter. But grace has anticipated the possibility of such a thing, and has made provision for it. The sin-offering for the assembly corresponds with that for the anointed priest; the exercise in these two cases seems to be measured by the divine estimate of the sin, and the apprehension of Christ which meets it is a very full one. In the following cases there is not with each the same degree of self-judgment, or of apprehension of Christ; it is according to the measure and depth of exercise with each. But in the case of
the anointed priest and the assembly a divine measure of exercise is called for, having its answer in a large apprehension of Christ.
We cannot go on carelessly with the things of God. There is a tendency to make light of things which are really movements of the flesh, but if we make light of such things God does not. "I will be hallowed in them that come near me, and before all the people I will be glorified" (Leviticus 10:3). We cannot do that which should not be done, and go on with the service of God as if nothing had happened. There must be self-judgment, and the sin-offering brought. But grace has provided that which will fully and divinely adjust the whole matter, and grace would use even the sin to deepen our self-knowledge, and to give us enlarged apprehension of Christ.
"A prince" or "ruler" represents one prominent in the congregation -- one who has cared for the order of the people of God. It is more serious for such to sin than for "one of the people of the land", and therefore it calls for a stronger and more energetic apprehension of Christ in sin-offering character to secure forgiveness and restoration. One who has been in any way prominent amongst the people of God must have got his place by having certain moral qualities or spiritual formation. He would be a greater man morally than "the people of the land"; otherwise his place would have been only fleshly pretension. But I have no doubt this scripture contemplates a true "prince", not a fleshly pretender. When the sin of such comes to his knowledge he gives evidence that he is a "prince" by bringing a "male" offering. He has a more vigorous apprehension of
Christ, and therefore a deeper self-judgment, than "one of the people of the land".
In the case of one who has been a "prince" this would be justly looked for in view of restoration of confidence and fellowship, when his sin had been such as to interfere with these. The offering must be in proportion to the offerer. In a "prince" God would look for such an apprehension of Christ as would give great energy to self-judgment. Such would not spare or screen himself in any way. The spiritual energy in which he would judge himself would go beyond anything that his brethren might require. His exercises would give them an insight into soul-experiences which would deepen God's work in their souls.
David is the great example in Scripture of a "prince" who sinned; it is very instructive for us to observe the sin-offering exercises of David. They are fully detailed for us in what are called the penitential Psalms (Psalm 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, 143). These Psalms are not only an encouragement to souls under exercise, but they give us an insight into experiences which are perhaps beyond our own moral depth. They minister to self-knowledge, and to the knowledge of God. We should carefully ponder them in connection with the sin-offering. Each one was written by a "prince".
Christ is always available as the sin-offering, and the sooner we avail ourselves of Him the better. It is good to be so established in grace that when we sin we avail ourselves at once of Christ as the sin-offering. God looks for an apprehension of Christ as sin-offering in proportion to the spiritual capacity of the individual. What is spoken of in Scripture as sinning wilfully is turning away from Christ --
deliberately turning away from the sin-offering as apostates do. If a man does that there is no other remedy available; there is nothing left to bring him to repentance.
Grace is the true power of holiness. Grace never excuses sin or makes light of it, but it shows me the holy One of God going to the cross and being made sin. In His unutterable anguish and suffering I learn what sin is before God, and that it has been judged in Him that I might learn to judge it in myself.
If the sin of a believer is of such a nature as to suspend the confidence and fellowship of his brethren, that confidence cannot be restored without evidence that he has judged himself. Two birds or a handful of flour would not suffice or be accepted, if a man ought to bring a sheep! A female goat is accepted from "one of the people of the land", but a "prince" must bring a male. The measure of one's self-judgment is the measure in which we have apprehended Christ as the sin-offering, and in a "prince" God looks for this to be an energetic exercise. It is not saying lightly, "I am sorry". What a profound depth of self-judgment appears in the Psalms we have referred to! They are the exercises of a "prince" who sinned, and they have become moral instruction for all the people of God. We see there a character and energy of self-judgment that is wonderful, and as we look into greater depths of experimental self-knowledge in another than we have sounded in ourselves, it shows us what we are. We are thus morally deepened, and we get a true sense of what Christ died for. When a man really gets to the root of things, as David did, he has done with making excuses.
The blood being put on the horns of the altar of
burnt-offering, and the fat burned on the altar, links the sin-offering with the burnt-offering. I do not think anyone would go truly through the exercise of the sin-offering with God without reaching the burnt-offering. Psalm 51 is a deep sin-offering exercise, but it ends with the thought of the burnt-offering, and God doing good to Zion and building the walls of Jerusalem. It would not be like God to leave us merely with the negative thought of being relieved of the sin. We do not leave God's presence without getting a sense of the sweet odour of Christ in burnt-offering character. We are not only in perfect clearance from sin, but we are in divine acceptance. And the thought of good being done to Zion, would suggest that every sin-offering exercise contributes to the strength and blessing of the assembly. The experience of the one who brings his sin-offering -- what he has acquired of Christ in relation to his exercise -- results in a contribution to the good of the assembly. And the mention of the peace-offering (verses 26, 31) would seem to be suggestive of the restoration of the privilege of fellowship with the people of God. If a man is really right with God he will be put right with his brethren also.
If a brother has sinned God would encourage him to avail himself of Christ as the sin-offering. That is the first thing to be concerned about. If he comes into the apprehension of Christ and of His death in relation to his sin he will judge himself. He will then be a spiritually deepened man -- a "converted" or "restored" man (Luke 22:32) -- and he will be available, like Peter, for the comfort and strengthening of his brethren. The power of God in grace is such that one who has sinned can be fully restored to the
confidence of the brethren, and made a greater help to them than he was before. This shows what God is, and the better we know God the more qualified we shall be to help in the restoration of those who sin. But this is priestly work. It requires that we should eat the sin-offering for our brethren (Leviticus 6). In this way we make the sin our own. Indeed we can never think before God of the sin of a brother or sister without realizing that it is a mirror in which we can see what we are ourselves. But in eating the sin-offering we also realize what the sin has cost Christ and how His death alone could remove it. Then we can take up advocacy and pray for our brother. In 1 John Jesus Christ the righteous is the Advocate, and at the end of the epistle the saints are put in the place of advocacy: "If any one see his brother sinning a sin not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life, for those that do not sin unto death" (1 John 5:16). If you pray for a brother you have a moral title to go to him, and to speak to him as one who has made his sin your own. One who has done so will have moral power.
Little needs to be added as to the sin-offering of "one of the people of the land", save to note that the offerer in this case brings typically a weaker apprehension of Christ than I the "prince"; he brings a female goat or sheep. It is not that his sin is more easily atoned for, or that anything less than the full value of the death of Christ could atone for it. But we are occupied in these chapters with Christ and His death as known and apprehended by the faith and affections of saints, and in this we cannot go beyond our measure. Perhaps the three classes
spoken of in this chapter might answer in some way to John's three grades of babes, young men, and fathers. God would not look for the measure of exercise in a babe that He would rightly look for in a father. But things have to be taken up in truth according to our measure. The soul has to avail itself of Christ, and to apprehend the import of His death so that there may be a true judgment of the root from which the sin proceeded. If I sin I am entitled, through infinite grace, to lay my hand upon Christ, and He is never far away. The sin-offering always lies at the door, as God said to Cain. Everything has been reached and judged in the death of Christ; it is for us to come into the apprehension of it. Then we not only judge ourselves rightly, but we get a blessed sense of forgiveness, and an enlarged appreciation of Christ.
It is noticeable that the section of this book referring to the sin-offering is longer than that referring to the other offerings; it extends from chapter 4: 1 to chapter 5: 13. Then the trespass-offering is in chapter 5: 14 - 26. That so much should have to be said on this subject is sad evidence of the existence of much amongst the people of God that calls for it. In verses 1 - 6 of this chapter we have three specific instances, which would probably cover in principle every kind of sin amongst the people of God. The first is failure in respect of witness; the second is failure as to the maintenance of separation; and the third is failure as to sobriety or self-control.
The first instance of guilt is that of one who refrains from uttering that of which he should bear witness. It shows that such a thing is likely to occur among the people of God. One has known instances of persons being in a position to bear witness of evil which should have been made known, who have failed to utter it. This is a serious matter, for it is said of such, "If he do not give information then he shall bear his iniquity".
But there is another side of things to which this would apply. We are left here in the place of witness for Christ, and there are times when we are directly challenged -- when we "hear the voice of adjuration" -- and if we fail to bear witness we are guilty. The Lord heard "the voice of adjuration" when before the High Priest (Matthew 26:63), and He witnessed a good confession. We are responsible to be confessors of the truth -- confessors of Christ -- but we often fail to utter what we should witness; we shrink from the reproach which is connected with the Name of the Lord Jesus. Christ Jesus witnessed the good confession in the presence of the High Priest and of Pontius Pilate (1 Timothy 6:13), and this would show that "confession" is not amongst believers, but in the presence of the hostile world. It does not mean telling christians that one believes in Jesus, but owning Him before unbelievers.
True confession is in answer to a challenge. At school, or in the office, or at the works, you are asked to do something, or to go somewhere, and you are obliged to decline because you know that it would not please the Lord Jesus. Then the challenge comes, Why not? Now you have to utter what is in your heart! Sometimes we evade the reproach -- which is
really a privilege and honour -- by merely saying, I do not go to the pictures, or whatever it is. But tell them why! The Lord Jesus has become great and precious to you. In the presence of those to whom He is nothing confess that He is great to you, He is Lord to you! Such a confession involves cost, because it involves bearing the reproach of Christ; that is really the greatest and truest honour.
Our witness is to be of what we have "seen or known" in Christ. If we have travelled along the moral road mapped out in this book, and learned Christ as the burnt-offering, the oblation, the peace-offering, and the sin-offering, He has acquired a great place in our affections, and we are to witness accordingly. We have "seen or known" something that is worth confessing. Then let us confess it! Many hold back because they feel they will bungle over it. Perhaps you will bungle, but never mind, get it out! There is tremendous power in just saying, Jesus is Lord to me. The man to whom you say it knows, at the bottom, that Jesus ought to be Lord to him, and his conscience will support your confession, whatever he may say with his lips, and the Holy Spirit will support it too. Some are kept back from witnessing of what they have "seen and known" by the fear that they will not be consistent. But the witness gets divine support; all the power of the kingdom of God supports a confessor of the Lord Jesus. Satan would keep us back from being true witnesses so that we might not get the support of the kingdom. A man, who in a foreign land was ashamed of the British flag, could not expect to be supported by British power if he got into difficulties. You may depend upon it that in God's kingdom the flag will be
honoured and supported. Then let us not be ashamed of it.
I suppose most of us know what it is to have sinned by failing to utter what was in our hearts! Why did we not utter it? Because we shrank from the cost, and we missed an opportunity of bringing Christ into evidence. It was for the moment a hiding of Christ and a retaining of self. Every true confession brings Christ into evidence in a positive way; there is something aggressive about it; it is additional to the quiet and retiring life of one who does not want the world or its things. One cannot but feel that there is often a holding back of witness to what has been "seen or known". And such a holding back, when one is definitely challenged, is sin.
Then in verses 2 and 3 it is a question of touching what is unclean. The world is full of many different kinds and degrees of uncleanness, as we see in figure in these verses. Large things and small things -- beast, cattle, or crawling thing. Unless we preserve separation there is not only personal failure, but the fellowship is compromised. "Wherefore come out from the midst of them, and be separated, saith the Lord, and touch not what is unclean, and I will receive you; and I will be to you for a Father, and ye shall be to me for sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty" (2 Corinthians 6:17, 18). We cannot be on terms of intimacy and friendship with the unconverted, or make companions of them and walk in their ways, without being rendered unclean. The unclean creatures of verse 2 would perhaps typify things outside oneself -- association with unbelievers as referred to in 2 Corinthians 6. While the "uncleanness of man" (verse 3) would perhaps be more what we get in 2 Corinthians 7:1. "Having
therefore these promises, beloved, let us purify ourselves from every pollution of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in God's fear". That is every uncleanness which we find in ourselves; we have to preserve purity from it all.
The third form of specific sin (verse 4) is "talking rashly with the lips, to do evil or to do good, in everything that a man shall say rashly with an oath". If it was "to do evil" one ought never to have said it at all; if it was "to do good" one ought not to say it without doing it. The sin here lies in the rashness of what is said, and the more rash a man is in his speech the more likely is he to strengthen what he says by an oath. See Matthew 26:74. Strong asseveration is very often found identified with rashness and sin. A man whose intents and purposes are formed in the fear of God does not speak rashly, nor does he need to use anything in the nature of an oath. Our Lord has said, "But let your word be Yea, yea; Nay, nay; but what is more than these is from evil (or, the evil one)" (Matthew 5:37). Alas! the unsubdued state of the heart often discloses itself in the rashness of the lips! Indeed James says, "If any one offend not in word, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body too".
If one has sinned in any of the three ways here spoken of, the moment comes "when he knoweth it". The prophetic word comes home, either in secret or through ministry, and there is the consciousness of having allowed what is of the flesh. A cloud comes over the joy; there is not freedom in the service of the Lord, or in prayer, or in fellowship with the brethren. Then an upright soul turns to God in confession,
and brings his trespass-offering. Provision is made for cleansing, and for learning in a new way the value of Christ, as we have seen in chapter 4.
It is very encouraging to see the grace that makes provision for one who is not able to bring a sheep or a goat. The one contemplated in verses 7 - 10 is feebler in his exercises, and in his apprehension of Christ. But he gets cleansing and forgiveness though he can only bring "two turtle-doves or two young pigeons". God takes account of the actual conditions which are found amongst His people, and in this the measures of all are not alike. There is not with all the same capacity for the apprehension of Christ, and therefore, not the same capacity for self-judgment. The cause of these differences, and of some having less ability than others, is not explained here, and we need not attempt to account for it. It exists as a matter of fact, and God recognizes it, and we have to recognize it. There are moral differences just as there are mental and physical differences. In this chapter God takes account in grace of different capacities in His people. The man who brings two birds has a smaller apprehension than the one who brings a sheep. But even he is able to discern the difference between Christ as the sin-offering and as the burnt-offering. The second bird seems to take the place here of the fat in the larger offerings, and brings in the thought of the blessed acceptability -- the positive excellence and sweet fragrance -- of Christ in the offering of Himself. So that it indicates an apprehension in the offerer not only of clearance, but of the excess that secures for him through the death of Christ a return to the joy of acceptance.
There is an even smaller measure in one who brings
"the tenth part of an ephah of fine flour". This represents the feeblest measure of exercise that is taken account of in this connection. There is no true perception in such an offerer that his sin necessitated the death of Christ. He does not measure it in its true gravity, nor realize that sin is such a solemn thing that death is its penalty. But he has a sense that he has done wrong, and he has also a sense of the perfectness of Christ. He could say of Him, like the thief, "This man has done nothing amiss". He judges himself in some measure -- perhaps a small measure -- in the light of what Christ was. And he has a conviction that only what was seen in Christ will do for God. He has the impression in his soul that Christ is needed, and he has to do with God about his sin in the consciousness of this, and in the grace of God he gets forgiveness.
It is wonderful how God accepts any measure of true exercise, and any measure in which a soul apprehends Christ and judges himself in the light of Christ, and this ought to have its answer in what we look for in one another. We must not expect to find the same depth of self-judgment in every one. If we have to do with a brother whose exercises are feeble we are apt to say that there is little in him. This is perhaps true, but it should not lead us to think little of him. There is more need for our priestly service for him, and that he should be cared for and helped. If I regard him as of no account, I show that I no more understand his divine value than he does himself!
These provisions made in grace do not in any way excuse carelessness or lightness as to sin. No one can say, It does not matter whether I judge myself deeply or not. God knows our ability, and if we ought
to bring a sheep He will not accept a handful of flour. We may be assured that the priest would never accept two birds from a man who was able to bring a goat! But while remembering this as to ourselves, we should remember as to others that all have not the same apprehension of Christ in sin-offering character, and therefore have not the same capacity for self-judgment. And the provisions of this chapter meet very graciously the exercises of many who have sinned, whose distress is that they do not feel able to judge themselves as deeply as they would like to do. Satan often uses this to keep souls in bondage. If you are conscious that you have sinned, and if you have had to do with God about it in spiritual reality, and have availed yourself of Christ as the sin-offering according to your measure, you may be fully assured that the sin is forgiven. And your moral capacity is really being increased by the exercise; you are learning more fully to distinguish "good and evil" (Hebrews 5:14), and to judge the latter in view of Christ and of His death.
We come to the trespass-offering in verses 14 - 26. The difference between the sin-offering and the trespass offering would seem to be that in the sin-offering the offence is viewed as a question of what is due to God in His holy nature and to His dwelling-place in the midst of His people. Hence confession of the sin and the holy exercise of self-judgment connected with the apprehension of Christ in sin-offering character are needed. But sin has very often to be looked at not only as grieving to God in His holy nature, but as an offence against His government. It is in connection with His government that restitution comes in. If one has been unfaithful in the holy things of Jehovah
it is not enough that one should confess and bring a sin-offering. Restitution must be made for the wrong done; it must be put right. There was something due to God that was not rendered in its season, and things will not be right until it is rendered.
"If any one act unfaithfully and sin through inadvertence in the holy things of Jehovah". Such a one has failed to render what was due to God. The tithes are the last thing mentioned in this book, and they are "holy to Jehovah" (Leviticus 27:30 - 33). There was no prosperity in Israel when the tithes were not brought. See Malachi 3:8 - 12. Our lives are to be so ordered that there is something distinctly for God. When this is so, the way we act in our households and in our business, ministers to our spiritual food, and helps us as Levites. See Deuteronomy 14:22, 23, 29; Numbers 18:21. If the tithes are rendered there is food in God's house (Malachi 3:10), and you may depend upon it that if you minister to the house, the house will minister to you! Then the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, will have their share; grace will flow out in every direction where there is need. If there is a lack of food and blessing it raises the question whether "the whole tithe" has been brought "into the treasure-house". If we considered more for God, and His portion, the result would be much food to be enjoyed when we come together (Deuteronomy 14:22, 23). And what we are as dwelling in the land would minister to what we are as Levites.
One cannot doubt that there is much unfaithful acting "in the holy things of Jehovah". But a soul really conscious of having sinned in this way would be exercised to make up the deficiency, and even to go beyond. And it is noticeable that the principle
of "valuation" comes in here. This is not left to the individual conscience, but to the valuation Moses. If there is a trespass in the "holy things" none can estimate it but the One who is Son over God's house. As to God's holy things Christ is the only One who can justly estimate unfaithfulness, and what is needed to put things right. There must be a special having to do with Him. It is important to see that there is such a thing as "the shekel of the sanctuary". That is, a divine standard of moral value. People do not think much of a trespass in "holy things" today. It is appalling how holy things are trifled with, and made the plaything of the mind of man. God's redemption rights are ignored, and the holiness of His sanctuary profaned, in innumerable ways. But there is One who rightly estimates everything. We see this in Revelation 2 and 3.
If there has been unfaithfulness in the "holy things" one must get to the Lord about it, and get His valuation. This brings in a marked difference from the sin-offering, in which the offering is according to the capacity of the one who has sinned. In the trespass-offering all is according to the valuation of Moses. This brings in a divine estimate, and therefore in each case the offering is a ram.
Moses is a type of Christ as Son over God's house; every trespass must be valued by Him. Verses 17 - 19 expressly refer to one who does not even know that he has sinned. "Yet is he guilty, and shall bear his iniquity ... he hath certainly trespassed against Jehovah". One should always remember the possibility of having sinned without knowing it. Paul said, "I am conscious of nothing in myself; but am not justified by this; but he that examines me
is the Lord" (1 Corinthians 4:4). I may not know that I have trespassed, but Moses may know! How important it is then really to have to do with the Lord, and get His valuation of things! I trust our souls feel the need of taking up the exercise of Psalm 139. "Search me, O God, and know my heart; prove me, and know my thoughts; and see if there be any grievous (or idolatrous) way in me; and lead me in the way everlasting". We shall get the Lord's valuation at the judgment-seat, but it would be better to get it beforehand. For the trespass-offering is available now, and it gives opportunity for increase in the knowledge of Christ. Believers are sometimes afraid of facing things with the Lord: they do not know how much gain there is in doing so.
Getting the valuation of Christ leads to bringing an offering of full maturity and strength, and this secures a corresponding energy of self-judgment. Christ values "by shekels of silver, according to the shekel of the sanctuary". He knows perfectly the divine rights which have been infringed, and the holiness of the sanctuary which has been offended. And the result of having to do with Him is that we are able to bring "the ram of the trespass-offering". A ram indicates maturity and energy; it is a very strong and distinctive apprehension of Christ as covering in the value of His death the sin which has been committed in the "holy things".
If we have sinned in regard to the "holy things", a wonderful measure of restoration is open to us through the grace of God. There is ability in the man who brings the trespass-offering to "make restitution", and even to "add the fifth part thereto". Thus God gets more in result than He would have had originally.
After Mark's failure and restoration Paul could say that he was "serviceable to me for ministry", and his Gospel indicates a very energetic appreciation of Christ. I have no doubt he got a divine valuation of things, and brought his trespass-offering, and made restitution with a fifth part added. We have all gained by his exercise. The soul that has brought the ram of the trespass offering will be henceforth an enlarged contributor in the assembly.
If some divine principle has been ignored by the people of God, the trespass will not be put right until they accept that principle and act on it. And when such a trespass is rightly felt it will lead to a special care about that principle which would correspond with the "fifth part" added.
The trespass-offering involves restitution. Grace comes in to enable one to make full reparation. It is not merely that atonement is made, but whether in the case of what is due to God or to one's neighbour, it is fully rendered with an added fifth. I suppose that Mark in going to be with Paul in prison at Rome at the close of his life was really undertaking a more difficult and dangerous service than the one he had shrunk from in earlier days. He added the fifth part. It is not simply being forgiven, and going on with God as forgiven, but the failure is made good so that the one whose rights had been infringed is better off than he was before! I have injured a brother -- said something untrue of him or the like -- and I have really brought the trespass-offering according to the valuation of the Lord, I shall restore in full. I shall not be afraid of letting myself down too much; I shall add the fifth part thereto. And the result will be that the brother I have injured will think more of
me than he ever did before, for he has now seen more of the grace of God in me. Thus God has gained, for He has had the Ram of the trespass-offering brought to Him; the one who was trespassed against has gained, for all that was taken away has been restored with twenty per cent interest; and the trespasser has gained, for he has learned to distinguish good and evil in a truer way, and he has acquired an apprehension of Christ which he had not before, so that he can bring more of Christ to the assembly than he ever did before. So that the whole assembly gains also. How happy would it be if every wrong amongst the people of God were righted in this way! And this is undoubtedly what the grace of God would bring about. It is a fine finish to the exercises which Leviticus 4 and 5 bring before us.
'An entrusted thing or a deposit' (verse 6:2) may suggest that we hold a good deal on trust for the people of God, and it is a serious exercise as to whether we are true to the trust, and discharging its obligations. Whatever we have of Christ, and of the precious truth of God, belongs to all our neighbours. We hold it, in a sense, upon trust for all saints, and we are under obligation to see that -- so far as in us lies -- they get the good of it. One feels sometimes like saying to believers, "I have some very valuable property of yours in my charge, and the sooner you put in your claim for it the better pleased I shall be". All the precious truth in regard to Christ and the assembly is a "good deposit entrusted", and we have a holy responsibility to see that it does not suffer any diminution or damage in our hands, but that it is preserved in its full value, and held faithfully for the whole church to whom it belongs. The gospel,
too, is a sacred trust. These things are not to be held as if they were our exclusive property; the belong to many others. Paul had the sense of having things entrusted to him, and he was exercised not to be guilty in regard to them (Romans 1:14, 15; 1 Corinthians 9:16 - 23; 1 Timothy 1:11; etc.).
This chapter, and the next, gives us the law of the offerings, and this is chiefly for "Aaron and his sons". That is, it views the offerings from the standpoint of priestly activities, and this exclusively until the peace-offering is brought in, when the range widens to "the children of Israel", and the thought of fellowship is the final note. "The law" indicates the fixed principle on which the service of God must be carried on. If there is not priestly exercise with regard to Christ in burnt-offering, oblation, and sin-offering character, the fellowship of God's people will be impaired. The general lack of priestly exercises at Corinth led to things which compromised the fellowship. But there was priestly activity on the part of some and on the part of Paul, and the result was that the Lord gave a prophetic ministry which brought about self-judgment, and restored divine conditions of fellowship. A priest is a spiritual person who considers first what is due to God.
The first thing in "the law of the burnt-offering" is that "the burnt-offering shall be on the hearth on the altar all night unto the morning, and the fire of the altar shall be kept burning on it". The "night" indicates the character of the period which has followed
the offering of Christ. The "morning" is coming, prefigured by Solomon dedicating the house (2 Chronicles 5 - 7), when there will be universal gladness brought in on the ground of the burnt-offering, and the earth will be filled with divine glory. But in the meantime it is "night". Christ is disallowed and rejected; it is still the time of His delivering up and sufferings.
It was by the eternal Spirit that Christ offered Himself without spot to God. His inward perfections were tested by all that God is as in holiness against sin. That testing brought out the sweet savour of infinite perfection. It will never be repeated. "The ashes" are the witness that that testing is past, and can never be gone through again. It was a "whole burnt-offering"; all that Christ was wholly devoted to God in the place of sacrifice, and found infinitely perfect and fragrant. All was accomplished in the offering of Christ once for all.
But the "continual fire" on the altar speaks of how the fragrance of Christ is perpetuated before God in the praises of the saints. It is the priests' business to keep the fire burning. See verses 2, 5, 6. It is to burn "all night unto the morning". This is to go on continually as priestly service. Fervent affections are to be maintained in which the preciousness and perfections of Christ are cherished by the Spirit in such wise that they ascend to God in continual praise. The Songs of degrees lead up to this point. "Behold, bless Jehovah, all ye servants of Jehovah, who by night stand in the house of Jehovah. Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, and bless Jehovah" (Psalm 134). This is an "all night" priestly activity which is to go on until the last verse of the Psalm brings in "the morning".
The Spirit is fire to consume and set aside in judgment all that is of the flesh; He is the "spirit of judgment and the spirit of burning" (Isaiah 4:4). But he loves to take another aspect, and to be the power by which the fragrance of Christ as the burnt-offering is caused to ascend in the praises of the holy priesthood -- "a continual fire". In the oil for the candlestick (Exodus 27:20) we have seen a type of the Spirit as the One who maintains the light of Christ in ministry man-ward all through the night of His absence. But in the "continual fire" I think we see the Spirit as the power for the presentation of Christ God-ward in praise. We "worship by the Spirit of God" (Philippians 3:3). The priests stand by the altar "all night" to perpetuate in their intelligent praises the fragrance of the burnt-offering.
The "wood" in this connection might perhaps represent a condition of soul which is readily available for the action of the Spirit -- spiritual affections which are quickly moved to intense activity when they are ordered in a priestly way before God for His service. The two on the way to Emmaus quickly responded to the priestly handling of the Lord, and their affections burst into flame. "Was not our heart burning in us as he spoke to us on the way, and as he opened the scriptures to us?" (Luke 24). The Lord was really at that moment doing what was afterwards the Spirit's work, and there was that in them which soon caught fire. The priestly service brought before us in "the law of the burnt-offering" is no cold formality or religious routine; it is marked by holy fervour such as the Spirit alone could create or maintain. The wood being "in order" would suggest intelligent and spiritually regulated affections
such as Paul had in view when he said, "I will pray with the spirit, but I will pray also with the understanding; I will sing with the spirit, but I will sing also with the understanding" (1 Corinthians 14:15). Fervency in spirit and intelligent order must ever be found together in the service of God. But the fervency and order are under priestly charge; all is spiritual in character; there is no natural or fleshly element in the fervency or in the order; they are such as could only be brought about by spiritual means and by spiritual persons.
In the priest dealing with "the ashes" we have an entirely different exercise before us, but one which perfectly corresponds with what we have been considering. The "ashes" speak of a sacrifice wholly consumed; they speak of a dead Christ. I would put it to my own heart as to whether I know what it means to put on linen garments and take up the ashes? If we are in His acceptance with God it is surely a righteous thing to be dead with Him here! We take this up first with God. I understand that to be intimated by putting the ashes "beside the altar". From the altar the "continual fire" is causing the sweet odour to ascend, but "beside the altar" we confess that Christ is in "the place of the ashes" -- He is a dead Christ here. We cannot in righteousness be identified with the one without being identified with the other. It is a matter of righteousness to identify ourselves with the place Christ has in this world. Paul makes this the basis of his appeal to the Colossians, "If ye have died with Christ" (Colossians 2:20). And in what is probably the most ancient "spiritual song" of christian times -- quoted in 2 Timothy 2:11 - 13 -- we read "For if we have died together with
him, we shall also live together". This is believed to be part of a hymn; at any rate it was current amongst the saints, and it is most likely an example of the kind of song in which the early Christians spoke to themselves and to one another!
Then, having taken our place in righteousness with God as identified with a dead Christ here, we "put on other garments". I think that suggests that we deliberately prepare ourselves for the place of reproach here. If we wear garments of righteousness with God we must wear garments of reproach with men. The ashes are to be carried forth "without the camp unto a clean place". We must leave everything that has a name, or a place, or religious sanction upon earth to bear the reproach of One who has no place here at all save in the hearts of those who love Him. See Hebrews 13:13. The place of the reproach of Christ is the only "clean place" here.
I think the action of Joseph of Arimathaea and Nicodemus may illustrate the teaching of this type. They were true disciples but secretly. They had never put on their linen garments! But the death of Christ brought things to an issue, and the claims of righteousness could no longer be evaded. In identifying themselves with the dead Christ, and claiming His precious body, they put on their linen garments. He was to them the Christ of God, but the place of death was His in this world. And they carried the ashes forth unto a clean place. Nothing marks the place of Christ in relation to this world more definitely than His burial. He has wholly disappeared from the view of the world, and will not appear again until His foes are made His footstool. Do you not think those two hearts went out with Him from everything
here? The council -- the great assemblage of religious leaders -- had condemned Him to death, but they identified themselves with Him. No one could think that either of them ever took his seat in the council again! They came out in true priestly character. The only "clean place" here is the place of identification with the death and burial of Christ. To be identified with the acceptance of the burnt-offering, and to be sustaining the fragrance of it before God "all night", necessitates also that we should be identified with the "ashes" and with the "clean place" without the camp. "This is the law of the burnt-offering".
In "the law of the oblation" we have the priests' part in relation to that offering. The offerer represents the saint in his exercises with regard to the acquisition of Christ, and movements of heart God-ward which are typified by his coming with a "gift". It is a contrast with man in his emptiness saying, "Nothing in my hand I bring"; it is the saint coming with that in his heart which is delightful to God. In the apprehension and appreciation of Christ we realize that the time of God's grief as to man is past, and the time of His good pleasure has come. A new kind of humanity has come in in the Person of Jesus, perfect in every detail, and suitable to be anointed by the Holy Spirit. Indeed He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, and every part of His humanity was invigorated and strengthened by the Holy Spirit of God. No leaven was there.
The priest represents the saint as having holy and intelligent knowledge of how the offering is to be dealt with for the service and pleasure of God. We
should covet to be true "sons of Aaron", as well as offerers.
The priest presents the oblation "before Jehovah, before the altar", and then burns upon the altar his handful of the fine flour and of the oil, and all the frankincense. God has His portion first. Then "the remainder thereof shall Aaron and his sons eat: unleavened shall it be eaten in a holy place". What we eat becomes part of ourselves; it is assimilated into our being; our constitution is formed and built up by it. The holy priesthood is nourished and strengthened, and formed in sensibilities and character, by feeding on Christ as the oblation. There is no feeding on Christ as the burnt-offering; that all goes up to God on the altar. We can apprehend and appreciate it, but we do not appropriate it as food. But as the oblation, God gives Christ to the priesthood as food; self-judged persons walking in the Spirit can feed on Him; and the Christian viewed as a priest is marked by the appropriation of Christ in this character; thus Christ becomes Substance in his affections. It is a great thing when Christ has become the hidden Man of the heart -- when God can look into the hearts of His saints and see Christ there instead of self and the world.
God would have our inward thoughts and affections formed and nourished by feeding upon Christ, so that the way we think and feel about things might be according to Christ, and this would result in His being reproduced in us. Transformation according to Romans 12:2 is not brought about by rules and regulations imposed from without as demand; it is brought about from within, "by the renewing of your mind". The mind is renewed as we get it occupied and filled with
the perfect way in which the will of God came into expression in the life of Jesus. What an insight we get into the "good and acceptable and perfect will of God" as we see it all, and feed on it all, as carried out in every detail in that holy life! We see it there not as demand but as supply -- as food for us. As we appropriate it, and are nourished by it, the will of God becomes blessed to us, and we learn increasingly to hate the action of our own will. We have a new way of thinking about everything then. If Christ has become food to me the pride, vanity, and fashion of this world are as dust under my feet. There is then spiritual vigour through what we feed on to be in accord with Christ -- and to prove what is "the good and acceptable and perfect will of God".
In Ephesians saints are viewed as having learned the Christ, and heard Him, and as having been instructed in Him according as the truth is in Jesus. And there we get the thought of "being renewed in the spirit of your mind" (Ephesians 4:20 - 24). This is an even deeper assimilation to Christ than Romans 12. It was a very good mind that wanted Christ to be received (Luke 9:54), but James and John needed to be renewed in the spirit of their minds! We can only get that renewing by feeding on Christ "in a holy place". "The court of the tent of meeting" indicates that one is withdrawn in spirit from the sphere of human thoughts and activities, and even from what might be legitimately connected with one's own tent. It is where priestly exercises are taken up in relation to God's holy things. I suppose all believers have more or less of the exercises of piety in their own tents, but God would encourage us to take up exercises connected with the "holy place".
We can have "the court of the tent of meeting" at home, but it suggests something quite distinct from what would be connected with our own tents as in the wilderness. Saints have the privilege of taking up many exercises at home which do not stand in relation to their own personal things, but to "the tent of meeting". With some a very considerable part of their exercises has this character, and I think this indicates that they have priestly features. The general lack of strength for the service of God may be largely traced, I think, to the lack of priestly food.
The difference between the "manna" and the "oblation" as food is that manna is the supply of grace to enable the Israelite to meet all the exigencies of the wilderness pathway. This would answer more what we have spoken of in Romans. But the oblation is food to nourish priests so that they may have spiritual vigour to carry on the service of God in prayer and praise, and in everything that pertains to the testimony. The two exercises go on side by side. We need manna for the wilderness path: we need to feed on the oblation for priestly strength in sanctuary service. Feeding on Christ as manna will give us renewal of mind, and strength to effect transformation of the responsible life. Feeding on Christ as the oblation will bring about renewal of the spirit of our mind, so that the very spirit of our minds will be formed in correspondence with Christ. There is great pleasure for God in that. The divine way of bringing it about is to give us Christ as food; it is a blessed and satisfying way.
The oblation is to be preserved unleavened. No fleshly or inflating element is to come in. "It is most holy". And it requires, and I think we may say
produces, an intense degree of holiness in all who come in contact with it. "Whatever toucheth these shall be holy". There is nothing so sanctifying as having to do with Christ. We get apart from the world, and sin, and flesh when we are really engaged with Christ. "The Imitation of Christ" will never make any one like Him, but feeding on Him will, for it nourishes the affections and gives power. What are we nourishing our affections on? Is it Christ, or the worthless and passing trifles of the world?
The offering on the day of the priest's anointing is a "continual oblation". It is not like the voluntary gift of Leviticus 2, but is obligatory. The anointed priest must begin and end his day of holy service with an offering which presents the sweet odour of Christ's perfections to God. Only one day is contemplated, but it is "an everlasting statute"; each day of priestly service must begin and end thus. In chapter 2 the oblation has oil poured on it, or is mingled or anointed with oil, but here it is "saturated with oil" -- a more intensive thought. The priest begins his day's service with a peculiarly strong apprehension of how fully the Spirit had His way in every detail of Christ's blessed pathway -- all was in the energy and grace of the Holy Spirit. And he returns at the end of the day to take up the same apprehension with God again. A "day" which begins and ends thus will be filled with the fragrance of it for God's delight. The priest would serve with his spirit, and be acceptable in all that he did. And the offering is "wholly burned to Jehovah": it is a priestly apprehension of Christ which is wholly for God's delight.
The "baken pieces of the oblation" might indicate
how God has been pleased that we should apprehend Christ. He has not put all in one Gospel, but has given us four. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John each had priestly apprehensions of Christ as the oblation but each had his own distinctive presentation. Men have often tried to merge the four Gospels in one account, but this sets aside the divine wisdom in which the beauty and perfection of Christ have been set before us and substitutes for it a human compilation in which there is no priestly intelligence, and in which the true features of the oblation are obscured. There is nothing in which priestly discernment becomes more manifest than in the ability to perceive the differences in the Gospels, and to apprehend their significance. It is not the least part of God's favour to the assembly in these last days that He has given more priestly discrimination as to the different "pieces of the oblation". The divine presentation of Christ in the Gospels is wonderful. Everything that would have been natural in the Evangelists is held in abeyance. Can you think of men -- merely men -- writing an account of such matters in such few and simple words? Would not men have used abundance of adjectives, and expatiated on the wonders they had seen? But all that is absent. Each of the Evangelists has, in the sovereignty of God, his own spiritual apprehension of Christ, and presents it according to the wisdom of God, so that every incident, and the detail brought out in each incident, is contributory to, and forms an essential part of, the particular view of Christ which God would make prominent in each. There is spiritual and priestly intelligence in the presentation, and spiritual and priestly intelligence are needed for the apprehension of these precious features
of Christ, and for their offering to God in the service of holy affections such as anointed priests can render.
The first thing in "the law of the sin-offering" is that "At the place where the burnt-offering is slaughtered shall the sin-offering be slaughtered before Jehovah". A sin-offering exercise comes in when there has been some allowance of the man who had to be removed in death, but the priest in taking it up has behind it in his soul the sense of the excellence of another Man, who has brought in everything that God could delight in, and in whose death every perfection has gone up in sweet savour. It is as knowing the perfect and eternal establishment of God's will in a Man wholly devoted to Him in death that the priest takes up exercise in regard to what has been displeasing to God.
In no other offering is holiness so emphasized as in this. Four times it is said about the sin-offering and the trespass-offering, "It is most holy". We are now brought to the abode of God's holiness, and we have to think of sin in the light of that. Even worldly people are shocked at certain things; the sense of propriety is offended; but this is not holiness. God requires holiness amongst His people; without it "no one shall see the Lord" (Hebrews 12:14).
The priest who offers the sin-offering has to eat it in a holy place -- "in the court of the tent of meeting". He has a deep sense that something has come in of the man whom Christ died to remove. He views the sin from that standpoint, and makes it his own, and gets a fresh apprehension of the death of Christ as that in which the root of the sin has been dealt with. In mind and spirit he is thus brought into accord with
God; he feels about the sin as it ought to be felt about. Priestly strength and intelligence are needed for this. The priest who eats the sin-offering appropriates Christ in a way that puts him in real accord with Christ as to the sin or trespass, and as to the grace in which He took it up and made it His own. So that there is no lightness about sin, but a deep inward sense of what it cost Christ to deal with it; a sense, too, that it has been dealt with in divine holiness, but in pure and perfect grace towards the one who has sinned. The priest measures the sin by what it cost Christ to bear its judgment, but he is inwardly nourished upon the holy grace in which He did so. This brings about that there is found in the priest all that is morally suitable in regard to the sin, and this enables God to go on with His people in holiness and complacency.
Practically there is much amongst the people of God that needs the sin-offering, but God would not only give the sense of this, but He would have His priests formed inwardly in spiritual feelings and sensibilities as to it. There is a sense in which priests who eat the sin-offering make atonement. See Leviticus 10:17. Atonement means a covering. In the full sense of atonement -- the all-important sense -- Christ is absolutely alone. In bearing the judgment of sin so as to put it away sacrificially from before God none can share with our precious Saviour, or have any part in His holy work of sin-bearing. Hence there is no eating of any sin-offering whose blood was brought into the sanctuary (verse 23). We could not possibly take up that side of things at all.
But if there has been sin amongst the people of God it is due to Him that it should be rightly felt about.
Christ not only bore the judgment of sin and put it away, but He had every right and divine sensibility about the sin which He removed sacrificially. He loved righteousness and hated lawlessness. In this the holy priesthood can have part, and it comes in as one eats the sin-offering. We have also to remember that the sin which may have come to light in another is an exposure of what is in ourselves according to flesh. It holds up a mirror to me to let me see what I am. But the priest judges all in spiritual sensibilities which are the result of feeding on Christ as the sin-offering. The sin has been there, but it has been rightly felt about by a priest who has measured it inwardly by the death of Christ, and this covers it morally. So that God goes on with His people in holiness, not passing over any sin as a light matter, but securing, not only that it should have been judged once for all in the death of Christ, but also that it should be measured morally in the light of that death, and rightly felt about in priestly exercise before Him. One would earnestly desire that more priestly ability to take up things in this way were found amongst the people of God. It is often easier for us to burn the sin-offering than to eat it. See chapter 10: 16 - 18. That is, to act in a judicial spirit rather than to make the sin our own before God, as did Ezra, Nehemiah, and Daniel. (See Ezra 9, Nehemiah 9, Daniel 9) Eating brings about deep inward exercise, and it develops the sensibilities that we have spoken of, so that we do not think about sin merely as the world does, but according to God.
If there had been priestly sensibilities in the whole assembly at Corinth they would have been all down on their faces before God about the sin that was amongst
them. But the exercises of Paul, and perhaps some few priests amongst themselves, saved the situation. One priest who eats the sin-offering might save many. One cannot but feel the deep importance of this in view of many things which come in amongst the people of God. If there were more priestly exercises there would be more power to deal with things, but this involves a breaking process, and much scouring and rinsing (verse 21). Paul went through this in a priestly way first, and ate the sin-offering for the Corinthians. Then they had their exercises; priestly sensibilities were revived; and things were dealt with so as to secure holy conditions.
Having to do with the sin-offering necessitates holiness. "Everything that toucheth the flesh thereof shall be holy". Contact with the sin-offering commits us to the refusal of man after the flesh, for in it that man, and all that pertains to him, was judged. One cannot be in contact with God's utter refusal of that man in the death of Christ, and go on with the allowance of him practically. The garment being washed on which the blood of the sin-offering is splashed would suggest an effect on the whole outward life -- the deportment and ways -- a moral cleansing and purification so that one appears as marked by purity and the beauty of holiness.
The "earthen vessel" would have reference to what man is naturally -- to those things which might give him character, or place, or distinction as a man upon the earth. A man might be naturally eloquent, or have great mental powers, or some other natural gift which would give him a place as a man here. But if the sin-offering comes into contact with it, it results in the breaking of all that in the estimation of the man
himself, so that he does not trust these things, but is cast upon God to be sustained by spiritual resources and power. "But we ourselves had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not have our trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead" (2 Corinthians 1:9). "But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassingness of the power may be of God, and not from us" (2 Corinthians 4:7). Paul had been in contact with the sin-offering, and the "earthen vessel" was "broken" for him.
The "copper pot" might perhaps be suggestive of what saints are as begotten of God, or after the inward man. Viewed thus there is ability to endure testing, and to abide. "He that does the will of God abides for eternity" (1 John 2:17). When the sin-offering comes into contact with what the saint is as the subject of divine working there is no breaking, but an exercise is raised as to moral suitability. So the scouring and rinsing with water have their place.
Though the law of the trespass-offering (verses 1 - 7) contains certain details which are not mentioned in the law of the sin-offering -- the sprinkling of the blood on the altar round about, and the presentation and burning of the fat -- its provisions are similar. "As the sin-offering, so is the trespass-offering; there shall be one law for them".
Then the priest's compensation for his service in connection with the three offerings is brought before us. As to the sin and trespass-offering "it shall be the priest's who maketh atonement therewith". The
priest who presents "any man's burnt-offering" has the skin for himself. And every oblation baken in the oven, or prepared in the cauldron and the pan, "shall be the priest's who offereth it; to him it shall belong". There is always personal gain from taking up priestly exercise or rendering priestly service. One could not minister to the pleasure of God in relation to Christ without getting great gain for oneself. The offering priest acquires Christ for his own nourishment and satisfaction, or, in the case of the burnt-offering, he appropriates His outward blamelessness and beauty, with a view, probably, to being found invested with it. The skin would represent the outward moral beauty of Christ as it could be discerned by saints. Inwardly the priest is furnished with Christ as food, so that his affections and spiritual intelligence are nourished and strengthened in correspondence with Christ. And provision is also made for him to be marked by the possession of those outward features which marked Christ, "who did no sin neither was guile found in his mouth; who, when reviled, reviled not again; when suffering, threatened not; but gave himself over into the hands of him who judges righteously" (1 Peter 2:21 - 23).
When the offering is typical of the perfection of Christ viewed as under testing (verse 9) it is to be the portion of the priest who offers it, but when His perfection is viewed simply in itself (verse 10) He becomes the food of "all the sons of Aaron ... one as the other". The appropriation of the perfection of Christ as under testing requires special exercise. There are special and personal exercises as well as those which we take up with our brethren. We learn to appreciate Christ in a peculiar way by our personal
experiences, and this gives a certain distinctiveness to each saint. To offer that which speaks of Christ as under testing would suggest that the offerer had some reason to appreciate Him in that character. I think it would suggest that the offerer had been taught by his own experience under testing to value and love Christ in that aspect. Take some of the experiences of Christ as they are expressed in the Psalms. They are not really appreciated until the soul has had, in some tiny measure, similar experiences. I suppose most of us know how a deep trial teaches us to see a sweetness and beauty in the scriptures that we have never seen before. God brings in Christ in relation to the way in which we are being tested, and we learn His perfection so as to become offerers and offering priests. The priest who offers takes up the product of such an exercise in a priestly way with God, and is thus morally entitled to have it as food for himself. But the oblation in a general sense -- all that Christ was in His Personal perfection, and as wholly imbued with the Spirit -- is common to "all the sons of Aaron".
We have in chapters 6 - 7: 10 a cluster of priestly exercises which have to be taken up if the fellowship of God's people is to be maintained on a proper footing. The whole tone and character of christian fellowship is lowered if it is taken up -- or attempted to be taken up -- without priestly conditions; that is, apart from the consideration of what is due to God. Priestly conditions and exercises were lacking amongst many at Corinth, and hence the fellowship was being compromised by unholy associations. "The law of the
sacrifice of peace-offering" has in view the fellowship of the people of God.
The sin- and trespass-offerings come before the peace-offering so that we may be quite free. The sin-offering would relieve one of any necessity for self-occupation, and the trespass-offering deals with every element in connection with which the rights of God may have been infringed, or which would hinder communion with one another. In the institution of the offerings (chapters 1 - 5) the sin- and trespass-offerings come last. The end reached there is self-judgment and the adjustment of all wrongs God-ward or man-ward. But in the law of the offerings the peace-offering comes last. What is in view is the enjoyment of spiritual good in communion one with another. The law of the offerings is thus preparatory to our being intelligently partakers of the Lord's table. 1 Corinthians 10 stands in connection with the peace-offering. Christians "partake of the Lord's table"; it is what is provided for us which we can enjoy together; it is a well-furnished table, and it gives character to our fellowship here. If we are not true to the fellowship of the table according to 1 Corinthians 10 we shall not eat the supper according to 1 Corinthians 11. The fellowship is characterized by what we enjoy together in contrast to all that is in the idolatrous world. Partaking of the Lord's table is preparatory to the privilege of the Lord's supper. If a christian goes in for the enjoyments of the world he practically gives up the happiness that belongs to him as a partaker of the Lord's table. The two things are so contrary to one another that it is impossible to enjoy both.
There is a festive character about the peace-offering. "And thou shalt sacrifice peace-offerings, and shalt
eat there, and rejoice before Jehovah thy God" (Deuteronomy 27:7). It suggests enjoyment in common; no one can be really festive alone; even the world has the idea of increasing happiness by sharing it; that is why they have parties, dinners, etc. "Bring the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and make merry" (Luke 15:23) has something of the thought of the peace-offering in it. Even our private exercises and discipline are in view of our enjoying more what we have in common with our brethren, and in view of our contribution to their joy. Paul and John knew what it was to be outwardly isolated, but they did not lose the gain of the fellowship, nor cease to contribute to it.
The first feature of the peace-offering is that it is "for a thanksgiving" (verse 12). It might well be so, seeing that we are set together in the presence of all that God is as known in blessing through Christ and through His death. When a man can say, "I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord", he is free. He has God before him instead of himself and his own wretchedness. He is conscious of having received the most wonderful good that was ever thought of. It has come to him from the heart of the blessed God through the death of the Lord Jesus. He can sit down with his brethren in the fellowship of the peace-offering. The better we know God through Christ the more thanksgiving there will be. The young convert can bring his peace-offering of thanksgiving, and he can share -- if clean -- in what others bring, and every advance he makes in the knowledge of Christ adds something to his offering, and to the common joy.
Let us test our happiness by asking, Did it come through the death of Christ? If not, let us beware lest there be an idolatrous element in it! All those
things which we can enjoy together as the people of God have reached us through death, and if two or any number of hearts are enjoying those things, and the holy love which gave them, they can thank God with one accord. "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of the Christ?" (1 Corinthians 10:16). Our souls drink together into that infinite wealth of blessing -- the revelation of God in love!
Then with "the sacrifice of thanksgiving" the offerer presents "unleavened cakes mingled with oil, and unleavened wafers anointed with oil, and fine flour saturated with oil, cakes mingled with oil" (verse 12). There is not only the thought of the death of Christ, and of all that has come to us through that death, but a blessed apprehension of the kind of Man it was who died -- One who knew no sin, and who was wholly in the grace and power of the Holy Spirit. Only that kind of Man will do for God; every other kind of man must be displaced, so that the moral universe may be patterned after Christ. What an important element this is of the fellowship of saints! When Paul says "We all partake of that one loaf", I think he has a moral idea in his mind. It is the moral side that is prominent in 1 Corinthians 10, not merely the outward act of breaking bread, but what is morally involved in it. The fact that we break bread together, and partake of one loaf -- which it supposes that all christians do -- suggests that every one in the fellowship has partaken morally of Christ. We have come to the apprehension of an entirely new order of man in Christ, and we have partaken of Him so as to be in the life of Christ morally. What I mean by that is that the moral features of Christ mark the saints as having His Spirit. For
example, Christ was marked by obedience, dependence, separation from the idolatrous world, and by delight in the saints, the excellent of the earth. See Psalm 16.
Christian fellowship cannot be taken up in the flesh; it can only be taken up by those who have partaken of Christ, and are morally in His life. A lawless or independent and self-sufficient person is not suitable to the fellowship. If one finds his happiness in the idolatrous world, or prefers the company of relatives and unconverted people to that of the saints, he is not in the fellowship. The way to promote fellowship is to give more place to the features of Christ. The partnership then becomes very real and spiritual. The saints become "one loaf, one body" (1 Corinthians 10:17), as expressing together what is of Christ. In the light of this one can understand the important place which the unleavened cakes and wafers and fine flour and oil have in relation to the peace-offering.
But then there is also "his offering of leavened bread" (verse 13). This implies the recognition and acknowledgment of what we are in ourselves. If, on the one hand, the offerer is a partaker of Christ, he is, on the other, conscious that he is still in "mixed condition", and that the flesh is still in him. He cannot say that he has no sin (1 John 1:8). So he brings "his offering of leavened bread". This is essential to the peace-offering. It secures a spirit of lowliness and self-distrust, and leads one to walk softly. "Let him that thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall". And if a fault comes to light in another the spiritual are to restore him in a spirit of meekness "considering thyself lest thou also be tempted" (Galatians 6:1). In relation to the fellowship one is never to lose sight of this. It keeps us sober as
to ourselves, and considerate and forbearing as to others.
Then "the flesh of the sacrifice of his peace-offering of thanksgiving shall be eaten the same day that it is presented" (verse 15). The eating is not to be separated far from the offering. It is serious to consider that what began as a true offering of thanksgiving or a vow may degenerate into what is "an unclean thing" (verse 18). It shows the importance of maintaining a close link between what we enjoy together, and the consciousness of holding it in relation to God. The "peace-offering of thanksgiving" must be renewed each day if the daily eating or communion is to retain its holy character. This is not grievous to the spiritual mind, for the true sweetness and power of what we enjoy together lies in the fact that we have taken it up first with God. And it is a very sweet privilege to come afresh to the altar with our peace-offering each day, and renew with God for His pleasure our apprehensions and appreciations of Christ. If this is neglected we cannot wonder if the "fellowship with one another" loses its holy and spiritual character, and becomes formal or even merely social. The true joy of the communion is lost. The love of God comes out in this, that He would not have us to go on enjoying together indefinitely that which we have once taken up at the altar with Him. He would have us daily to renew our apprehensions of Christ with Him, and to find in this a continually fresh starting-point for our communion with our brethren. Otherwise our enjoyments may be separated from their true Source, and their spiritual value lost.
In the case of a "vow or voluntary" offering (verse 16) the flesh may be eaten also on the next day. This
supposes greater spiritual energy in the affections of the offerer, and therefore greater ability to sustain the communion. There may be not only different measures of apprehension of Christ as set forth in the different animals offered, but also a difference in the strength of motive which lies behind the offering.
We can only enjoy things with God at all as we are in the spirit of "thanksgiving". "In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus towards you". Thanksgiving is the response to the wealth of blessing which divine grace has brought us into. But when we come to the "vow", or what is "voluntary", it suggests spiritual power for dedication to God. It implies a more distinct subjective work in the soul. Hence communion can be more sustained. There is often true response to the grace of God in grateful affections without much spiritual energy, and therefore things may soon deteriorate into merely human sentiment which is "unclean". The remedy for this is to continually renew the apprehension of Christ in movements of heart God-ward. If we do so it will inevitably carry us on from "thanksgiving" to "vow". We shall increase in spiritual capability, and be more efficient contributors to the fellowship.
God loves the definite dedication which is implied in a "vow", and spiritual power is found with those who bring an offering of this character. A true "vow" is in the power of the Spirit; it is no mere resolution of the flesh or the legal man. It is the happy dedication of a spiritual man. Many saints do not go beyond the "peace-offering of thanksgiving", but God contemplates His people being so affected by His grace and love that there will be purpose of heart to bring about dedication to Him. God supports this, and the one
who has it gets the gain of it. If there is a spirit of dedication it secures divine support. A truly dedicated man would not talk about his dedication; it would be enough for him that his "vow" was acceptable to God, and that the grace of God supported him in it. The gain of a "vow" in relation to the peace-offering is that there is extended ability to continue participation in the fellowship without things becoming "unclean" from lack of conscious nearness to God.
"The law of the sacrifice of peace-offering" emphasizes the necessity for cleanness on the part of those who eat. See verses 19 - 21. Later in this book we get much instruction as to the clean and the unclean, that we may know what to keep apart from. Holy things are profaned if there is not purity as to ourselves and our associations. "The soul that eateth the flesh of the sacrifice of peace-offering which is for Jehovah, having his uncleanness upon him, that soul shall be cut off from his peoples". The attempt to bring uncleanness and Christ together ends disastrously. God will not allow it.
The prohibition against eating fat and blood (verses 22 - 27) is very significant: both are reserved. The unique excellence which attaches to the Person of Christ is very jealously guarded by God, and also the unique value of His blood as making atonement. One would not hesitate a moment about severing one's links with any person or persons who did not maintain the truth as to the Person of Christ, or as to His atoning death. There is a reserved portion of delight -- an excellence and richness attaching to Christ -- which is exclusively for God. It is an essential feature of our communion that we should understand this. If a divine Person comes into Manhood and goes into
death there must be an excellence disclosed that is beyond the creature to appropriate. But if it cannot be eaten it can be offered; it becomes the subject of worship. The fat is twice spoken of in chapter 3 as the "food [or bread] of the offering"; it is Jehovah's portion; that which He alone can appropriate. The priest can send up the sweet odour to God of that which it is not for him to appropriate; it is burnt "on the altar upon the burnt-offering". We can contemplate what is not given to us to appropriate. It does not diminish the joy to know this. God loves to participate in the joy of His people, and, indeed, to have the richest portion in that which is the Substance of their communion. It is an added joy to know that the blessed God has that in the Fatted Calf which is beyond what the returned sons get. It is killed for them, but the Father has His own peculiar portion in it.
The blood is reserved also, and chapter 17 tells us why. The life of the flesh is in the blood, and it is given upon the altar to make atonement, "for it is the blood that maketh atonement for the soul". That is the aspect of the blood generally in the Old Testament. But in the New Testament the Lord speaks of the cup in His supper as "the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you" (Luke 22:20), and He gives that cup to His saints to drink. The blood still retains all its blessed character and efficacy as having atoning value; it is a perfect covering for sin; but we know it also as bearing witness to all the blessing in the heart of God which has come to light through the revelation of God in the love of the new covenant. The word atonement occurs many times in the Old Testament, but it does not occur in the New.
"Atonement" in Romans 5:11, A.V., should be "reconciliation". God revealing what is in His heart is more than covering men's sin. In blessing the cup, and drinking it, we are not occupied with the covering or atoning value of the blood, but with what is witnessed or revealed in it.
The closing section of this chapter requires of the offerer that "his own hands shall bring Jehovah's offerings by fire, the fat with the breast shall he bring" (verse 30). God would have us to hold in a very definite and personal way the apprehension of all that excellence in Christ which is His own peculiar portion and delight, but He would have us to hold it along with a precious sense of the love of Christ. The more definitely we hold the unfathomable depth and preciousness of what there is in Christ for God, the more shall we apprehend the love of Christ. The fat and the breast are to be together in the offerer's hands. The Person who is so delightful to God, and in whom there are such inscrutable excellencies that God alone can feed upon them, is known to us in His affections. One can understand the Apostle, when praying that we might know the love of the Christ, adding, "which surpasses knowledge" (Ephesians 3:19). He had in his hands "the fat with the breast", and the surpassing character of the love was connected with all the intrinsic wealth and worth of that glorious Person as known of the Father. To fail to hold the "fat" would be to fail, correspondingly, to hold the "breast". What "holy hands" are needed to hold such infinite preciousness! And emphasis seems to be laid on "his own hands". This is not looking to enjoy what others bring, or complaining of the lack in others! What are you bringing with your "own hands" to contribute
to the pleasure of God, and to priestly food, and to the common joy of the fellowship?
The "breast" is waved before the priests eat it. They eat in the consciousness of how God delights in the love of Christ being known and appropriated by His saints. And the "breast" would speak of His love God-ward as well as saint-ward and to the assembly. He loved His "master" as well as His "wife" and His "children" (Exodus 21:5). "I love the Father, and as the Father has commanded me, thus I do" (John 14:31). Indeed Christ loves His saints, and loves the assembly, because it is the Father's will that He should do so. Have you thought that it really pleases God that His Son should love you and give Himself for you? The waving of the "breast" would mean that the love of Christ has been taken up by the saints in relation to all the pleasure that God has in it, and their affections move before God in the appreciation of it. It is because of His love to the Father that Christ has so devoted Himself to His saints. He was daily Jehovah's delight -- "the nursling of his love" -- but He was so as "rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth", and as having His "delights with the sons of men" (Proverbs 8:30, 31). It is a peculiar pleasure to God when the love of Christ is appreciated by the saints in relation to His delight in it. When that moves in their affections it answers to the waving of the "breast".
The "breast" is given as food to "Aaron and his sons". The love of Christ is the common portion of the priesthood; it does not belong to one more than another. But as being food it becomes characteristic of the person who eats it; it forms him spiritually. The divine thought is wonderful -- that there should be
a priesthood so nourished upon the love of Christ that they take character from it! The effect of eating the "breast" would be that we should love as Christ loved, and God would have everything in priestly service moved by that mighty mainspring. "A new commandment I give to you, that ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another" (John 13:34). "This is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you" (John 15:12). But one must really be nourished by the love of Christ to do this. Paul knew what it was to eat the "breast of the wave-offering", and he was marked by the love of Christ; it was the mainspring of all his devoted service. He loved as Christ loved, and all his service was of priestly character; there was something distinctively for God in it.
Then "the right shoulder" becomes the portion of the priest who presents the peace-offering. It is thus connected with a personal exercise like the oblation baken in the oven, or prepared in the cauldron or the pan (verse 9). It seems to indicate that the priestly presentation of the peace-offering is an exercise which secures a special personal knowledge of the character of Christ's walk here. ("Shoulder" is really "leg"; it would refer to the strength of His walk.) The offering priest not only has the "breast" in common with his brethren, but he has a peculiar and personal sense of how Christ walked here in the service of love. And he gets the "shoulder" as food so that he may have spiritual strength "even as he walked, himself also so to walk" (1 John 2:6). So that what was true in Christ may become true in him (1 John 2:8). How could one walk as Christ walked except as nourished and strengthened by feeding on "the
shoulder of the heave-offering"? He ever walked in the blessed activity and service of love. How marvellous that He should become food for us that we might, in some small measure, love as He loved, and walk as He walked! What broken and contrite hearts we ought to have that we have so little entered upon our priestly privilege of eating the breast and the shoulder, and the result has been that we have so very, very feebly, if at all, loved as He loved, and walked as He walked!
There is a priestly side of the truth connected with our fellowship, and if that priestly side is not taken up the fellowship will not be maintained in its true character, or in the spiritual energy which rightly marks it. How sad that so many believers should look at these types as belonging to a past dispensation, and now past and done with! The truth is they are precious instruction for us, and divinely intended to be so. They are instruction in Christ and in the knowledge of God. May the Lord enable us to consider these things, and if we do so He will give us understanding!
God would have all His people to be interested in priesthood, and instructed in what pertains to it; so He tells Moses to "Take Aaron and his sons with him, and ... gather all the assembly together at the entrance of the tent of meeting" (verse 3). Aaron was called by God to the honour of priesthood (Hebrews 5:4); his sons came into it as being kindred with him. And "the Christ also has not glorified himself to be made a high priest". The One who said to Him,
"Thou art my Son", said also, "Thou art a priest". He has taken up the priestly office by God's appointment, and in Hebrews He is the only One who is called a priest. The Spirit of God is drawing attention in that part of Scripture to CHRIST as the "merciful and faithful high priest in things relating to God" (Hebrews 2:17), as the "High Priest of our confession" (3: 1), as the "great high priest who has passed through the heavens" (4: 14), as the "priest for ever according to the order of Melchisedec" (5: 6, etc.), as "high priest of the good things to come" (9: 11), and as "a great priest over the house of God" (10: 21). But it is made clear that He has a sanctified company of brethren who are "all of one" with Him (2: 11), and it is as being so that the saints are "a spiritual house, a holy priesthood" (1 Peter 2:5). Though their priesthood is not formally taught in Hebrews it is implied in drawing nigh to God, and approaching God, and in having boldness for entering into the holy of holies, and in the offering of the sacrifice of praise (Hebrews 7:19, 25; Hebrews 10:19; Hebrews 13:15).
There are those who are kindred with Christ. "Take Aaron and his sons with him". It is not sons of Adam that are seen here, but sons of Aaron. That is, it is the saints viewed not according to what they are naturally, but according to what they are spiritually as the result of the working of God. I trust we know what it is to have been attracted to Christ. We see the power of the attraction of Christ in the Gospels, and how different ones responded; the two disciples who heard John speak, and Simon, and Philip, and Nathaniel, and many others. When Christ was presented they were attracted; there was that in them which was kindred with Christ; a magnet only attracts
what is kindred to itself. The disciples were attracted to Christ, and became attached to Him; nothing would induce them to give Him up. In listening to Him, and following Him, they were doing the will of God, and He recognized them as His brethren. See Matthew 12:46 - 50; Mark 3:35; Luke 8:21. Such are bound up with Christ eternally. You may find flaws in the saints if you look for them, but they appreciate Christ, and that shows that they are kindred with Him.
"Aaron and his sons with him". Through infinite grace we are bound up with Christ, not only in God's purpose -- though that lies behind all -- but in affection which is the product of God's working in our souls. Believing in John's Gospel is the believing of affection; the heart has found an Object in whom it can rest. When that is so every detail connected with Christ becomes of greatest interest to the heart. How the bride in Canticles delights to speak of every feature of the Bridegroom! She loves to dwell on every detail. To such a heart the chapter before us would have profound interest.
The reader is referred to "An Outline of the Book of Exodus" -- chapters 28, 29 -- for remarks on the priestly garments, and the consecration offerings. The chapters in Exodus give us Jehovah's commandment as to what was to be done; Leviticus 8 describes how Moses, as the one faithful in all God's house, carried it out. All leads to Aaron and his sons keeping the charge of Jehovah at the entrance of the tent of meeting as nourished on the flesh of the ram of consecration, and on the bread of consecration. This is typical of the assembly as the consecrated company. The consecration-offering comes as near to that aspect of the Lord's death which is before us in His supper as
anything in the Old Testament. His body devoted in love to the will of God and for the assembly, so that every thought of the divine pleasure might take effect and be known in our hearts as the fruit of infinite love. The result would be that we should "keep the charge" during the seven days which are typical of the whole period of priestly service; everything would be maintained that is due to the Lord's Name. It is not here the privilege of going in with Him to share the relationship in which He stands to His Father and His God, now known as our Father and our God, but rather the privilege and holy responsibility of keeping the charge "at the entrance of the tent of meeting". It is the maintenance in faithfulness here of what is due to Him during the time of His rejection -- having part with Him in faithfulness to His interests here. We eat the Lord's supper on the Lord's day in view of complete identification with the interests and testimony of Christ all through the week. John 13 - 17 contemplates Christ going to the Father, but leaving His own here to "keep the charge" -- to have part with Him in that testimony which He brought here. The Father made known, the love of Christ revealed, the Comforter given, the intercession of Christ, and the mutual affections and service of the saints, all come in with relation to keeping the charge! Keeping the charge is "until he come"!
The "eighth day" is the beginning of a new period, but looked at as in relation to the seven preceding days. It has in view the appearing of Jehovah and
His glory (verses 4, 6, 23). All that goes on during this present period has in view "the world to come", when the glory of God will appear publicly, and "all the house of Israel" will come under priestly blessing. The answer to the offerings in this chapter is the grace that will be brought to the people of God at the revelation of Jesus Christ (1 Peter 1:13). All the blessing of God is coming out in its fulness; His glory will appear publicly; His acceptance of the offering of Christ will be publicly known and delighted in.
The scene at the end of this chapter is, typically, the public appearance in this world of the glory of Jehovah, and His grace and blessing as founded on, and as the adequate answer to; the sin-offering, the burnt-offering, the oblation, and the peace-offering. In the early chapters of this book we have seen in type how God is exercising His saints, individually and collectively, at the present time in the apprehension and appreciation of Christ in these varied characters. But what a joy to know that the value of Christ in all these different aspects is to be publicly known in this world, and is to have its public answer in blessing here, and in the out-shining of all that God is in supreme and infinite grace!
It is here that Aaron appears for the first time as an offering priest. So that what is before us in this chapter is Christ Himself as offering, and the wonderful result of His offering in the appearance of the glory of God. Indeed, we see here "the sufferings which belonged to Christ, and the glories after these" (1 Peter 1:11). The peculiar character of the present moment lies in the fact that it anticipates spiritually, and in the way of testimony, what will be publicly known when Christ appears. To speak in the language
of this type, the sacrifices have been offered, and Moses and Aaron have gone in, but they have not yet come out. The time of the public blessing of the house of Israel, and of men universally, has not yet come. Christ has not yet come out, but another divine Person, the Holy Spirit, has come out -- though unseen and unknown by men -- to empower the priestly company here to make known in the way of testimony the glory of God in grace. The gospel is the answer now to the precious value of the sacrifice of Christ. It is the appearing in testimony of all that God is as made known in grace and blessing on the ground of the death of Christ. So that while this chapter looks on to the time when the results of the death of Christ will be known in public and universal blessing, when Christ as King and Priest will appear again, it also speaks of what is now here consequent upon the coming of the Spirit. At the present time the gospel is the fruit and answer to the offering of Christ; the glory of God in grace appears in it.
Aaron offers for himself and for the people (verse 7). That indicates typically that Christ is with God now, not only on the ground of His Personal title, but on the ground of His death. On the ground of His Personal title He could be there alone, but we could not be with Him. But He is there on the ground that He has been once offered; He has died to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself, and to establish the will of God; He has brought all His infinite perfections into the place of sin and death. "By his own blood" He "has entered in once for all into the holy of holies, having found an eternal redemption" (Hebrews 9:12). That is, He has taken His place as Man with God on the same ground as is available for all His people. If
He is with God as having offered Himself, it is the same ground on which we can be with God. If He had only entered in in His Personal perfection each one of us would have to say, "I cannot be with Him". But if He is there as having been offered I say, "Blessed be God! on that ground I can be there too". He loves, as the true Aaron, to be with God on ground which is available "for the people" also.
In this chapter Aaron presents all the offerings and then he blesses the people. That was the attitude of Christ when He rose from the dead. The sacrificial work was over, and in resurrection He "lifted up his hands toward the people and blessed them". He went to heaven with hands uplifted in blessing (Luke 24:50, 51). The result of the offering and sacrifice is widely extended blessing. We see that in Psalm 22 where we get first, "My brethren ... the congregation" -- the assembly as answering to Aaron's sons; then "the great congregation" -- speaking of "the whole house of Israel"; and finally "all the ends of the earth".
It is of much interest to see how "the sons of Aaron" appear in this chapter as presenting the blood to Aaron, and delivering the burnt-offering to him. They are sympathetic with all that he does, and, we might say, co-operating with him in it. It suggests the assembly as a company with understanding of the necessity for Christ offering Himself, and who are intelligent as to His offering, and as to the fruit of it. Before the moment when the public result of that offering will fill the world with blessing at the "appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ" (Titus 2:13), the assembly is in accord with Christ as to His offering work, and as to all that will
result from it in the blessing of Israel and of all the ends of the earth. This makes the priestly company evangelical today, as being in sympathetic accord with the true Aaron. The glory of God in grace is appearing now in the testimony of the glad tidings, and the priestly company is in accord with it. The offering of Christ has secured that the glory of God can shine out in grace, and man can be blessed in a way that is commensurate with that glory. It is a marvellous thing to preach the gospel, for it is a setting forth of the glory of God in grace. Many preachers weaken their testimony by dwelling almost exclusively on the benefit of man. The true evangelical testimony is "Behold your God!" (Isaiah 35:4; Isaiah 40:9). The true evangelist serves in a priestly spirit (see Romans 15:16); he considers for God. If there were more fidelity in keeping the charge (Leviticus 8:35) there would be a more powerful and spiritual setting forth of the gospel. There would be more accord with Christ as to the testimony of grace. What is the present attitude of Christ? It is set forth in verse 22. The offering work is finished, and the true Aaron has hands uplifted in blessing. All may come under those Priestly hands; all may be blessed according to the delight and glory of God as secured by the offering of Christ in its varied aspects.
Then He has gone in as Lord and Priest. This chapter says nothing of what He does within. That is the assembly's secret as identified with Him within! But another divine Person has come out to be the power of the present testimony of grace. See 1 Peter 1:12. God's glory in blessing will shine forth in the world to come to the ends of the earth: but it is shining forth today in the testimony of His grace by
the Holy Spirit. Christ is the true Moses in Romans 5 -- the Mediator through whom all God's blessing comes to men; He is the true Aaron in Hebrews 9 -- the "high priest of the good things to come"; things which have come now spiritually. He will come forth in manifested glory and blessing very soon.
It will be publicly and universally known then that His offering has been accepted, and that on the ground of it the glory of God can appear and cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. But in the meantime the Holy Spirit has come down and rested on men as cloven tongues of fire to give a powerful voice in this world to the glory of God in grace. The blessing of God for men today is according to the value of the Person and offering of Christ.
These precious types are full of instruction, but Christianity transcends even what is so wondrously pictured here. For the consecrated company today are not only entrusted with the holy "charge" at the entrance of the tent -- their testimony here to what will soon be in display -- but they are privileged to go in even to the holy of holies, to know in the greatest nearness to God the blessedness of Christ as His Resource for the bringing to pass of His will and glory in the whole moral universe.
This chapter shows us the failure of priesthood in Aaron's two elder sons, but it also shows in "his sons that were left" how the priesthood was to be maintained
in a remnant. So that we see here what answers to present conditions. There has been grievous public failure characterized by the introduction of "strange" elements which do not belong at all to the divine system. In that system, as we have seen in type in the tabernacle, every detail was to be "as Jehovah had commanded". But Nadab and Abihu "presented strange fire before Jehovah, which he had not commanded them".
It is significant that it had been said, "And ye shall not go out from the entrance of the tent of meeting seven days, until the day when the days of your consecration are at an end: for seven days shall ye be consecrated" (8: 33). This is connected with keeping the charge. Everything that is of God, all that speaks of Christ and the Spirit, all that is the result of divine grace and working in the saints, is within the divine system. We have to keep the charge -- to confess the sufficiency of what is within -- and to see that no foreign element is introduced.
It seems evident that Nadab and Abihu went outside for their strange fire, and this has been the secret of all the failure. To bring in outside elements is ruinous. I understand that Nadab means "Liberal"! He represents the popular liberal spirit that would regard restriction to the Lord's commandment, and to what is spiritual, as narrow-minded and bigoted. Abihu means "He is my father". This would suggest a claim to be in relationship with God, such as is often now found without the moral conditions which are essential to relationship. There is much said today about the Fatherhood of God, but very little thought of what is suitable to Him.
"Strange fire" is what is of the world or of the flesh
introduced into the service of God, where nothing really has place but what is of the Spirit of God. "Strange fire" would be a human imitation of what is divine. There would be great danger of this if a man were not saying "Lord" to Jesus. That does not mean merely using the word "Lord", but being in the truth and spirit of it; it is the setting aside of man's will and importance in presence of His supremacy. Then, again, to be divinely preserved from what is "strange" there must be the confession of "Jesus Christ come in flesh". A divine Person come in Manhood to be the Beginning of everything for God! This involves the complete setting aside of man after the flesh. These are God-given tests (see 1 Corinthians 12:3; 1 John 4:1 - 3), and the action of the Spirit or what is "strange" would be evidenced by the presence or absence of these confessions.
The introduction of "strange fire" involves the death of priesthood. In Christendom generally priesthood is dead in a moral sense. I could not say precisely when this took place historically, but very early in the history of the church human elements were introduced; things were brought into the service of God which were not according to divine institution, but according to what pleased men.
The act of Nadab and Abihu -- Aaron's two elder sons -- is a type of the public failure of the priesthood as committed to man's responsibility. I think it can be spiritually discerned that publicly the priesthood has failed, and has come under the judgment of the Lord. But notwithstanding this God would have the full thought of priesthood to be maintained by the two younger sons. Eleazar means "God is helper", and in him and his brother we see, typically, a
remnant in whom the priesthood is maintained by God's help.
The public failure would naturally discourage and dishearten, and lead to giving up divine thoughts. But we have to see to it that we do not uncover our heads nor rend our clothes (verse 6). The "high caps" speak of holy dignity, the clothes of moral suitability to God, and the anointing oil of power and competency in the Spirit. The thought of a remnant in Scripture is not a fag end of secondary value, but a bit of the original; it includes all that is really for God. All saints constitute the remnant today, though all may not take up or maintain the priestly character which attaches to them according to the will of God. Verses 6 and 7 are encouragement to maintain true priestly exercises and conditions in spite of the public failure. It is right that "the whole house of Israel" should bewail what has happened, but neither the holy dignity nor the moral suitability of the priesthood is to be laid aside; the anointing remains as power.
These two exercises are left to us in a day of most serious public failure; outside we bewail the breakdown and the judgment; but within we may, and must, maintain with God all that is priestly. As to the public position we can only bow in confession of the failure, but in relation to what is divine and spiritual the holy service of God is to be carried on; there is to be no discouragement. It says in verse 7, "Lest ye die". The priesthood may die through the exercise of will as in Nadab and Abihu, or it may die by being given up through weakness. Naturally we might be so affected by the public failure that we surrender priestly conditions ourselves. The tendency might be to say, "It is all over; things are in such a state that
it is no good trying to maintain anything"; and everything priestly for God might be let go. But God would have priestly conditions maintained by you and me and all saints. We are to be found spiritually superior to the natural effect of things, and thus true overcomers. Discouragement leads to uncovering the head and rending the clothes. To "bewail the burning" is a right exercise for the people of God, but at the same time priestly dignity and state, and the holy functions of the priesthood, are to be preserved, not surrendered. 2 Timothy was written by Paul after the public failure was fully manifested to encourage Timothy and ourselves to maintain things spiritually for God. The help of God remains, and is available for us.
"Lest wrath come on all the assembly" (verse 6). It would be a dreadful thing if priestly service ceased. But if a few saints maintain priestly conditions, and are found continually presenting the preciousness of Christ before God, and praying for all saints and all men, things are maintained for the good of "all the assembly".
Then two everlasting statutes come in which are of permanent importance. "Thou shalt not drink wine nor strong drink, thou, and thy sons with thee, when ye go into the tent of meeting, lest ye die" (verses 9 - 11). The first tendency in presence of public failure is to be discouraged and disheartened. Then, on the other hand, there may be a resorting to that which excites and stimulates in a natural way. There is often a sense of spiritual weakness, and an attempt to make up for it by some kind of natural stimulant. But the bringing in of such things clouds spiritual discernment, and leads to failure in distinguishing
"between the holy and the unholy, and between unclean and clean". And if we cannot distinguish we cannot teach.
This section coming in here would suggest that probably Nadab and Abihu had sinned while under the influence of wine or strong drink. Religious excitement, the exhilarating effect of music, eloquence, and other influences which act on natural sensibilities, are to be avoided if we would preserve spiritual conditions which are suitable to God. Such things only cause people to lose spiritual discernment. Do you think that a person who went in for "Pleasant Sunday Afternoons" and concerts would be able to distinguish between strange fire and divine fire? The priesthood is entirely spiritual, and has to do with a spiritual order of things. It can only be carried on outside the sphere of natural discouragement and natural exhilaration. There are many things which excite nature that would not do violence to the natural conscience, nor even to the unenlightened conscience of a believer. We have to seek divine instruction as to such things, and beware of them, if we would keep ourselves in holy and priestly condition.
The other "everlasting statute" (verse 15), refers to what remains as a positive source of satisfaction and strength for the priesthood, and the priestly family, despite all the failure that has come in. There are "sons" left to eat priestly food, and there is "the oblation that is left" for them to eat (verse 12). "The oblation" is typical, as we have already seen, of all the blessedness and perfection of Christ as found here in holy Manhood for the pleasure and glory of God. If we consider Him we shall find that there was no discouragement there by reason of man's failure, for
it is written, "He shall not faint nor be in haste (or be crushed) till he have set justice in the earth: and the isles shall wait for his law" (Isaiah 42:4). Neither shall we find any natural exhilaration there; He was a true Nazarite to God. In the oblation all was unleavened; there was no corrupting or inflating element present. All that Christ was here for the delight of God is "left" to be "most holy" food for the priesthood in a day of departure and ruin. It is to be eaten "beside the altar", which suggests preparedness to suffer; for the altar would speak of a suffering Christ, and of a sacrificial spirit in the priesthood as being near to it. Manhood in the power and grace of the Holy Spirit, as seen in Christ, is God's delight, but it is not acceptable to men. It has the place of suffering and reproach here. The oblation is to be eaten in "a holy place".
Then "the breast of the wave-offering, and the shoulder of the heave-offering shall ye eat in a clean place, thou, and thy sons, and thy daughters with thee" (verse 14). This is the priestly part of the peace-offerings, and it is shared by all the priestly family -- daughters as well as sons. The "daughters" would represent those who are spiritually weaker than "sons"; the female is a weaker vessel (1 Peter 3:7). But this does not debar them from feeding on the love of Christ, or appropriating His grace for strength of walk The "holy place", where the oblation is to be eaten, would have a sanctuary reference, but the "clean place" would refer to the purity of our associations as in the fellowship. And the households of the saints would be a "clean place" from which the contaminating influences of the world are excluded. Personally, and in our households, we have to maintain
separation from all that is idolatrous and unclean, so that there may be a "clean place" where the wave-breast and the heave-shoulder can be eaten.
All this remains as an "everlasting statute" in spite of the public breakdown of the priesthood. There is a remnant "left" to maintain things by the help of God. The anointing remains; Christ remains in all His perfection as set forth in the oblation; the fellowship remains, too, with its precious sources of satisfaction and strength in the love and power of Christ. As we avail ourselves of these things the priesthood, and all the conditions suitable to the service of God, will be maintained in the vigour of life. So that this chapter, solemn and exercising as it is, is really most encouraging as showing how divine resources are "left" to us in the day of failure, and that priestly service may be continued for the pleasure of God. May we be enabled to take it up, by God's grace, in faith and love, and with all the spiritual exercise that is becoming!
But there is another important lesson ere this section of the book closes! The goat of the sin-offering should have been eaten by "the sons of Aaron that were left", but instead of that it had been burnt! This is not the first and public failure, as seen in the Christian profession generally, but it is failure in the reserved and preserved remnant. This has a serious voice for us as indicating a failure that is very likely to be found in a preserved remnant. I think it indicates where we do very often fail.
Moses "diligently sought the goat of the sin-offering". It was a matter of great concern to him to know how it had been dealt with. "The people" (9: 15), "the assembly" (10: 17), had a great place in Moses' heart; he was one who had known what it was
to bear their iniquity on his spirit before Jehovah -- precious type of Him who took it all upon Himself not only in priestly affection and solicitude, but as the actual sin-offering. If we are in sympathy with the thoughts of Christ we shall feel the state of the people of God, and shall realize the necessity that exists for the sin-offering. And we shall not only have a divine estimate of the departure and failure, but we shall eat the sin-offering. We shall identify ourselves with the sin of the people in the grace of Him who has been in the truest and fullest way the Sin-offering for them. This is priestly privilege of a "most holy" character. What spirituality -- what nearness to Christ -- what freedom from self-occupation and self-consideration does it demand! Alas! must we not own that we are much like Aaron and his sons in this matter? We fail to meet the mind of the Lord, and to be in sympathy with the heart of Christ, as to the state and sin of the assembly at large, and as to the grace which would do in spirit what Christ did actually and sacrificially -- that is, make the sin of the people our own. I believe that one result of our not feeling the state of the assembly in priestly sensibilities, and in accord with the sin-offering aspect of Christ's death, is that we have to be made to feel it personally, and the sorrow and suffering of it, by coming into contact with it in those with whom we walk. It is sometimes as though the Lord said, "If you do not feel the failure of the assembly sympathetically with me, you shall feel it, and know the sorrow of it, in your own associations".
It is easier to burn the sin-offering than to eat it. There may be righteous indignation against evil, and a dealing with it in a judicial spirit, which wholly fails
in this priestly element which so honours God, and which brings the priesthood into such intimate accord with the death of Christ. We may judge evil, and withdraw from it, without ever making it our own in a priestly way. The maintenance of what is due to the Lord is most important. Things that are evil must be dealt with according to the holiness that becomes God's house. But in what spirit is discipline to be exercised in whatever form it becomes necessary? It is to be exercised in the spirit of those who have made the sin their own in confession before God. We may judge with a legal severity and hardness which is not in keeping with a dispensation pre-eminently marked by priestly grace, and under which the restoration of the offender is always the end in view. But to eat the sin-offering would be to estimate the sin according to God, and according to the death of Christ which was necessary to put it away, but so to make it our own that our spirits are entirely free from harshness or hardness, but are in accord with the grace in which Christ became the Sin-offering.
Aaron was under the pressure of his own exercises, and of the severe discipline of God upon himself; he was not sufficiently at leisure from himself to eat the sin-offering. He had so much trouble and sorrow of his own that he was not free to take up the exercise that the whole state of Israel called for. Is it not often so with ourselves? "Such things have befallen me". Aaron did not excuse himself; he owned his weakness and inability, and when he did so "Moses heard it; and it was good in his sight".
It is part of priestly responsibility and privilege to take up the exercise of eating the sin-offering for the people of God -- the assembly. "He has given it to
you that ye might bear the iniquity of the assembly, to make atonement for them before Jehovah". It is much to the Lord to be able to look down and see even a few hearts that feel about the sin of the assembly as it ought to be felt about, and in accord with His own death for that sin. But Aaron here represents those who have a sense of what ought to be, and of what is suitable to God, but who have to confess inability to take it up. I would not speak for others, but personally I think this is about as far as one could go. If so, it is better to own it. The Lord can bear with confessed weakness and failure; He cannot support pretension. It is a beautiful touch of tender grace that when Moses heard it, "it was good in his sight". The Lord has often to be satisfied, if one may so say, with a measure of exercise and spirituality that comes short of what His heart desires. He would have us to be sympathetic with Him as to "the iniquity of the assembly", and to bear it in our spirits. He looks for this. May He give us grace to eat the sin-offering! Or, at any rate, to own how becoming it is that we should do so, and to confess with lowly hearts how little spiritual ability we have for this function of the holy priesthood!
It is striking and suggestive that this very comprehensive section of the book -- dealing with the priesthood in its original institution, in its normal characteristics, in its failure, in its continuance through God's help in a remnant after the public failure -- should end on the note that is struck in the closing verses of the chapter! May its lesson not be overlooked or forgotten!
We come in this chapter to what concerns "the children of Israel" generally. They were to hallow themselves and be holy because Jehovah was holy. "I am Jehovah who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: ye shall therefore be holy, for I am holy" (verses 44, 45). Do we value the privilege of having God -- of possessing Him as our God? The instruction of this chapter is given so that nothing may interfere with this. The corresponding passage in Deuteronomy 14 begins by saying, "Ye are sons of Jehovah your God". Therefore we must be careful not to eat anything, in a moral sense, that would give us a character inconsistent with the place and relationship which we have with God.
If we are not practically holy we cannot enjoy what God is for His people, nor shall we answer to His pleasure. The two things go together: "I will be to him God, and he shall be to me son". If we have God as our inheritance and portion, it is in view of His having His portion in us. But if we feed on what is unclean we cannot enjoy God, for He is holy; neither can He have pleasure in us.
Our discrimination as to clean and unclean is not to be according to human standards, but according to God's holiness. This is a very high standard, but the children of God would not wish it to be lowered a hair's breadth. They would like to be taught to discriminate between clean and unclean, and to refuse everything that does not suit the holiness of God. A worldly standard of clean and unclean might have done for Egypt, but the fact that we have been brought out of Egypt, and are now set in relation to God's
sanctuary, brings in a divinely elevated standard of practical holiness.
The priests were to "put difference between the holy and the unholy, and between unclean and clean", and they were to teach the children of Israel (chapter 10: 10, 11). We have to hallow ourselves in the light of the instruction of this chapter. It applies to every day of the week, and to every hour of the day, because there are ten thousand things around us here -- and in our own flesh -- which are unclean, and we have to see that we do not assimilate them, or come into moral contact with them.
Eating would typify the inward appropriation of certain features into our moral being. It would specially apply to what we read or give place to in our minds and thoughts. The world's literature contains much that is unclean; if we assimilate it, and take character from it, we cannot be hallowed for God. Eating is more serious than touching because the inward constitution is built up by what we feed on. But touching renders unclean, and Paul applies this very scripture when he says, "Wherefore come out from the midst of them, and be separated, saith the Lord, and touch not what is unclean, and I will receive you; and I will be to you for a Father, and ye shall be to me for sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty" (2 Corinthians 6:17, 18).
This chapter is a divine guide-book as to what is clean and unclean. The character of walk is the first test of a clean creature, but it must be accompanied by inward rumination. "Whatever hath cloven hoofs, and feet quite split open, and cheweth the cud, among the beasts -- that shall ye eat" (verse 3). The cloven hoof indicates separation from the world and its
principles; it speaks of a pious walk. We read of "the truth which is according to piety" (Titus 1:1); piety becomes a practical test for anything which may be presented to us as the truth. We are entitled to ask, Will it give God a greater place in relation to the practical life and walk of His people? If not, it may be doubted whether it is the truth at all.
But then a separate walk must be accompanied by inward occupation of heart and mind with what is of God. This is chewing the cud. Jeremiah said, "I sat not in the assembly of the mockers, nor exulted: I sat alone because of thy hand"; this would answer to the cloven hoof. But the preceding verse says, "Thy words were found, and I did eat them, and thy words were unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart" (Jeremiah 15:16, 17). This would be chewing the cud. Paul says to Timothy, "Think of what I say, for the Lord will give thee understanding in all things", and he speaks in the same chapter of withdrawing from iniquity, and of separating from vessels to dishonour (2 Timothy 2:7, 19, 21). This gives us the same thing in principle.
Meditation is most important. "Mary kept all these things in her mind, pondering them in her heart" (Luke 2:19). We do not get spiritual gain so much by hearing and reading as by meditation. Many read their daily chapter, but get little from it because they do not meditate. But then, on the other hand, some are like the camel that "cheweth the cud, but hath not cloven hoofs". He represents one occupied with truth, but not exercised to walk according to it. It is possible to take up divine things in a mental way -- to be occupied with doctrines and points, without the practical life being affected in the way of separation. Such are unclean.
Then the swine has the right kind of walk -- "for it hath cloven hoofs, and feet quite split open" -- but there is no inward assimilation of the mind or grace of God; "it cheweth not the cud". That is like the Pharisee, who is punctilious as to his outward walk, but has not a thought in common with God. The Lord described such as making clean the outside of the cup and the dish while within they are full of rapine and intemperance; and, again, as being "like whited sepulchres, which appear beautiful outwardly, but within are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness" (Matthew 23:25 - 33).
God would have His people habituated to the distinguishing of good and evil. "Full-grown men, who, on account of habit, have their senses exercised for distinguishing both good and evil" (Hebrews 5:14). God has given us the perfect exemplification of all that is clean in the life of Jesus, and that is what we are to take character from. It is a daily, hourly, constant exercise.
The first section (verses 1 - 8) of the chapter refers to "all the beasts which are on the earth". On the earth a careful walk is needed, a walk which is the result of exercise and deliberation and of considering how things stand in relation to God. But it may be noted that the unclean beasts on the earth are not said to be "an abomination", while those in the waters, and the fowls and the creeping things, are. We might learn from this that there are certain things which we are not to take character from, nor even to touch, that have not quite the character before God of "abomination". There may be that which is merely natural, which is not the result of consideration in the fear of God, and which does not carry the mark of piety in
the walk, which could hardly be looked upon as an abomination. Still it is unclean because it is not the outcome of exercise toward God. We are not to take character from it. In that which is an "abomination" I think elements of positive and active evil will be found. The refusal of it has to be more pronounced and definite.
The next section (verses 9 - 12) refers to "all that are in the waters". "The waters" represent the world as an element closely surrounding, through which we have to pass. The clean creatures there have "fins and scales". "Fins" would represent the ability to take a definite course without being at the mercy of the currents and tides which are ever moving this way and that in a world of lawlessness. The blessed Lord passed through all the influences here without being in the smallest degree deflected from His course. "I do always the things that are pleasing to him" (John 8:29). "I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love" (John 15:10). Following Christ gives definiteness to the course, and so does the leading of the Spirit. Those who walk by the Spirit will not be carried by the currents of lawlessness which are all around us. Lot going down to Sodom is an illustration of what it is to be without "fins". He had "scales" which kept out the corruption of Sodom, for he had a "righteous soul", and he is called "righteous Lot", but he suffered greatly from the lack of "fins". There was nothing definitely for God in his course, though he was a true believer.
"Scales" keep out the surrounding influences. The word is used of Goliath's coat of mail (1 Samuel 17:5). They suggest the protective character of the divine nature in the saints. Peter speaks of the saints
becoming "partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust" (2 Peter 1:4). The Lord could say, "The ruler of the world comes, and in me he has nothing" (John 14:30). There was nothing there which the enemy could touch at all. But then John says also, "He that has been begotten of God keeps himself, and the wicked one does not touch him" (1 John 5:18). One can understand the Lord saying, "I am not of the world". There was nothing in Him in common with the world. All that is in the world is "the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life" (1 John 2:16), but in Him there was divine love spending itself for others, divine light shedding forth its holy beams to illuminate the hearts of men, and divine lowliness rebuking the pride of life in man. But how wonderful that He should say of His saints, "They are not of the world, as I am not of the world"! All that which separated Him so completely from the world is true also in the divine nature of which His saints are partakers.
Our stature in the divine nature is measured by our knowledge of God. "In the desert God will teach thee, What the God that thou hast found". He has brought us out of Egypt, the place of human resource, that we might learn Him, and have Him as our Resource, and as we do so we are formed in the divine nature. It is through the knowledge of God that "the greatest and precious promises" are given to us. We might say that God Himself becomes the great Promise -- the Pledge of every good -- and it is through the appropriation of all that God is in this way that we "become partakers of the divine nature". (See 2 Peter 1:3, 4.) We become well furnished with "scales" to
keep out "the corruption that is in the world through lust". Whatever is of the world morally is not only unclean, but it is "an abomination".
No clean fowls are mentioned either here or in Deuteronomy 14. The latter Scripture speaks of "all clean birds" and "all clean fowls", but they are not specified. The chief intent seems to be to warn against the unclean and the abominable. It would appear that the unclean fowls represent spiritual influences of evil. The Lord spoke of the fowls as catching away the good seed, and as roosting in the branches of the mustard tree (Matthew 13). Some of these birds are high-fliers, but they are nearly all destructive and birds of prey. They represent higher critics, religious infidels, teachers of every kind of false doctrine. People who deny the fall of man, and talk about the universal Fatherhood of God and the universal brotherhood of man, who question in various ways the inspiration of the Holy Scriptures, who set aside the Deity of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the atoning value of His sufferings and death, who say that the punishment of the lost will not be eternal, and so on. Some of them pass as being very fine birds, but they are destructive; they are soul-destroyers.
The world is full of destructive spiritual influences, and all such influences are to be "an abomination" to us. A christian spoke to me of a religious teacher who denied the Deity of Christ as "a very good man". I asked him if he could call a man "good" who robbed him of his Saviour? Such men are evil-doers, whatever may be their pretensions (see 2 John 10, 11), and their teachings are to be held in abomination. One would make a difference between those who are misled and those who are active agents of evil. If one
has been deceived by evil teaching it would be right to feel compassion for him, and seek his deliverance from the snare of the devil. But if people do not judge these evil influences, and keep wholly apart from them, they fall under their power. No false charity or mistaken kindness should lead us to regard evil teaching as other than abominable.
Then winged crawling things are in general an abomination. But if they have "legs above their feet with which to leap upon the earth" they may be eaten. These represent those who are of a lowly order, but who have power to "leap". They may appear pretty much like other crawling things, but when you look at them particularly you see something quite different. They have a God-given power to leave crawling and to leap. It suggests how God has given to those who would naturally be crawlers a power to leap. It speaks of an energy of life by which the soul can rise superior to the earth, and to all that would naturally hold it here. The impotent man in Acts 3 got the ability by divine power to leap up, and to walk and leap and praise God. He appeared in an entirely new character in the power of God's salvation. That is a great indication of moral cleanness; we may safely take character from that kind of thing. "These shall ye eat".
Then "whatever goeth on its paws, among all manner of beasts that go upon all four, those are unclean unto you" (verse 27). They are marked by a soft tread, but a destructive purpose. "Such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And it is not wonderful, for Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. It is no great thing, therefore, if his ministers also transform
themselves as ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works" (2 Corinthians 11:13 - 15). Jude speaks of men who "crept in unawares"; they came in with a sly, soft tread, but with an evil intent.
There is much about crawling things in this chapter, and no doubt there are many things that answer to that description morally. Then it speaks of "whatever goeth on the belly" (verse 42). Those whose God is their belly and who mind earthly things (Philippians 3) are crawling things. The Apostle warns us with tears not to take character from such, but to be imitators of him, and of those who have their commonwealth in the heavens.
Moles and field-mice do great harm to growing crops. They suggest influences that would check the prosperity of the people of God viewed as His husbandry under divine tillage. There are many things which check the prosperity and growth of the saints. Moles work underground and disturb the soil about the roots, and the field-mice nibble at the very vitals of tender plants. We all remember the warning about the foxes -- little foxes -- which spoil the grapes! But moles and mice are equally dangerous, and more difficult to catch, for they work underground. If there is not spiritual prosperity and vigour it is well to look for the moles and mice!
Then the lizard in all his different kinds is unclean. The lizard is not very destructive, so far as I know, but the different characteristics mentioned would lead one to think of various ways in which men delight to call attention to themselves. "The groaning lizard" might represent one who is morbidly occupied with his own badness, or his trials, or who reveals his self-importance by complaining of how badly other people
treat him. "The great red lizard" would give the idea of a person given to self-display. "The climbing lizard" would suggest the desire to get into an elevated position -- loving "the chief place in feasts, and the first seats in the synagogues, and salutations in the market-places, and to be called of men. Rabbi, Rabbi". "The chameleon" changes its colour, like the man who is one thing with the brethren, and quite another when he is with worldly people.
These different unclean creatures set forth moral features which once characterized us all. It might well be said, "Such were some of you". But in the great sheet which Peter saw, "in which were all the quadrupeds and creeping things of the earth, and the fowls of the heaven", they were all seen as cleansed by God. Divine cleansing having come in, and hearts being purified by faith, God's people no longer take character from what is unclean. We have to see to it that as a holy people we exercise watchfulness to keep ourselves apart from the moral features set forth in these unclean creatures.
To touch the carcases of these things renders one "unclean until the even". There is a beautiful touch of grace about that, for it seems to suggest that every such defilement will be taken up and cleansed from the heart and conscience the same day that it is contracted. There is the same principle in "Let not the sun set upon your wrath" (Ephesians 4:26). You are not to carry an angry feeling over to another day. Our individual path is made up of days, and God would have every question of anger or defilement settled before "even". How often we let defilement cling to us for days, weeks, months, perhaps sometimes years! But God's way is to have the moral stainCHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
"In Thy grace Thou now hast called us
Sharers of Thy joy to be;
And to know the blessed secret
Of His preciousness to Thee". CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
"We look for Thine appearing,
Thy presence here to bless!" CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11