University of California. *< NOTES ON THE BOOK or LEVITICUS. [UNIVERSITr 'All scripture isQtwn fry mspfration of God." (2 Tim. iii. 16.) NEW YORK : LOIZEAUX BROTHERS, 96 FOURTH AVENUE. 1880. ALEX. W. H. MACEWEN, P. O. Box 2301, SAN FRANCISCO, CAL, / $01 V PEEFATOEY NOTE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION A S several persons in America have, without any au- thority whatever from me, undertaken to publish my four* volumes of " Notes," I deem it my duty to inform the reader that I have given full permission to Messrs. LOIZEAUX BROTHERS to publish an edition of those books in such form as they shall consider most suitable. C. II. MACKINTOSH. 6 West Park Terrace, Scarborough. May 1st, 1S79. THF. UNIVERSITY TX the Person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ there is an infinite fullness, which meets every necessity of man, both as a sinner and as a worshiper. The infinite dignity of His Person gives eternal value to His work. In the book of Genesis we have seen "God's remedy for man's ruin" in the promised seed the Ark of Salvation, and in the rich unfoldings of divine grace to fallen and sinful man. There we have the Bud, the full-blown glories and fragrance of which shall yet fill the heavens and the earth with joy and gladness. In the book of Exodus we have seen " God's answer to man's question." There, man is not only outside of Eden, but he has fallen into the hands of a cruel and powerful enemy, he is the bond-slave of the world. How is he to be delivered from Pharaoh's thraldom from Egypt's fur- nace ? How can he be redeemed, justified, and brought into the promised land ? God only could answer such questions, and this He did in the blood of the slain Lamb. In the redemption-power of that blood, every question is settled. It meets Heaven's highest claims, and man's deepest necessities. Through its amazing efficacy, God is glorified, man is redeemed, saved, justified, and brought to God's holy habitation; while the enemy is completely overthrown, and his power destroyed. And now, in our meditations on the book of Leviticus, we find most fully unfolded what we may call, "God's provision for man's need;" or, a Sacrifice, a Priest, and a Place of Worship. These are essentially necessary in drawing near unto God, as this book most abundantly VI PREFACE. proves. But every thing therewith connected was ap- pointed by God, and established by His law. Nothing was left to be supplied by man's fertile imagination, or his prudential arrangement. " So Aaron and his son's did all things which the Lord commanded by the hand of Moses." (Chap. viii. 3G; ix. 6, 7.) Without the word of the Lord, neither priest nor people could take a single step in the right direction. It is so still. There is not a single ray of light in this dark world but that which is shed from holy Scripture. "Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path." (Ps. cxix. 105.) It is truly happy when the children of God so honor His Word as to be guided by it in all things. We need now, as much as the Jew did then, divine direction and divine guidance for acceptable worship. "But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth; for the Father seeketh such to worship Him." (John iv. 23, 24.) More than sincerity or devoutness of feeling is required in the children's worship : it must be in the unction of the Spirit, and according to the truth of God. But we have all (blessed be His name!) in the Person and work of our blessed Lord Jesus. He is both our Sacrifice and Priest, and our right of entrance into the holiest of "all. O, to be kept near to His wounded side, and in the abiding sense that He is the ground, the material, and the sweet incense of all our worship ! Let us now briefly notice the three points already men- tioned. I. In the first place, we would observe that sacrifice is the basis of worship. Acceptable worship to God must be based on a sacrifice acceptable to Him. Man being in himself guilty and unclean, he needs a sacrifice to remove his guilt, cleanse him from his defilements, and fit him for the holy presence of God. "Without shedding of blood is no remission; " and without remission, and the knowledge of remission, there can be no happy worship, no real, hearty praise, adoration, and thanksgiving. Going to PREFACE. vil what is called "a place of worship," and worshiping God, are widely different things. God is holy, and man must approach Him in His own way, and according to what He is. As Moses said unto Aaron on the solemn occasion of (he sin of Nadab and Abihu, "This is it that the Lord spake, saying, ' / will be sanctified in them that come nigh Me, and before all the people I will be glorified.' " The Lord alone could give directions as to how the people were to draw nigh unto Him : this is the great subject of the book of Leviticus. The "Notes" on the first seven and the sixteenth chapters will give the reader a very full and interesting view of the ordinance of sacrifice, and the character of Jewish worship. It was on the ground of offered and accepted sacrifice that the children of Israel were constituted the worshiping people of God. It is on the same ground, namely, offered and accepted sacrifice, that believers in Jesus are consti- tuted the worshiping people of God now. (Read carefully Lev. xvi; Heb. ix, x.) They have taken Israel's place, but after a much higher order, whether. we look at the sacrifice, the priest, or the place of worship. The contrast between them is great, and strongly marked in Scripture, especially in the epistle to the Hebrews. The Jewish sac- rifices never reached the conscience of the offerer, and the Jewish priest never could pronounce him "clean every whit." The gifts and sacrifices which were offered under the law, as the apostle tells us, " could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience." The conscience, observe, always being the reflection of the sacrifice, it could not be perfect, seeing^ the sacrifice was not perfect; "for it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins." Hence, Jewish wor- ship was connected with inefficient sacrifices, a burden- some ritual, and an unpurged conscience, Avhich gendered in the worshiper a spirit of bondage and fear. But, now, mark the contrast to all this in the once-offered and accepted sacrifice of Christ. He "put away sin by the Vi PREFACE. sacrifice of Himself." All is done. Having "by Himself purged our sins, He sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high." When the worshiper comes before God on the ground of this Sacrifice, he finds that he has nothing to do save, as a priest, to show forth the praises of Him "who hath called us out of darkness into His marvelous light." Even Christ has nothing more to do as regards our justification and acceptance, "for by one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified." The Jew, by his sacrifice, was merely ceremonially clean, and that only for a moment, as it were; but the Christian, through the sacrifice of Christ, is really so, and that for- ever. Oh, that sweet word, "FOREVER"! It is the common privilege of all believers to be perfected as wor- shipers before God, "through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." On this deeply important point the testimony of Scripture is most full and explicit. For the worshipers once purged should have "no more con- science of sins." "The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin." "And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more." (1 John i. 7; Heb. x.) By the work of Christ for us, our sins were all put away ; and now, by faith in God's word, we know that they are all forgiven and forgotten. Hence, we can draw near to God, and stand in His holy presence, in the happy assurance that there is neither sin nor stain upon us. Our Great High-Priest has pronounced us "clean every whit." (John xiii.) Believing this, the sense of guilt is taken away, we have "NO MORE CONSCIENCE OF SINS." This deeply precious truth, observe, does not mean that there is no more consciousness of sins. Far from it. Or that we may not get a bad conscience through failure ; or that we need not be exercised "to have a conscience void of offense toward God and toward man." Not at all. It simply means that Christ, by the one, perfect, finished sacrifice of Himself, has forever put away all our sins root and branch. And having been led to know and be- PREFACE. IX lieve this, how can there be sins on the conscience? Christ has put them all away. The precious blood of our once-offered and accepted Sacrifice has cleansed us from every spot and stain of sin. There may be the deepest sense of indwelling sin, and of many sins and shortcom- ings in our every-day life, and the painful confession of them all to God; still there is the full assurance that Christ died for our sins, put them all away, and that not one of them can ever be laid to our charge. This is indeed a most wondcrf ul truth ; but it is the great, the needed truth for a worshiper. How could we stand in God's presence, where all is perfection, if ,we were not as clean as He would have us to be ? We must be clean enough for the eye of Infinite Holiness. But, blessed be God, all who believe in Jesus, and rest on His finished sacrifice, are forgiven and justified; they have eternal life, righteous- ness, and peace. The first cry for mercy of the guilty sinner is answered by the blood of the Sacrifice. It pene- trates to the deepest depths of his need ; it raises him to the highest heights of heaven, and fits him to be there, a happy worshiper, in the immediate presence of the throne of God. "For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God." "For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh; how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the Eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God ! " (1 Peter iii. 18; Heb. ix. 13, 14.) II. In the second place, we have in the rich provisions of God's grace, the Lord Jesus Christ as our Great High- Priest in the presence of God for us. He ministers there for us. "We have such a High-Priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens ; a Minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man." (Heb. viii. 1, 2.) His work of sacrifice having been fully completed, He sat X PREFACE. down. Aaron is represented as being always ii\a standing position. His work was never finished. He stood "daily ministering, and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins ; but this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins, forever sat down on the right hand of God." Immediately after the law of the Lord had been given as to sacrifice, the priesthood was established. (See "Notes" on chapters viii, ix.) The saints have both in Christ. He is our Sacrifice and our Priest. He appeared once on the cross for us : He now appears in heaven for us: ere long He will appear in glory with us. To know what He accomplished on the cross, and what He is now doing in the sanctuary above, will nourish in our hearts the hope of His coming, and lead us to long for His appearing in glory. In the New Testament we only read of two orders of priests, namely, Christ as the Great High-Priest in heaven, and the common priesthood of all believers on the earth. "Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, accept- able to God by Jesus Christ." (1 Peter ii. 5.) And again, "Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father." (Rev. i. 5. 6.) These passages clearly prove the common standing of all believers as priests unto God. There is no mention in the New Testa- ment of any peculiar class or order of Christians who hold the office of priests, as distinct from other Christians. Christ is the Great High-Priest over the house of God, and all His people are, in virtue of their connection with Him, priests, and privileged to enter, as once-purged worshipers, into the holiest of all. Even the apostles never took the place of priests, as distinct from or superior to the hum- blest child of God. They might know their privileges better than many, and enjoy them more. Their gifts and callings as to the ministry of the Word were distinct and special, but as worshipers, they stood on the same ground PREFACE. XI as all others, and, together with them, worshiped God through Jesus Christ, the Great High-Priest of all His people. In the priestly ministry of our blessed Lord, there are many points of special interest ; we only notice the two following : 1. As our Great High-Priest, He represents us in the sanctuary above. And, oh, what a representative ! God's beloved Son, the glorified Man, whose name is above every name ! "For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true ; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for ?f<'-worsliip for the priest, as under the law. These distinctions are un- known in the Church of the living God. It is all priestly worship and temple worship now. All are equally near, all have equal liberty, all are equally acceptable, through the presence and intervention of the Great High-Priest of His people. The same precious blood that cleansed us from all sin, has brought us near to God as children, and as worshiping priests. And if we really know the won- drous efficacy and power of that blood in the heavenly places, AVC shall be at home and happy there in all the liberty and dignity of sonship, and in all the official near- ness and standing of once-purged worshipers, in the most holy place. Oh that our hearts may be kept in the sweet remem- brance, knowledge, and power of the rich provisions of God's grace for all our need ! Oh that we may never lose sight of the blood on the mercy-seat, the Minister of the sanctuary, and of our holy, heavenly, and eternal place of worship ! Xlv PREFACE. We must now leave the dear reader, earnestly commend- ing to his most prayerful and diligent study this precious book of Leviticus. The light which it sheds on the Person and work of Christ the ground and character of our communion with God, is deeply blessed to the heart that desires to live in the enjoyment of these eternal realities. He will find the " Notes" most helpful in unfolding the text, and in giving an interesting and practical view to many of the ceremonies which we are prone to pass over as uninteresting and uninstructive to us. See, for exam- ple, the eleventh chapter. And now, may the Lord graciously own, use, and bless this little volume, for the glory of His own name, and for the comfort and blessing of many precious souls. A.M. London, Mai/, 1860. PKEFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. THE rapid sale of a large edition of this volume evidences an amount of interest in the study of the book of Leviticus for which I unfeiguedly bless the Lord. Too many, even of the people of God, seem to think that this section of inspiration contains nothing of any interest or value to them. They regard it as a detail of rites and ceremonies with which they have nothing to do a record of by-gone institutions, affording no instruction or edifica- tion for them. That this is a great mistake, thousands are now discovering. Very many who for years looked upon the book of Leviticus as little more than a dry catalogue of Jewish ordinances, are now discovering in it an exhaust- less mine of spiritual wealth, for which they cannot be too thankful. They have brought its marvelous pages under the light of the New Testament scriptures, and they can only wonder at that which is now unfolded to their gaze. That they may discover yet more of the precious treasure, is my earnest desire on their behalf. I have carefully revised the following pages, and, I may say, I have left them very much as I found them. An ex- pression here and there which seemed likely to be misun- derstood, I have slightly touched. I have also added a brief note or two. These trifling matters excepted, the second edition is a reprint of the first, and, as such, it is again committed to the care of Him from Avhom all blessings flow. May He be graciously pleased to crown it still further with the stamp of His approval. His seal and sanction are all that any book requires to make it useful ; XVI PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. . and truty, we may say, the book that has not these has nothing. The Lord grant a more abundant blessing, and His name shall have all the praise. C. H. M. 41 Mount joy St., Dublin. August, 1861. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I, Page. I "II, 30 Ill, 71 IV. V. 13, - 102 y. 14 VI. 7, - 134 " VIII. & IX, 152 X, - - 175 "XI, - 200 " XII, - 218 " XIII. & XIV, 225 " XV, - - " - 270 " XVI, - 277 XVII, " XVIII. XX, - 302 " XXI. & XXII, - 321 " XXIII, 330 " XXIV, - 353 " XXV, -. 362 " XXVI, " XXVIT. - 373 877 NOTES ON THE BOOK OF ERE entering upon the _^ ^^SSB^ - before us, there are two things which demand our careful consideration ; namely, first, Jehovah's position ; and secondly, the order in which the offerings are presented. "And the Lord called unto Moses, and spake unto him out of the tabernacle of the congregation." Such was the position from which Jehovah made the communications contained in this book. He had been speaking from Mount Sinai, and His position there gave marked character to the communication. From the fiery mount "went a fiery law ;" but here, He speaks "out of the tabernacle of the cotigrega- tion." This was an entirely different position. We have seen this tabernacle set up, at the close of the preceding book. "And he reared up the court round about the tabernacle and the altar, and set up the hanging of the court gate. So Moses finished the work. Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the Lord filled the 2 LEVITICUS. tabernacle For the cloud of the Lord was upon the tabernacle by day, and fire was on it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel, throughout all their journeys." (Exod. xl. 33-38.) Now, the tabernacle was God's dwelling-place in grace. He could take up His abode there, because He was surrounded on all sides by that which vividly set forth the ground of His relationship with the people. Had He come into their midst in the full display of the character revealed upon Mount Sinai, it could only have been to "consume them in a mo- ment," as "a stiff-necked people ;" but He retired within the vail type of Christ's flesh (Heb. x. 20.), and took His place on the mercy-seat, where the blood of atonement, and not the "stitf-neckedness" of Israel, was that which met His view and satisfied the claims of His nature. The blood which was brought into the sanctuary by the high-priest was the type of that precious blood which cleanses from all sin ; and although Israel after the flesh saw no- thing of this, it nevertheless justified God in abiding amongst them it "sanctified to the purifying of the flesh." (Heb. ix. 13.) Thusiinuch as to Jehovah's position in this book, which must he taken into account in order to a proper understanding of the communications made therein. In them we shall find inflexible holiness united with the purest grace. God is holy, no mat- ter from whence He speaks. He was holy on Mount Sinai, and holy above the mercy-seat; but in the former case, His holiness stood connected with "a. CHAPTER I. 3 devouring fire," in the latter, it was connected with patient grace. Now the connection of perfect holi- ness with perfect grace is that which characterizes the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, which re- demption is, in various ways, shadowed forth in the book of Leviticus. God must be hoi}', even though it should be in the eternal condemnation of impeni- tent sinners ; but the full display of His holiness in the salvation of sinners calls forth Heaven's loudest and loftiest note of praise. "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good-will toward men." (Luke ii. 14.) This doxology could not have been sung in connection with "the fiery law." No doubt there was "glory to God in the highest," but there was no "peace on earth" nor "good pleasure in men," inasmuch as it was the declaration of what men ought to be ere God could take pleasure in them. But when "the Son" took His place as a man on the earth, the mind of Heaven could express its entire delight in Him as the One whose Person and work could combine, in the most perfect man- ner, divine glory with human blessedness. And now, one word as to the order of the offer- ings, in the opening chapters of the book of Leviti- cus. The Lord begins with the burnt-offering, arid ends with the trespass-offering. That is to say, He leaves off where we begin. This order is marked and most instructive. When first the arrow of con- viction enters the soul, there are deep searchings of conscience in reference to sins actually committed. Memory casts back its enlightened eye over the 4 LEVITICUS. page of one's past life, and sees it stained with numberless trespasses against God and man. At this point of the soul's history, it is not so much occupied with the question of the root from whence those trespasses have sprung, as with the stern and palpable fact that such and such things have actually been committed ; and hence it needs to know that God has provided a Sacrifice through which "all trespasses ' ' can be ' ' frankly forgiven. ' ' This is pre- sented to us in the trespass-offering. But, as one advances in the divine life, he becomes conscious that those sins which he has committed are but branches from a root, streams from a foun- tain ; and, moreover, that sin in his nature is that fountain that root. This leads to far deeper ex- ercise, which can only be met by a deeper insight into the work of the cross. In a word, the cross will need to be apprehended as that in which God Himself has "condemned sin in the Jlesh." (Rom. viii. 3.) My reader will observe, it does not say, "sins in the life," but the root from whence these have sprung, namely, "sm in the^es/i." This is a truth of immense importance. Christ not merely "died for our sins, according to the Scriptures," but He was "made sin for us." (2 Cor. v. 21.) This is the doctrine of the sin-offering. Now, it is when the heart and conscience are set at rest, through the knowledge of Christ's work, that we can feed upon Himself as the ground of our peace and joy in the presence of God. The tres- pass-offering and the sin-offering must be known CHAPTER I. / O ere the peace-offering, joy-offering, or thanksgiving- offering can be appreciated. Hence, therefore, the order in which the peace-offering stands corresponds with the order of our spiritual apprehension of Christ. The same perfect order is observable in reference to the meat-offering. When the soul is led to taste the sweetness of spiritual communion with Christ to feed upon Him, in peace and thankfulness, in the divine presence, it is drawn out in earnest desire to know more of the wondrous mysteries of His Person ; and this desire is most blessedly met in the meat- offering, which is the type of Christ's perfect man- hood. Then, in the burnt-offering, we are conducted to a point beyond which it is impossible to go, and that is, the work of the cross, as accomplished under the immediate eye of God, and as the expression of the unswerving devotion of the heart of Christ. All these things will come before us, in beauteous de- tail, as we pass along ; we are here only looking at the order of the offerings, which is truly marvelous, whichever way we travel, whether outward from God to us, or inward from us to God. In either case, we begin with the cross and end with the cross. If we begin with tha burnt-offering, we see Christ, on the cross, doing the will of God making atonement according to the measure of His perfect surrender of Himself to God. If we begin with the trespass- offering, we see Christ, on the cross, bearing our sins, and putting them away according to the per- 6 LEVITICUS. fection of His atoning sacrifice ; while in each and all we behold the excellency, the beauty, and the perfection of His divine and adorable Person. Surely, all this is sufficient to awaken in our hearts the deepest interest in the study of those precious types which we shall now proceed to consider in detail. And may God the Holy Ghost, who penned the book of Leviticus, expound its contents in living power to our hearts, that so, when we have reached the close, we may have abundant cause to bless His name for many thrilling and soul-stirring views of the Person and work of our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, to whom be glory, now, henceforth, and for evermore. Amen. IN the burnt-offering, with which our book opens, w r e have a type of Christ "offering Himself without spot to God." Hence the position which the Holy Ghost assigns to it. If the Lord Jesus Christ came forth to accomplish the glorious work of atonement, His highest and most fondly cherished object in so doing was the glory of God. "Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God," was the grand motto in every scene and circumstance of His life, and in none more markedly than in the work of the cross. Let the will of God be what it might, He came to do it. Blessed be God, we know what our portion is in the accomplishment of this "will;" for by it "we are sanctified, through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once." (Heb. x. 10.) Still, the primary as- CHAPTER I. 7 pect of Christ's work was God ward. It was an ineffable delight to Him to accomplish the will of God on this earth. No one had ever done this before. Some had, through grace, done "that which was right in the sight of the Lord;" but no one had ever perfect!} 7 , invariably, from first to last, without hesitation, and without divergence, done the will of God. But this was exactly what the Lord Jesus did. He was "obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." (Phil. ii. 8.) "He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem." And as He walked from the garden of Gethsemane to the cross of Calvary, the intense devotion of His heart told itself forth in these accents, "The cup which My Father hath given Me, shall I not drink it?" Now, in all this self-emptied devotedness to God there was truly a sweet savor. A perfect Man on the earth accomplishing the will of God, even in death, was an object of amazing interest to the mind of Heaven. Who could fathom the profound depths of that devoted heart which displayed itself, under the e}-e of God, on the cross ? Surely, none but God ; for in this, as in every thing else, it holds good that "no man knoweth the Son, but the Fa- ther," and no one can know aught about Him save as the Father reveals Him. The mind of man can, in some measure, grasp any subject of knowledge "under the sun," human science can be laid hold of by the human intellect ; but no man knoweth the Son save as the Father reveals Him, by the power of the Holy Ghost, through the written Word. The 8 LEVITICUS. Holy Ghost delights to reveal the Son to take of the things of Jesus and show them unto us. These things we have, in all their fullness and beauty, in the Word. There can be no new revelation, inas- much as the Spirit brought "a// things" to the apostles' memory, and led them into "a// truth." There can be nothing beyond "all truth;" and hence, all pretension to a new revelation and the development of new truth (meaning thereby truth not contained in the sacred canon of inspiration) is an effort on man's part to add to what God calls "all truth." No doubt the Spirit may unfold and a PPb'j with new and extraordinary power, truth contained in the Word ; but this is obviously a very different thing from our traveling outside the range of divine revelation for the purpose of finding prin- ciples, ideas, or dogmas which shall command the conscience. This latter can only be regarded in the light of impious presumption. In the gospel narrative, we have Christ presented to us in the varied phases of His character, His Person, and His work. To those precious docu- ments the people of God in all ages have rejoiced to betake themselves, and drink in their heavenly rev- elations of the object of their love and confidence the One to whom they owed everything, for time and eternity. But very few, comparatively, have ever been led to regard the rites and ceremonies of the Levitical economy as fraught with the most' minute instruction in reference to the same com- manding theme. The offerings of Leviticus, for CHAPTER I. 9 example, have been too much regarded as so many antiquated records of Jewish customs, conveying no intelligible voice to our ears no spiritual light to our understandings. However, it must be admitted that the apparently abstruse records of Leviticus, as well as the sublime strains of Isaiah, take their place amongst the "things which were written afore- time," and they are, therefore, "for our learning." True, we shall need to study those records, as indeed all Scripture, with a humble, self-emptied spirit ; with reverent dependence upon the teaching of Him who graciously penned them for us ; with sedulous atten- tion to the general scope, bearing, and analogy of the entire body of divine revelation ; with an effectual curb on the imagination, that it may not take un- hallowed flights ; but if thus, through grace, we enter upon the study of the types of Leviticus, we shall find in them a vein of the richest and finest ore. We shall now proceed to examine the burnt-offer- * ing, which, as we have remarked, presents Christ offering Himself without spot to God. "If his offering be a burnt sacrifice of the herd, let him offer a male, without blemish." The essen- tial glory and dignity of Christ's Person form the basis of Christianity. He imparts that dignity and glory to every thing He does, and to every office He sustains. No office could possibly add glory to Him who is "God over all, blessed forever" "God manifest in the flesh" the glorious "Immanuel" "God with us" the Eternal Word the Creator and Sustainer of the universe. What office could 10 LEVITICUS. add to the dignity of such an One ? In point of fact, \ve know that all His offices are connected with His humanity ; and in assuming that humanity, He stooped from the glory which He had with the Father before the world was. He thus stooped in order to glorify God perfectly in the very midst of a scene where all was hostile to Him. He came to be "eaten up" by a holy, unquenchable zeal for the glory of God, and the effectual carrying out of His eternal counsels. The unblemished male of the first year was a type of the Lord Jesus Christ offering Himself for the perfect accomplishment of the will of God. There should be nothing expressive either of weak- ness or imperfection. "A male of the first 3-6 ar " was required. We shall see, when we come to ex- amine the other offerings, that "a female" was in some cases permitted ; but that was only expressive of the imperfection which attached to the worshiper's apprehension, and in no wise of any defect in the offering, inasmuch as it was "unblemished" in the one case as well as in the other. Here, however, it was an offering of the very highest order, because it was Christ offering Himself to God. Christ, in the burnt-offering, was exclusively for the eye and heart of God. This point should be distinctly ap- prehended. God alone could duly estimate the Person and work of Christ; He alone could fully appreciate the cross as the expression of Christ's perfect devotedness. The cross, as foreshadowed by the burnt-offering, had an element in it which CHAPTER I. 11 only the divine mind could apprehend ; it had depths so profound, that neither mortal nor angel could fathom them. There was a voice in it which was intended exclusively for, and went directly to, the ear of the Father. There were communications between the cross of Calvary and the throne of God which lay far beyond the highest range of created intelligence. 4 ' He shall offer it of his own voluntary will at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the Lord." The use of the word ''voluntary" here brings out with great clearness the grand idea in the burnt-offering. It leads us to contemplate the cross in an aspect which is not sufficiently apprehended. We are too apt to look upon the cross merely as the place where the great question of sin was gone into and settled between eternal Justice and the spotless Victim as the place where our guilt was atoned for, and where Satan was gloriously vanquished. Eter- nal and universal praise to redeeming love ! the cross was all this ; but it was more than this, it was the place where Christ's love to the Father was told out in language which only the Father could hear and understand. It is in the latter aspect that we have it typified in the burnt-offering, and there- fore it is that the word "voluntary"' occurs. Were it merely a question of the imputation of sin, and of enduring the wrath of God on account of sin, such an expression would not be in moral order. The blessed Lord Jesus could not, with strict pro- priety, be represented as willing to be "made sin" 12 LEVITICUS. witting to endure the wrath of God and the hiding of His countenance ; and in this one fact we learn, in the clearest manner, that the burnt-offering does not jnri'xlnidnir Cltrixt on the cross bearhif/ sin, but Christ on the cross accomplishing the will of God. That Christ Himself contemplated the cross in these t\vo aspects of it is evident from His own words. When He looked at the cross as the place of sin- bearing when He anticipated the horrors with which, in this point of view, it stood invested, He exclaimed, " Father, if Thou be willing, remove tins cup from Me." (Luke xxiii. 12.) He shrank from that which His work, as a sin-bearer, involved. His pure and holy mind shrank from the thought of contact with sin. and His loving heart shrank from the thought of losing, for a moment, the light of dud's countenance. But then, the cross had another aspect. It stood before the eye of Christ as a scene in which He could fully tell out all the deep secrets of His love to the Father a phu-e in which He could, "of His own voluntary will," take the cup which the Father had given Him, and drain it to the very dregs. True it is that the whole life of Christ emitted a fragrant odor, which ever ascended to the Father's throne He did always those things which pleased the Father He ever did the will of God; but the burnt-offering does not typify Iliin in His life pre- cious, be3'ond all thought, as was every act of that life, but in His death, and in that, not as one 4 'made a curse for us," but as one presenting to CHAPTER I. 13 the heart of the Father an odor of incomparable fragrance. This truth invests the cross with peculiar charms for the spiritual mind. It imparts to the sufferings of our blessed Lord an interest of the most intense character. The guilty sinner, no doubt, finds in the cross a divine answer to the deepest and most earnest cravings of heart and conscience : the true believer finds in the cross that which captivates every affection of his heart, and transfixes his whole moral being : the angels find in the cross a theme for ceaseless admiration. All this is true ; but there is that in the cross which passes far beyond the loftiest conceptions of saints or angels, namel}', the deep-toned devotion of the heart of the Son pre- sented to and appreciated by the heart of the Father. This is the elevated aspect of the cross which is so strikingly shadowed forth in the burnt-offering. And here let me remark that the distinctive beauty of the burnt-offering must be entirely sacrificed if we admit the idea that Christ was a sin-bearer ail His life. There would then be no force, no value, no meaning in the word u voluntary," There could be no room for voluntary action in the case of one who was compelled, by the very necessity of his position, to yield up his life. If Christ were a sin- bearer in His life, then, assuredly, His death must have been a necessary, not a voluntary, act. Indeed, it may be safely asserted that there is not one of the offerings the beauty of which would not be marred, and its strict integrity sacrificed, by the 14 LEVITICUS. theory of a life of sin-bearing. In the burnt-offering, this is especially the case, inasmuch as it is not, in it, a question of sin-bearing, or enduring the wrath of God, but entirely one of voluntary devotedness, manifested in the death of the cross. In the burnt- offering, we recognize a type of God the Son accomplishing, by God the Spirit, the will of God the Father. This He did "of His own voluntary will. " " Therefore doth My Father love Me, because I lay down My life, that I might take it again." (John x. 17.) . Here we have the burnt- offering aspect of the death of Christ. On the other hand, the prophet, contemplating Him as the sin-offering, says, "His life is taken from the earth" (Acts. viii. 33.) (which is the LXX. version of Isaiah liii. 8.). Again, Christ says, "No one \_ov Seii\ taketh it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself." Was He a sin-bearer when He said this ? Observe, it is "No one," man, angel, devil, or else. It was His own voluntary act, to lay down His life that He might take it again. "I delight to do Thy will, O My God." Such was the language of the divine burnt- offering of Him who found His unutterable joy in offering Himself without spot to God. Now, it is of the last importance to apprehend with distinctness the primary object of the heart of Christ in the work of redemption. It tends to con- solidate the believer's peace. The accomplishment of God's will, the establishment of God's counsels, and the display of God's glory, occupied the fullest, deepest, and largest place in that devoted heart CHAPTER I. 15 V which viewed and estimated every thing in reference to God. The Lord Jesus never once stopped to inquire how any act or circumstance would affect Himself. "He humbled Himself" "He made Himself of no reputation" He surrendered all. And hence, when He arrived at the close of His career, He could look back upon it all, and say, with His e}*es lifted up to heaven, "I have glorified Thee on the earth ; I have finished the w^ork which Thou gavest Me to do." (John xvii. 4.) It is im- possible to contemplate the w r ork of Christ, in this aspect of it, without having the heart filled with the sweetest affections toward His Person. It does not detract, in the smallest degree, from our sense of His love to us, to know that He made God His primary object in the work of the cross. Quite the opposite. His love to us, and our salvation in Him, could only be founded upon God's established gloiy. That glory must form the solid basis of every thing. "As truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord." (Numb. xiv. 21.) But we know that God's eternal glory and the creature's eternal bless- edness are, in the divine counsels, inseparably linked together, so that if the former be secured, the latter must needs be so likewise. "And he shall put his hand upon the head of the burnt-offering ; and it shall be accepted for him, to make atonement for him." The act of laying on of hands was expressive of full identification. By that significant act, the offerer and the offering be- came one ; and this oneness, in the case of the 3 16 LEVITICUS. burnt-offering, secured for the offerer all the accept- ableness of his offering. The application of this to Christ and the believer sets forth a truth of the most precious nature, and one largely developed in the New Testament, namely, the believer's everlasting identification with, and acceptance in, Christ. "As He is, so are we in this world." "We are in Him that is true." (1 John iv. 17; v. 20.) Nothing, in any measure, short of this could avail. The man who is not in Christ is in his sins. There is no middle ground: you must be either in Christ or out of Him. There is no such thing as being partly in Christ. If there is a single hair's breadth between you and Christ, you are in an actual state of wrath and condemnation ; but, on the other hand, if you are in Him, then are you "as He is" before God, and so accounted in the presence of infinite holiness. Such is the plain teaching of the Word of God. "Ye are complete in Him*' "accepted in the Be- loved" "members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones." "He that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit." (1 Cor. vi. 17 ; Eph. i. 6 ; v. 30 ; Col. ii. 10.) Now, it is not possible that the Head can be in one degree of acceptance and the members in another. No ; the head and the members are one. God counts them one, and therefore they are one. This truth is at once the ground of the loftiest con- fidence, and of the most profound humility. It imparts the fullest assurance of "boldness in the day of judgment," inasmuch as it is not possible that aught can be laid to the charge of Him with CHAPTER I. 17 whom we are united : it imparts the deep sense of our own nothingness, inasmuch as our union with Christ is founded upon the death of nature and the utter abolition of all its claims and pretensions. Since, therefore, the Head and the members are viewed in the same position of infinite favor and acceptance before God, it is perfectly evident that all the members stand in one acceptance, in one salvation, in one life, in one righteousness. There are no degrees in justification. The babe in Christ stands in the same justification as the saint of fifty years' experience. The one is in Christ, and so is the other ; and this, as it is the only ground of life, so it is the only ground of justification. There are not two kinds of life, neither are there two kinds of justification. No doubt there are various measures of enjoyment of this justification various degrees in the knowledge of its fullness and extent various degrees in the ability to exhibit its power upon the heart and life ; and these things are frequently con- founded with the justification itself, which, as being divine, is necessarily eternal, absolute, unvarying, entirely unaffected by the fluctuations of human feeling and experience. But, further, there is no such thing as progress in justification. The believer is not more justified to- day than he was yesterday ; nor will he be more justified to-morrow than he is to-day; }-ea, a soul who is "in Christ Jesus" is as completely justified as if he were before the throne. He is "complete in Christ,- he is "as" Christ. He is, on Christ's own 18 LEVITICUS. authority, "clean every whit." (John xiii. 10.) What more could he be at this side of the glory ? He may [and if he walks in the Spirit, will] make progress in the sense and enjoyment of this glorious reality ; but, as to the thing itself, the moment he, by the power of the Holy Ghost, believed the gospel, he passed from a positive state of unright- eousness and condemnation into a positive state of righteousness and acceptance. All this is based upon the divine perfectness of Christ's work ; just as, in the case of the burnt-offering, the worshiper's acceptance was based upon the acceptableness of his offering. It was not a question of what he was, but simply of what the sacrifice was. "It shall be accepted for /ii'ra, to make atonement for him." "And he shall kill the bullock before the Lord ; and the priests, Aaron's sons, shall bring the blood, and sprinkle the blood round about upon the altar that is by the door of the tabernacle of the congre- gation." It is most needful, in studying the doc- trine of the burnt-offering, to bear in mind that the grand point set forth therein is not the meeting of the sinner's need, but the presentation to God of that which was infinitely acceptable to Him. Christ as foreshadowed by the burnt-offering is not for the sinner's conscience, but for the heart of God. Further, the cross in the burnt-offering is not the exhibition of the exceeding hatefulness of sin, but of Christ's unshaken and unshakable clevotedness to the Father ; neither is it the scene of God's outpoured wrath on Christ the sin-bearer, but of CHAPTER I. 19 the Father's unmingled complacency in Christ the voluntary and most fragrant Sacrifice. Finally, "atonement" as seen in the burnt-offering is not merely commensurate with the claims of man's conscience, but with the intense desire of the heart of Christ to carry out the will and establish the counsels of God a desire which stopped not short of surrendering up His spotless, precious life, as "a voluntary offering" of "sweet savor" to God. From the carrying out of , this desire, no power of earth or hell, men or devils, could shake Him. When Peter ignorantly sought to dissuade Him, by words of false tenderness, from encountering the shame and degradation of the cross "Pity Thyself, Lord: this shall not be unto Thee" what was the reply ? "Get thee behind Me, Satan : Thou art an offense unto Me ; for thou savorest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men." (Matt, xvi. 22, 23.) So, also, on another occasion, He says to His disciples, "Hereafter I will not talk much with you ; for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in Me. But that the world may know that Hove the Fatlier, and as the Father gave Me commandment, even so I do." (John xiv. 30.) These and numerous other kindred scriptures bring out the burnt-offering phase of Christ's work, in which, it is evident, the primary thought is His "offering Himself without spot to God." In full keeping with all that has been stated in reference to the special point in the burnt-offering, is the place which Aaron's sons get, and the func- 20 LEVITICUS. tions assigned them therein. They "sprinkle the blood;" they "put the fire upon the altar;" they "lay the wood in order upon the fire;" they "lay the parts, the head and the fat, in order upon the wood that is on the fire which is upon the altar." These are very prominent actions, and they form a marked feature of the burnt-offering, as contrasted with the sin-offering, in which Aaron's sons are not mentioned at all. "The sons of Aaron" represent the Church, not as "one body," but as a priestly house. This is easily apprehended. If Aaron was a type of Christ, then Aaron's house was a type of Christ's house, as we read, in Heb. iii, "But Christ as a Son over His own house ; whose house are we." And again, "Behold I and the children whom God hath given Me." Now, it is the privilege of the Church, as led and taught by the Holy Ghost, to gaze upon and delight in that aspect of Christ which is presented in this opening t} 7 pe of Leviticus. "Our fellowship is with the Father," who graciously calls us to participate with Him in His thoughts about Christ. True, we can never rise to the height of those thoughts, but we can have fellowship therein, by the Holy Ghost, who dwells in us. It is not here a question of having the conscience tranquil- ized by the blood of Christ as the sin-bearer, but of communion with God in the matter of Christ's perfect surrender of Himself on the cross. - "The priests, Aaron's sons, shall bring the blood, and sprinkle the blood round about upon the altar that is by the door of the tabernacle of the con- CHAPTER I. 21 gregation." Here we have a type of the Church bringing the memorial of an accomplished sacrifice, and presenting it in the place of individual approach to God. But we must remember, it is the blood of the burnt-offering, and not of the sin-offering ; it is the Church, in the -power of the Holy Ghost, entering into the stupendous thought of Christ's accomplished devotedness to God, and not a con- victed sinner entering into the value of the blood of the sin-bearer. I need hardly say that the Church is composed of sinners, and convicted sinners, too ; but "Aaron's sons" do not represent convicted sinners, but worshiping saints, it is as "priests" they have to do with the burnt-offering. Many err as to this. They imagine that because one takes the place of a worshiper (being invited by the grace of God, and fitted by the blood of Christ so to do), he thereby refuses to acknowledge himself a poor worthless sinner. This is a great mistake. The believer is, in himself, "nothing at all;" but in Christ, he is a purged worshiper. He does not stand in 'the sanctuary as a guilty sinner, but as a wor- shiping priest, clothed in "garments of glory and beauty." To be occupied with my guilt in the presence of God is not humility as regards myself, but unbelief as regards the Sacrifice. However, it imist be very evident to my reader that the idea of sin-bearing the imputation of sin the wrath of God does not appear in the burnt- offering. True, we read, "It shall be accepted for him, to make atonement for him;" but then, it is 22 LEVITICUS. "atonement," not according to the depths and enor- mity of human guilt, but according to the perfection of Christ's surrender of Himself to God, and the intensity of God's delight in Christ. This gives us the very loftiest idea of atonement. If I contemplate Christ as the sin-offering, I see atonement made ac- cording to the claims of divine justice with respect to sin ; but when I see atonement in the burnt- offering, it is according to the measure of Christ's willingness and ability to accomplish the will of God, and according to the measure of God's com- placency in Christ and His work. What a perfect atonement must that be which is the fruit of Christ's 'devotion to God ! Could there be any thing beyond this ? Assuredly not. The burnt-offering aspect of atonement is that about which the priestly household may well be occupied in the courts of the Lord's house forever. "And he shall flay the burnt-offering, and cut it into his pieces." The ceremonial act of "flaying" was peculiarly expressive. It was simply the re- moving of the outward covering, in order that what was within might be fully revealed. It was not sufficient that the offering should be outwardly "without blemish," "the hidden parts" should be all disclosed, in order that every sinew and every joint might be seen. It was only in the case of the burnt-offering that this action was specially named. This is quite in character, and tends to set forth the depth of Christ's devotedness to the Father. It was no mere surface- work with Him. The more CHAPTER I. 23 the secrets of His inner life were disclosed ' the more the depths of His being were explored, the more clearly was it made manifest that pure devo- tion to the will of His Father, and earnest desire for His glory, were the springs of action in the great Antitype of the burnt-offering. He was, most assuredly, a whole burnt-offering. 4 'And cut it into his pieces." This action pre- sents a somewhat similar truth to that taught in the "sweet incense beaten small." (Lev. xvi.) The Holy Ghost delights to dwell upon the sweetness and fragrance of the sacrifice of Christ, not only as a whole, but also in all its minute details. Look at the burnt-offering as a whole, and 3*011 see it without blemish : look at it in all its parts, and you see it to be the same. Such was Christ ; and as such He is shadowed forth in this important type. "And the sons of Aaron the priest shall put fire upon the altar, and lay the wood in order upon the fire. And the priests, Aaron's sons, shall lay the parts, the head, and the fat, in order upon the wood that is on the fire which is upon the altar." This was a high position for the priestly family. The burnt-offering was wholly offered to God, it was all burnt upon the altar.* Man did not partake of * It may be well, at this point, to inform the reader that the Hebrew word which is rendered "burn" in the case of the burnt- offering is wholly different from that which is used in the sin- offering. I shall, because of the peculiar interest of the subject, refer to a few of the passages in which each word occurs. The word used in the burnt-offering signifies "incense," or to "burn incense," and occurs in the following passages, in some one or other of its various inflections: Lev. vi. 15 "And all the frank- 24 LEVITICUS. it ; but the sons of Aaron the priest (themselves being likewise priests) are here seen standing round the altar of God, to behold the flame of an accept- able sacrifice ascending to Him an odor of sweet smell. This was a high position high communion a high order of priestly service a striking t} T pe of the Church having fellowship with God, in refer- ence to the perfect accomplishment of His will in the death of Christ. As convicted sinners, we gaze on the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, and behold therein that which meets all our need. The cross, in this aspect of it, gives perfect peace to the con- science. But then, as priests, as purged worshipers, as members of the priestly family, we can look at the cross in another light even as the grand con- incense and shall burn it upon the altar;" Deut. xxxiii. 10 "They shall put incense before Thee, and whole burnt- sacrifice upon Thine altar; " Exod. xxx. 1 "And thou shalt make an altar to burn incense upon;" Ps. Ixvi. 15 "With the incense of rams;" Jer. xliv. 21 "The incense that ye burned in the cities of Judah;" Cant. iii. 16 " Perfumed with myrrh and frankincense." Passages might be multiplied, but the above will suffice to show the use of the Avord which occurs in the burnt -offering. The Hebrew word which is rendered "burn" in connection with the sin-offering, signifies to burn in general, and occurs in the following passages : Gen. xl. 3 " Let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly." Lev. x. 16 " And Moses diligently sought the goat of the sw-offering, and, behold, it was burnt." 2 Chron. xvi. 14 "And they made a very great burning for him. Thus, not only was the sin-offering burnt in a different place, but a different word is adopted by the Holy Ghost to express the burning of it. Now, we cannot imagine, for a moment, that this distinction is a mere interchange of words, the use of which is indifferent. I believe the wisdom of the Holy Ghost is as manifest in the use of the two words as it is in any other point of difference in the two offerings. The spiritual reader will attach the proper value to the above most interesting distinction. CHAPTER I. 25 summation of Christ's holy purpose to carry out, even unto death, the will of the Father. As con- victed sinners, we stand at the brazen alkir, and find peace through the blood of atonement ; but as priests, we stand there to behold and admire the completeness of that burnt-offering the perfect sur- render and presentation of the spotless One to God. We should have a very defective apprehension. of the n^stery of the cross were we only to see in it that which meets man's need as a sinner. There were depths in that mj'stery which only the mind of God could fathom. It is therefore important to see that when the Holy Ghost would furnish us with foreshadowings of the cross, He gives us, in the very first place, one which sets it forth in its aspect Godward. This alone would be sufficient to teach us that there are heights and depths in the doctrine of the cross which man never could reach. He may approach to "that one well-spring of delight," and drink forever he may satisfy the utmost longings of his spirit he may explore it with all the powers of the renewed nature ; but, after all, there is that in the cross which only God .could know and appre- ciate. Hence it is that the burnt-offering gets the first place. It t}-pifies Christ's death as viewed and valued by God alone. And surely, we may say, we could not have done without such a type as this ; for not only does it give us the highest possible aspect of the death of Christ, but it also gives us a most precious thought in reference to God's peculiar interest in that death. The very fact of His insti- 2G LEVITICUS. tuting a type of Christ's death which was to be exclusively for Himself, contains a volume of in- struction for the spiritual mind. But though neither man nor angel can ever fully sound the amazing depths of the mystery of Christ's death, we can, at least, see some features of it which would needs make it precious, be} r ond all thought, to the heart of God. From the cross, He reaps His richest harvest of glory. In no other way could He have been so glorified as by the death of Christ. In Christ's voluntary surrender of Himself to death, the divine glory shines out in its fullest brightness ; in it, too, the solid foundation of all the divine counsels was laid. This is a most comforting truth. Creation never could have furnished such a basis. Moreover, the cross furnishes a righteous channel through which divine love can flow. And, finalty, by the cross Satan is eternally confounded, and ''principalities and powers made a show of openly." These are glorious fruits produced by the cross ; and, when we think of them, we can see just reason why there should have been a type of the cross exclusively for God Himself, and also a reason why that type should occupy the leading place should stand at the very top of the list. Again let me say, there would have been a grievous blank among the types had the burnt-offering been lacking, and there would be a grievous blank in the page of inspiration had the record of that type been with- held. "But his inwards and his legs shall he wash in CHAPTER I. 27 water ; and the priest shall burn all on the altar, to be a burnt-sacrifice, an offering made by fire, of a sweet savor unto the Lord." This action rendered the sacrifice t} T pically what Christ was essentially pure both inwardly and outwardly pure. There was the most perfect correspondence between Christ's inward motives and His outward conduct. The latter was the index of the former. All tended to the one point, namely, the glory of God. The members of His body perfectly obeyed and carried out the counsels of His devoted heart that heart which only beat for God, and for His glory, in the salvation of men. Well, therefore, might the priest "burn all on the altar." It was all t3 r pically pure, and all designed only as food for the altar of God. Of some sacrifices the priest partook ; of some, the offerer ; but the burnt-offering was "all" consumed on the altar. It w r as exclusively for God. The priests might arrange the wood and the fire, and see the flame ascend (and a high and holy privilege it was so to do) ; but they did not eat of the sacri- fice: God alone was the object of Christ in the burnt-offering aspect of His death. We cannot be too simple in our apprehension of this. From the moment that the unblemished male was voluntarily presented at the door of the tabernacle of the con- gregation, until it was reduced to ashes by the action of the fire, we discern in it Christ offering Himself, by the Eternal Spirit, without spot to God. This makes the burnt-offering unspeakably pre- cious to the soul. It gives us the most exalted view 28 LEVITICUS. of Christ's work. In that work, God had His own peculiar joy a joy into which no created intelligence could enter. This must never be lost sight of. It is unfolded in the burnt-offering, and confirmed by "the law of the burnt-offering," to which we shall just refer. "And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 'Com- mand Aaron and his sons, saying, This is the law of the burnt-offering: It is the burnt-offering, be- cause of the burning upon the altar all night unto the morning, and the fire of the altar shall be burning in it. And the priest shall put on his linen garment, and his linen breeches shall he put upon his flesh, and take up the ashes which the fire hath consumed with the burnt-offering on the altar, and he shall put them beside the altar. And he shall put off his garments, and put on other garments, and carry forth the ashes without the camp unto a clean place. And the fire upon the altar shall be burning in it ; it shall not be put out: and the priest shall burn wood on it every morning, and lay the burnt-offering in order upon it ; and he shall burn thereon the fat of the peace-offerings. The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar; it shall never go out.'" (Lev. vi. 8-13.) The fire on the altar consumed the burnt- offering and the fat of the peace-offering. It was the apt expression of divine holiness, which found in Christ and His perfect sacrifice a proper mate- rial on which to feed. That fire was never to go out. There was to be the perpetual maintenance of that which set forth the action of divine holiness. CHAPTER I. 29 Through the dark and silent.watches of the night, the fire blazed on the altar of God. "And the priest shall put on his linen garment," etc. Here, the priest takes, in type, the place of Christ, whose personal righteousness is set forth by the white linen garment. He having given Himself up to the death of the cross in order to accomplish the will of God, has entered, in His own eternal righteousness, into heaven, bearing with Him the memorials of His finished work. The ashes declared the completion of the sacrifice, and God's accept- ance thereof. Those ashes placed beside the altar indicated that the fire had consumed the sacrifice that it was not only a completed, but also an accepted, sacrifice. The ashes of the burnt-offering declared the acceptance of the sacrifice : the ashes of the sin-offering declared the judgment of the sin. Many of the points on which we have been dwell- ing will, with the divine blessing, come before us with increasing clearness, fullness, precision, and power as we proceed with the offerings. Each offering is, as it were, thrown into relief by being viewed in contrast with all the rest. All the offerings taken together give us a full view of Christ. They are like so many mirrors, arranged in such a manner as to reflect in various ways the figure of that true and only-perfect Sacrifice. No one type couht fully present Him. We needed to have Him reflected in life and in death as a Man and as a Victim, Godward and usward ; and we have Him thus in 30 LEVITICUS. the offerings of Levitieus. God has graciously met our need ; and may He give us an enlarged capacity to enter into and enjoy His provision. CHAPTER II. WE now come to consider the meat-offering, which presents, in a very distinct manner, "the Man Christ Jesus." As the burnt-offering typifies Christ in death, the meat-offering typifies Him in life. In neither the one nor the other is there a question of sin-bearing. In the burnt-offering, we see atone- ment, but no sin-bearing* no imputation of sin no outpoured wrath on account of sin. How can we know this? Because it was all consumed on the altar. Had there been aught of sin-bearing, it would have been consumed outside the camp. (Comp. Lev. iv. 11, 12, with Heb. xiii. 11.) But in the meat-offering, there was not even a question of bloodshedding. We simply find in it a beauteous type of Christ as He lived and walked and served down here on this earth. This one fact is, of itself, sufficient to draw the spiritual mind to the close and pra}'crful consideration of this offering. The pure and perfect manhood of our blessed Lord is a theme which must command the attention of every 'true Christian. It is to be feared that great looseness of thought prevails in reference to this *That is to say, sin-bearing is not prominent. Of course, where there is atonement, sin must be in question. CHAPTER H. 31 holy mj-stery. The expressions which one some- times hears and reads are sufficient to prove that the fundamental doctrine of incarnation is not laid hold of as the Word presents it. Such expressions may very probably proceed from misapprehension as to the real nature of His relations, and as to the true character of His sufferings ; but, from what cause soever they arise, they should be judged in the light of holy Scripture, and rejected. Doubtless, many who make use of those expressions would recoil, with just horror and indignation, from the real doctrine contained in them were it put before them in its broad and true characters ; and, for this reason, one should be sorry to attribute unsoundness as to fun- damental truth, where it may merely be inaccuracy of statement. There is, however, one consideration which should weigh heavily in the estimation of every Christian, and that is, the vital nature of the doctrine of Christ's humanity. It lies at the very foundation of Christianity; and, for this reason, Satan has diligently sought, from the beginning, to lead people astray in reference to it. Almost all the leading errors which have found their way into the professing church disclose the satanic purpose to undermine the truth as to the Person of Christ. And even when earnest", godly men have sought to combat those errors, they have, in many cases, plunged into errors on the opposite side. Hence, therefore, the need of close adherence to the veritable words which the Holy Ghost has made use of in unfolding this 32 LEVITICUS. profound and most sacred mystery. Indeed, I be- lieve that, in every ease, subjection to the authority of holy Scripture, and the energy of the divine life in the soul, will prove effectual safeguards against every complexion of error. It does not require high theological attainments to enable a soul to keep clear of error with respect to the doctrine of Christ. If only the word of Christ be dwelling richly, and "the Spirit of Christ" be in energy, in the soul, there will be no room for Satan to thrust in his dark and. horrible suggestions. If the heart be delighting in the Christ which Scripture unfolds, it will assuredly shrink from the false Christs which Satan would introduce. If we are feeding upon God's reality, we shall unhesitatingly reject Satan's counterfeit. This is the best possible way in which to escape the .entanglements of error, in every shape and character. "The sheep hear His voice, and . . . . follow Him ; for they know His voice. And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him ; for they know not the voice of strangers." (John x. 3-5.) It is not, by any means, needful to be acquainted with the voice of a stranger in order to turn away from it: all we require is to know the voice of "the good Shepherd." This will secure us against the ensnaring influence of every strange sound. While, therefore, I feel called 1 upon to warn the reader against strange sounds in reference to the divine mystery of Christ's humanit}*, I do not deem it needful to discuss such sounds, but would rather seek, through grace, to arm him against them by CHAPTER II. 33 unfolding the doctrine of Scripture on the subject. There are few things in which we exhibit more failure than in maintaining vigorous communion with the perfect manhood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Hence it is that we suffer so much' from vacancy, barrenness, restlessness, and wandering. Did we but enter with a more artless faith into the truth that there is a real Man at the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens One whose sympathy is perfect, whose love is fathomless, whose power is omnipo- tent, whose wisdom is infinite, whose resources are exhaustless, whose riches are unsearchable, whose ear is open to our every breathing, whose hand is open to our every need, whose heart is full of unspeakable love and tenderness towards us how much more happy and elevated we should be, and how much more independent of creature streams, through what channel soever they may flow ! There is nothing the heart can crave which we have not in Jesus. Does it long for genuine 63~mpathy ? Where can it find it, save in Him who could mingle His tears with those of the bereaved sisters of Bethany? Does it desire the enjoyment of sincere affection ? It can only find it in that heart which told forth its love in drops of blood. Does it seek the protection of real power ? It has but to look to Him who made the world. Does it feel the need of unerring wisdom to guide? Let it betake itself to Him who is wisdom personified, and "who of God is made unto us wisdom." In one word, we have all in Christ. The divine mind and the divine affections 34 LEVITICUS. have found a perfect object in "the Man Christ Jesus ; " and surely, if there is that in the Person of Christ which can perfectly satisfy God, there is that which ought to satisfy us, and which will satisfy us in proportion as, by the grace of the Holy Ghost, we walk in communion with God. The Lord Jesus Christ was the only perfect Man that ever trod this earth. He was all perfect per- fect in thought, perfect in word, perfect in action. In Him every moral quality met in divine and therefore perfect proportion. No one feature pre- ponderated. In Him were exquisitely blended a majesty which overawed, and a gentleness which gave perfect ease in His presence. The scribes and the Pharisees met His withering rebuke, while the poor Samaritan and "the woman that was a sinner" found themselves unaccountably, yet irresistibly, at- tracted to Him. No one feature displaced another, for all was in fair and comely proportion. This may be traced in every scene of His perfect life. He could say, in reference to five thousand hungry people, "Give ye them to eat;" and when they were filled, He could say, "Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost." The benevolence and the economy are both perfect, and neither in- terferes with the other : each shines in its own proper sphere. He could not send unsatisfied hunger away ; neither could He suffer a single fragment of God's creatures to be wasted. He would meet, with a full and liberal hand, the need of the human family, and when that was done, He would carefully treas- CHAPTER II. 35 tire up every atom. The self-same hand that was widely open to every form of human need was firmly closed against all prodigality. There was nothing niggardly nor yet extravagant in the character of the perfect the heavenly Man. What a lesson for us ! How often, with us, does benevolence resolve itself into an unwarrantable profusion ! and, on the other hand, how often is our economy marred by the exhibition of a miserly spirit ! At times, too, our niggard hearts refuse to open themselves to the full extent of the need which presents itself before us ; while, at other times, we squander, through a wanton extravagance, that which might satisfy many a needy fellow-creature. Oh, my reader, let us carefully study the divine picture set before us in the life of "the Man Christ Jesus." How refreshing and strengthening to "the inward man" to be -occupied with Him who was perfect in all His ways, and who "in all things must have the pre-eminence" ! See Him in the garden of Gethsemane. There, He kneels in the profound depths of a humility which none but Himself could exhibit; but yet before the traitor's band He exhibits a self-posses- sion and majesty which cause them to go backward and fall to the ground. His deportment before God is prostration ; before His judges and accusers, un- bending dignity. All is perfect. The self-emptiness and the self-possession, the prostration and the dignity, are all divine. So, also, when we contemplate the beauteous 36 LEVITICUS. combination of His divine and human relations, the same perfectness is observable. He could say, "How was it that ye sought Me? Wist ye not that I must be about My Father's business?" And, at the same time, He could go down to Nazareth, and there set an example of perfect subjection to pa- rental authority. (See Luke ii. 49-51.) He could say to His mother, "Woman, what have I to do with thee?" And yet, when passing through the unutterable agony of the cross, He could tenderly commit that mother to the care of the beloved disciple. In the former case, He separated Himself, in the spirit of perfect Nazariteship, to accomplish His Father's will; while in the latter, He gave expression to the tender feelings of the perfect human heart. The devotion of the Nazarite and the affection of the Man were both perfect. Neither was permitted to interfere with the other: each shone with undimmed lustre in its proper sphere. Now, the shadow of this perfect Man passes before us in the "fine flour" which formed the basis of the meat-offering. There was not so much as a single course grain. There was nothing uneven nothing unequal nothing rough to the touch. No matter what pressure came from without, there was always an even surface. He was never ruffled by any circumstance or set of circumstances. He never had to retrace a step or recall a word. Come what might, He always met it in that perfect even- ness which is so strikingly typified by the "fine flour. " CHAPTER IT. 37 In all these things, it is needless to say, He stands in marked contrast with His most honored and de- voted servants. For example, Moses, though "the meekest man in all the earth," yet "spoke unad- visedly with his lips." In Peter, we find a zeal and an energy which at times proved too much for the occasion ; and, again, a cowardice which shrank from the place of testimony and reproach. There was the assertion of a devotedness which, when the time for action arrived, was not forthcoming. John, who breathed so much of the atmosphere of the im- mediate presence of Christ, exhibited, at times, a sectarian and an intolerant spirit. In Paul, the most devoted of servants, we observe considerable unevenness. He uttered words to the high-priest which he had to recall: he sent a letter to the Corinthians of which at first he repented and after- wards repented not. In all, we find some flaw, save in Him who is "the fairest among ten thousand, and altogether lovely." In the examination of the meat-offering, it will give clearness and simplicity to our thoughts to consider, first, the materials of which it was composed ; sec- ondly, the various forms in which it was presented ; and, thirdly, the persons who partook of it. As to the materials, the "fine flour" may be re- garded as the basis of the offering ; and in it we have a tj r pe of Christ's humanity, wherein every perfection met. Every virtue was there, and ready for effectual action in due season. The Holy Ghost delights to unfold the glories of Christ's Person, to 38 LEVITICUS. set Him forth in all His peerless excellence, to place Him before us in contrast with all beside. He con- trusts Him with Adam, even in his very best and highest state ; as we read, "The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second Man is the Lord from heaven." (1 Cor. xv. 47.) The first Adam, even in his unfallen condition, was "of the earth;" but the second Man was "the Lord from heaven." The "oil," in the meat-offering, is a type of the Holy Ghost. But inasmuch as the oil is applied in a twofold way, so we have the Holy Ghost presented in a double aspect, in connection with the incarnation of the Son. The fine flour was "mingled" with oil, and there was oil "poured" upon it. Such was the type ; and in the Antitype, we see the blessed Lord Jesus Christ first "conceived," and then '''anointed," by the Holy Ghost. (Comp. Matt. i. 18-23 with chap, iii. 16.) This is divine ! The accurac} 7 , which is here so apparent, draws forth the soul's admiration. It is one and the same Spirit which records the in- gredients of the type, and gives us the facts in the Antitype. The One who has detailed for us, with such amazing precision, the t} 7 pes and shadows of the book of Leviticus, has also given us the glorious subject thereof in the gospel narratives. The same Spirit breathes through the pages of the Old and those of the New Testament, and enables us to see how exactly the one corresponds with the other. The conception of Christ's humanity by the Holy Ghost, in the womb of the virgin, unfolds one of the most profound mysteries which can possibly CHAPTER II. 39 engage the attention of the renewed mind. It is most fully set forth in Luke's gospel; and this is entirely characteristic, inasmuch as, throughout that gospel, it would seem to be the special object of the Holy Ghost to unfold, in His own divinely touching manner, "the Man Christ Jesus." In Matthew, we have "the Son of Abraham the Son of David ; ' ' in Mark, we have the divine Servant the heavenly Workman; in John, we have "the Son of God" the Eternal Word the Life the Light, by whom all things were made ; but the great theme of the Holy Ghost in Luke is "the Son of Man." When the angel Gabriel had announced to Mary the dignity which was about to be conferred upon her, in connection with the great work of incarna- tion, she, not in a spirit of scepticism, but of honest ignorance, inquired, "How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?" It manifestly seemed to her that the birth of this glorious Person who was about to appear should be according to the ordinary prin- ciples of generation ; and this her thought is made the occasion, in the exceeding goodness of God, of developing much valuable light in reference to the cardinal truth of incarnation. The angel's reply to the virgin's question is unspeakably interesting, and cannot be too closely considered. "And the angel answered and said unto her, ' The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee ; therefore also that holy Thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God." (Lukei. 35.) 40 LEVITICUS. From this magnificent passage, we learn that the human body into which the Eternal Son entered was formed by "the power of the Highest." "A body hast Thou prepared Me." (Comp. Ps. xl. 6 withlleb. x. 5.) It was a real human body real "flesh and blood." There is no possible foundation here on which gnosticism or mysticism can base its vapid and worthless theories, no warrant for the cold abstrac- tions of the former, or the misty fancies of the latter. All is deep, solid, and divine reality: the very thing which our hearts needed the very thing which God has given. The early promise had declared that "the seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head," and none but a real man could accomplish this prediction one whose nature was as real as it was pure and incorruptible. "Thou shalt conceive in thy womb," said the angelic messenger, "and bring forth a Son."* And then, lest there should be any room for an error in reference to the mode of this conception, he adds such words as prove, unanswerably, that the "flesh and blood" of which the Eternal Son "took part," while absolutely real, was absolutely incapable of receiving, of retaining, or of communicating a single taint. The humanity of the Lord Jesus w r as emphatically "that lioly Thing.'" And inasmuch as it was wholly without taint, it was wholly without a seed of mortality. *"But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law." (^EVU/.IEVOV f.H yvvaiKO 1 -,, yEvouEvov VTto ro/itor.) This is a most important passage, inasmuch as it sets forth our blessed Lord as Son of God and Son of Man. "God sent forth His Son, made of a woman." Precious testimony ! CHAPTER II. 41 We cannot think of mortality, save in connection with sin ; and Christ's humanity had naught to do with sin, either personally or relatively. Sin was imputed to Him on the cross, where He was "made sin for us." But the meat-offering is not the t} T pe of Christ as a sin-bearer. It foreshadows Him in His perfect life here below a life in which He suf- fered, no doubt, but not as a sin-bearer not as a substitute not at the hand of God. Let this be distinctly noted. Neither in the burnt-offering nor in the meat-offering have we Christ as a sin-bearer. In the latter, we see Him living ; and in the former, we see Him dying ; but in neither is there a question of the imputation of sin, nor of enduring the wrath of God on account of sin. In short, to present Christ as the sinner's substitute anywhere else save on the cross, is to rob His life of all its divine beauty and excellency, and to displace the cross altogether. Moreover, it would involve the types of Leviticus in hopeless confusion. I would, at this point, solemnly admonish my reader, that he cannot be too jealous in reference to the vital truth of the Person and the relations of the Lord Jesus Christ. If there be error as to this, there is no security as to any thing. God cannot give the sanction of His presence to aught that has not this truth for its foundation. The Person of Christ is the living the divine centre round which the Holy Ghost carries on all His operations. Let slip the truth as to Him, and you are like a vessel- broken from its moorings, and carried, without 42 LEVITICUS. rudder or compass, over the wild watery waste, and in imminent danger of being dashed to fragments upon the rocks of Arianism, Infidelity, or Atheism. Question the eternal Sonship of Christ, question His deity, question His unspotted humanity, and you have opened the floodgate for a desolating tide of deadly error to rush in. Let no one imagine, for a moment, that this is a mere matter to be discussed by learned theologians a curious question a recondite mystery a point about which we may lawfully differ. No ; it is a vital, fundamental truth, to be held in the power of the Holy Ghost, and maintained at the expense of all beside yea, to be confessed under all circumstances, whatever may be the consequences. What we want, is, simply to receive into our hearts, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, the Father's revelation of the Son, and then our souls shall be effectually preserved from the snares of the enemy, let them take what shape they may. He may spe- ciously cover the trap of Arianism or Socinianism with the grass and leaves of a most plausible and attractive system of interpretation ; but directly the devoted heart discovers what this system attempts to make of the blessed One to whom it owes every thing, and where it attempts to put Him, it finds but little difficulty in sending it back to where it manifestly came from. We can well afford to do without human theories ; but we can never do with- out Christ the Christ of God the Christ of God's affections the Christ of God's counsels the Christ of God's word. CHAPTER II. 43 The Lord Jesus Christ, God's eternal Son a distinct Person in the glorious Trinity God mani- fest in the flesh God over all, blessed forever, assumed a body which was inherently and divinely pure, holy, and without the possibility of taint absolutely free from every seed or principle of sin and mortality. Such was the humanity of Christ, that He could at any moment, so far as He was personally concerned, have returned to heaven, from whence He had come and to which He belonged. I speak not here of the eternal counsels of redeeming love, or of the unswerving love of the heart of Jesus His love to God His love to God's elect, or of the work that was needful to ratify God's everlasting covenant with the seed of Abraham and with the whole creation. Christ's own words teach us that "it behoved Him to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day." (Luke xxiv. 46.) It was necessary that He should suffer, in order to the full manifesta- tion and perfect accomplishment of the great mys- tery of redemption. It was His gracious purpose to "bring many sons unto glory." He would not "abide alone," and therefore He, as the "corn of wheat, ' ' should ' ' fall into the ground and die. ' ' The more fully we enter into the truth of His Person, the more fully do we apprehend the grace of His work. When the apostle speaks of Christ's being "made perfect through suffering," it is as "the Captain of our salvation " that he contemplates Him, and not as the Eternal Son, who, as regards His own abstract Person and nature, was divinely perfect, and could 44 LEVITICUS. not possibly have aught added to Him. So, also, when He Himself says, "Behold, I cast "out devils, and I do cures to-day and to-morrow, and the third day I shall be perfected" (Lukexiii. 32.), He refers to His being perfected, in the power of resurrection, as the Accomplisher of the entire work of redemp- tion. So far as He was personally concerned, He could say, even on His way forth from the garden of Gethsemane, "Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He shall presently give Me more than twelve legions of angels ? But how then shall the Scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?" (Matt. xxvi. 53, 54.) It is well that the soul be clear as to this well to have a divine sense of the harmony which exists between those scriptures which present Christ in the essential dignity of His Person and the divine purity of His nature, and those which present Him in His relation with His people and as accomplishing the great work of redemption. At times we find both these things combined in the same passage, as in Heb. v. 8, 9, "Though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things which He suf- fered ; and being made perfect, He became the author of eternal salvation to all them that obey Him." We must, however, bear in mind that not one of those relations into which .Christ voluntarily entered whether as the expression of divine love to a lost world, or the Servant of the divine counsels not one of these could possibly interfere with the essential purity, excellency, and glory of His Person. CHAPTER II. 45 "The Holy Ghost came upon" the virgin, and "the power of the Highest overshadowed her;" and "therefore that holy Thing which was born of her was called the Son of God." Most magnificent unfolding, this, of the deep secret of Christ's pure and perfect humanity the great Antitype of the k ''fine flour mingled with oil ' ' ! And here let me observe, that between humanity as seen in the Lord Jesus Christ and humanity as seen in us there could be no union. That which is pure could never coalesce with that which is impure. That which is incorruptible could never unite with that ^yhich is corruptible. The spiritual and the carnal the heavenly and the earthly could never combine. Hence, therefore, it follows that incarna- tion was not, as some have attempted to teach, Christ's taking our fallen nature into union with Himself. If He could have done this, there, would have been no need of the death of the cross. He needed not, in that case, to feel "straitened" until the baptism was accomplished the corn of wheat did not need to "fall into the ground and die." This is a point of grave moment. Let the spiritual mind ponder it deeply. Christ could not possibly take sinful humanity into union with Himself. Hear what the angel saith to Joseph, in the first chapter of Matthew's gospel, "Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife ; for that which is conceived in ifer is of the Holy Ghost.'" See how Joseph's natural sensibilities, as well as Mary's pious ignorance, are made the occasion of a fuller 46 LEVITICUS. unfolding of the holy mystery of Christ's humanity ; and also of guarding that humanity against all the blasphemous attacks of the enemy. How, then, is it that believers are united to Christ? Is it in incarnation, or resurrection? In resurrection, assuredly. How is this proved ? ' ' Ex- cept a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone." (John xii. 24.) At this side of death, there could be no union between Christ and His people. It is in the power of a new life that believers are united to Christ. They were dead in sin, and He, in perfect grace, came down and (though Himself pure and sinless) was i'made sin," "died unto sin," put it away, rose triumphant over it and all pertaining to it, and, in resurrection, became the Head of a new race. Adam was the head of the old creation, which fell with him. Christ, by dying, put Himself under the full weight of His people's condition, and having perfectly met all that was against them, rose victorious over all, and carried them with Him into the new creation, of which He is the glorious Head and Centre. Hence, we read, "He that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit." (1 Cor. vi. 17.) "But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when were dead in sins, hath quickened us together ^vith Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." (Eph. ii. 4-6.) "For we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones." (Eph. v. 30.) "And you, being CHAPTER H. 47 dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath He quickened together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses." (Col. ii. 13.) Passages might be multiplied, but the above are amply sufficient to prove that it was not in incarna- tion, but in death, that Christ took a position in which His people could be "quickened together with Him." Does this seem unimportant to the reader? Let him examine it in the light of Scrip- ture. Let him weigh all the consequences. Let him view it in its bearing upon Christ's Person, upon His life, upon His death, upon our condition by nature in the old creation, and our place through mercy in the new. Let him consider it thus, and I feel persuaded he will no longer regard it as a light matter. Of one thing, at least, he may rest assured, that the writer of these pages would not pen a single line to prove this point did he not consider it to be fraught with the most momentous fesults. The whole of divine revelation so hangs together is so adjusted by the hand of the Holy Ghost is so consistent in all its parts, that if one truth be disturbed, the entire arch is injured. This consideration should suffice to produce, in the mind of every Christian, a holy caution, lest, by some rude touch, he mat- the beauteous superstructure. Every stone must be left in its divinely appointed place ; and, unquestionably, the truth as to Christ's Person is the kej'-stone of the arch. Having thus endeavored to unfold the truth typ- ified by the "fine flour mingled with oil," we may 5 48 LEVITICUS. remark another point of much interest in the ex pression, "He shall pour oil upon it." In this we have a type of the anointing of the Lord Jesus Christ by the Holy Ghost. The body of the Lord Jesus was not merely formed mysteriously by the Holy Ghost, but that pure and holy vessel was also anointed for service by the same power. "And it came to pass when all the people were baptized, and Jesus also being baptized, and praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape as a dove upon Him, and there was a voice from heaven, saying, 'Thou art My beloved Son; in Thee I am well pleased." (Luke iii. 21, 22.) The anointing of the Lord Jesus by the Holy Ghost previous to His entrance upon His public ministry is of immense practical importance to every one who really desires to be a true and an effectual servant of God. Though conceived, as to His manhood, by the Holy Ghost ; though, in His own proper Person, "God manifest in the flesh;" though embodying in Himself all the fullness of the Godhead ; yet, be it well observed, when coming forth as man to do the will of God on the earth, whatever that will might be whether preaching the gospel, teaching in the synagogues, healing the sick, cleansing the leper, casting out devils, feeding the hungry, or raising the dead He did all by the Holy Ghost. That holy and heavenly vessel in which God the Son was pleased to appear in this world was formed, filled, anointed, and led by the Holy Ghost. CHAPTER II. 49 What a deep and holy lesson for us ! A most needful and salutary lesson ! How prone are we to run unsent! How prone fb act in the mere energy of the flesh ! How much of that which looks like ministry is only the restless and unhallowed activity of a nature which has never been measured and judged in the divine presence! Truly, we need to contemplate more closely our divine " meat-offering" to understand more fully the meaning of the "fine flour anointed with oil." We need to meditate more deeply upon Christ Himself, who, though possessing, in His own Person, divine power, nevertheless, did all His work, wrought all His mil "offered Himself, without nal Spirit." He could cast out devils." Nothing is of any vakie s^q^iatwhle'H' is by the power of the Holy Gh but if his pen be not guided ancusetl by"tne Holy Ghost, his lines will produce no permanent results. A man may speak ; but if his lips be not anointed by the Holy Ghost, his word will not take perma- nent root. This is a solemn consideration, and if properly weighed, would lead to much watchfulness over ourselves, and much earnest dependence upon the Holy Ghost. What we need is thorough self- emptiness, so that there may be room left for the Spirit to act by us. It is impossible that a man full of himself can be the vessel of the Holy Ghost. Such an one must first be emptied of himself, and then the Spirit can use him. When we contemplate 50 LEVITICUS. the Person and ministry of the Lord Jesus, we see how that in -every scene and circumstance He acted by the direct power of "the Holy Ghost. Having taken His place as man down here, He showed that man should not only live by the Word, but act by the Spirit of God. Even though, as man, His will was perfect His thoughts, His words, His acts, all perfect yet He would not act save by the direct authority of the Word, and by the direct power of the Holy Ghost. Oh that in this, as in every thing else, we could more closely, more faithfully, follow in His steps ! Then, indeed, would our ministry be more effective, our testimony more fruitful, our whole course more entirely to the glory of God. The next ingredient in the meat-offering demand- ing our consideration is "the frankincense." As has been remarked, the "fiife flour" was the basis of the offering. The "oil'* and "frankincense" were the two leading adjuncts ; and, truly, the con- nection between these two latter is most instructive. The "oil" typifies the power of Christ's ministry; the "frankincense" typifies the object thereof. The former teaches us that He did every thing by the Spirit of God ; the latter, that He did every thing to the glory of God. The frankincense presents that in the life of Christ which was exclusively for God. This is evident from the second verse "And he shall bring it [the meat-offering] to Aaron's sons, the priests : and he shall take thereout his handful of flour thereof, and of the oil thereof, with all the frankincense thereof; and the priest shall burn the CHAPTER II. 51 memorial of it upon the altar, to be an offering made by fire, of a sweet savor unto the Lord." Thus was it in the true meat-offering the Man Christ Jesus. There was that in His blessed life which was exclu- sively for God. Every thought, every word, every look, every act of His emitted a fragrance, which went up immediately to God. And as, in the type, it was the "fire of the altar" that drew forth the sweet odor of the frankincense ; so, in the Antitj-pe," the more He was "tried," in all the scenes and circumstances of His blessed life, the more fully was it manifested that, in His manhood, there was nothing that could not ascend as an odor of a sweet smell to the throne of God. If in the burnt-offering w r e behold Christ "offering Himself without spot to God, "in Hi meat-offering we behold Him present- ing all the intrinsic excellence and perfect actings of His human nature to God. A perfect, a self- emptied, an obedient Man on the earth doing the will of God, acting by the authority of the Word, and by the power of the Spirit, had a sweet odor which could only be for divine acceptance. The fact that "all the frankincense" was consumed on the altar, fixes its import in the simplest manner. It now only remains for us to consider an in- gredient which was an inseparable adjunct of the meat-offering, namely, "salt." "And every obla- tion of thy meat-offering shalt thou season with salt ; neither shalt thou suffer the salt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking from thy meat-offering: with all thine offerings thou shalt offer salt." The ex- 52 LEVITICUS. pression, "Salt of the covenant," sets forth the enduring character of that covenant. God Himself has so ordained it, in all things, that naught can ever alter it no influence can ever corrupt it. In a spiritual and practical point of view, it is impossible to overestimate the value of such an ingredient. "Let your conversation be always with grace, sea- soned with salt.' 9 The whole conversation of the Perfect Man exhibited the power of this principle. His words were not merely words of grace, but words of pungent power words divinely adapted to preserve from all taint and corrupting influence. He never uttered a word which was not redolent with "frankincense," and "seasoned with salt." The former was most acceptable to God ; the latter, most profitable for man. Sometimes, alas! man's corrupt heart and vitiated taste could not tolerate the pungency of the divinely- salted meat-offering. Witness, for example, the scene in the synagogue of Nazareth. (Luke iv. 16-29.) The people could "bear Him witness, and wonder at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth;" but when He proceeded to season those words with salt, which was so needful in order to preserve them from the corrupting influence of their national -pride, they would fain have cast Him over the brow of the hill whereon their city was built. So, also, in Luke xiv, when His words of "grace" had drawn "great multitudes" after Him, He in- stantly throws in the "salt," by setting forth, in words of holy faithfulness, the sure results of follow- CHAPTER IT. 53 ing Him. "Come, for all things are now ready," here was the "grace ; " but then, "Whosoever for- sake th not all that he hath, cannot be My disciple," here was the "salt." Grace is attractive; but "salt is good." Gracious discourse maybe popu- lar ; but salted discourse never will. The pure gospel of the grace of God may , at certain times, and under certain circumstances, be run after by "the multitude" for awhile; but when the "salt" of a fervid and faithful application is introduced, it will soon thin the benches of all save such as are brought under the power of the Word. Having thus considered the ingredients which composed the meat-offering, we shall now refer to those which were excluded from it. The first of these was "leaven." "No meat- offering, which ye shall bring unto the Lord, shall be made with leaven." This ingredient is used throughout the inspired volume, without so much as a single exception, as the symbol of evil. In chap, xxiii. of our book, which will be noticed in due course, we find leaven admitted in the two loaves which were offered on the day of Pentecost ; but from the meat-offering leaven was most sedu- lously excluded. There was to be nothing sour nothing that would puff up nothing expressive of evil in that which typified "the Man Christ Jesus." In Him, there could be nothing savoring of nature's sourness, nothing turgid nothing inflated : all was pure, solid, and genuine. His word might, at times, cut to the quick ; but it was never sour. His style 54 LEVITICUS. never rose above the occasion. His deportment ever exhibited the deep reality of one walking in the immediate presence of God. In those who bear the name of Jesus, we know, too well, alas! how leaven shows itself in all its properties and effects. There has been but one untainted sheaf of human fruit but one perfectly unleavened meat-offering; and, blessed be God, that one is ours ours to feed upon in the sanctuary of the divine presence, in fellowship with God. No exercise can be more truly edifying and refresh- ing for the renewed mind than to dwell upon the unleavened perfectness of Christ's humanity to contemplate the life and ministry of One who was absolutely and essentially unleavened. In all His springs of thought, affection, desire, and imagina- tion, there was not so much as a particle of leaven. He was the sinless, spotless, perfect Man. And the more we are enabled, by the power of the Spirit, to enter into all this, the deeper will be our experience of the grace which led this perfect One to place Himself under the full consequences of His people's sins, as He did when He hung upon the cross. This thought, however, belongs entirely to the sin-offering aspect of our blessed Lord. In the meat-offering, sin is not in question. It is not the type of a sin-bearer, but of a real, perfect, unblem- ished Man, conceived and anointed by the Holy Ghost, possessing an unleavened nature, and living an unleavened life down here, emitting ever God- ward the fragrance of His own personal excellency, CHAPTER II. 55 and maintaining amongst men a deportment char- acterized by "grace seasoned with salt." But there was another ingredient, as positively excluded from the meat-offering as "leaven," and that was u honey." "For ye shall burn no leaven, nor any honey, in any offering of the Lord made by fire." (Yer. 11.) Now, as "leaven" is the expres- sion of that which is positively and palpably evil in nature, we may regard "honey" as the significant symbol of that which is apparently sweet and at- tractive. Both are disallowed of God, both were carefully excluded from the meat-offering, both were unfit for the altar. Men may undertake, like Saul, to distinguish between what is "vile and refuse" and what is not ; but the judgment of God ranks the delicate Agag with the vilest of the sons of Amalek. No- doubt, there are some good moral qualities in man, which must be taken for what they are worth. "Hast thou found honey , eat so much as is convenient ; " but, be it remembered, it found no place in the meat-offering, nor in its Antit3*pe. There was the fullness of the Holy Ghost, there was the fragrant odor of the frankincense, there was the preservative virtue of "the salt of the covenant," .all these things accompanied the "fine flour" in the Person of the true "Meat-offering," but "no honey." What a lesson for the heart is here ! yea, what a volume of wholesome instruction ! The blessed Lord Jesus knew how to give nature and its rela- tionships their proper place: He knew how much 5C LEVITICUS. "honey" was "convenient." He could say to His mother, "Wist ye not that I must be about My Father's business?" and }-et He could say, again, to the beloved disciple, "Behold thy mother." In other words, nature's claims were never allowed to interfere with the presentation to God of all the energies of Christ's perfect manhood. Maryland others too, might have thought that her human relation to the blessed One gave her some peculiar claim or influence, on merely natural grounds. "There came, then, His brethren ["after the flesh"] and His mother, and standing without, sent unto Him, calling Him. And the multitude sat about Him ; and they said unto Him, "Behold, Thy mother and Thy brethren without seek for Thee.' ' What was the reply of the true Meat-offering ? Did He at once abandon His work, in order to respond to nature's call ? By no means. Had He done so, it would have been to mingle "honey" with the meat-offering, which could not be. The honey was faithfully excluded on this as on every occasion when God's claims were to be attended to, and instead thereof, the power of the Spirit, the odor of the "frankincense," and the virtues of the "salt" were blessedly exhibited. "And he answered them,- saying, i Who is My mother, or My brethren ? ' And He looked round about on them which sat about Him, and said, 'Behold My mother and My breth- ren ! For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is M}^ brother, and My sister, and mother. ' ' (Mark ill. 31-35.) (* Note, next page.) CHAPTER II. 57 There are few things which the servant of^ Christ finds more difficult than to adjust, with spiritual accuracy, the claims of natural relationship, so as not to suffer them to interfere with the claims of the Master. In the case of our blessed Lord, as we know, the adjustment was divine. In our case, it often happens that divinely recognized duties are openly neglected for what we imagine to be the service of Christ, the doctrine of God is constantly sacrificed to the apparent work of the gospel. Now, it is well to remember that true devotedness always *How important to see, in the above beautiful passage, that doing God's will brings the soul into a relationship with Christ of which His brethren according to the flesh knew nothing, on merely natural grounds ! It was as true with respect to those brethren as any one else that " except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." Mary would not have been saved by the mere fact of her being the mother of Jesus. She needed personal faith in Christ as much as any other member of Adam's fallen family: she needed to pass, by being born again, out of the old creation into the new. It was by treasuring up Christ's words in her heart that this blessed woman was saved. No doubt she was "highly favored" in being chosen as a vessel to such a holy office; but then, as a lost sinner, she needed to "rejoice in God her Saviour," like any one else. She stands on the same platform, is washed in the same blood, clothed in the same righteousness, and will sing the same song as all the rest of God's redeemed. This simple fact will give additional force and clearness to a point already stated, namely, that incarnation was not Christ's taking our nature into union with Himself. This truth should be carefully pondered. It is fully brought out in 2 Cor. v. "For the love of Christ constraineth us ; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead : and that He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them, and rose again. Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh; yea, though u-e have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth knoiv u-e Him no more. Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation : old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." (Ver. 14-17.) 58 LEVITICUS. starts from a point within which all godly claims are fully secured. If I hold a situation which de- mands my services from ten till four every day, I have no right to go out to visit or preach during those hours. If I am in business, I am bound to maintain the integrity of that business in a godly manner. I have no right to run hither and thither preaching while my business at home lies "in sixes and sevens," bringing great reproach on the holy doctrine of God. A man may say, I feel m}'self called to preach the gospel, and I find my situation, or my business, a clog. Well, if you are divinely called and fitted for the work of the gospel, and that you cannot combine the two things, then resign your situation, or wind up your business, in a godly manner, and go forth in the name of the Lord. But, clearly, so long as I hold a situation, or carry on a business, my work in the gospel must begin from a point within which the godly claims of such business or situation are fully responded to. This is devotedness: aught else is confusion, however well intended. Blessed be God, we have a perfect example before us in the life of the Lord Jesus, and ample guidance for the new man in the Word of God ; so that we need not make any mistakes in the varied relationships which we may be called, in the providence of God, to fill, or as to the various claims which God's moral government has set up in con- nection with such relationships. II. The second point in our theme is the mode in which the meat-offering was prepared. This was, CHAPTER II. 59 as we read, by the action of fire, it was "baken in an oven" "baken in a pan," or "baken in a fiying-pan." The process of baking suggests the idea of suffering. But inasmuch as the meat-offering is called "a sweet savor" (a term which is never applied to the sin-offering or trespass-offering), it is evident that there is no thought of suffering for sin no thought of suffering the wrath of God on account of sin no thought of suffering at the hand of Infinite Justice, as the sinner's substitute. The two ideas of "sweet savor" and suffering for sin are wholly incompatible according to the Levitical economy. It would completely destro} 7 the t}'pe of the meat-offering were we to introduce into it the idea of suffering for sin. In contemplating the life of the Lord Jesus, which, as we have already remarked, is the special subject foreshadowed in the meat-offering, we may notice three distinct kinds of suffering, namely, suffering for righteousness, suffering by the power of sympathy, and suffering in anticipation. As the righteous Servant of God, He suffered in the midst of a scene in which all was contrary to Him ; but this was the very opposite of suffering for sin. It is of the utmost importance to distin- guish between these two kinds of suffering. The confounding of them must lead to serious error. Suffering as a righteous One standing amongst men on God's behalf is one thing, and suffering instead of man under the hand of God is quite another. The Lord Jesus suffered for righteousness during 60 LEVITICUS. His life : He suffered for sin in His death. During His life, man and Satan did their utmost ; and even at the cross they put forth all their powers ; but when all that they could do was done when they had traveled, in their deadly enmity, to the utmost limit of human and diabolical opposition, there lay, far bej^ond, a region of impenetrable gloom and horror into which the Sin-bearer had to travel, in the accomplishment of His work. During His life, He ever walked in the unclouded light of the divine countenance; but on the cursed tree, the dark shadow of sin intervened and shut out that light, and drew forth that mysterious cry, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" This was a moment which stands absolutely alone in the annals of eternity. From time to time during the life of Christ down here, heaven had opened to give forth the expression of divine complacency in Him ; but on the cross, God forsook Him, because He was making His soul an offering for sin. If Christ had been a sin-bearer all His life, then what was the difference between the cross and any other period ? Why was He not forsaken of God during His entire course ? What was the difference between Christ on the cross, and Christ on the holy mount of transfig- uration ? Was He forsaken of God on the mount ? was He a sin-bearer there ? These are very simple questions, which should be answered by those who maintain the idea of a life of sin-bearing. The plain fact is this : there was nothing either in Christ's humanity or in the nature of His associa- CHAPTER II. 61 which could possibly connect Him with sin, or wrath, or death. He was 4 ' made sin ' ' on the cross ; and there He endured the wrath of God, and there He gave np His life, as an all-sufficient atonement for sin ; but nothing of this finds a place in the meat-offering. True, we have the process of baking the action of fire ; but this is not the wrath of God. The meat-offering was not a sin-offering, but a "sweet savor" offering. Thus, its import is definitely fixed ; and, moreover, the intelligent interpretation of it must ever guard, with holy jealousy, the precious truth of Christ's spotless humanity, and the true nature of His associations. To make Him, by the necessity of His birth, a sin-bearer, or to place Him thereby under the curse of the law and the wrath of God, is to con- tradict the entire truth of God as to incarnation- truth announced by the angel, and repeated again and again by the inspired apostle. Moreover, it destroys the entire character and object of Christ's life, and robs the cross of its distinctive glory. It lowers the sense of what sin is, and of what atone- ment is. In one word, it removes the key-stone of the arch of revelation, and lays all in hopeless ruin and confusion around us. But, again, the Lord Jesus suffered by the power of sympathy ; and this character of suffering unfolds to us the deep secrets of His tender heart. Human sorrow and human misery ever touched a chord in that bosom of love. It was impossible that a per- fect human heart could avoid feeling, according to 62 LEVITICUS. its own divine sensibilities, the miseries which sin had entailed upon the human family. Though per- sonally free both from the cause and the effect though belonging to heaven, and living a perfect heavenly life on the earth, yet did He descend, by the power of an intense sympathy, into the deepest depths of human sorrow ; yea, He felt the sorrow more keenly, by far, than those who were the direct subjects thereof, inasmuch as His humanity was perfect. And, further, He was able to contemplate both the sorrow and its cause according to their just measure and character in the presence of God. He felt as none else could feel. His feelings, His affections, His sensibilities, His whole moral and mental constitution, were perfect; and hence none can tell what such an One must have suffered in passing through such a world as this. He beheld the human family struggling beneath the ponderous weight of guilt and wretchedness ; He beheld the whole creation groaning under the yoke ; the cry of the prisoner fell upon His ear ; the tear of the widow met His view ; bereavement and poverty touched His sensitive heart; sickness and death made Him "groan in the spirit; "His sympathetic sufferings were beyond all human conception. I shall quote a passage for my reader, illustrative of that character of suffering to which we are now referring. "When the even was come, they brought unto Him many that were possessed with devils ; and He cast out the spirits with His word, and healed all that were sick ; that it might be fulfilled CHAPTER II. G3 which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, ''Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sick- nesses.'" (Matt. viii. 16, 17.) This was entirely sympathetic the power of fellow-feeling, which in Him was perfect. He had no sicknesses or infirmities of His own. Those things which are sometimes spoken of as "sinless infirmities," were, in His case, but the evidences of a veritable, a real, a perfect manhood. But by sympathy by perfect fellow-feeling, "He took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses." None but a perfect man could have done this. We may feel for and with each other, but only Jesus could make human infirmity and sickness His own. Now, had He been bearing all these things by the necessity of His birth, or of His relations with Israel and the human family, we should have lost all the beauty and preciousness of His voluntary sympathy. There could be no room for voluntary action when absolute necessity was laid upon Him. But, on the other hand, when we see His entire freedom, both personally and relatively, from human misery and that which produced it, we can enter into that per- fect grace and compassion which led Him to "take our infirmities, and bear our sicknesses," in the power of true sympathy. There is, therefore, a very manifest difference between Christ's suffering as a voluntary sympathizer with human misery, and His sufferings as the sinner's substitute. The former are apparent throughout His entire life; the latter are confined to His death. 6 64 LEVITICUS. Finally, we have to consider Christ's sufferings by anticipation. We find the dark shadow of the cross casting itself athwart His path, and producing a very keen order of suffering, which, however, must be as clearly distinguished from His atoning suffer- ing as either His suffering for righteousness or His suffering by sympathy. Let us take a passage in proof "And He came out, and went, as He was wont, to the mount of Olives; and His disciples also followed Him. And when He was at the place, He said unto them, 'Pray that ye enter not into temptation.' And He was withdrawn from them about a stone's cast, and kneeled down, and prayed, saying, 'Father, if Thou be willing, remove this cup from Me : nevertheless not My will, but Thine, be done.' And there appeared an angel unto Him from heaven, strengthening Him. And being in an agony, He prayed more earnestly: and His sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground." (Luke xxii. 39-44.) Again, Ave read, "And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and very heavy. Then saith He unto tlrem, 'My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death : tarry ye here, and watch with Me.' .... He went away again the second time, and prayed, saying, 'O My Father, if this cup may not pass from Me, except I drink it, Thy will be done.' " (Matt. xxvi. 37-42.) From these verses, it is evident there was a something in prospect which the blessed Lord had never encountered before, there was a "cup " being CHAPTER II. 65 filled out for Him of which He had not yet drunk. If He had been a sin-bearer all His life, then why this intense "agony" at the thought of coming in contact with sin and enduring the wrath of God on account of sin ? What was the difference be- tween Christ in Gethsemane and Christ at Calvary if He were a sin-bearer all His life ? There was a material difference ; but it is because He was not a sin-bearer all His life. What is the difference ? In Gethsemane, He was anticipating the cross ; at Calvary, He was actually enduring it. In Geth- semane, "there appeared an angel unto Him from heaven, strengthening Him;" at Calvary, He was forsaken of all. There was no angelic ministry there. In Gethsemane, He addresses God as "Father," thus enjoying the full communion of that ineffable relationship; but at Calvary, He cries, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" Here the Sin-bearer looks up and beholds the throne of Eternal Justice enveloped in dark clouds, and the countenance of Inflexible Holiness averted from Him, because He was being "made sin for us." The reader will, I trust, find no difficulty in examining this subject for himself. He will be able to trace, in detail, the three characters of the /(/e-sufferings of our blessed Lord, and to distin- guish between them and His dea^-sufferings His sufferings for sin. He will see how that when man and Satan had done their utmost, there yet remained a character of suffering which was perfectly unique, 66 LEVITICUS. namely, suffering at the hand of God on account of sin suffering as the sinner's substitute. Until He came to the cross, He could ever look up and bask in the clear light of His Father's countenance ; in the darkest hour, He found a sure resource above. His path down here was a rough one. How could it be otherwise, in a world where all was directly contrary to His pure and holy nature ? He had to ''endure the contradiction of sinners against Him- self ;" He had to endure "the reproach of them that reproached God." What had He not to endure? He was misunderstood, misinterpreted, abused, ma- ligned, accused of being mad, and of having a devil. He was betrayed, denied, deserted, mocked, buffeted, spit upon, crowned with thorns, cast out, condemned, and nailed between two malefactors. All these things He endured at the hand of man, together with all the unutterable terrors which Satan brought to bear upon His spirit ; but, let it be once more emphatically repeated, when man and Satan had exhausted their power and enmity, our blessed Lord and Saviour had to endure a something com- pared with which all the rest was as nothing, and that was the hiding of God's countenance the three hours of darkness and awful gloom, during which He suffered what none but God could know. Now, when Scripture speaks of our having fellow- ship with Christ's sufferings, it refers simply to His sufferings for righteousness His sufferings at the hand of man. Christ suffered for sin that we might not have to suffer for it, He endured the wrath of CHAPTER II. G7 God that we might not have to endure it (this is the ground of our peace) ; but as regards suffering from man, we shall always find that the more faith- fully we follow in the footsteps of Christ, the more we shall suffer in this respect; but this is a matter of gift, a matter of privilege, a favor, a dignity. (See Phil. i. 29, 30.) To walk in the footsteps of Christ to enjoy companionship with Him to be thrown into a place of sympathy with Him, are privileges of the very highest order. Would that we all entered more fully into them ! But, alas ! we are too well content to do without them too well satisfied, like Peter, to "follow afar off "to keep aloof from a despised and suffering Christ. ^ All this is, undoubtedly, our heavy loss. Had we only more fellowship with His sufferings, the crown would glisten far more brightly in our soul's vision. When we shrink from fellowship with Christ's suf- ferings, we rob ourselves of the deep joy of His present companionship, and also of the moral power of the hope of His future glory. III. Having considered the ingredients which composed the meat-offering, and the various forms in which it was presented, it only remains for us to refer to the persons who partook of it. These were the head and members of the priestly house. "And that which is left of the meat-offering shall be Aaron's and his sons' : it is a thing most holy of the offerings of the Lord made by fire." (Ver. 10.) As in the burnt-offering we observed the sons of Aaron introduced as types of all true believers, 68 LEVITICUS. not as convicted sinners, but as worshiping priests ; so in the meat-offering we find them feeding upon the remnant of that which had been laid, as it were, on the table of the God of Israel. This was a high and holy privilege. None but priests could enjoy it. This is set forth with great distinctness in "the law of the meat-offering," which I shall here quote at length. "And this is the law of the meat- offering : The sons of Aaron shall offer it before the Lord, before the altar. And he shall take of it his handful, of the flour of the meat-offering, and of the oil thereof, and all the frankincense which is upon the meat-offering, and shall burn it upon the altar for a sweet savor, even the memorial of it, unto the Lord. And the remainder thereof shall Aaron and his sons eat : with unleavened bread shall it be eaten in the holy place; in the court of the tabernacle of the congregation they shall eat it. It shall not be baken with leaven. I have given it' unto them for their portion of My offerings made by fire ; it is most holy, as is the sin-offering, and as the trespass- offering. All the males among the children of Aaron shall eat of it. It shall be a statute forever in your generations concerning the offerings of the Lord made by fire : every one that toucheth them shall be holy." (Lev. vi. 14-18.) Here, then, we are furnished with a beauteous figure of the Church feeding "in the holy place," in the power of practical holiness, upon the perfec- tions of "the Man Christ Jesus." This is our portion, through the grace of God ; but, we must CHAPTER II. 69 remember, it is to be eaten "with unleavened bread." We cannot feed upon Christ if we are indulging in any thing evil. "Every one that toucheth them shall be holy." Moreover, it must be "in the holy place." Our position, our practice, our persons, our associations, must be holy ere we can feed upon the meat-offering. Finally, it is "all the males among the children of Aaron shall eat of it." That is to say, real priestly energy, accord- ing to the divine idea of it, is required in order to enjoy this holy portion. Aaron's "sons" set forth the idea of energy in priestly action : his " daughters ," feebleness therein. (Compare Numb, xviii. 8-13.) There were some things which the sons could eat which the daughters could not. Our hearts should earnestly desire the highest measure of priestly energy, so that we may discharge the highest priestly functions, and partake of the highest order of priestly food. In conclusion, let me add, that inasmuch as we are made, through grace, "partakers of the divine nature," we can, if living in the energy of that nature, walk in the footsteps of Him who is fore- shadowed in the meat-offering. If only we are self-emptied, our every act ma} T emit a sweet odor to God. The smallest as well as the greatest ser- vices m.Ty, by the power of the Holy Ghost, present the fragrance of Christ. The paying of a visit, the writing of a letter, the public ministry of the Word, giving a cup of cold water to a disciple, giving a penny to a pauper, yea, the commonplace acts of 70 LEVITICUS. eating and drinking all may emit the sweet perfume of the name and grace of Jesus. So, also, if only nature be kept in the place of death, there may be in us the exhibition of that which is not corruptible, even a conversation sea- soned with the "salt" of abiding communion with God. But in all these things we fail and come short ; we grieve the Holy Spirit of God in our ways. We are prone to self-seeking or men-pleasing in our very best services, and we fail to "season" our conversation. Hence our constant deficiency in the "oil," the "frankincense," and the "salt; " while, at the same time, there is the tendency to suffer the "leaven" or the "honey" of nature to make its appearance. There has been but one per- fect "meat-offering;" and, blessed be God, we are accepted in Him. We are the "sons" of the true Aaron ; our place is in the sanctuary, where, we can feed upon the holy portion. Happy place! Happy portion ! May we enjoy them more than ever we have done ! May our retirement of heart from all but Christ be more profound ! May our gaze at Him be so intense that we shall have no heart for the attractions of the scene around us, nor yet for the ten thousand petty circumstances in our path which would fret the heart and perplex the mind ! May we rejoice in Christ in the sunshine and in the darkness ; when the gentle breezes of summer play around us, and when the storms of winter rage fiercely abroad ; when passing over the surface of a placid lake, or tossed on the bosom of a stormy CHAPTER III. 71 * ocean. Thank God, "we have found Him" who is to be our satisfying portion forever ! We shall spend eternity dwelling upon the divine perfec- tions of the Lord Jesus. Our eyes shall never be averted from Him when once we have seen Him as He is. May the Spirit of God work mightily in us, to strengthen us "in the inner man" ! May He enable us to feed upon that perfect Meat-offering, the me- morial of which has been fed upon by God Himself ! This is our holy and happy privilege. May we realize it yet more fully ! CHAPTER III. THE more closely we contemplate the offerings, the more fully do we see how that no one offering furnishes a complete view of Christ. It is only by putting all together that any thing like a just idea can be formed. Each offering, as might be expected, has features peculiar to itself. The peace-offering differs from the burnt-offering in many points, and a clear understanding of the points in which any one type differs from the others will be found to help much in the apprehension of its special import. Thus, in comparing the peace-offering with the burnt-offering, W T C find that the threefold action of "flaying," "cutting it into its pieces," and "wash- ing the inwards and legs" is entirely omitted ; and 72 LEVITICUS. this is quite in character. In the burnt-offering, as we have seen, \ve find Christ offering Himself to and accepted by God ; and hence the completeness of His self-surrender, and also the searching process to which He submitted Himself, had to be typified. In the peace-offering, the leading thought is the communion of the worshiper. It is not Christ as enjoyed exclusively by God, but as enjoyed by the worshiper in communion with God ; therefore it is that the whole line of action is less intense. No heart, be its love ever so elevated, could possibly rise to the height of Christ's devoted ness to God, or of God's acceptance of Christ. None but God Himself could duly note the pulsations of that heart which throbbed in the bosom of Jesus ; and therefore a type was needed to set forth that one feature of Christ's death, namely, His perfect de- votedness therein to God. This type we have in the burnt-offering, in which alone we observe the threefold action above referred to. So also in reference to the character of the sacri- fice. In the burnt-offering, it should be "a male without blemish;" whereas in the peace-offering, it might be "a male or female," though equally "without blemish." The nature of Christ, whethef we view Him as enjoyed exclusively by God, or by the worshiper in fellowship with God, must ever be one and the same ; there can be no alteration in that. The only reason why "a female" was per- mitted in the peace-offering, was because it was a question of the worshiper's capacity to enjoy that CHAPTER III. 73 blessed One, who, in Himself, is "the same yester- day, to-day, and forever." (Heb. xiii.) Again, in the burnt-offering, we read, "The priest shall burn all;" whereas in the peace-offering, a part only was burnt, that is, "the fat, the kidneys, and the caul." This makes it exceedingly simple. The most excellent portion of the sacrifice was laid on God's altar. The inward parts the hidden energies the tender sensibilities of the blessed Jesus, were devoted to God, as the only One who could perfectly enjoy them. Aaron and his sons fed upon "the wave breast" and "the heave shoul- ^er."* (See, carefully, Lev. vii. 28-36.) All the members of the priestly family, in communion with their head, had their proper portion of the peace- offering ; and now, all true believers constituted, by grace, priests unto God, can feed upon the affections and the strength of the true Peace-offering, can enjoy the happy assurance of having His loving heart and powerful shoulder to comfort and sustain them continually. t "This is the portion of the anointing of Aaron, and of the anointing of his sons, out of the offerings of the Lord made by fire, in the day when he presented them to minister unto the Lord in the priest's office ; which the Lord com- manded to be given them of the children of Israel, *The "breast" and the "shoulder" are emblematical of love and power strength and affection. t There is much force and beauty in verse 31 "The breast shall be Aaron's and his sons'." It is the privilege of all true believers to feed upon the affections of Christ the changeless love of that heart which beats with a deathless and changeless love for them. 74 LEVITICUS. in the day that He anointed them by a statute forever throughout their generations." (Chap. vii. 35, 36.) All these are important points of difference be- tween the burnt-offering and the peace-offering, and when taken together, they set the two offerings with great clearness before the mind. There is something more in the peace-offering than the ab- stract devotedness of Christ to the will of God. The worshiper is introduced ; and that not merely as a spectator, but as a participator not merely to gaze, but to feed. This gives very marked character to this offering. When I look at the Lord Jesus in the burnt-offering, I see Him as One whose heart was devoted to the one object of glorifying God and accomplishing His will ; but when I see Him" in the peace-offering, I find One who has a place in His loving heart and on His powerful shoulder for a worthless, helpless sinner. In the burnt-offering, the breast and shoulder, legs and inwards, head and fat, were all burnt on the altar all went up as a sweet savor to God ; but in the peace-offering, the very portion that suits me is left for me. Nor am I left to feed in solitude on that which meets my individual need. By no means. I feed in commun- ion in communion with God, and in communion with my fellow-priests. I feed in the full and happy intelligence that the self-same sacrifice which feeds my soul has already refreshed the heart of God ; and, moreover, that the same portion which feeds me feeds all my fellow-worshipers. Communion is the order here, communion with God the com- CHAPTER III. 75 munion of saints. There was no such thing as isolation in the peace-offering. God had His por- tion, and so had the priestly family. Thus it is in connection with the Antitype of the peace-offering. The very same Jesus who is the object of Heaven's delight, is the spring of joy, of strength, and of comfort to every believing heart; and not only to every heart in particular, but also to the whole church of God in fellowship. God, in His exceeding grace, has given His people the very same object that He has Himself. " Truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ." (1 John i.) True, our thoughts of Jesus can never rise to the height of God's thoughts. Our estimation of such an object must ever fall far short of His ; and hence, in the type, the house of Aaron could not partake of the fat. But though we can never rise to the standard of the divine estimation of Christ's Person and sacrifice, it is nevertheless the same object we are occupied with, and therefore the house of Aaron had "the wave breast and the heave shoulder." All this is replete with comfort and joy to the heart. The Lord Jesus Christ, the One "who was dead, but is alive for evermore," is now the exclusive object before the eye and thoughts of God; and, in pprfect grace,' He lias given unto us a portion in the same blessed and all-glorious Person. Christ is our object too the object of our hearts and the theme of our song. "Having made peace by the blood of His cross," He ascended into heaven, and sent down the Holy 76 LEVITICUS. Ghost, that ' ' other Comforter, ' ' by whose powerful ministrations we feed upon, "the breast and shoul- der" of our divine "Peace-offering." He is indeed our peace ; and it is our exceeding joy to know that such is God's delight in the establishment of our peace, that the sweet odor of our Peace-offering has refreshed His heart. This imparts*a peculiar charm to this type. Christ as the Burnt-offering commands the admiration of the heart ; Christ as the Peace- offering establishes the peace of the conscience, and meets the deep and manifold necessities of the soul. The sons of Aaron might stand around the altar of burnt-offering; they might behold the flame of that offering ascending to the God of Israel ; they might see the sacrifice reduced to ashes ; they might, in view of all this, bow their heads and worship ; but they carried naught away for themselves. Not so in the peace-offering. In it, they not only beheld that which was capable of emitting a sweet odor to God, but also of yielding a most substantial portion for themselves, on which they could feed in happy and holy fellowship. And, assuredly, it heightens the enjoyment of every true priest to know that God (to use the language of our type) has had His portion ere he gets the breast and the shoulder. The ^nought of this gives tone and energ3 r , unction and elevation, to the worship and communion; it unfolds the amazing grace of Him who has given us the same object, the same theme, the same joy with Himself. Nothing lower nothing less than this could satisfy Him. CHAPTER III. 77 The Father will have the prodigal feeding upon the fatted calf, in fellowship with Himself. He will not assign him a lower place than at His own table, nor any other portion than that on which He feeds Him- self. The language of the peace-offering is, "It is meet that we should make merry and be glad," "Let MS eat and be merry." Such is the precious grace of God ! No doubt we have reason to be glad, as being the partakers of such grace ; but when we can hear the blessed God saying, "Let us eat and be merry," it should call forth from our hearts a continual stream of praise and thanksgiving. God's joy in the salvation of sinners, and His joy in the communion of saints, may well elicit the admiration of men and angels throughout eternity. Having thus compared the peace-offering with the burnt-offering, we may now briefly glance at it in connection with the meat-offering. The leading point of difference here is, that in the peace-offering there was blood-shedding, and in the meat-offering there was not. They were both "sweet savor" offerings ; and, as we learn from chap. vii. 12, the two offerings were very intimately associated. Now, both the connection and the contrast are full of meaning and instruction. It is only in communion with God that the soul can delight itself in contemplating the perfect hu- manity of the Lord Jesus Christ. God the Holy Ghost must impart, as He must also direct, by the Word, the vision by which we can gaze on "the Man Christ Jesus." He might have been revealed 78 LEVITICUS. "in the likeness of sinful flesh," He might have lived and labored on this earth, He might have shone amid the darkness of this world in all the heavenly lustre and beauty which belonged to His Person, He might have passed rapidly, like a brilliant luminary, across this world's horizon, and all the while have been beyond the range of the sinner's vision. Man could not enter into the deep joy of com- munion with all this, simply because there would be no basis laid down on which this communion might rest. In the peace-offering, this necessary basis is fully and clearly established. "He shall lay his hand upon the head of his offering, and kill it at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation : and Aaron's sons, the priests, shall sprinkle the blood upon the altar round about." (Chap. iii. 2.) Here, we have that which the meat-offering does not sup- ply, namely, a solid foundation for the worshiper's communion with all the fullness, the preciousness, and the beauty of Christ, so far as he, by the gra- cious energy of the Holy Ghost, is enabled to enter thereinto. Standing on the platform which "the precious blood of Christ" provides, we can range, with tranquilized hearts and worshiping spirits, throughout all the wondrous scenes of the manhood O of the Lord Jesus Christ. Had we naught save the meat-offering aspect of Christ, we should lack the title by which, and the ground on which, we can contemplate and enjoy Him therein. If there were no blood -shedding, there could be no title no CHAPTER III. 79 standing-place for the sinner. But Leviticus vii. 12 links the meat-offering with the peace-offering, and, by so doing, teaches us, that, when our souls have found peace, we can delight in the One who has "made peace," and who is "our peace." But let it be distinctly understood that while in the peace-offering we have the shedding and sprink- ling of blood, yet sin-bearing is not the thought. When we view Christ in the peace-offering, He does not stand before us as the bearer of our sins, as in the sin and trespass offerings, but (having borne them) as the ground of our peaceful and happy fellowship with God. If sin-bearing were in ques- tion, it could not be said, "It is an offering made by fire, of a sweet savor unto the Lord." (Chap, iii. 5, comp. with chap. iv. 10-12.) Still, though sin-bearing is not the thought, there is full pro- vision for one who knows himself to be a sinner, else he could not have any portion therein. To have fellowship with God, we must be "in the light;" and how can we be there ? Only on the ground of that precious statement "The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin." ( 1 John i. ) The more we abide in the light, the deeper will be our sense of every thing which is contrary to that light ; and the deeper, also, our sense of the value of that blood which entitles us to be there. The more closely we walk with God, the more we shall know of "the unsearchable riches of Christ." It is most needful to be established in the truth that we are in the presence of God only as the 7 80 LEVITICUS. partakers of divine life, and as standing in divine righteousness. The father could only have the prodigal at his table clothed in "the best robe," and in all the integrity of that relationship in which he viewed him. Had the prodigal been left in his rags, or placed "as a hired servant" in the house, we never should have heard those glorious words, "Let us eat and be merry: for this my son was dead, and is alive again ; he was lost, and is found." Thus it is with all true believers. Their old nature is not recognized as existing before God. He counts it dead, and so should they. It is dead to God, dead to faith. It must be kept in the place of death. It is not by improving our old nature that we get into the divine presence, but as the possessors of a new nature. It was not by repairing the rags of his former condition that the prodigal got a place at the father's table, but by being clothed in a robe which he had never seen or thought of before. He did not bring this robe with him from the "far country," neither did he provide it as he came along; but the father had it for him in the house. The prodigal did not make it, or help to make it ; but the father provided it for him, and rejoiced to see it on him. Thus it was they sat down together, to feed in happy fellowship upon "the fatted calf." I shall now preceed to quote at length "the law of the sacrifice of peace-offering," in which we shall find some additional points of much interest points which belong peculiarly to itself. "And this is the law of the sacrifice of peace-offerings, which he shall CHAPTER III. 81 offer unto the Lord : If he offer it for a thanksgiving, then he shall offer with the sacrifice of thanksgiving unleavened cakes mingled with oil, and unleavened wafers anointed with oil, and cakes mingled with oil, of fine flour, fried. Besides the cakes, he shall offer for his offering leavened bread with the sacrifice of thanksgiving of his peace-offerings. And of it he shall offer one out of the whole oblation for a heave-offering unto the Lord, and it shall be the priest's that sprinkleth the blood of the peace- offerings. And the flesh of the sacrifice of his peace-offerings for thanksgiving shall be eaten the same day that it is offered ; he shall not leave any of it until the morning. But if the sacrifice of his offering be a vow, or a voluntary offering, it shall be eaten the same day that he offereth his sacrifice ; and on the morrow also the remainder of it shall be eaten ; but the remainder of the flesh of the sacrifice on the third day shall be burnt with fire. And if any of the flesh of the sacrifice of his peace-offerings be eaten at all on the third day, it shall not be accepted, neither shall it be imputed unto him that offereth it : it shall be an abomination, and the soul that eateth of it shall bear his iniquity. And the flesh that toucheth any unclean thing shall not be eaten ; it shall be burnt with fire : and as for the flesh, all that be clean shall eat thereof. But the soul that eateth of the flesh of the sacrifice of peace-offerings, that pertain unto the Lord, having his uncleanness upon him, even that soul shall be cut off from his people. Moreover the soul that shall touch any unclean 82 LEVITICUS. thing, as the uncleanness of man, or any unclean beast, or any abominable unclean thing, and eat of the flesh of the sacrifice of peace-offerings, which pertain unto the Lord, even that soul shall be cut off from his people." (Lev. vii. 11-21.) It is of the utmost importance that we accurately distinguish between sin in the flesli and sin on the conscience. If we confound these two, our souls must necessarily be unhinged, and our worship marred. An attentive consideration of 1 John i. 8-10 will throw much light upon this subject, the understanding of which is so essential to a due appreciation of the entire doctrine of the peace- offering, and more especially of that point therein at which we have now arrived. There is no one who will be so conscious of indwelling sin as the man who walks in the light. "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." In the verse immediately preceding, we read, "The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin." Here, the distinction between sin in us and sin on us is fully brought out and established. To say that there is sin on the believer, in the presence of God, is to call in ques- tion the purging efficacy of x the blood of Jesus, and to deny the truth of the divine record. If the blood of Jesus can perfectly purge, then the believer's conscience is perfectly purged. The Word of God thus puts the matter ; and we must ever remember that it is from God Himself we are to learn what the true condition of the believer is in His sight. We CHAPTER III. 83 arc more disposed to be occupied in telling God what we are in ourselves, than to allow Him to tell us what we are in Christ. In other words, we are more taken up with our own self-consciousness than with God's revelation of Himself. God speaks to us on the ground of what He is in Himself, and of what He has accomplished in Christ. Such is the nature and character of His revelation, of which faith takes hold, and thus fills the soul with perfect peace. God's revelation is one thing ; my con- sciousness is quite another. But the same Word which tells us we have no sin on us, tells us, with equal force and clearness, that we have sin in us. "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." Every one who has "truth" in him, will know that he has "sin" in him likewise; for truth reveals every thing as it is. What, then, are we to do ? It is our privilege so to walk in the power of the new nature, that the "sm" which dwells in us may not manifest itself in the form of "sins." The Chris- tian's position is one of victory and liberty. He is not only delivered from the guilt of sin, but also from sin as a ruling principle in his life. "Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the Insts thereof. For sin shall not have dominion over you ; for ye are not under the law, 84 LEVITICUS. but under grace." (Rom. vi. 6-14.) Sin is there in all its native vileness ; but the believer is "dead to it." How? He died in Christ. By nature, he was dead in sin : by grace, he is dead to it. What claim can any thing or any one have upon a dead man? None whatever. Christ "died unto sin once," and the believer died in Him. "Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him : knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more ; death hath no more dominion over Him. For in that He died, He died unto sin once ; but in that He liveth, He liveth unto God." What is the result of this in reference to believers ? "Likewise reckon }"e also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." Such is the believer's unalterable position before God ! so that it is his holy privilege to enjoy freedom from sin as a ruler over him, though it be a dweller in him. But then, "if any man sin," what is to be done? The inspired apostle furnishes a full and most blessed answer, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (1 John i. 9.) Confession is the mode in which the conscience is to be kept free. The apostle does not say, If we pray for pardon, He is gracious and merciful to forgive us. No doubt it is ever happy for a child to breathe the sense of need into his father's ear to tell him of feebleness, to confess folly, infirmity, and failure. All this is most true; and, moreover, it is equally true that CHAPTER III. 85 our Father is most gracious and merciful to meet His -children in all their weakness and ignorance ; but, while all this is true, the Holy Ghost declares, by the apostle, that "if we confess," God is "faith- ful and just to forgive." Confession, therefore, is the divine mode. A Christian, having erred, in thought, word, or deed, might pray for pardon for days and months together, and not have any assur- ance, from 1 John i. 9, that he was forgiven ; where- as the moment he truly confesses his sin before God, it is a simple matter of faith to know that he is perfectly forgiven and perfectly cleansed. There is an immense moral difference between praying for forgiveness and confessing our sins, whether we look at it in reference to the character of God, the sacrifice of Christ, or the condition of the soul. It is quite possible that a person's prayer may involve the confession of his sin, whatever it may happen to be, and thus come to the same thing ; but then it is always well to keep close to Scripture in what we think and say and do. It must be evi- dent that when the Holy Ghost speaks of confession, He does not mean praying; and it is equally evident that He knows there are moral elements in, and practical results flowing out of, confession, which do not belong to prayer. In point of fact, one has often found that a habit of importuning God for the forgiveness of sins displayed ignorance as to the way in which God has revealed Himself in the Per- son and work of Christ, as to the relation in which the sacrifice of Christ has set the believer, and as to 86 LEVITICUS. the divine mode of getting the conscience relieved from the burden and purified from the soil of sin. God has been perfectly satisfied as to all the be- liever's sins in the cross of Christ. On that cross, a full atonement was presented for every jot and tittle of sin in the believer's nature and on his conscience. Hence, therefore, God does not need any further propitiation. He does not need aught to draw His heart toward the believer. We do not require to supplicate Him to be "faithful and just," when His faithfulness and justice have been so glo- riously displayed, vindicated, and answered in the death of Christ. Our sins can never come into God's presence, inasmuch as Christ, who bore them all and put them awa} T , is there instead. But if we sin, conscience will feel it must feel it, yea, the Holy Ghost will make us feel it. He cannot allow so much as a single light thought to pass unjudged. What then ? Has our sin made its way into the presence of God ? Has it found its place in the unsullied light of the inner sanctuary ? God for- bid ! The ' ' Advocate ' ' is there ' ' Jesus Christ the righteous," to maintain, in unbroken integrity, the relationship in which we stand. But though sin cannot affect God's thoughts in reference to us, it can and does affect our thoughts in reference to Him ; * though it cannot make its way into His *The reader will bear in mind that the subject treated of in the text leaves wholly untouched the important and most practical truth taught in John xiv. 21-23, namely, the peculiar love of the Father for an obedient child, and the e a vow or a voluntary-offering, it shall be eaten the same day that he offereth his sacrifice : and on the morrow also the remainder of it shall be eaten. 1 ' (Chap. vii. 16.) When the soul goes forth to God in a voluntary act of worship, such worship will be the result of a larger measure of spiritual energy than where it merely springs from some special mercy experi- enced at the time. If one had been visited with some marked favor from the Lord's own hand, the soul at once ascends in thanksgiving. In this case, the worship is awakened by and connected with that favor or mercy, whatever it may happen to be, and there it ends ; but where the heart is led forth by the Holy Ghost in some voluntary or deliberate ex- pression of praise, it will be of a more enduring character. But spiritual worship will alwa}