“THE man who takes time for communion with God, and who studies continually the portrait of Christ in the Gospels, is he who becomes strong in faith. They that do know their God shall be strong and do exploits.”
That is the right note, and one is thankful to find it struck in a magazine which circulates among the Christian students of the world. It is impossible for us ever to realize how much is stored up for us in the fourfold presentation of the Lord’s pathway in the Gospels. Only in Him and by Him was the Father’s will ever done on earth as in heaven, and only from Him in that pathway of obedience may we learn how that will is to be done on earth as it is in heaven.
It is a wonderful thing to find the Lord putting such a thought, such a desire, into His disciples’ hearts. He knew that when the utterance of their hearts’ desire in those familiar words should make them feel their need, and weakness, and ignorance, their hearts would turn to His path, would ponder it in its meaning. They would recall what He said, how He acted in the various circumstances through which they had passed with Him, and so would learn how that will should be done on earth. This is of special importance in the priest’s service. For the priest has to carry out God’s will, administer the government in God’s House for Him. Hence the priest must know what obedience is for himself.
We saw in going through the law of the sin and trespass offering that two things relating to two other offerings were brought in after the law of the sin and trespass offering:
1. The Skin of the Burnt Offering.―In the 1St of Leviticus we saw that the burnt offering was flayed by the offerer, and that the skin did not form part of the offering; it was not burnt. Here we find that it was the portion of the priest who dealt with the offering. There is a remarkable contrast between the skin of the burnt offering and that of the sin offering. The latter was to be burnt outside the camp; the former was not burnt, but became the portion of the priest.
Now, among the various symbols for life in its different aspects, we find that the skin is a remarkable picture of the life with the interests and associations inseparable from it; not the vital principle (e.g., “the blood is the life”), but the life that is lived on earth among men.
Now, in John’s Gospel especially, the Holy Ghost presents the Lord Jesus in His life on earth as One who dwelt in the bosom of the Father, as “the Son of man which is in heaven.” His was a life lived on earth in the associations and interests of heaven, of the Father’s house. Hence we find in John that there is no change. He comes from God and goes back to God. He lays down His life and takes it again; death does not touch that life. This is why the skin of the burnt offering is not burnt. But we also find that when the question of the sin offering comes in, the question of the blessed Lord’s being made sin, that there is a change of immense importance. The life in which He had to say to sin; taking our place, came to an end forever at the cross, “In that He died, He died unto sin once, in that He liveth He liveth unto God.” This is the ground upon which we are entitled to reckon ourselves dead indeed unto sin, but alive to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. It is because of this great fact that Paul could say, “Yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no more.”
It is a question of two wonderful and important aspects of the person and work of the Lord Jesus affecting our life in every detail. The first is the abiding character of eternal life unchanged and untouched by death, lived here on earth, but belonging to heaven, the Father’s house. The second opens up the new creation, where all is new and all of God, the most wonderful new thing ever known, a blessed, living, glorified Man at the right hand of God, the center of a vast range of new affections and interests. Now, we need the first of these; we need to know and partake of that life lived on earth in the secret of heaven if we are to deal with the sin and failure in others that so constantly meets us, and gives occasion to the priestly work that we have spoken of.
The 13th of John illustrates this most beautifully. There we see the blessed Lord Jesus with His heart and thoughts in heaven occupied with the needs of those He loved with a love that was from heaven, and dealing with them that they might have a part with Him. Then He says, “I have given you an example.” He expects us to share in His thoughts and interests, and to act like Him. This is, in brief, what the skin of the burnt offering speaks of.
2. The Special Oblations. ―The other thing which is apparently taken out of its connection and attached to the law of the sin and trespass offering is the case of the three special oblations, the three forms of the meal offering. The meal offering in general belonged to all the priests, as we saw last time. But these three forms of the oblation, which, before being consumed on the altar, had already been subjected to the action of the fire in other ways, belong to the priest that deals with the offering, as in the case of the skin of the burnt-offering. Now, if these three symbols, the oven, the cauldron, and the fan be examined in Scripture, they will be found to represent the dealings of God with Israel, His government, and chastisement brought on by their sins. It is of importance to remember that the whole history of Israel is given by God, and was ordered to that end by Him, as a pattern of His government and its principles, starting from Exodus 34.
Now the Lord Jesus, in coming amongst His earthly people, identified Himself with their state, and passed through the sufferings which they were enduring, and will yet endure, in order that they might have a way of escape. This we find fully expressed in the Psalms, and brought out in the First Epistle of Peter as the pattern of the Christian’s path and suffering.
So that the Lord Jesus, in taking the yoke, and in learning obedience by the things which He suffered, passing in divine perfection through all the government of God, affords for us the only means by which we may learn how to walk through the world under the present government of God, and how to deal with the failure and sins of others in the spirit in which He dealt with them. This, again in brief, is what these three forms of the oblation, brought in here, speak of. These two things will give abundant food for meditation and profit. It is He who dwelt from eternity in the Father’s bosom, and who is also the exalted Man in glory, where never man was before, who says, “Come, ye children, hearken unto Me, and I will teach you the fear of the Lord.” He teaches what He has learned by experience. We may thank Him for that.
The remaining part of the chapter must be passed over quickly, although it has many wonderful things in it.
Broadly speaking, it shows the priest as the servant of the joys of the people of God, reaping, too, the return for the sorrow and exercise of heart inseparable from dealing with sin in the true priestly spirit. The priest receives from the worshipper the right shoulder and the breast of the offering for himself. Such blessed affections and divine ties as we find in Hebrews 13:7-17, 1 Timothy 5:17, 1 Thessalonians 2:19, 20, 3:8, resulting from the appreciation of this service, are rare things now, alas, but they are of God. These scriptures present something at least of what the priest’s portion in the peace offering speaks of.
Answers to Questions
1. Leviticus 21:10. ―The carrying out of the ceremonies of the Day of Atonement, and the use of the Urim and Thummim, seem to be the special points that distinguished the high priest’s service at first. Latterly more than one priest could exercise the high priest’s function at the same time.
2. The stages in the priesthood are―
(a) Leviticus 8, 9―The priesthood before failure.
(b) Leviticus 10-16 — Failure of the priesthood and institution of the Day of Atonement.
(c) Priesthood of Eleazar and Phinehas during the possession of the land, and subsequent failure.
(d) Change to the line of Ithamar, and, in Eli’s time, final failure of the priesthood as at first set up. Henceforth the priest is subordinate to the king. Compare Numbers 27:21 with 1 Samuel 2:35.
(e) After the judgment on Eli’s house, which begins with 1 Samuel 4, and closes with 1 Kings 2:27, the Zadok priesthood begins, and really, in the purpose of God, extends up to millennial times (Ezek. 44: 15).
(f) But, under the New Covenant, blessing does not rest upon the failing Aaronic priesthood, but upon the unchanging priesthood of Christ, after the order of Melchizedek.
3. Answered in previous studies.
4. Hebrews 12 and the First Epistle of Peter deal specially with this subject.
Subject for July
―The Consecration of the Priests and the Priestly Blessing (Lev. 8, 9). The following questions may be answered:
1. What are the principal points of difference between the directions given for the consecration of the priests in Exodus 29, and the account of the consecration in Leviticus 8?
2. What was the first work of the priests after consecration?
3. What was Moses’ part in the consecration and blessing?
4. On how many occasions do we find that fire came from Jehovah and consumed offerings which were presented?
B.S. ED.