We have seen Israel smitten and discomfited even unto utter destruction—the end of all hope of taking possession in the energy of the flesh. Is all over? Has God failed to keep His promise? They have failed utterly. But now God speaks unto Moses, saying, “Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye be come into the land of your habitations which I give unto you.” What a glorious contrast is the word of God to all man’s failure. Yes, after all this failure, He will bring His people into the land, as He says, “which I give unto you.” They are not only thus carried by faith beyond all the failure and the travail of the wilderness to the land; but mark the blessed object now presented to the eye of faith in these figures of things to come.
That object is Christ, under these various types of His Person and work. On Him the eye can rest with supreme delight, for there all is divinely perfect. “It will be noticed that the burnt-offering is the chief thought in these verses; but that offering was accompanied in each case by a meat offering and a drink-offering. We shall also see these increase as we grow in the knowledge of Jesus Christ our Lord.
The first and great thought, then, is the burnt offering. This also is the first in God’s order in the book of Leviticus. The other extreme is where God reached us, even the sin offering. There, on the cross, the Holy One became identified with us, was made sin for us. The hands of Aaron were laid on the sin offering, and it became identified with, yea, the substitute for, the people’s sins.
But now look at that burnt-offering. The offerer “shall put his hand upon the head of the burnt offering; and it shall be accepted for him, to make atonement for him.” (Lev. 1:44And he shall put his hand upon the head of the burnt offering; and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him. (Leviticus 1:4).) Thus are we seen to be identified with Christ in all the sweet-savor offerings of His Person and work.
Thus, in our chapter, when the flesh has failed, when we have learned Hormah to be utter destruction, God now throws aside the veil, and reveals His purpose, that we shall be identified with Christ, accepted in Him, in all the perfections and sweet savor of His blessed work. What a vision of grace is this to our souls! Now, accompanying this revelation of the purpose of God, we have the meat offering-Christ, the Incarnate Son. Here, not only has God His portion, but all the sons of Aaron had their portion, one as much as another. The beloved Son was ever well-pleasing in His sight—full of grace and truth.
There is an increase in quantity progressively in each of the three cases before us: the one lamb; the one ram; and the one bullock. But it is the same—the meat offering, the oil, and the wine. This is most important, thus, if we begin with the feeblest apprehension of Christ in His incarnation—for the manhood of Christ, during His life, is the sweet savor of the meat offering—however feeble the apprehension, it must be the true Christ. There was the repeated command that there must be no leaven in or with the meat offering. (Lev. 2:4, 5, 114And if thou bring an oblation of a meat offering baken in the oven, it shall be unleavened cakes of fine flour mingled with oil, or unleavened wafers anointed with oil. 5And if thy oblation be a meat offering baken in a pan, it shall be of fine flour unleavened, mingled with oil. (Leviticus 2:4‑5)
11No meat offering, which ye shall bring unto the Lord, shall be made with leaven: for ye shall burn no leaven, nor any honey, in any offering of the Lord made by fire. (Leviticus 2:11).) All was a sweet savor unto the Lord. Leaven, as a type of fallen humanity, would have utterly unfitted it to be offered to Jehovah.
Thus we learn that those who teach that Christ took our fallen nature in incarnation, have no true Christ at all, and no true atonement. Fallen human nature is sinful human nature; and if sinful, or with the leaven of sin in it, He could have been no Savior, but would have needed to save Himself. To say Jesus took fallen human nature is thus the most soul-destroying doctrine ever propounded. Every type that points to the Holy One carefully excludes leaven, the type of evil, and fallen human nature is evil to the core. No, the more the fire tried the meat offering, the sweeter the savor.
In the New Testament He is ever “The Holy One and the Just.” The voice from heaven had been heard, saying, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” In Him was no leaven, no fallen humanity, no sin. Had not the angel announced to Mary, “That holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.”
Let us worship Him, the Holy, Incarnate Son of God. Let it be remembered, the hand of identification was never laid on the meat offering. Until He died He must remain alone. But Jesus must be that pure, unleavened meat offering-pure and holy in His human nature, or He could not have been the spotless burnt offering; for in the burnt-offering the whole victim must be wholly burnt, and go up a sweet-savor offering. Thus, as there is death in it, there is also perfect identification—the hand was laid on the head. We are as fully identified with Christ in all the sweet savor of His Person and work, as He became identified with us in sin and judgment on the cross.
Oh, wondrous purpose of the God of all grace, thus to reveal Christ to us, and our place of everlasting acceptance in Him, when we have learned the discomfiture of the flesh, even to utter destruction. With the one lamb, then, before us, the meat offering was to be “a tenth deal of flour, mingled with the fourth part of an hin of oil.” That is three pints. “And the fourth part of an hin [or three pints] of wine for a drink-offering.” Or for a ram, the increase in the meat offering is two tenth deals of flour, and four pints of oil, and four pints of wine. How beautiful the increase. Then, if the burnt offering is a bullock, it is “a meat-offering of three tenth deals of flour, mingled with half an hin [or six pints] of oil. And thou shalt bring for a drink-offering half an hin of wine [or six pints], for an offering made by fire, of a sweet savor unto the Lord.”
What is the measure? What think ye of Christ? Have we entered into the sweet savor that He is to God, and the sweet savor we are to God in Him? That, beyond all our failure, the purpose of God, who chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world, was to bring us into oneness with His Son, “that we should be holy, and without blame, before him in love.” Oh, the glory of His grace after Hormah!
The burnt-offering teaches us that this is through His death: as it is said, “In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable, and unreprovable, in his sight.” Now, just in proportion as we apprehend, by the teaching of the Holy Ghost, Christ as the Holy One who has glorified God, and, if we may so speak, has satisfied the heart of God, who gave His beloved Son for this purpose, in that measure will be our joy in God, for the wine is the emblem of our joy.
Just as the burnt-offering increases in value, the one lamb, the one ram, the one bullock, so, as we grow in grace, the sweet-savor offering of Christ, in which we are presented to God, accepted in Him, is increased in value to our souls. Thus we enjoy more and more of the Spirit’s teaching, and as we feed on Christ, the bread of life, we see more and more how He was in His manhood the Holy, Holy One without leaven, and in His own holy Person, anointed with the Holy Ghost, the fine flour mingled with oil. Thus, also, our joy in Him is increased.
How is it with you, beloved reader? Is it what answers to the three, four, or six pints of wine? Can you say you have one of these measures of joy in Christ, having learned the lesson of Hormah, the utter destruction of all—yea, even religious—flesh? One of old could say, “For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.” (Phil. 3) Yes, the context shows it was religious flesh the apostle referred to. But when all that was of the religion of the flesh, all that was of self, was but as dung in his sight, the glory of the Person set forth in these types was ever before his eyes. He says, “Yea, doubtless, and I count all things as loss, for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.” Yes, Hormah was written on Saul of Tarsus, the devoted Hebrew, and Christ was revealed to Paul, the dependent apostle. All was lost in the old man, but far more was gained in the new man. “That I may know him.” Yes, as we know Him, what answers to the wine ever increases—perhaps six pints here, and then twelve, the full hin, up there with Him forever.
Perhaps you reply, I am a stranger to much you say. I believe in Jesus, and I scarcely know yet what I believe. I am only just awakened to come to Jesus. Welcome, stranger: in this very chapter the stranger is welcome to all these typified privileges: “And if a stranger sojourn with you, or whosoever be among you in your generations, and will offer an offering made by fire, of a sweet savor unto the Lord: as ye do, so shall he do.” (Numb. 20:14-1614And Moses sent messengers from Kadesh unto the king of Edom, Thus saith thy brother Israel, Thou knowest all the travail that hath befallen us: 15How our fathers went down into Egypt, and we have dwelt in Egypt a long time; and the Egyptians vexed us, and our fathers: 16And when we cried unto the Lord, he heard our voice, and sent an angel, and hath brought us forth out of Egypt: and, behold, we are in Kadesh, a city in the uttermost of thy border: (Numbers 20:14‑16).) Oh, stranger, have you learned in any measure the utter destruction of all hopes and efforts in the flesh? Are you smitten? What, did you hope to go up, and take possession of holiness, in the flesh, and found only utter destruction of every such hope? Oh, how God delights to set before you the sweet savor of Christ, both in His holy humanity, and in His atoning death. Welcome, then, every stranger, to Christ. Oh, do you thirst? Then come unto Him, and drink.
Come unto Him, come in faith: He will give you what answers to the three pints, four pints, six pints of wine, according to your appreciation of Him down here in the wilderness; and then soon to enter His presence with fullness of joy—yes, joy unspeakable, and full of glory.
It is a most striking lesson, then, this history of Hormah, whether we look at Israel, the church, or the individual. What is the present state of Israel? Hormah, utter destruction, failure, and scattering. Soon, very soon, every promise shall be made good to them in Christ, their Messiah. If we look at the present state of the church, what utter failure, even unto Hormah: but how soon the true church shall be presented glorious, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing. And so, as to the individual believer: have we arrived at Hormah, the utter end of self? then all is Christ. May it be so, and the wine shall increase with every increased knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord.
C. S.
“Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.”