EV 3-4{M. The next offering the Lord told Moses about He called the peace-offering. It was to be taken out of the flock, or the herd; and the, offerer laid his hand upon its head, and killed it at the door of the tabernacle, and the priests sprinkled the blood round about the altar; then all the fat was taken out of the animal, and the priests burnt it on the brazen altar along with the burnt-offering, for a sweet savor, for all the fat was the Lord's.
S. Why was the fat God’s part?
M. The children of Israel were neither to eat fat nor blood, because the blood was the life, and the life belonged to God who gave it, and the fat was the health and strength of the animal, and was meant as a figure of the inward thoughts and affections. The Lord Jesus was the true peace-offering, and all His heart and mind were so holy and perfect before God, that they were like the fat that was burnt on the altar, always a sweet savor to God.
No unclean person could eat any of the peace-offering, just as no Christian, who is not in the Spirit, can have communion with God now.
S. What is communion with God?
M. It is having His kind of delight in the Lord Jesus Christ. God invites us to share in His thoughts, and this is why He teaches us so much about His own beloved Son, that we may delight in Him now: and when we see Him in heaven, and know Him perfectly, we shall think of Him as God does.
S. Must people have the Holy Spirit to delight in Jesus?
M. Yes. God's Holy Spirit brings down God's love into our hearts, and makes us know Jesus, and understand His Word, and He searches out all the deep things that God has prepared for those who love Him. It is the Holy Spirit that makes us enjoy these little talks about God's Word, because He teaches our hearts to have confidence in the God we are talking about; but we never enjoy God until we know that He has saved us, and brought us as children to Himself.
Now after the Lord had told Moses about these three kinds of offerings by which His people were to worship Him, He told him of another kind of offering which was quite different from all the rest. It was not to be burnt on the brazen altar, and it was not for a sweet savor to the Lord.
S. Why mamma, was it not holy like the others?
M. It was quite as holy as any of the other offerings. It was to be a young bullock without blemish. It was brought to the door of the tabernacle, and it was killed there; but it was to be offered for SIN; therefore God said it was to be carried outside the camp, away from the tabernacle, and from all the tents of the people, and burnt there by itself in a clean place.
S. Why would God not let the sin-offering be burnt on the altar?
M. Because He was too angry with sin to let it come near His dwelling-place, the offering was made sin, when it was offered for the sin of the person, and God would have no sweet incense burnt with it—He rent it out from His tabernacle to be burnt all alone in a place by itself.
S. How was that like Jesus?
M. When Jesus took the sinner's place upon the cross, He was made sin, and He became the sin-offering, and then the holy God turned away His face from Him, so that Jesus cried out: My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
S. But did God really forsake Jesus when He bore our sin?
M. For the time in which He was bearing sin He did, but we know that God always delighted in Him, and it was only because He bore our sin that God turned away His face, to show His holy anger against sin. And even in the sin-offering, all the fat and the blood were brought to God, to show that what Jesus was in Himself God delighted in; and the blood was brought by the priest into the tabernacle, and sprinkled seven times before the Lord, before the beautiful vail; and he was to dip his finger in it, and put it on the horns of the altar of incense, S. But why was that offering to be without blemish, when it was to be offered for sin?
M. Because nothing showed the perfectness of the blessed Jesus so much, as His being made sin for us. If He had had any sin of His own, He could not have borne our sin. The most holy man that ever lived could not do it, because he would have some of his own; and if he died, he could not live again; but God could say of Jesus, In Him is no sin; and when He rose up from the dead by the glory of the Father, He said, Now I will give eternal Life to as many as God has given me.
S. What a wonderful thing that God should choose the only good and holy man that ever lived, to die for all the wicked people!
M. This is the wonder of wonders—we could never have thought of such a thing, nor can the mind of man believe it therefore God reveals it to us by His Spirit, and gives us a new mind that does believe it.
S. When did they offer a sin offering?
M. Whenever any one sinned through ignorance of any of the commandments of the Lord. If a priest sinned, he was to bring a young bullock; and if the whole congregation sinned, they were to bring the same; and the elders were to lay their hands upon its head. If it was one of the rulers, he was to bring a goat, and if it was one of the common people, he was to bring a kid of the goats.