Lev. 1
The offerer may bring a bullock, or a sheep, or goat, or a fowl, a turtledove, or young pigeon. But in either case there must be death. Cain’s offering, without the death of the atoning victim, cannot be accepted. However great or small our apprehension of Christ, there must be the recognized fact of the absolute need of His atonement.
Verse 5. The bullock must be killed before the Lord. The blood must be shed and sprinkled. There can be no approach to God but by the blood of Jesus. Let no man forget this. The blood gives us boldness to enter the holiest. To seek to enter in by any other way will surely be to be rejected, like Cain. Now mark the particulars that the Holy Ghost brings before us. The burnt-offering is prepared. “And he shall flay the burnt-offering, and cut it into his pieces.” What a night was that, the night before Jesus was led to the cross! What sufferings known, and unknown to us! How He felt the parting; how He felt the betrayal; how He felt the denying and forsaking—the brutal mockery of the soldiers, and the intense hatred of devils and men! Oh, blessed Jesus, what a night was that to Thee!
But what was all this to the fire on the altar, the searching judgment of God, and yet to find all ‘ of a sweet savor unto the Lord”! The victim had to be washed, to be a fit type of the Holy One of God. “His inwards and his legs shall he wash in water.” The inmost thoughts of His heart, as well as every step of His outward walk, all was divinely pure. “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” The head with all the parts were laid in order on the wood, that is, on the fire which is upon the altar. Yes, the head, all the majesty and glory of Immanuel laid on the wood, and the fire. What a sacrifice for a sweet savor. Thus we have the preciousness o the Person of Christ offered up on the altar, a sweet savor to God.
But what is the meaning of all this? It will surely again help us to remember, that all this is not redemption from Egypt, but Gods provision for a redeemed people. When this is clearly understood, the offerings become intensely interesting and most helpful. You say, When I first believed the gospel I knew I had redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins; but when I think of all my failures since, how can I continue in the favor of God?
Now the very law of the burnt-offering meets this question of continuance. “This is the law of the burnt-offering: It is the burnt-offering, because of the burning upon the altar all night unto the morning, and the fire of the altar shall be burning in it.....The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar; it shall never go out.” (Lev. 6:9-139Command Aaron and his sons, saying, This is the law of the burnt offering: It is the burnt offering, because of the burning upon the altar all night unto the morning, and the fire of the altar shall be burning in it. 10And 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. 11And he shall put off his garments, and put on other garments, and carry forth the ashes without the camp unto a clean place. 12And 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. 13The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar; it shall never go out. (Leviticus 6:9‑13).) Thus is our God teaching us, that He would make a provision for us, that our acceptance should be continuous in all the sweet savor of Christ. And we must not confound this with resurrection, for it is atonement; and the resurrection of Christ is not for atonement, but our complete justification. The hand was laid on the head of the burnt-offering for acceptance. It is our identification with Christ, in the sweet savor of his offering; and this continuous.
Oh, what amazing grace! not that it reaches to our blessings in the heavenlies in Christ; but here on this earth, all through this dark night until the morning break without a cloud, here we learn how we, from our redemption until we see His face, have become identified with Him continuously, in all His sweet savor.
Now if we turn to Heb. 10 we shall see this most clearly. We learn that these ever repeated and continuous offerings could never in themselves perfect the worshipper. For if they could, they would have ceased to be offered. The Israelites were redeemed; they had crossed the Red Sea, but still there was ever the remembrance of sins, and the conscience was never perfected. These shadows could never satisfy the heart of God, nor perfect the worshipper. They served to point forward to One who came to accomplish the will of God. “By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once.” This is not our redemption nor new birth, nor conversion, but our entire separation to God in all the sweet savor of the offering of Christ to God—all through that one same offering.
Now the offerings of the law could never give continued perfection. “But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins, forever sat down on the right hand of God.” The sacrifices of the law are put in contrast, for nothing finite could be the image of that which is infinite. The work of the priests was never done. The work of Jesus is done: He is set down on the right hand of God. “For by one offering he hath perfected forever [or in unchanging continuity] them that are sanctified.”
Let us for the present dwell only on the burnt-offering aspect of this precious verse. Of His own voluntary will, as He says, “In burnt-offerings.... thou hast had no pleasure: then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me) to do thy will, O God.” In all the spotless purity of His Person He has made atonement, and identified us with Himself in all the sweet savor of that offering, so that we are continuously perfected, all through this dark night until the blessed morning comes, when we, raised in glory, shall see Him as He is and be like Him.
Beloved reader, do you now see that this has not to do with your conversion, but with your whole path, from that moment to the end of your journey?
Perhaps you say, “But if I should sin, what then?” We shall see when we come to the sin-offering. Or you may say, “If I find sin working within me, what then?” We shall see when we come to leprosy. You may indeed be amazed to find the whole range of your needs, food, failures, and sins, met in Christ as pictured in these types. And all to the glory of God, His portion, all a sweet savor to Him.
The burnt-offering, however, is the first picture in God’s gallery. Whatever comes after, this is the first thought of God, that we, the redeemed, shall be, in unchanging continuity, perfected by that one offering. And mark; the Holy Ghost is a witness that this is so, “Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness.”
The mistake of many is this—that they have some great thing to do to attain to this perfection. Look again, is it what you have to do, or is it what He has done? “For by one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.” In the offering Christ is all. He came from the highest glory, and He presented Himself without spot to God. He was the priest, and He was the spotless victim. He offered Himself wholly a sweet savor to God to make atonement. The fire of divine judgment only brought out the sweeter savor to God. And God hath sanctified us, separated us, by that one offering. And He hath, by the one offering of Himself, perfected us, as to the conscience, in continuance, for that is the well-known meaning of this word translated “forever.”
Now have you the witness of the Holy Ghost? Do you believe His testimony to Jesus? Can the sweet savor of His Person who gave Himself for you ever change? And are you not only redeemed by the blood of Christ, which is the foundation of all, but are you sustained as a worshipper in all the unchanging value and perfection of that one sacrifice? The sweet savor of that one offering shall never cease. Perhaps; the most daring wickedness of which man is capable, is to deny the everlasting efficacy of that one offering, and dare to offer a counterfeit, without blood, for the living and the dead. This was borne with during the dark ages, when men had not the scriptures; but who, that has the indwelling of the Holy Spirit can fail to see, that men now by crowds, who have the holy scriptures in their hands, are yet doing their utmost to set up again the counterfeit sacrifice of the Mass? This must be the prelude to the judgment of God on an apostate Christendom.
It is a solemn moment. Do you believe God,, whether in the typical teaching of Lev. 1, or the Spirits explanation in Heb. 10?
We may have little apprehension and weak faith; but notice, whether the man brought a bullock, a sheep, a goat, or a fowl, the same truth is presented. “It is a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, of a sweet savor unto the Lord.” Yes, such is the love of God our Father; He would have the feeblest, the weakest of His blood-bought children know, that they are, not may hope to be, but they are identified with His beloved Son in all the sweet savor of His work and Person. Such is our acceptance; such our unchanging perfection as to the conscience, or charge of sin or evil. This was the will of God. Christ came to do His will. His will is done.
He hath forever perfected them that are sanctified.
The detail of Gods thoughts in the various applications of the burnt-offering are most precious. We may see some of these further on. Enough, perhaps, has been said to show the reader the contrast between the passover and the burnt-offering. When we were first brought to God, it was like Israel redeemed from Egypt by the blood of the Lamb. But, after that, how much we have to learn of the riches of His grace in our wilderness journey. And how much is unfolded in the types of Leviticus. Even as to the great feasts of Jehovah, the passover comes first. (Lev. 23)
The perfect order of the word of God is most wonderful; often we fail to see it from the confusion of human thoughts. Who can tell out the blessedness of seeing the efficacy of the burnt-offering upon us all through our wilderness history? Well, we can only say we joy in such a God and Father. If we take the other offerings in their order, as meeting our every and daily need, we shall have still further cause to joy in God. We will turn next to the meat offering.