Lev. 1:14-1714And if the burnt sacrifice for his offering to the Lord be of fowls, then he shall bring his offering of turtledoves, or of young pigeons. 15And the priest shall bring it unto the altar, and wring off his head, and burn it on the altar; and the blood thereof shall be wrung out at the side of the altar: 16And he shall pluck away his crop with his feathers, and cast it beside the altar on the east part, by the place of the ashes: 17And he shall cleave it with the wings thereof, but shall not divide it asunder: and the priest shall burn it upon the altar, upon the wood that is upon the fire: it is a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, of a sweet savor unto the Lord. (Leviticus 1:14‑17)
THE least form of this offering is mentioned naturally in the last place. How gracious of God not only to accept it as distinctly as the greatest, but to give the offerers the express assurance that so it was!
“And if his offering to Jehovah be a burnt-offering of fowls, then he shall present his offering of turtle-doves or of young pigeons. And the priest shall bring it near to the altar, and wring [or, pinch] off its head, and burn it on the altar; and its blood shall be drained [or, pressed] out at the side of the altar. And he shall take away its crop with its feathers [or, refuse] and cast it beside the altar on the east into the place of the ashes; and he shall split it at its wings, [but] not divide [it] asunder; and the priest shall burn it on the altar on the wood that is on the fire: it is a burnt-offering, a fire-offering of sweet savor to Jehovah” (vers. 14-17).
Jehovah would give the poorest of His people the means of presenting to Himself the shadow of what was most precious in Christ's offering of Himself to God. For among the ordinary sacrifices the burnt-offering had an unequaled place. All the others were partaken of more or less by man; the meal-offering was largely for the use of the priests; of course also the peace-offering, which pre-eminently expressed the privilege of fellowship; and even of the sin-offering or of the trespass-offering, unless in the special form when the Mood was put within the veil, every male among the priests was enjoined to eat in a holy place, as they ate of the meal-offering. But in no case did a soul of man, not even the high priest, eat of the burnt-offering. It was offered to God, assuredly on behalf of His people for their acceptance, but only to God.
But if the offering of turtle-doves or of young pigeons, as truly brought before the eyes of Jehovah the efficacious death of His Son as that of the bullock or of the sheep, it is the more remarkable that part, not of the larger, but of the smallest burnt-offering, was thrown away. It was to be split, not divided; but the offerer was to take away the crop with the feathers, or, refuse, and cast it beside the altar on the east into the place of the ashes.
Thus there is a marked falling short of the complete idea of the burnt-offering where all rose up to God as a savor of rest. Poverty of faith has its effect now at any rate. Christ is the same perfect Savior of all that are His. The acceptance of each is according to all that God appreciated in Him and His work. All have been and are not only sanctified as a settled fact through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all, but He has thereby perfected the sanctified without even a break, not forever merely but continuously. Their standing is secured uninterruptedly.
How is it then that feebleness of faith works? It fails to give adequate glory to God. It detracts from the soul's fullness of enjoyment of Christ and His work. Part of the fowls was “cast away,” and “into the place of the ashes.” Weak faith does not undo the perfecting of the saints before God. The acceptance which Christ's work confers on the believer abides untouched. God sees all that are His according to Christ, His standard; but the weaker the faith, the more the believer mingles the sense of drawback because of his failures with the blessedness to which the Holy Spirit bears His testimony. Hence the distinctness of what the burnt-offering means is impaired, In the soul's apprehension it is made to approach an offering for sin. Of God glorified in Christ's death, and ourselves identified with Christ thereby, such an one enters into little if at all. One is content then to look at no more than His bearing our sins in His own body on the tree: in itself a most necessary blessing, but assuredly short of appropriating the distinctive truth of the burnt-offering.
Deterioration as well as difference of degree appears in others of these types as may be shown in due time. This tends to confirm the thought here. But, however this may be judged, the fact is certain among believers; and the result of not entering into the various aspects and relations of Christ's sacrifice is that souls lose not a little in clear and bright perception of the truth, and of their own blessing consequently. Hence the importance of heeding every divine intimation of the revealed mind of Christ, that we may thus grow in and by the knowledge of God.