H. Nunnerley
The Peace Offering and the Sin Offering
We have already considered in the burnt offering and the meat offering two aspects of Christ’s death prefigured in the sacrifices offered on the foursquare brazen altar. In the peace offering (Lev. 3) another side is presented.
A better name for this offering is the “prosperity offering,” for here we have not exactly that which has to do with the sinner finding peace with God (which is more the sin offering aspect), but rather the communion which flows from that peace known and enjoyed, communion which finds its center in that wondrous death on Calvary in which not only was God glorified about the whole question of sin, but in which also infinite love to us is fully displayed. Hence the peace offering is spoken of primarily as one “for a thanksgiving” (Lev. 7:1212If he offer it for a thanksgiving, then he shall offer with the sacrifice of thanksgiving unleavened cakes mingled with oil, and unleavened wafers anointed with oil, and cakes mingled with oil, of fine flour, fried. (Leviticus 7:12)).
This offering differs from each of the others in that the priests, the offerer, and Jehovah all found in it a common joy. A part of the inwards and all the fat was burnt on the altar and ascended as a sweet savor to God (Lev. 3:3-53And he shall offer of the sacrifice of the peace offering an offering made by fire unto the Lord; the fat that covereth the inwards, and all the fat that is upon the inwards, 4And the two kidneys, and the fat that is on them, which is by the flanks, and the caul above the liver, with the kidneys, it shall he take away. 5And Aaron's sons shall burn it on the altar upon the burnt sacrifice, which is upon the wood that is on the fire: it is an offering made by fire, of a sweet savor unto the Lord. (Leviticus 3:3‑5)); the breast and heave shoulder became the portion of Aaron and his family (Lev. 7:29-3429Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, He that offereth the sacrifice of his peace offerings unto the Lord shall bring his oblation unto the Lord of the sacrifice of his peace offerings. 30His own hands shall bring the offerings of the Lord made by fire, the fat with the breast, it shall he bring, that the breast may be waved for a wave offering before the Lord. 31And the priest shall burn the fat upon the altar: but the breast shall be Aaron's and his sons'. 32And the right shoulder shall ye give unto the priest for an heave offering of the sacrifices of your peace offerings. 33He among the sons of Aaron, that offereth the blood of the peace offerings, and the fat, shall have the right shoulder for his part. 34For the wave breast and the heave shoulder have I taken of the children of Israel from off the sacrifices of their peace offerings, and have given them unto Aaron the priest and unto his sons by a statute for ever from among the children of Israel. (Leviticus 7:29‑34) and Num. 18:1919All the heave offerings of the holy things, which the children of Israel offer unto the Lord, have I given thee, and thy sons and thy daughters with thee, by a statute for ever: it is a covenant of salt for ever before the Lord unto thee and to thy seed with thee. (Numbers 18:19)); whilst the remainder of the flesh became the food of the offerer and others with him (Lev. 7:15-2115And the flesh of the sacrifice of his peace offerings for thanksgiving shall be eaten the same day that it is offered; he shall not leave any of it until the morning. 16But if the sacrifice of his offering be a vow, or a voluntary offering, it shall be eaten the same day that he offereth his sacrifice: and on the morrow also the remainder of it shall be eaten: 17But the remainder of the flesh of the sacrifice on the third day shall be burnt with fire. 18And if any of the flesh of the sacrifice of his peace offerings be eaten at all on the third day, it shall not be accepted, neither shall it be imputed unto him that offereth it: it shall be an abomination, and the soul that eateth of it shall bear his iniquity. 19And the flesh that toucheth any unclean thing shall not be eaten; it shall be burnt with fire: and as for the flesh, all that be clean shall eat thereof. 20But the soul that eateth of the flesh of the sacrifice of peace offerings, that pertain unto the Lord, having his uncleanness upon him, even that soul shall be cut off from his people. 21Moreover the soul that shall touch any unclean thing, as the uncleanness of man, or any unclean beast, or any abominable unclean thing, and eat of the flesh of the sacrifice of peace offerings, which pertain unto the Lord, even that soul shall be cut off from his people. (Leviticus 7:15‑21)). It is thus the offering which presents to us communion with God and each other.
This is the special aspect of the death of Christ which we celebrate in the Eucharist, the Lord’s Supper. In the burnt offering all ascended to God, and what was for God was the prominent thought: in the Supper “this is My body which is given for you” is a constant reminder that the matchless love which took Him to death was for us.
But though the peace offering is distinct, it is yet closely connected with the burnt offering, for we read that “Aaron’s sons shall burn it (the peace offering) on the altar upon the burnt sacrifice” (Lev. 3:55And Aaron's sons shall burn it on the altar upon the burnt sacrifice, which is upon the wood that is on the fire: it is an offering made by fire, of a sweet savor unto the Lord. (Leviticus 3:5)), it ascended there as a sweet savor; so that we can regard Christ as the burnt offering under the eye of God, and yet all the time be conscious of our deep eternal interest in His death.
It was for us He suffered; it was our sin brought Him there; the blood that was shed was shed for us. In that death we have been reconciled to God, by virtue of the work there finished we shall find ourselves in the glory of God, and it will be the unceasing theme of our praises in eternity.
The Sin Offering
The last of these four great types is the sin offering presented to us in Leviticus 4 and further detailed for us in a slightly different aspect as the trespass offering in Leviticus 5.
In the sin offering, as we have before pointed out, the sacrifice (Christ) is viewed as identified with the sins and sin of the offerer, hence the flesh was not burnt for a sweet savor as in the burnt offering, and might not be placed on the altar, but the whole bullock was to be carried forth and burnt without the camp (Lev. 4:1-121And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 2Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If a soul shall sin through ignorance against any of the commandments of the Lord concerning things which ought not to be done, and shall do against any of them: 3If the priest that is anointed do sin according to the sin of the people; then let him bring for his sin, which he hath sinned, a young bullock without blemish unto the Lord for a sin offering. 4And he shall bring the bullock unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the Lord; and shall lay his hand upon the bullock's head, and kill the bullock before the Lord. 5And the priest that is anointed shall take of the bullock's blood, and bring it to the tabernacle of the congregation: 6And the priest shall dip his finger in the blood, and sprinkle of the blood seven times before the Lord, before the vail of the sanctuary. 7And the priest shall put some of the blood upon the horns of the altar of sweet incense before the Lord, which is in the tabernacle of the congregation; and shall pour all the blood of the bullock at the bottom of the altar of the burnt offering, which is at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. 8And he shall take off from it all the fat of the bullock for the sin offering; the fat that covereth the inwards, and all the fat that is upon the inwards, 9And the two kidneys, and the fat that is upon them, which is by the flanks, and the caul above the liver, with the kidneys, it shall he take away, 10As it was taken off from the bullock of the sacrifice of peace offerings: and the priest shall burn them upon the altar of the burnt offering. 11And the skin of the bullock, and all his flesh, with his head, and with his legs, and his inwards, and his dung, 12Even the whole bullock shall he carry forth without the camp unto a clean place, where the ashes are poured out, and burn him on the wood with fire: where the ashes are poured out shall he be burnt. (Leviticus 4:1‑12)).
The offerer, having placed his hand on the bullock’s head, shed its blood. Some of its blood was sprinkled before the veil, showing that all sin is against God. Some was placed on the horns of the altar of incense, and the remainder poured out at the bottom of the altar of burnt offering. Then the carcass was removed from the camp where God dwelt, and carried to a clean place: there full and unsparing judgment fell on it: the dung — its worthless part — the flesh and skin — its valuable part — consumed by fire, all gone under the judgment of God.
The skin is the outward covering which distinguishes one from another.
“Seekest thou great things for thyself? seek them not!” “There is no difference. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:22, 2322Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: 23For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; (Romans 3:22‑23)), and this reminds us that whatever distinction exists among men, socially or intellectually, these avail not before God, all men are equally lost.
The flesh, too, was burned — that excellent part according to man’s estimate; all has come under the judgment of God, our goodness as well as our badness. Sin, sins, self, all that we are, all we have done, or thought, condemned, judged, burnt outside the camp where God dwelt, as unfit for His presence.
The Galatians had a religion after the flesh, it made something of them. The Corinthians tried to combine worldly greatness with the lowly Jesus. Both had to learn the cross as that by which they were crucified unto the world, and the world to them.
If we decipher the teaching aright of this side of the altar it will have the effect of delivering us from self-glorification, and self-occupation, and from this present evil world.
Paul was gazing on this side when he wrote God “condemned sin in the flesh,” and God “hath made Him (Christ) to be sin for us,” and again when he said “I am crucified with Christ.”
But if the sin offering presents Christ, as it does, as identified with all our sins and guilt, and so as having to go into the place of distance “outside the camp,” yet the Spirit guards most jealously the truth that the load of guilt laid upon Him never for an instant touched His own intrinsic holiness in that hour of deepest woe; and so it is said again and again of this offering, as of the meat offering, that it was “most holy”; everything brought into contact with it must be holy (Lev. 6:25-2925Speak unto Aaron and to his sons, saying, This is the law of the sin offering: In the place where the burnt offering is killed shall the sin offering be killed before the Lord: it is most holy. 26The priest that offereth it for sin shall eat it: in the holy place shall it be eaten, in the court of the tabernacle of the congregation. 27Whatsoever shall touch the flesh thereof shall be holy: and when there is sprinkled of the blood thereof upon any garment, thou shalt wash that whereon it was sprinkled in the holy place. 28But the earthen vessel wherein it is sodden shall be broken: and if it be sodden in a brazen pot, it shall be both scoured, and rinsed in water. 29All the males among the priests shall eat thereof: it is most holy. (Leviticus 6:25‑29)). The fat of the sin offering and a part of the inwards was burnt on the altar (ch. 4:8, 9), and though the sin offering was not one of the sweet savor offerings, this burning of the fat and inwards is once said to be for a sweet savor (ch. 4:31). We are thus reminded that even in the sin offering aspect of the death of Christ, the energy of purpose the unfailing devotedness of Christ, His personal excellency (which the fat and inwards typify), even when “made sin” was ever before God, even in the hour when He had to hide His face from Him. He was still a sweet savor to God. Sin has been dealt with in death, but a death which proved the excellencies of Jesus.
There are gradations in the offerings; in the case of the burnt offering the grades range from a bullock down to a turtle dove. These grades varied with the comparative prosperity or poverty of the offerer, and typically teach us how acceptable to God is even the weakest and feeblest appreciation of Christ. The turtle dove ascended with the same sweet savor as the bullock.
Now in the sin offering we have a wider range of grades than in any of the other offerings. These vary from a bullock downwards, and descended even in case of need to a tenth of an ephah of fine flour (ch. 5: 11); and this is the more remarkable as blood-shedding, which is the dominant thought in the sin offering, could not be present in this exceptional offering which might be brought by the very poorest. But how the grace of God shines in this, for it shows us that that uninstructed turning of the heart to Christ which does not even rise to the knowledge of the divine necessity for His death, but which nevertheless realizes its need of a sin-bearer, and appreciates the fact that this need can be met in Christ alone — even this is sufficient to secure acceptance with Him who delights in the feeblest appreciation of His Beloved Son.
Looking back, then, over the types we have been considering, we can bless God that whether we are learning Christ in the sweet savor of the burnt offering, the desolation of the sin offering, the lowly grace of the meat offering, or the communion of the peace offering, they are all parts of that death by which He glorified God and has eternally saved us.