THOUGH IT MIGHT SEEM MUNDAIN TO READ ABOUT THE PHYSICAL SACRIFICES OF ANCIENT ISRAEL; I ENCOURAGE THE READER TO PERSEVERE AND GLEAN SOME HIDDEN TRUTHS IN THE SACRIFICAL SYSTEM OF OFFERINGS; EVEN IN THESE PHYSICAL RITES OF OFFERINGS, THE ETERNAL FATHER HAD SOME GEMS OF SPIRITUAL INSIGHTS INTO OUR LORD AND SAVIOR CHRIST JESUS - Keith Hunt
Law of the Offerings #2b
Typology of the Grain Offering
by Andrew Jukes MEAT or GRAIN OFFERING THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS [iii.] The third ingredient of the Meat-offering is frankincense: - "he shall put frankincense thereon;" (verse 1) in connexion with which, and yet in contrast, it is commanded, - "ye shall burn no honey unto the Lord." (verse 11). These emblems, like all the others, are at once simple yet most significant. Frankincense is the most precious of perfumes, of enduing and delightful fragrance: fit emblem of the sweetness and fragrance of the offering of our blessed Lord. Honey, on the other hand, though sweet, is corruptible; soon fermented, and easily turned sour. In frankincense the full fragrance is not brought out until the perfume is submitted to the action of fire. In honey it is just the reverse; the heat ferments and spoils it. The bearing of this on the offering of Jesus is too obvious to require comment. The fire of God's holiness tried Him, but all was precious fragrance. The holiness of God only brought out graces which would have escaped our notice had He never suffered. Yea, much of His offering was the very result of His trial. How different is it in believers! There is in many a sweetness of nature, very sweet for a while it may seem to our taste, - which yet will not stand the test of fire: the first trial is enough to sour it. Who is there that has been cast into sifting circumstances, where God's holiness and our ease or interests have come into collision, without feeling how much there is in us which could not be a sweet savour on the altar? And have we never found, in setting even before saints some plain but neglected command of our Master, that much of the sweetness in them, which we have taken to be frankincense, has at once shewn itself to be fermenting honey. It was not so with the blessed Jesus: - "Anointed with the oil of gladness above His fellows; all His garments smell of myrrh, aloes, and cassia" (Ps.14:7,8). "Because of the savour of His good ointments, His name is like ointment poured forth" (Canticles i.3). Sweetness there is in abundance, but the sweetness of frankincense, not honey. Well might the bride exclaim, "My beloved is a bundle of myrrh; my beloved is to me as clusters of camphire" (Canticles 1.13,14). And not to her alone: for her He has been a sweet savour unto Jehovah. [iv.] The fourth and last ingredient of the Meat-offering is salt: - "Every oblation of the meat-offering shalt thou season with salt" (verse 13). And to bring out the typical import more clearly, another emblem by way of contrast is added: - "No meat-offering shall be made with leaven" (verse 11), there must be salt; there must be NO leaven. The import of these emblems is obvious: the one positively, the other negatively, bringing but one and the same thought before us. "Salt," the well-known preservative against corruption, is the emblem of perpetuity and incorruptness; while "leaven," on the other hand, composed of sour and corrupting dough, is the well-known emblem of corruption. Thus, when the Apostle would sum up in a word "the incorruptness, gravity, and sincerity," befitting a Christian, he says, "Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt" (Col.4:6). Thus again, when a covenant is described as perpetual, it is spoken of as "a covenant of salt" (Num.18:19; 2 Chron. 13:5). The use of the word "leaven" is even more familiar. We read of "the leaven of the Pharisees" (Luke 12:1), "the leaven of the Sadducees" (Mat.16:6), and "the leaven of Herod" (Mark 8:15). So, too, in the Epistles, we are enjoined to "purge out the old leaven" (1 Cor.5:7). Here we have a key to these emblems. Jesus in His blessed offering brought that with it which not only secured its own incorruption, but which supplied a preservative against corruption to whatever He might come in contact with. (The parable of the leaven, Matt. xiii. 33, may perhaps be quoted as giving to leaven another meaning. I am satisfied, however, that there, as in every other place, leaven is the emblem of evil and corruption. Of course, the great thought in the parable is the spread of nominal Christianity, while it is left for spiritual apprehension to discern whether what is actually spread is good or evil. But the Church is so blind to her own state, that she can neither see it as foretold in Scripture or exiting in fact. As with the disciples at the sepulchre, a fact is before us which but few have eyes or heart to apprehend) IT might not always be sweet to man's taste, but it was the seasoning of the offering to the Lord. How different is it with the most devoted Christians! Leaven is mixed with their choicest offerings. But our God has foreseen and provided for it. Thus at the offering at Pentecost, and the oblation with the Peace-offering, (appointed emblems of the Church's offering.) leavened cakes were offered to the Lord, but though accepted, they could not be burnt as a sweet savour. These offerings I shall notice as I proceed; I do not therefore here enter into them, further than to observe that no measure of oil, that is, the Spirit, could counteract the effect of leaven. A cake might be anointed again and again, but if there had been leaven in its composition, it could not be put upon the altar. What a lesson for those who are looking to the Spirit in them rather than to Christ for them as the ground of acceptance! The Spirit's operations in the greatest power will never alter or destroy the old nature. As soon may we expect the nettle to yield us olives as for sinful flesh to be ought but sinful. Salt water cannot be washed sweet: you may pour oil on it, but they will not mingle; "that which is born of the flesh is flesh; that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit" (John 3:6). The flesh is still in Paul, after he has been caught up to Paradise; he therefore needs the thorn in it to humble him. The power of the flesh in us may be controlled, and its active energy restrained or weakened, but the leaven is still within us, only waiting its opportunity to rise. "The root of bitterness" is there, though it may be out of sight and kept from budding. It was not so with the blessed Jesus. Even by natural birth He was born of God. His nature, as well as His walk, was sinless; for "He was conceived by the Holy Ghost." Thus, when, after a trial of centuries, both Burnt-offering and Meat-offering had failed in man's hand, Jesus in "the body prepared for Him" came to do His Father's will. These offerings in type shew us how He did it. And He was accepted for us. (3.) But it is time that we pass on to consider the third particular in which the Meat-offering stood in contrast to the other offerings. The Meat-offering was not wholly burnt (verses 2,3). In this it differed from the Burnt-offering. Christ as performing man's duty to God; - that is, the BURNT-offering, - was WHOLLY the food of God, WHOLLY put upon His altar, WHOLLY CONSUMED by Him. But Christ as performing His duty to man, - that is, the MEAT- offering - is also man's meat, the food of the priests: - "The remnant of the meat-offering shall be Aaron's and his sons, it is a thing most holy of the offerings of the Lord made by fire." Yet even here He satisfies God. "A handful, the memorial of the offering," is put upon the altar, to teach us, that even in fulfilling man's duty to his neighbour, Christ fulfilled it as "an offering unto the Lord." But though God had thus a portion in the Meat-offering, it is nevertheless specially the food of man; primarily to be viewed as offered for us to God, but also as given to us, as priests, to feed on. For us, as Meat-offering, Jesus fulfilled what was due to man. He did this as our representative, as the substitute of those who trust Him: - in this aspect of the offering our souls find peace; here is our acceptance: - but this, though securing peace, is but a part of our blessed portion. If Jesus did all this for us, will He not do it to us? As righteous in Him, we still have wants, we need daily food and anointing; and for these as much as for righteousness, we are debtors to His abounding grace. We need Him, and we have Him as our brother to fulfil His part of the law to us, "for He came not to destroy, but to fulfil" (Mat.5:17). The law is, that the priests should be fed of the altar; they may not work for their bread as others. The faithful Israelite is the appointed channel of their subsistence: on his faithfulness, under God, do they depend for their food. Jesus, as the faithful Israelite, will not fail the priests who wait at the altar. Let His priests ("ye are a royal priesthood" - 1 Peter 2:9 ) be but found where they should be, and His offering will be there to feed them. He will abundantly bless the provision, He will satisfy His poor with bread (Ps.132:15). We do not sufficiently think of Jesus in this aspect, as presenting Himself to God as man's meat. The Gospels, however, are full of it: it shines out in every page. Jesus, with all His devotedness to God, was still ever the devoted servant of all around Him. Whoever drew upon His love or power, and went away without being satisfied? He opened His hand wide unto His brother, to the poor and the needy in the land. What sorrow was there, what need, what trial, to which Jesus refused to minister? How precious, then, is Jesus, viewed as Meat-offering! We often want one to fulfil toward us those acts of love and sympathy which our lonely hearts yearn after. Around us there is a heartless world, or brethren, it may be, who can neither sympathize with, nor help us. We think, perhaps, if Jesus were here on earth, we would go to Him and tell Him our sorrows. We are sure, if He were still "the man of sorrows," that we should have a claim on His loving heart. But is He not the same now as in His humiliation, "the same yesterday, today, and for ever?" (Heb.13:8). Surely He is the same to those who come to Him. Oh, may we learn thus to use Him, that He may satisfy us in every difficulty; when poor to give us bread, when mourning to dry our tears! Weary pilgrim, Jesus is the Meat-offering, to meet your claim as well as God's. You have a claim on Him; it is your necessity. He must, as a brother, answer it. Come to Him, then, as the One to feed you: it is more blessed for Him to give than for you to receive. Know Him as the One who, when all else fail, has a Meat-offering already provided to satisfy you. I said that the Meat-offering was not all burnt; but though not all burnt, all was consumed. In this offering the offerer had nothing for himself. God and His priests had the whole between them. How simple, how instructive the lesson! If we could fulfil every duty to God and man according to the standard God has given, - if our bodies were really a living sacrifice, - if we were offered on the sacrifice and service of faith, as Jesus set us an example, what should we have left for self? Just what was left of the Burnt and Meat-offering; - nothing. Between God and man all would be consumed. A holy God and a needy world would require everything. I would that they, who think to earn heaven by their fulfilment of the law, might learn here what fulfilling the law comes to, and how far it is above and beyond them! The Burnt-offering and the Meat-offering together are God's standard of full obedience and what a picture do they give us! The first, the Burnt- offering, requiring perfectness in every member, and then the entire surrender of every member; the head, the inwards, the legs, all yielded up upon the altar. The next, the Meat-offering. though giving another aspect of devotedness, not a whit behind the Burnt-offering in entire self-surrender; witness the bruised corn, the oil, the frankincense, and the salt to savour it all. This is God's measure of devotedness; that is what satisfies Him. One, and but one, has thus satisfied Him; and in Him, and in Him alone, we may rejoice. (4.) The fourth point I notice in the Meat-offering is, that, though intended for, and for the most part consumed by, man, it was, nevertheless, "offered unto the Lord" ((verse 1). In this particular, as in every other, the Meat-offering has something well worth our notice. In the Meat-offering the offerer gives himself as man's meat; yet this is yielded as "an offering unto Jehovah." The offering indeed fed the priests; but it was offered, not to them, but to the Lord. The first Adam took for man not only what was given him, but what God had reserved for Himself. The second Adam gave to God not only God's portion, but even of man's part God had the first memorial. Jesus as man, in satisfying man's claim on Him, did it as "an offering unto the Lord." With us how much even of our graces is offered to man rather than to God. Even in our most devoted service, what a seeking there is, perhaps unconsciously, to be something in the estimation of others: some secret desire, some undetected wish, even by our very service to be greater here. The very gifts of God and the power of His Spirit are sought the better to give us a place in this world. Thus are our very graces used to obtain for us glory, not of God, but of those around us. Surely this is one of the reasons why God can trust us with so little, for with His gifts we build up our own name, instead of His name. But how unlike all this to our Master; yea, how unlike even to His apostles! "Neither of men," says Paul, "sought we glory, neither of you, nor yet of others" (1 Thes.2:16). This is our calling, not only to be nothing in the world, but to be willing to be nothing even among our brethren; to take the nearest place to Him who has indeed taken the lowest. And in these last days, when through abounding iniquity the love of many is waxing cold, - when the service which the time demands is the only service the Church will not accept, - Christ's example, as here seen in the Meat-offering, is one most precious to us. His service to His neighbour was always "an offering unto the Lord." Thus He gladly was spent for others, though the more He loved them, the less He was loved. May we be thus like Him, that so through grace we may be steadfast. If, on the other band, our labour of love is offered for man's acceptance, when man rejects us our labour will cease. And surely this is the secret of much of our half-hearted service. But let us when ministering to others, offer ourselves, like Jesus, "unto the Lord," and not unto man; then, though our love is here slighted, it will be accepted by Him to whom we offer it. We have thus marked FOUR particulars in which the Meat-offering DIFFERED from the OTHER offerings. FIRST, it was of a sweet savour; here it differed from the Sin and Trespass-offerings. Next it was fed upon by the priests; here, as well as in its materials, it differed from the Burnt-offering. Then again it left nothing for the offerer; here it differed from the Peace-offering. It now remains for me to point out: (5.) In the last place, the contrast between the Meat-offering and the offering of first fruits at Pentecost. The distinction is stated in the twelfth verse: - "As for the oblation of the first-fruits, ye shall offer them unto the Lord, but they shall not be burnt on the altar for a sweet savour." The contrast is this: - the Meat-offering was a sweet savour: the oblation of first-fruits, though very like the Meat-offering, was NOT so. For the key to this we must turn to Leviticus 23, where the law respecting "the oblation of first-fruits" is given to us. In that chapter we have a list of the Feasts. First in order comes the Passover, on the fourteenth day at even: (chap.23:5), then the wave-sheaf of first-fruits, on the morrow after the sabbath: (chap.23:11) and then, fifty days after; the oblation of the first-fruits on the day of Pentecost (chap.23:15-17). The "sheaf of first-fruits," on the morrow after the sabbath, might be burnt to the Lord as a sweet savour; (chap.2:14-16) but "the oblation of the firstfruits" at Pentecost might not be burnt on the altar (chap.2:12). The reason for this distinction is found in the fact, that "the sheaf of first-fruits" was unleavened, while "the oblation of first-fruits" at Pentecost was mixed and made with leaven (chap.23:17). The typical application of all this is too obvious to need any comment. Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us, and sacrificed on the predetermined day (John 18:28; 1 Cor.5:7). Then "on the morrow after the sabbath," the next ensuing sabbath, that is, on the appointed "first day of the week" (Mark 16:1,2); Christ "rose from the dead, and became the first fruits of them that slept" (1 Cor.15:20). (What most 7th day Sabbath observers do not understand correctly is, Jesus did indeed rise from the dead, NOT at the end of the weekly Sabbath, BUT within the first hours of the first day of the week, or what we call Saturday evening, AFTER the Sabbath had ended. This was the time when the Sadducees taught that the "wave sheaf" was to be cut, the first fruits of the Spring harvest, and then presented to God the next morning, being Sunday morning, or the first day of the week, in the Temple, as the first-fruits of the first harvest, offering to God. Jesus was the FIRST of the first-fruits to God, the first to rise from death to immortal life, hence typologically fitting that he should rise from the dead on the first day of the week. Typologically fitting also is that the Feast of Pentecost, the first harvest, of barley and wheat, now gathered in, should be on the first day of the week, for that feast represents the first harvest of God's elect and called and chosen sons and daughters to inherit His Kingdom, at the return of Jesus - 1 Cor.15 with 1 Thes.4:13-18. All of this I fully expound in various studies on my Website - Keith Hunt). In Him there was no sin, no leaven; He was in Himself a sweet savour to Jehovah. With this offering, therefore, no Sin-offering was coupled; it was offered only with a Burnt-offering and Meat-offering (chap.23:12,13). But fifty days after this, "when the day of Pentecost was fully come," the Church, typified by the leavened oblation of first-fruits, is offered unto the Lord: for we, as well as Jesus, are first-fruits; "we are," says James, "a kind of first-fruits of His creatures" (James 1:18). But this offering, having sin in it, being "mixed with leaven," could neither stand the test of the fire of the altar, nor be an offering made by fire of a sweet savour unto the Lord. Yet it was to be both offered and accepted: - "Ye shall offer it, but it shall not be burnt" (chap.2:12). And why, and how, was this leavened cake accepted? Something was offered "with it," for the sake of which the leavened first-fruits were accepted. They offered with the leavened bread a Burnt-offering, a Meat- offering, a Peace-offering, and a Sin-offering; (chap.23:18,19) for leaven being found in the oblation of first-fruits, a Sin-offering was needed with it. And the priest waved all together "the priest shall wave them with the bread of the firstfruits for a wave-offering before the Lord." The Church comes with Christ before God; it is offered with all the value of His work attached to it. In itself it cannot stand the trial of God's holiness, for no measure of oil can naturalise the leaven; but in Christ, and with Christ, and for Christ, it is accepted even as He is. Thus when the Church is presented to God, it comes not alone into His presence, but with the sweet savour of all that Christ has been for it, and with the witness that He has met its sin. It may be asked, perhaps, why the offering of the Church is represented by a Meat-offering, seeing this Offering has such special reference to the second table of the Decalogue? I answer, the Church is not always seen as a Meat-offering. It is on Pentecost that it appears in this aspect. There are in the law many types of the Church. She is seen as daughter in the father's house, as wife in the husband's; (Num.30) and further, she shares with Christ in many of His relations, as offering, as priest, as prophet, or as candlestick. But on Pentecost she is specially seen as a Meat-offering, that is, as man's portion, in active service towards a lost and needy world; because on that day she first stood forth in such service toward man, as taking her part with Christ in loving service to the sons of Adam. Then, "Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, strangers from Rome, Jews, Proselytes, Cretes, and Arabians," were fed by the service of those, who, though leavened, were yet an appointed and accepted Meat-offering. Such is the general character of the Meat-offering, as collected from the points in which it differs from the other offerings. I proceed now very briefly to examine it: II. IN ITS DIFFERENT GRADES OR VARIETIES. These are THREE in number... ............... TO BE CONTINUED Law of the Offerings #2cThe Grain Offering
|
No comments:
Post a Comment