by
Andrew Jukes
(iii) But further, in the sacrifice of Peace-offerings, the
offerer feasts with the priest (chap.7:32,33). The sacrificing
priest, as I have already observed, is always Christ, viewed in
His official character as Mediator.
We learn here how the offering, which He offered as man, feeds,
that is, satisfies Him, not only as man, but also as Mediator.
To understand this we must recollect and apprehend the varied
relations in which Christ stands connected with the offering;
for He appears for us in many offices, in more than one relation.
In connexion with the Offering alone, we see Him, as I have said,
in at least three characters. He stands as offerer, but He is
also the offering; and He who is both offerer and offering is
also priest. Yet each of these is a distinct relation; each gives
us a different thought of Christ.
As offerer He is presented to us as man: there is one in our
nature satisfying God. Thus in the offerer we rather see Christ's
person: it is a man standing for men.
The offering gives us another thought. It is not Himself, so much
as what He did. Here it is not His person, so much as His work
and character, which the type brings before us.
The priest again is even more distinct. It is Christ in His
office as Mediator: here it is neither Christ's person nor His
work, but one of His offices, that is presented to us.
Now, if this simple distinction be apprehended, as I think it
must be more or less by every Christian, it will be manifest that
there are things true of Christ in one relation which are by no
means true of Him in another. For instance, His intercession for
us is as priest. As the offering, He does not intercede; as lamb,
He dies for us. So again as priest and offerer, He is fed; as the
lamb, as the offering, He is not fed. Now there are offerings in
which the priest finds food, but from participating in which the
offerer is excluded: some of the Sin-offerings are of this latter
character, for in them the priest is fed, while the offerer has
nothing.
The Sin-offerings, as we shall see more fully in the sequel, are
man satisfying offended justice. They are not man giving
something sweet to God, but man receiving from God in his
offering the penalty of sin. These Sin-offerings supply food to
the priest (chap. 6:25-30) that is, Christ as Mediator finds
satisfaction in them, but they afford Him no food as man the
offerer: as man in them He only confesses sin. The priest, God's
official servant, is satisfied, because offended justice is
vindicated: but man, who pays the penalty in his offering, finds
no satisfaction in the act.
The Peace-offering gives us a very different view of the
offering. In it man, as well as the priest, is satisfied. In
bearing the penalty of sin, that is, in the Sin-offering, man
found no satisfaction. But he does find it in the sacrifice of
Peace-offerings: here he shares the offering with God. Nor is the
priest excluded from this offering: the Peace-offering feeds him
too. If, as priest, Christ found satisfaction in the
Sin-offering, that offering which only vindicated offended
justice, we might expect to find Him equally satisfied in the
offering which fed both God and man. And the Peace-offering
reveals that it is so.
God and man feast in peace together; and the Priest, the common
friend of both, seeing them satisfied, is Himself satisfied also.
How blessed is the thought here revealed to us! How does it open
to us the heart of Christ, the joy which He feels as Mediator in
seeing communion instituted between God and man! Surely we lose
not a little in our communion, if we forget the joy which the
Mediator finds in it; if we overlook the satisfaction which He
experiences when He sees man at peace with God. He who knows the
full value of the offering, never forgets that by it the priest
is fed. And if the presence of beloved friends enhances the
sweetness of each earthly blessing; and if the absence of those
we love makes the full cup lose half its enjoyment; how much must
it enhance our joy to know that He who loves us is feasting with
us ... This I know, Christ never forgets that when He feasts, He
feasts with us. Even yet He says, as once of old, "With desire I
desire to eat this sacrifice with you" (Luke 22:15).
Shall we, then, have no thought of His joy; shall we forget the
satisfaction He finds in the offering? Those who can do this have
as yet learnt but little of the Peace-offering; for in the
Peace-offering the Priest is fed.
(iv) But the type takes us further still, and shews us the
Priest's children also sharing with the offerer in the
Peace-offering (chap.7:31,32, compared with Num.18:9-11). They,
too, as well as the offerer, the priest, and God, find
satisfaction in this blessed offering. Our first question here,
of course, must be, - Who are represented by the Priest's
children?
We have already seen that the Priest is Christ; Christ viewed in
His official character as Mediator. His children, that is, His
family, are therefore the Church; but the Church viewed in one
particular aspect. The Church, like her blessed Lord, stands both
to God and man in more than one relation; and each of these
different relations requires in the type a different emblem. This
we have abundantly seen is true of Christ: but it is no less true
of the Church, His body. For instance, just as the varied
pictures we have considered, - the offering, the priest, the
offerer, - all shew out our blessed Lord, while yet each shews
Him in a different character; so in like manner is it with the
Church also. She, too, has varied relations, which require varied
emblems.
In one we see her in service for God; in another in communion
with Him. Israel, as the chosen nation, represents the Church as
"the peculiar people," looked at simply as the seed of Abraham,
and as such, in covenant with God. The Levites give us a
different thought: they shew us the Church in service; as
ministering for God before men, carrying His ark, and caring for
His tabernacle.
(I may observe here that both Priests and Levites are types of
the whole Church, not of a part of it. We are told that by God's
express command "the Levites were not numbered among the children
of Israel." (Numbers 1:47,54, and 2:33). By this appointment the
tribe of Levi was purposely separated, so that it might not be
looked at merely as a part of Israel. Thus it constitutes a
distinct picture, and shews a distinct relation of the Church).
The family of Priests give us yet another thought. Here we have
the Church in communion with God, - as the seed of the High
Priest and Mediator, sharing with Him in His access to God and in
intercession; having a right to stand in the holy place, where no
eye sees them but God's.
If this be seen, it will sufficiently reveal the import of the
Priest's children feeding on the Peace-offering. Their share in
the sacrifice shews us the Church in communion, sharing with the
Offerer in the satisfaction afforded by the Offering. To me this
is a blessed thought, marking the extent and efficacy of this
precious offering. Just as of old he that really feasted with God
in the Peace-offering, could not do so without sharing with God's
priests; so now communion with God, if enjoyed at all, must be
shared with all in communion with Him. This is no question of
choice: it cannot be otherwise; for he that is in communion with
God must be in communion also with all whom He communes with.
We may indeed be accepted in the Beloved, while yet we do not
know our calling, or the relationship which exists in Christ
between us and all His redeemed worshippers. But it is impossible
to realize our standing in Christ, as offerers and partakers in
Him of the Peace-offering, without finding that the Offering in
which we rejoice links us with the joy of all God's spiritual
priesthood.
And here let me observe in connexion with this particular, that
it is possible for believers to find satisfaction in the offering
as priest's children, when through ignorance of their union with
Christ as the Offerer, they find no satisfaction as offerers in
Him of the Peace-offering ... But even of those who do know the
power of redemption, and who have fed on the offerings of the
Lord, how few know that meat save as priests; how few apprehend
it as offerers of the Peace-offering! I would that all saints fed
as priest's children, but not less that they fed as offerers in
Christ. To find satisfaction as priest's children in the
offering, we need not know our oneness with Christ as Offerer. It
is enough to see that He as the faithful Israelite has offered,
and that we as priest's children have a claim on the sacrifice.
But this measure of apprehension will not suffice to make us
realize our share in the Peace-offering as offerers. To know that
Christ as Offerer has offered, will not give us the food which
belongs to the offerer, unless we apprehend our oneness with Him,
that He stood for us, that we are "in Him" ... Thank God, if we
know our priesthood, this relation alone will provide us meat:
for another has satisfied God, and His priests may feed with
Him. But while we do this, and rejoice in this relation, may the
Lord lead us on to see yet another, that our place is also "in
Christ" as Offerer, and that we have satisfied God in Him ...
There is a particular connected with participation in the
Peace-offering, which is incidentally mentioned here, and which
we must not overlook; namely, that none, even though of the
Priest's family, could eat of the offering unless they were clean
(chap.7:20). There is a difference between being a priest and
being clean. The fact of a man's contracting some defilement did
not prove him to be no priest. On the contrary, the rules
respecting clean and unclean were only for God's elect. This is
very important truth. May the Lord make us all understand it
better.
It teaches us that it is one thing to be a priest; another thing
to be a clean priest; yet the unclean priest, if of the chosen
seed, is still in the covenant, and on very different ground from
the seed of strangers. The Israelite, who through contact with
uncleanness, might for a while be excluded from the Tabernacle,
could at any time be restored again by using the appointed
washings. Still his uncleanness for the time made him as a
stranger, and cut him off from the meat of God.
The details of the law on this point (see Lev.22:1-7) are well
worthy our deepest attention. We learn that "leprosy" or "the
running issue " excluded even a son of Aaron from the camp; the
period of his exclusion depending on the time during which the
disease was manifest. "Leprosy" and "the running issue" were both
breakings out of the flesh, breakings out which were manifest to
others, though manifested differently. They typify those out-
breaks of the flesh in the Christian which are too flagrant to be
hid from others. The appointed discipline for these, now as of
old, is temporary exclusion from the camp (1 Cor.5:13).
During this period the priest's child was still a priest; but to
little purpose, for he was cut off from the altar. But there were
defilements of a less manifest character than leprosy, less
discernible by the eyes of man, which yet brought with them
temporary uncleanness, and with it temporary exclusion from the
Tabernacle. If a child of the priest touched any dead thing, or
anything which was unclean by contact with the dead; or if he
touched any creeping thing whereby he might be made unclean, or a
man of whom he might take uncleanness, the law was express,
- "The soul that hath touched any such shall be unclean until the
even, and shall not eat of the holy things unless he wash his
flesh with water."
A spiritual priest may in like manner contract defilement, and so
have his communion hindered. If our spirits (for this
dispensation is spiritual, not carnal,) come in contact with the
spirit of the world, if its dead things are felt to touch us, if
its creeping things affect our souls, no visible impression may
be left to be seen by others, while yet we ourselves may feel our
communion hindered. At such a time we may not, under a penalty of
judgment (compare Lev.7:20,21, and 1 Cor.11:29) approach that
which at other times is our food. Thank God, contact with the
unclean, though it hinders our sense of communion, cannot remove
the blood of the covenant. That still remains before God. We may
not see it perhaps; He always sees it. Yet who would willingly be
the unclean priest, cut off from participation with the altar;
his days lost to God and to His tabernacle; his food eaten in the
dark? (He might not eat it until after sunset. See Lev.22:7).
Such are the chief particulars in which the Peace-offering
differed from the other offerings. It was the sweet-savour
offering in which not only God was satisfied, but in which man
and the priest found satisfaction also.
I now pass on to observe,
II. THE DIFFERENT GRADES OR VARIETIES WHICH ARE OBSERVED IN THIS
OFFERING.
...............
TO BE CONTINUED
The great Peace-offering, in which ALL parties eat and partake
together. So it is with God our Father, Jesus His Son and our
Elder brother, and all the Priest's children (Jesus as the High
Priest of His children - His brothers and sisters) - the body or
church of Christ. All partake together in that which the Father
wants to share with all who will surrender their will to Him, and
who will say "not my will be done, but Your will be done" - the
example set for us in so doing by Him who was from the Godhead,
and came to earth to do the Father's will - Jesus the Christ.
All can, if they will, be partakers with the Father of all that
He has. All can, if they will but humble themselves in
repentance, and accept Jesus as personal Savior, be the VERY Sons
and daughters of the Eternal God (2 Cor.6:14-18). If you have not
done so, you need to study and meditate on the articles I've
written on "Repentance" - "Saving Faith" - "Saved by Grace" -
"Baptism" and "A Christian's Destiny."
You need to come to know the truth of why you were created and
what the heavenly Father wants to give you, for all eternity -
Keith Hunt.
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