by
Andrew Jukes
TRESPASS-offering - concluding part:
(3.) In the Trespass-offering we get restitution, full
restitution for the original wrong. The amount of the injury,
according to the priest's valuation of it is paid in shekels of
the sanctuary to the injured person (chap.5:15).
The thought here is not that trespass is punished, but that the
injured party is repaid the wrong.
The payment was in shekels: these "shekels of the sanctuary" were
the appointed standard by which God's rights were measured; (see
Ex.30:13,24; 33:24,25; Lev.27:3,25; Num.3:47,50; 18:16) as it is
said, "And all thy estimation shall be according to the shekel of
the sanctuary" (Lev.27:25). Thus they represent the truest
measure. God's standard by which He weighs all things. By this
standard the trespass is weighed, and then the value paid to the
injured person.
And God and man, though wronged by trespass, each receive as much
again from man IN Christ through the Trespass-offering. God was
injured by trespass in His holy things, His rights unpaid, His
claim slighted: for man was ofttimes a robber, taking for himself
the fat or life, God's claim in the offerings. Thus, if I may so
say, God through man was a loser: but at the hands of Christ the
loss has been repaid: and whatever was lost through man in the
First Adam, has been made up to the full in the Second Adam.
Whether honour, service, worship, or obedience, whatever God
could claim, whatever man could rob Him of, all this has He
received again from man IN Christ, "according to the priest's
estimation in shekels of the sanctuary." But man also was injured
by trespass; and he too, receives as much again. Christ for man
as offerer of the Trespass-offering, must offer to injured man
the value of the original injury. And such as accept His
offering, find their loss through man's trespass more than paid.
Has trespass wronged scan of life, peace, or gladness, he may
claim and receive through Christ repayment. For man to man, as
for man to God, Christ stands the One in whom man's wrongs are
remedied. The wrong done to God has been met. God clearly is
no loser now by trespass. And the wrong done to man is no less
paid for. Man need not, more than a God, be a loser.
(4.) But this is not all. Not only is the original wrong paid,
but a fifth part more is paid with it in the Trespass-offering
(chap.5:16; 6:5). Not only is the original claim, of which God
and man had been wronged, satisfied but something more, "a
fifth," is added with it.
And first, what of the amount? It is "a fifth part." To find the
import of this, we must again go back to Genesis. If I mistake
not, the first place in Scripture where "the fifth" is mentioned,
will lead us to apprehend its import. The particulars will be
found in the history of Joseph. Briefly, the facts are these.
Before the great seven years' famine, though Egypt was Pharaoh's
land, and the Egyptians his people, yet both were independent of
him in some way which evidently was not the case afterwards.
This we gather from the fact that after the famine "a fifth,"
never paid before, was paid to Pharaoh, in token that both land
and people were Pharaoh's by another claim. We read that "when
that year was ended, the Egyptians came to Joseph the second
year, and said unto him, We will not hide it from my lord, how
that our money is spent; my lord also hath our herds of cattle:
there is not ought left in the sight of my lord, but our bodies
and our lands: wherefore shall we die before thine eyes, both we
and our land? Buy us and our land for bread, and we and our land
will be servants unto Pharaoh: and give us seed, that we may
live, and not die, that the land be not desolate. And Joseph
bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh; for the Egyptians sold
every man his field, because the famine prevailed over them: so
the land became Pharaoh's. Then Joseph said unto the people,
Behold, I have bought you this day, and your land, for Pharaoh:
lo, here is seed for you, and ye shall sow the land. And it shall
come to pass, in the increase, that ye shall give the FIFTH part
to Pharaoh, and four parts shall be your own. And they said, Thou
hast saved our lives: let us find grace in the sight of my lord,
and we will be Pharaoh's servants. And Joseph made it a law over
the land of Egypt unto this day, that Pharaoh should have the
FIFTH part; except the land of the priests only, which became not
Pharaoh's" (Gen.47:18-26).
We see here that "the fifth part" paid to Pharaoh, was the
acknowledgment that all had been forfeited to through misery.
We learn, too, that in whatever way the Egyptians had been his
people heretofore, they were now, through their need, made his by
another claim. Accordingly, the payment of "a fifth" hence-
forward, wherever we meet with it in Scripture (it is only found
in the law of the Trespass-offering, Leviticus 5 and 6; and in
the law concerning vows or dedicated things, Leviticus 27. In
both cases evidently the purpose is the same) is the ack-
nowledgment that the person paying it has lost and forfeited that
whereof "the fifth" was offered. It is a witness not only that
the sum or thing yielded up, has been yielded of necessity, as a
debt, not as a free but that the whole of that whereof the fifth
was paid, was the right and property of him to whom its "fifth "
was rendered. Thus its import in the Trespass-offering seals the
character of the offering, testifying that what was given was
indeed a debt and not a free gift.
(If I mistake not, this "fifth" is also connected with the tenth
or tithe; the filth being two tenths, or a double tithe. One
tenth was paid by God's people before anything was forfeited in
any way, as the acknowledgment that he to whom it was paid had a
claim on all that of which a tenth was offered. But after a thing
was forfeited by vow or trespass, (Lev.27 and 5 and 6) we find
that a fifth or double tithe was rendered. By the law in Exodus
22:4,7,9, any act of trespass gave him who had been trespassed
against a double claim, or rather a claim to double the amount of
the original wrong or injury inflicted on him. Thus when trespass
had been committed and confessed, "the fifth" was paid as the
acknowledgment of the double claim. But this only by the way, as
marking, if I mistake not, the connexion between the "tithe " and
the "fifth part").
But while this was the import of giving "the fifth part," yet by
the addition of this fifth the injured party became in truth a
gainer. So far from losing by trespass, he received more back
again: and this is what we have now to consider. Wonderful indeed
are the ways of God: how unsearchable are His counsels and
wisdom! Who would have thought that from the entrance of
trespass, both God and man should in the end be gainers. But so
it is. From man IN Christ both God and man have received back
more than they were robbed of. All things are indeed of God; yet
it is from man IN Christ, and this in consequence of trespass,
that God, according to His wondrous purpose, receives back more
than that of which sin had robbed Him. In this sense, "where sin
abounded," yea, and because sin abounded, grace did more
abound." Just as in the case above alluded to, which I doubt not
is typical, and typical, if I mistake not, of very kindred truth,
the effect of the famine and misery on the Egyptians was to give
Pharaoh a claim not possessed before; so the effect of the
entrance of TRESPASS has been to give the injured person, whether
GOD or MAN, a claim on the person and property of the trespasser,
which before trespass entered was all unknown.
I would to God this were more fully seen. We should then oftener
hear of grace, of rights more seldom: nor should we so often see
Christians shrinking from that which we call grace, but to the
exercise of which we are nevertheless most surely debtors. But to
explain this: - Before trespass entered, God only claimed His
part or right. He had a right to holy things as His portion, and
these He looked for from man. But since trespass has entered, His
claim is more: the original right and the fifth part added. "The
fifth" was, as we have seen, the token how much had been
forfeited by the trespasser. Its payment testified that he to
whom it was given had now not only his original right, but a
still further claim upon him who wronged him.
Thus God's claim through trespass is greater and the same is true
with regard to man's claim.
Before trespass entered, man too had his claim: that claim was
his right, that claim was justice. But since trespass has
entered, his claim is more: more than his right is now his claim
from the trespasser. The fact that God has been wronged by man,
and that Christ stands FOR man confessing trespasses, gives God a
claim upon Him, not only for the ORIGINAL right, but for MORE
than the first claimed holy things.
So, too, because man has been injured by man, and because Christ
STANDS FOR man as his SUBSTITUTE, therefore man, injured by
trespass, has a claim on Christ, not for the original right only,
but for greater blessings.
And this claim Christ never refuses: nor are those in Christ free
to shrink from it. They, too, as "in Him," are called, yea, and
they are debtors, to deal in grace far beyond the claim of
justice.
The world may think that to mete out justice is the highest path
of which man is capable. But Christ has shown a higher still; and
"he that abideth in Him is called to walk as He walked" (1 John
2:6). Such a path, of course, as every other step after Christ,
if followed, will surely cost us something.
But costly things become king's children: we are rich enough to
lose this world. May the Lord make His people know their calling,
and conform them to Him in grace even as in glory! But I will not
pursue this here, as further on I must again touch it in its
bearing on the believer's walk. I merely add therefore, - "
Christ set us an example:" (! Peter 2:21) and He yielded, not
merely rights, but grace, to every man.
Thus much then, for what is specially characteristic of the
Trespass-offering, and as marking where it differs from the other
offerings.
It only remains to notice:
THE VARIETIES or GRADES in THIS OFFERING
These are fewer than in any other offering, teaching us that
those who apprehend this aspect of Christ's work, will apprehend
it all very much alike. Doubtless, the cause of this lies in the
nature of trespass, as it stands distinct from sin. It will be
remembered, that in the Sin-offering the varieties were most
numerous and that because sin in us may be, and is, so
differently apprehended; but trespass, the act of wrong
committed, if seen at all, can scarce be seen differently.
Accordingly, we find but one small variety in the Trespass-
offering, for I can scarce regard the two different aspects of
trespass as varieties. These aspects are:
FIRST, trespasses against God (chap.5:15-19) and then trespasses
against our neighbour; (chap.6:1-7) but this distinction is more
like the difference between the offerings, than the varieties in
the different grades of the same. It simply points out distinct
bearings of trespass, for which in each case the atonement seen
is precisely similar.
There is, however, one small yet remarkable difference between
the two grades of the offering for wrongs in holy things. In the
FIRST grade, which gives us the fullest view of the offering, we
read of the "life laid down," "the restitution made," and the
"fifth part added." But in the lower class, the last of these is
unnoticed: "the fifth part" is quite unseen (compare verses
15,16, which contain the higher grade, with verses 17,18, which
give the lower).
And how true this is in the experience of Christians. Where the
measure of apprehension is full there not only the life laid
down, and the restitution made in the Trespass-offering, but all
the truth also which is taught in the "fifth part," will be seen
as a consequence of trespass and a part of the Trespass-
offering. Not so, however, where the apprehension is limited:
here there is no addition seen beyond the amount of the original
trespass.
But I hasten to conclude these Notes on the distinctive character
of the Offerings. We have considered them separately; but we must
never forget that though there are "different" ASPECTS, there is
but ONE Offering. Jesus, our blessed Lord, by His one oblation of
Himself once offered for ever, has perfectly met, and perfectly
satisfied, and that for us who believe, all that these emblems
typify.
I know that saints do not, and cannot see all the aspects of His
Offering equally; but God sees all, and sees it "for us." In this
surely we may rest. Blessed indeed is it so to grow in grace that
we can "apprehend that for which we are apprehended:" but after
all, the joy is this, that we are indeed apprehended. And though
our knowledge of what is Christ's and ours is still small, the
day that is coming shall reveal it. Then when that which is
perfect is come, our present knowledge, which is but in part,
shall be done away. Blessed Lord, hasten Thy coming, to gladden
with Thine own presence those whom Thou hast saved with Thy
blood!
.................
Friends, if you can get passed the old prose and verbal
sentencing of the older English that was in use in Jukes' day,
you will have seen a wealth of insight into the laws of the
offerings. That even in God having to bring in (which was not His
original intent - Jeremiah 7:21-23) a detailed system of
sacrifice offerings for the people and priesthood of ancient
Israel, there was GREAT topological meaning to every part of it.
The insights and understandings in the typology of the offerings
has, I believe, been finely explained by Andrew Jukes. I know not
any more of this man, than this book he wrote. But I am grateful
that he wrote it. I also believe the Eternal God inspired him to
expound these details for us and for our edification.
This is not the conclusion of Jukes' work on the law of the
offerings. The concluding part is an over-view, or as he named
the last chapter of his book - "The Offerings as a Whole" and
what it all portends for us as Christians and as children of the
Most High God, our heavenly Father - Keith Hunt
TO BE CONTINUED
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