The Offerings in Leviticus 1 - 7
– Their Typical Teaching
Ministry by C. A. Coates – Part Five

What we get here about the offerings has its place in the forty-nine days during which the cloud rested on the tabernacle. see Numbers 10: 11; a time typical of the complete period of tabernacle service in the wilderness.

The instruction in Leviticus is for us; it is doubtful if the children of Israel ever carried it out.

• In a coming day when Israel's heart turns to the Lord they will enter into the meaning of these types. The veil will then be taken away from their heart, and they will read Moses, seeing the Lord as the end of the old covenant, and the Spirit of all the Old Testament Scriptures.

• In the meantime, saints of the assembly, being in the good of the ministry of the Spirit and of righteousness, are able to read the old covenant without a veil, and find their affections quickened in the apprehension of the Lord as the Spirit of it all.

• Nor do I doubt that the church's apprehension of these types has a fulness and expansion which goes beyond what Israel will apprehend in the coming day.

God speaks from the "tent of meeting"; the appointed centre to which His people gathered, where He met them, and where they came into contact with one another in relation to His things. The communication of His mind was found there.

"The assembling of ourselves together", Hebrews 10: 25, answers, I think, to the "tent of meeting". We also get many references to saints coming together in 1 Corinthians 11, 14.

• Saints are taught of God to love one another, and if this divine teaching were not neutralized by human influences it would bring all christians together in every city, town, or village where they are found. The "tent of meeting" would thus have its antitype in every local assembly.

• Things are very broken today, but it is still possible, through infinite mercy, for saints to come together as loving one another in relation to God, and as they do so they get instruction and enlargement in the knowledge of God.

• He has great pleasure in seeing His saints together in love; it sets Him free to communicate His mind to them.

If we think of our own times it is as saints have come together in love to one another as being of God's assembly that there have been communications of God's mind; great light has been given in regard to Christ and the assembly.

• We ought to recognize that the privilege of the "tent of meeting" has been restored in these last days. Saints can come together as saints, and in the truth of their relations with God and with one another, and this in the wilderness.

• If believers disregard the "tent of meeting" they will not get much increase of divine light, and what they possess of Christ will not be available for the common good, or for God's praise in the assembly of His saints.

The "tent of meeting" suggests the coming together of saints according to divine order, not human arrangement or organization.

• The word translated "meeting" means what is set or appointed; it is used of the feasts of Jehovah, Leviticus 23, and other divinely-appointed occasions.

• To have the good of the tent of meeting it is not enough that saints should be together in one room. They must be together in accord with divine principles, and the truth of God's assembly.

• Every principle connected with divine order in the assembly is really essential to the safeguarding and development of spiritual affections. There must be holy conditions if God is to meet His people.

• If saints are at variance with one another they must settle their differences before they can really "come together". We cannot offer at the altar if we remember that our brother has aught against us. We could not be there in the undistracted appreciation of Christ.

• If we speak of being gathered together to the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ it necessitates that ourselves and our associations must be suitable to that Name.

These early chapters of Leviticus have to do with movements of heart towards God on the part of His people. They suppose that Christ has been received, for if one is not in possession of Christ he has nothing to bring.

• The morning and evening lamb of the continual burnt-offering. Exodus 29: 38-46 give us rather the divine side – the burnt-offering in its abiding and unchanging perfection as the ground on which God meets His people, and speaks to them, and dwells with them.
  • "A continual burnt-offering throughout your generations".

• It is necessary to be established in the grace of that before we contemplate what is before us in these chapters.

But on our side we have been the subjects of divine working, and the result of this is that certain exercises have been produced in our souls to which Christ is the answer.

1. One exercise is as to acceptance, and Christ as the burnt-offering is the answer to that.

2. Another is with regard to perfection in an object for the heart, and the meat-offering is Christ as the answer to that exercise.

3. A third is with reference to fellowship, and the peace-offering is Christ in relation to that.

4. And, lastly, there are exercises arising from the humbling discovery of what is in ourselves, and the consciousness of our own failure, to which the answer is Christ as the sin-offering.

• All God's called ones have these exercises; I believe the germ of them is inherent in that divine teaching which all His people have; though there may be with many saints a lack of spiritual diligence to follow them up, and to gain Christ as the answer to them.

• Our acquisition of divine wealth depends on the diligence with which we pursue the exercises which God gives us. In proportion as they are followed up, and Christ apprehended in relation to them, we have material for offerings, and are able to take part in the service of God according to His pleasure.

The consideration of this will make it apparent that every acceptable offering has cost the offerer something. David said,

• "I will not take that which is thine for Jehovah, to offer up a burnt-offering without cost", 1 Chronicles 21: 24.

• It is true that, in a very blessed sense, the gospel furnishes us with everything. It brings Christ to us in all His fulness and perfection, and by the hearing of faith we receive the Spirit.

• But there is a history of exercise behind every true acquisition of Christ, so that the soul has a real sense of the value of what it has gained. See Proverbs 23: 23; Revelation 3: 18.

• As to what grace has made available for us, there is no difference and no limitation; it is the infinite fulness and blessedness of Christ.

• But as to the actual wealth of souls in the knowledge of Christ many of us are far short of the full measure of grace. Many of God's people have not had
  • "the fulness of the blessing of Christ", Romans 15: 29,

• presented to them, and many others who have been more favoured in this respect have only received in their souls a small part of what has been set before them. Hence there are different measures of apprehension of Christ, and no one can bring more than he has got.

• The consideration of this is very exercising, for it raises the question as to how much I can bring to the "tent of meeting" as an offerer? If my offering is small, is it that my heart has not been prepared for the cost at which a larger one might have been acquired?

I have often thought of the people we read of in the Gospels who came on the scene with appreciation of Christ. What a volume of spiritual history lies behind the record of each incident!

• Would you not like, for instance, to get alongside the woman of Luke 7 – we shall in courts above – and ask her how she was led to such a blessed appreciation of Christ?

• And there was a corresponding history in the case of each man and woman who came to light as having an appreciation of Him. A similar history of divine instruction and spiritual acquisition lies behind each offering that we bring to the tent of meeting.

• Of course it is ever true, as David said,
  • "All is of thee, and of that which is from thy hand have we given thee".

• It was God's, and through grace it has become ours, and now we bring it back to God for His pleasure and service.

There is a beautiful word in Jeremiah 30: 21-22.

• "Who is this that engageth his heart to approach unto me? saith the Lord. And ye shall be my people, and I will be your God".

• As the blessedness of the covenant is known we shall surely engage our hearts to approach God. It is delightful to God to see His people, moved by His known grace and love, thus engaging their hearts.

• God has engaged Himself to us in the most blessed way, and the effect of our knowing it is that we engage our hearts to approach Him both as offerers and priests. May it be ever more so with us, to His glory and praise!

The offerer in this chapter has the consciousness that he approaches God in divine favour.

• In the priest we see typically a further thought, for he had been washed, clothed in holy garments, anointed and consecrated. All this suggests moral suitability to God; a state in which God can be complacent. Such can minister in holy things for God's pleasure.

• And then in Aaron's "sons" there may be a hint that it is our privilege to be with God in the relationship of sons for the satisfaction of His love.

• Saints are entitled to be offerers, priests, and sons; they are three different thoughts. But the ground on which we can approach with acceptance as offerers, or serve acceptably as priests, or taste the blessedness of acceptance in the Beloved as sons, is the perfection of Christ and the infinite value of His death.

"He shall present it a male without blemish: at the entrance of the tent of meeting shall he present it, for his acceptance before Jehovah", Leviticus 1: 3.

• The offerer is possessed of perfection, and brings it to God with holy delight; all his thoughts of acceptance centre in Another in whom is found unblemished personal excellence.

• He is entirely on the ground of Christ; he "leans with his hand" on the bullock. What could be more blessed than to come near to God with one's hand upon Christ! To be consciously identified with Him, the heart having possessed itself of Him, and having no thought of any other?

• Unblemished perfection is there, God's full delight in Man, and this brought into the world in that holy and glorious Person to furnish through His death acceptance of a most blessed nature for men.

• So that, as to acceptance, we have but One to consider, and the heart engages itself with Him, and with Him only, in its movements Godward.

And, blessed be God, it is possible for us to do so in the deepest spiritual reality. We do not need to hide from ourselves the truth as to what we are according to the flesh.

• "It shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him".

• The word "to make atonement for him" suggests that there is that in the man himself which is unsuited to be brought near to God. All that we were as in the flesh was unfit for His eye to rest upon, but the only way in which we consider it, when serving God, is as having been covered – nay, more than covered, absolutely removed – in the death of Christ to His glory.

• No self-deception darkens the heart as we draw near, for we realize that holy love has taken its own way to judge and remove all that we were.

• We fully own what existed on our part, but the great and blessed fact that we engage our hearts with is that even that has brought to view in a glorious way the perfections and love of the Son of God.

• He has given Himself for us, and our hearts are entitled to dwell on this, and they delight to dwell on it, in the presence of God. And if I know Christ for my own acceptance, I view all my brethren in the same light, and this gives them a wonderful place in my heart. Indeed, the way we regard our brethren reveals where we are in our own souls.

The offerer kills the bullock, and flays it, and cuts it up into pieces. Verses 5, 6. What holy and spiritual exercises are here suggested!

• Saints drawing near to God with true and Spirit-given thoughts of the death of Christ; with intelligent and adoring hearts that realize something of its blessed character and meaning as manifesting the obedience, devotedness, love and glory of that One Man who has lain in death for the glory of God, and to accomplish His will!

• How that death has revealed the perfection of all the inward and hidden parts of Christ! Every detail of thought and feeling and purpose and judgment perfect! All can be uncovered without any discovery of imperfection, even when tested by the absolute purity of God's testimonies – washed in water.

• Every divine testimony as to what is suitable to God in the state of man inwardly found its full answer in the hidden parts of that blessed One. How delightful it is to God to be served by those who come to Him with the appreciation of all this in their hearts!

• And what deep consciousness of acceptance fills the hearts of those who approach, identified in thought and affection with the preciousness of Christ!

• Many can look back to a moment when they touched this joy, but it is not maintained with them because they have not cultivated those movements of heart Godward in which the consciousness of acceptance is renewed and deepened.

But if we approach God with the appreciation of Christ in our hearts it involves the displacement of self.

• We must be prepared to be tested by Christ. Are we prepared to have all laid bare? To have thoughts and motives as well as words and acts all judged in the light of what He was? He could say,
  • "I seek not mine own glory".

• It was at all points a giving up of Himself for the glory of God. As we enter into that it must affect us morally.

But saints are privileged to be priests as well as offerers. These types run one into another; the man in conscious acceptance becomes a priest, for he only has it in nearness to God, and one who is there is a priest.

• God's original thought was not a separate priestly family, but that all Israel should be
  • "a kingdom of priests", Exodus 19: 6.

• And it is remarkable that we find priests in Israel before the calling and consecration of Aaron and his sons. See Exodus 19: 22.
  • "And the priests also, who come near to Jehovah, shall hallow themselves".

• There was no official order of priesthood as yet, but there were those who came near to Jehovah, and all such were priests morally. Moses was really a greater priest than Aaron, for he enjoyed personally greater nearness to God. Hence it is written,
  • "Moses and Aaron among his priests", Psalm 99: 6.

• It is most blessed that God should have brought us to Himself, not merely for our deliverance and happiness, but that we might minister to Him as priests for His pleasure. And every movement of heart that ministers to God's pleasure must be concerned with CHRIST.

• The priest in the early chapters of Leviticus is not Aaron, but one of his sons, so that he is not typical of Christ but of spiritual persons who can take up things with spiritual intelligence for God's pleasure.

• It is the privilege of all saints to be priests, but even if all are not in priestly state the gain of the tent of meeting is that all, in a way, get the benefit of the priestly element. It would hardly be the tent of meeting if there were no priestly element there, and if there, it is there for the good of all, as well as for the pleasure of God.

• It has been said that the most spiritual person in a meeting – whether brother or sister – gives character to the meeting. Every spiritual person contributes that which tends to make others spiritual.

Each individual brings his offering – his apprehension and appreciation of Christ – but the fact that all bring their offerings to a common meeting-place would indicate that the bearing of it is collective.

• Whatever individual exercises we may have, they are all intended to be contributory to what is collective.

I suppose we all look to get some good out of our personal exercises and discipline, but it is well to have before us that the saints are to benefit by the fruit of those exercises. The assembly is the centre to which all the varied lines of private exercise converge.

• We may see this even as to the sin-offering exercise which is brought before us in Psalm 51. It leads to what is collective – the good of Zion, and the building of the walls of Jerusalem.

• And it indicates, too, that if one goes through a sin-offering exercise with God it ends with a burnt-offering.
  • "Then shalt thou have sacrifices of righteousness, burnt-offering, and whole burnt-offering; then shall they offer up bullocks upon thine altar".

There is priestly ability in spiritual persons to take up every apprehension of Christ and present it to God in praise so that it is fragrant before Him, and at the same time is helped and enlarged in the souls of the saints. Thus the service ministers to God's pleasure, and at the same time edifies the saints.

• The assembly is the place to increase spiritual wealth, for the apprehension of Christ which each has brought there becomes available for all. So that each time we come together we should become richer in the knowledge of Christ, and thus able to bring larger offerings.

• One delights to think of the assembly as a spiritual commonwealth. The wealth of the assembly is the aggregate of what is known of Christ in every heart. Spiritual men can bring there a large appreciation of Christ, but as it finds expression it becomes available for the enrichment of all, as well as for the service and pleasure of God.

The priest is one with spiritual intelligence, and apprehension of what is for God. He has spiritual affections and capability, and knows how to handle what is pleasurable to God.

• He presents the blood – the witness of death; he has the sense that Christ has been in death entirely for the will and pleasure of God.
  • "I come to do thy will, O God".

• This does not weaken the sense of acceptance; it intensifies it by connecting it with God's pleasure and glory, and this is a great enlargement. With what unbounded liberty and delight can we approach God when we realize that our acceptance is according to His pleasure in Christ!

• In Exodus, as we have observed, the altar is the place where continual sweet odour affords the basis on which God ever meets His people, and speaks in grace to them. See Exodus 29: 42-43.

• But in Leviticus it is the place of offering on our side. It is Christ viewed as the One by whom every spiritual sacrifice is offered to God. See Hebrews 13: 15 and 1 Peter 2: 5.

• Not only is Christ the Substance of every offering, but He is also the Altar. This secures divine holiness, for the altar is
  • "holiness of holinesses; whatever toucheth the altar shall be holy", Exodus 29: 37.

• All must be brought to the test, and to the blessedness; of God's Anointed Man. Nor would a true heart wish it to be otherwise.

Every spiritual apprehension of Christ can be brought to the Altar, for it is holy, but nothing can be placed on the Altar that does not accord with it.

• The best sentiment of the natural mind, even in regard to Christ, could not be placed there for a moment. Nothing really has any place in the service of God, or in the assembly of God, that is not in keeping with Christ as the Altar.

• The altar being "at the entrance of the tent of meeting" intimates that we come there with a profound sense of the holiness of God, and that it is essential that every movement should be in accord with Christ, and with His cross and death.

• Nothing that is spiritually unreal can be placed on the Altar. It is possible to use expressions which are not the genuine language of the heart at the moment. The outward service may go beyond the measure of faith and spiritual power.

• But this will not do for the Altar of God; it cannot be offered "by Jesus Christ". It is better that the words used should be consciously inadequate to express the heart's apprehension of Christ than that they should be high-sounding but unreal.

• The Altar tests everything, and cannot be touched by what is unholy and unsuitable to God; but it also sanctifies every true gift that is placed upon it. The smallest and feeblest true apprehension of Christ can be offered "by Jesus Christ"; it will bear the holy test of that Person, and of His death, and its sweet odour comes before God as sustained in the power and worth of that Blessed One.

• The Altar involves the absolute withering and refusal of all that is of the mind and sentiment of the natural or carnal man, but it sustains in sanctification and acceptability every apprehension of Christ that is real and Spirit-given.

Then the fire and the burning on the altar suggest priestly understanding of the intensity of the test which was applied to Christ. He was in the place of sin and death, and all that God is as "a consuming fire" was there.

• But there was more there than sin and its judgment. We see this in the sin-offering burned without the camp.

• But in the burnt-offering we see that infinite perfection was there, and that the fire brought out the sweet odour of it. Everything in Him was found, even in that place of supreme testing, perfectly responsive to God in obedience, devotedness, and love, and though all was offered to God it was for us.

• How wondrous the privilege to bring the memorial of it to God for His delight, and for our conscious acceptance!

The bullock is what we might call the normal offering, but, alas! how few are possessed of such a large appreciation of Christ as the bullock would set forth.

• The sheep is a smaller measure of apprehension. There is no leaning upon the victim. The sense of Christ's death and of His perfection is there, but not the sense of personal identification. There is a pious appreciation of the perfections of Christ, but not the happy consciousness of being altogether on the ground of what He is.

• Still the offerer of the sheep has a certain power of discrimination, and a recognition of perfection in each feature of Christ that his soul takes knowledge of, but he is altogether smaller in his apprehension of Christ.

Then when we come to the fowls it is feebler still. The priest has to do almost everything in this case.

• In the offerer there is the sense that any sweet savour for God must be from Christ, but there is not much apprehension of Him. There is lack of ability to uncover the inward parts of Christ, and to appreciate His inward perfections.

• In the Psalms personal to Christ there is a wonderful uncovering of His inward perfections. To seek them out with intelligent and affectionate appreciation is a profound study for the spiritual mind.

• Believers in general are too indefinite; they have a sense of the perfection of Christ, but do not devote themselves to the uncovering and searching out of it in detail.

• It demands spiritual maturity to take account of what was inward in that blessed One – His affections, His sensibilities, His thoughts and feelings.

• The offerer of the fowls is not equal to this; the victim is not even divided asunder. And not only is his measure small; but there would appear to be that which is natural mixed with his apprehension of Christ – that which cannot be offered as sweet savour, and which the priest has to cast aside.

What we see in this type is that a priest knows how to make the best of the offering of a poor person!

• If you come to the tent of meeting with a small thought of Christ – and every saint comes with some thought of Christ – you will find a priest there who can help you because he apprehends according to God what is perhaps feeble and vague in your soul.

• You will find that somebody will take part in a way that brings before God the very thought that was in your mind; but, if he is in true priestly competency, he brings it out according to God, and free from the natural element which was perhaps along with it in your mind.

• It thus gets enlargement in your soul, and if rightly exercised you get such increase that next time you can bring a sheep! It was never God's thought that any of us should remain poor in the spiritual Israel.

But, while increase should be desired and looked for, it is very blessed to see that the turtle-dove or the young pigeon is spoken of in precisely the same terms as the sheep or even the bullock.

• It is called "a burnt-offering, an offering by fire to Jehovah of a sweet odour".

• This is most encouraging, for it shows that the smallest appreciation of Christ is acceptable to God, and that His grace estimates the offering according to the means of the offerer.

• He does not expect that in a "babe" which He would look for in a "father". The thought of His gracious consideration is "good to the feeblest heart", and it encourages all to approach in liberty.

We may notice as to the "oblation" that it suggests preparation at home. It was there the Israelite had his flour and oil and frankincense; it was there the cakes were baked; all was prepared before it was brought to the tent of meeting.

• If we are not engaging ourselves with Christ at home, or in private, there will be no gift to bring to the tent of meeting, and no sweet odour for God. How blessed to be engaged with Christ in secret!

"Fine flour" is the basis of the oblation in each case, save that of the first-fruits, which stands by itself.

• Then what marks the oblation generally is that, while there was a memorial burned as sweet savour to Jehovah, it was given as food to the priests.

• It speaks of Christ in an aspect in which He can be the food of saints, and particularly of saints viewed as spiritual persons in charge of the testimony and service of God.

There is a difference between Christ viewed as the "manna" and Christ as typified in the "oblation".

• The manna was given from heaven to sustain men in wilderness conditions. But in the oblation we see rather what there was in Man viewed as "the fruit of the earth" – this expression is applied to Christ in Isaiah 4: 2 – for the delight of God, and to engage the affections of all who are divinely taught to appreciate it.

• It is what can be offered as a sweet odour for the pleasure of God, and what becomes, as such, the food of the holy priesthood.

When at the baptism of Jesus the voice came out of heaven,

• "Thou art my beloved Son, in thee I have found my delight",

• the fine flour of the oblation was there with the oil poured on it, and the frankincense was there also, for He was praying. Luke 3: 22.

• But when, tempted of the devil, He answered,
  • "It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God",

• we see Him true to the wilderness place into which He had come, and sustained there "by every word of God".

• Probably each saint has known what it is to be sustained by some word of God, but with Him it was "every word". He lived by it; every minute detail in His life was formed by the word of God. If He had not a word from God He did nothing.

• "Every word of God" found its perfect answer in Him, and came into expression in His life. That is the "fine" grain of the manna. Compare Deuteronomy 8: 3. It suggests perfection in minute detail "on the face of the wilderness".

• In the pathway of Jesus we see a life sustained from above, and which was in every way the perfect expression of that which sustained it.

• Now He is in heaven to minister from thence to His saints here so that they may live in the wilderness in the strength of that grace which was so perfectly expressed in Him.

But the "fine flour" of the oblation speaks of what has sprung up here and come to maturity, in the Person of Jesus, for the delight of God. It is viewed in this type as apprehended in the minute detail of its perfection and evenness.

• This is the fruit of a precious occupation of heart and spiritual intelligence. What a study of the perfections of Jesus does it necessitate! What more delightful engagement of affectionate meditation could there be?

We may trace it in numberless features in the Gospels; the law of Moses, the prophets, and the Psalms are full of presentations in detail of that which is for God's delight in man; and every exhortation which the Epistles contain as to the spirit and walk which are comely in saints is an unfolding of the perfections of Jesus.

To be an offerer supposes some degree of spiritual wealth in the apprehension of Christ, and an energy in the affections Godward that brings one near the altar to present to God that which has been found in Christ through death for Him.

• In approaching us God had nothing to say to us about anyone but Christ, and if we approach God what we say to Him in adoration and praise is the echo of what He has first said to us in grace and love.

• Christ came to us from the heart of God in the unspeakableness of divine giving, and we bring Him back to God in grateful affection and praise. But what we thus bring to God forms a divine bond of communion between saints.

• We cannot spiritually take up with one another what has not first been taken up with God. He must have the first and best portion. But Christ being brought in, the communion which can be enjoyed together is extended to "all that are clean".

• Even those who were poor in Israel could partake, if clean, of that which another had brought, and enjoy the privilege of communion with the altar. What a character of grace this gives to the communion of saints! The prosperity in Christ of one becomes the joy and gain of all!

• But that which is enjoyed has no divine value unless its immediate relation to God as offered on His "most holy" altar is maintained in the consciousness of those who partake of it. And to bring what is unclean into connection with it is to be "cut off from his peoples".

• The offerer in this case commits himself to communion with the altar of God. It is emphasized that "his own hands" were to bring Jehovah's offerings. Leviticus 7: 30. There is a definite personal committal first of all at the altar; that is, with God.

• Then in the eating we commit ourselves with our brethren to communion with the altar. If we are committed with God and with our brethren to such a holy communion it determines the character of our associations. Hence Paul says,
  • "Ye cannot drink the Lord's cup and the cup of demons: ye cannot partake of the Lord's table and of the table of demons".

• And he adds to this a very solemn enquiry,
  • "Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? are we stronger than he?", 1 Corinthians 10: 21-22.

All who have broken bread have committed themselves to this, that they have done with the world as a source of happiness.

• "The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of the Christ?"

• The One on whom we feed as the Source of our enjoyment, and who is the Substance of our communion with God and with one another, has died out of this world and has no part in it whatever. We have a happiness which is of the deepest character, for it is a divine happiness known in nearness to God and shared with our fellow-saints, but it is a happiness completely outside the world.
  • "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of the Christ?"

• He went into death according to God's will that He might open up to us an entirely new character of joy – joy in God as revealed in infinite love.

If we consider the intense holiness of the altar, how absolutely exclusive it is of all that is not in accord with it, we must understand that there can be no playing fast and loose as to communion with it.,P>

• At the altar it is Christ and His death bringing in blessing according to the holiness of God.

• Every element in this world is idolatrous and unclean. How can the two be linked together? How could a soul pass from the one to the other, and have its portion in each? It is morally impossible.

The burnt-offering for acceptance, whether of the herd or of the flock, must be "a male without blemish". For conscious acceptance there must be the apprehension of Christ in the energetic activity in which He was found here to do the will of God.

• But the fact that the peace-offering might be either "male or female" would suggest that the offerer in this case might have Christ before him either from the side of what was taken up for God in "male" energy, or from the side of what was necessitated by the state of fallen humanity.

• The known reference of the female in types to state would lead one to conclude that the "female" as an offering might intimate what was connected with the latter side. The "female" offering for the sin of "any one of the people of the land ", Leviticus 4: 28, 32; Leviticus 5: 6, and the "red heifer" of Numbers 19 would perhaps confirm this.

The spiritual action typified in this chapter is of great importance, for it is the basis of fellowship in the souls of saints. It is only hearts that have Christ before them that can know what fellowship is in any true or divine sense.

• I take it that this is the import of the offerer's hand being laid on the head of his offering. He is fully committed to Christ, not only for acceptance, but as his present portion and joy with God, and as the substance of his communion with fellow-saints.

• We identify ourselves with Christ; we commit ourselves to Him in relation to the question of communion or fellowship.

A faithful God has called us into the "fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord", 1 Corinthians 1: 9. That shows the greatness and dignity of the fellowship into which we are called.

• But in 1 Corinthians 10: 16 we bless the cup, and we break the bread. It is what we do. Each one who drinks of the cup and eats the bread puts his own hand to it, and commits himself definitely to Christ, and to all that is the fruit of His death. And that constitutes the essence of our fellowship with one another.

• The exercise as to fellowship is often later in the soul's history than that as to acceptance, and as to perfection in an Object for the heart. But there is an intuitive desire in saints for enjoyment in common of that which is our portion with God, and that which binds us together in separation from all that is of the world.

• If one had no desire to share spiritually with others it would indicate that he had not as yet much personal enjoyment of Christ.

• Even in the world it is recognized that company is essential to enjoyment. Man is so constituted that he derives the greatest part of his pleasure from sharing it.

• One may safely say that an isolated man has very little true enjoyment. One might have a crowd of people round one and yet be completely isolated because none of them shared one's thoughts and feelings.
  • "In the day of your gladness", Numbers 10: 10, and

  • "Thou shalt sacrifice peace-offerings, and shalt eat there, and rejoice before Jehovah thy God", Deuteronomy 27: 7,

• and other passages show how peace-offerings were connected with the happiness of the people.

• The formal organizations of the religious world deprive those who are in them of a great deal of spiritual happiness because they furnish so little opportunity for christian fellowship.

If Christ has become our consciously enjoyed portion with God it kindles desire for the fellowship of saints – for participation in a holy partnership here in which we can feed on Christ together.

• Christian fellowship is in reference to Christ; the apostles' doctrine forms the fellowship. It is not so many persons agreeing to walk and act on certain principles together; still less is it agreeing to differ: but it is that Christ has got a place with each one.

• It is all hearts appreciating One Person, and preferring what is of that Person to what is of the natural thoughts and tastes of men. Not all having the same measure, but all having the same Person in view, and declining to give place to any other.

The offerer's purpose in offering is that he and others may eat together in communion with the altar. He desires a fellowship that is uncontaminated by the selfish and idolatrous associations of the world. He has found that which he can hold and enjoy with God.

"In Thy grace Thou now hast called us
Sharers of Thy joy to be;
And to know the blessed secret
Of His preciousness to Thee".

• Christian fellowship is the fellowship of the death of Christ; it is the fellowship of His body and of His blood.

• This is indicated by the offerer killing the animal which he offers. He discerns, in type, the Lord's body given in death. How completely this removes the fellowship from all that is natural and material!

• The offerer recognizes that he could have no peace or prosperity, no festivity or communion of divine character, apart from the death of Christ.

• Indeed if we could conceive of Christ as excluding all thought of His death He would be of no value to men. In order to accomplish the will of God and our blessing He has died here. Are we in communion with that? Not simply owning that it is the ground of our blessing, but in communion with it? It puts one in spirit outside all that is of the world.

Then the priests "sprinkle the blood on the altar round about". This implies spiritual intelligence as to the import of the act, for "the priests' lips should keep knowledge", Malachi 2: 7.

• In 1 Corinthians 10: 15, 16, we read,
  • "I speak as to intelligent persons: do ye judge what I say. The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of the Christ?"

• The blood of the Christ has borne witness to all the wealth of new covenant blessing in the heart of God and has shown that God would bless men infinitely through death. Now there is priestly ability to spread abroad, as it were, the witness of what is in His heart.

The blood presented on man's side Godward is for atonement; it is wholly for God. Hence "no blood shall ye eat". So long as man is on the earth he must own the rights of God over life. The blood is for atonement, and therefore reserved for God.

• But in the New Testament we learn that the blood which has made atonement is also the witness of the love of God. This is what the blood is on God's part towards us – the new covenant in the blood of Christ. This can be drunk; indeed, a man has no life if he does not drink it; it is open to us to appropriate it freely and fully.

• The cup of the new covenant in the blood of Christ is a cup of blessing, and we bless – eulogize – it. It speaks of all that is in the heart of the blessed God for men, now expressed in the blood of the Christ. This is the basis of our fellowship.

• It speaks of blessing outside the sphere of sin and death – blessing of a spiritual order which we can enjoy together – what God is as revealed in grace and love. The hearts of the saints break forth to speak well of all that the cup expresses; we bless the cup, and rejoice in the infinite thoughts of love which have come to light through the death of Christ.

Those who have to do with God in relation to Christ in peace-offering character can bring near to Him their apprehension of how the death and blood of Christ have made possible for men a new and divine joy in the blessing of God.

• The blood round the altar in this type intimates that it is God known in blessing that we approach, but that it is blessing that cannot be intermingled with the festivities of an idolatrous world.

• His blessing coming through death is spiritual; it lies outside the region of sight and sense; it is of a nature that death cannot touch. All this is realized by the one who draws near with his peace-offering, for the altar is that most holy spot where things are known with God in their true value and blessedness.

• We must know first what is true of us at the altar – that is, in nearness to God – before we can be marked in this world as those who have their associations in communion with the altar.

Then there is the presentation and burning of the fat of the peace-offering. It is that which the blessed God feeds upon, and in which none other can participate.

• Our communion together would lose its true and holy character if we did not think first of God's portion; and if we did not recognize that it is due to Him that the richest and most excellent portion in Christ should be His.

• There is a peculiar joy in the recognition of this – that there is that in Christ which is reserved for God's delight. If we think of WHO He was it must be so. Because all that He was in His Person gave character to what He became, and who but God could appreciate and appropriate all that?

• I say "appropriate" because it is twice in this chapter called the "food" or "bread" of the offering.

Think of the Person who said, "Lo, I come to do, O God, thy will": His was a perfect and holy will, but it was surrendered in devoted obedience, at all possible cost to Himself. We see something of the cost in Gethsemane.

• In the world where man had been saying for four thousand years, "My will be done" – and that the will of a fallen and corrupt being – we see a Divine Person come in flesh, with a perfect and holy will, subordinating that will entirely, and saying in the supreme moment when all the cost of doing God's will was present to His spirit,
  • "Not my will but thine be done!"

• Do we not realize that there was something in that which it is beyond the creature to appropriate? We cannot measure what was given up for God's glory, and therefore we cannot estimate what its giving up in sufferings and death was to God.

• But we can delight to offer it, and to know that the very mention of it is unspeakable delight to God. It is a very blessed feature of our fellowship.

There is infinitely much that we can enjoy together, and that we can appropriate as the food of our souls, in that holy Person who offered Himself,

• but our enjoyment of it is enhanced by the thought that there is that in His offering which only God can estimate at its full worth, and which is God's peculiar portion and delight.

• We have communion with God, for we feed on the same blessed Person, but we love to own adoringly that there is that in Him, and in His offering, which is beyond us, and which is wholly for God. We cannot appropriate it, but we can offer it.

• Wondrous privilege! that we should be priests to offer that which only God can feed upon!
  • "All the fat shall be Jehovah's ", verse 16.

  • "And Aaron's sons shall burn it on the altar upon the burnt-offering which lieth on the wood that is upon the fire".

• What we have apprehended of Christ in burnt-offering and meat-offering [or oblation] character, as seen in chapters 1 and 2, is carried on in our souls, and underlies the peace-offering.

• What a wondrous basis the three offerings constitute for the communion of saints – the sweet odour of Christ on the altar! We shall find much instruction as to communion with the altar when we come to the seventh chapter.

"The priest that is anointed" is the first case considered.

• It is very sad when such a one sins "according to the trespass of the people". For a saint who has known what it is to be anointed – to have the Spirit, and to be in priestly relations with God as one possessed of holy knowledge – to forget, as it were, the anointing, and act wrongly like a common person, is very serious.

Do we always remember the peculiar and blessed place that we have as being anointed? I like to remind myself sometimes as I go along that I belong to the Man at God's right hand! I am of that Man, and I have His Spirit!

• Paul, referring to the saints, says,
  • "So also is the Christ", 1 Corinthians 12: 12;

• the saints are the anointed company down here.
  • "Praying in the Holy Spirit", Jude 20

• implies that we have a priestly place with God, and that our desires do not move outside the region of the Spirit. There is no sinning there.

• Jude contemplates the possibility of God's called ones, preserved in Jesus Christ, being kept without stumbling.

• The second epistle to the Corinthians speaks of the saints as anointed by God, and the anointing confers priestly capability. For such to sin is a very grave defection. It is – for the moment, at any rate – a bringing into evidence of the fallen man, not the Man at the right hand of God.

• It is not merely that I have done wrong and I am sorry for it – a man of the world would go as far as that – but my deep concern is that I have allowed something of the man who is under judgment with God.

• And the sin of a priest has an additionally grave character, inasmuch as it directly affects the service of God, and the whole assembly suffers in relation to that service. So that, in its issues, it is much more than a personal fault.

It is noticeable that in connection with the priest it does not speak – as in the case of the assembly, the prince or one of the people – of his sin becoming known.

• This supposes, in their case, a certain interval between the sin and its becoming known to them as such.

• But the omission of this statement when the priest is in question seems to suggest that the anointed priest would realize at once, intuitively, that he had done what he ought not. This implies a holy sensitiveness in the priest that one would covet.

• It implies such habitual nearness to God that if, in an unguarded moment, one has done what ought not to be done, it is felt at once, and the soul immediately turns to God about it.

• My impression is that the degree of a believer's holiness – the degree in which he has truly known what it is to be an anointed priest – can be measured by his sensitiveness as to sin.

When there have been actions or words or feelings that are of the flesh it is often some time before there is any true movement of self-judgment.

• This indicates that nearness has not been known or preserved, or the distance that sin produces would be more quickly and keenly felt. In such a case the believer has got away – as to the condition of his soul – from his place with God as an anointed priest, though he may have formerly known that holy and near position and character.

• If we are not habitually near to God we may go on a long time with what is really of the flesh, and not perceive it. It may need a sharp word to our consciences, or perhaps a sharp stroke of discipline, to bring it home to us.
  • "Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep thy word".

• Our true liberty is to judge what is of the flesh inwardly, so that, though it is fully discerned by us and we are humbled by discerning it, it does not come out to be a public reproach.

If a priest sins he cannot go on with the service of God, but to a sensitive priestly heart restoration is not necessarily a long process.

• It is indeed a grave fault for such a one to sin "according to the trespass of the people", but the scripture supposes that he is marked by the sensitiveness which properly belongs to the priestly anointing.

• It is very sad if this sensitiveness is lacking; such a condition really belies the character of the anointing.

The moment there is the consciousness of having sinned the divine provision is available. Christ is at once introduced in sin-offering character.

• Such is grace – the blessed grace of our God! He does not say that the priest must repent deeply for three months, and then, when he has truly and deeply judged himself, he may bring a sin-offering! That might be our way, but it is not God's.

• Deep and holy and divine self-judgment is not brought about by thinking of the sin, but by apprehending Christ in relation to it, and by taking up with God what it has cost Him to deal with it and put it away.

• Christ is available through divine grace. Let us never forget that! Let us turn to God at once when there has been a movement of the flesh, and avail ourselves of Christ in sin-offering character!

• Let us beware of Satan's effort to keep sin before us, and darken our souls by it, and hinder us from turning to God so that we may learn the value of Christ in relation to it!

The first movement in regard to the sin of a believer is on the part of Jesus Christ the righteous. We have Him as

• "a patron with the Father", 1 John 2: 1.

• His advocacy results in suitable exercises being produced in the soul of the one who has sinned, and those exercises are presented typically in Leviticus 4. We take them up in the light of the grace that is in
  • "Jesus Christ the righteous",

• and it is really the fruit of His present service in grace that we are able to take them up. To be carried in that way through the exercise of a chapter like this – humbling though it surely is to us – leads to great growth in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

• If I have sinned it is very humbling to me, but God intends to make Christ better known and more appreciated in my heart, through that sin. It is the exposure to me of what I am, but if I turn to God about it He will use it to enlarge my knowledge and appreciation of Christ.

• In the case of the priest a large apprehension of Christ is suggested – "a young bullock without blemish". The special seriousness of sin in such a one has its answer in a specially large apprehension of Christ in relation to it.

The sin-offering in each case is brought to the entrance of the tent of meeting, or to the place of the burnt-offering. This seems to indicate a readiness to be perfectly open and candid about the matter.

• If I have really learned something more of the value of Christ through my sin I can afford to be quite open about it. I do not mean that it is necessary, or desirable, to speak of one's wrong-doing to everybody, but there is a preparedness to do so if any occasion for it arises.

• It is just the opposite to the attempt to cover up things that we may appear to be better than we really are. If saints were more prepared to own things which they know in their consciences to be wrong it would greatly promote fellowship. Of course, all must be "before Jehovah" to have true moral value.

Think of the impression that would be made on all Israel as the anointed priest was seen bringing his sin-offering

• "to the entrance of the tent of meeting before Jehovah"!

• It is true that he has sinned, but he has something greater before him than his sin. He is "before Jehovah", and he is in possession, typically, of a large apprehension of Christ.

• His soul is filled with the apprehension of Christ in relation to his sin. Do you not think that would take away the fleshly reluctance to own the wrong that he had done?

• I do not think Peter minded his fault being put on record for the church. As to Moses and David, it is themselves who have told, in the most public way, the story of their faults. This shows how completely they were morally apart from the sin by self-judgment, so that they had no thought of preserving their own reputation.

If I became possessed before God of Christ in sin-offering character I am sure it would give candour and transparency. I should be ready to listen to James, who says,

• "Confess therefore your offences to one another, and pray for one another, that ye may be healed", James 5: 16.

• If we were more free to make confession of faults it would lead to more prayer for one another. The confessional is the devil's travesty of this, designed to bring people under the power of a false priesthood.
  • James says, "Confess … to one another".

• Those who go to "confession" are as much entitled to hear the confession of the so-called "priest" as he is to hear theirs.

If I have done wrong there is moral elevation in owning it, but the flesh regards it as degradation.

• If I have apprehended Christ in sin-offering character in relation to my sin it will deliver me from the pride of the flesh that would refuse to acknowledge the wrong.

The priest laying his hand on the bullock's head and slaughtering it expresses the sense that he has of the necessity for Christ and His death in relation to the sin committed.

• It is a deep exercise to have to own to God that one has done something for which Christ had to die – one has given place to the man He died to remove.

• It may be I have spoken a hasty word or allowed a wrong feeling! Where did it come from? The man in Psalm 51 traces his sin to its root.
  • "Behold, in iniquity was I brought forth, and in sin did my mother conceive me".

• My sin is the manifestation of the fallen and sinful man whom Christ died to remove. We are not right with God until we acknowledge this.

Christ has borne the judgment of sin; He has died to close the history sacrificially of the man who is only evil continually.

• If I have allowed something of that man to come into evidence, God would use the very exercise occasioned by this to give me a new lesson in the appreciation of Christ and His death.

• The death of the bullock, the blood, the burning outside the camp signify the complete removal from before God in sacrificial death and judgment of the man after the flesh.

• In being brought to appreciate the death of Christ we are brought into harmony with God as to the sin, and as to the source from which it proceeded, and as to the way God has dealt with it. We learn to hate sin; it becomes only a grief to us.
  • Jabez prayed "that thou wouldest keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me! And God brought about what he had requested", 1 Chronicles 4: 10.

• When evil is only a grief to us, because of what it cost Christ to remove it, we can return consciously to priestly nearness. Perhaps this is the reason why it is not said of the priest that is anointed, as it is of the other cases, that his offering makes atonement for him, or that his sin shall be forgiven.

• In bringing his offering the priest returns consciously to priestly relations with God. That involves atonement and forgiveness; the greater includes the less.

• The priest takes up his holy service with a deepened spirituality, as having acquired an apprehension of Christ in relation to what is in himself which he had not before.

The priest brings the blood into the tent of meeting, and sprinkles it seven times

• "before Jehovah before the veil of the sanctuary".

• Not once or twice, but seven times! Indicating how God would have the soul take up before Him a sense of the perfection of the efficacy of the blood of Christ to remove the stain from before Him of what has now come on the conscience.

• This is not being washed again in the blood, or a re-application of the blood to us, as some people unscripturally teach. As to justification, or the non-imputation of sins, the believer is
  • "perfected in perpetuity"

• by the one offering of Christ; his sins and his lawlessnesses God will never remember any more to lay them to his charge. See Hebrews 9, 10.

• The efficacy of the blood never diminishes or changes on God's side, and the believer is in all its sin-cleansing efficacy in perpetuity. But when he sins he cannot go on with God apart from moral exercises by which he apprehends afresh with God the precious and holy value of the blood of Christ.

The blood put "on the horns of the altar of fragrant incense" would intimate that the offerer returns to liberty and confidence in prayer, which he could not do while his heart condemned him.

• He does not ignore his sin, but it has led – through grace – to an apprehension of Christ which sets him free with God.

I have heard that a broken bone when healed is stronger in that place than anywhere else, and this seems to be suggested as the fruit of a sin-offering exercise by David asking

• "that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice", Psalm 51: 8.

Then all the blood of the bullock being poured out

• "at the bottom of the altar of burnt-offering"

• seems to provide a basis, as it were, for the offering of the fat. The blood has so fully vindicated every righteous claim of the altar that the offerer can now get an apprehension of the excess.

• If CHRIST is known as the sin-offering, His value could not be limited to the removal of what is obnoxious to God. The very way it was done, and the excellence of Him who offered Himself, were such that infinite satisfaction and good pleasure were secured for God. That is the fat. It forms, in a certain sense, a link with the burnt-offering.

• Restoration to full liberty with God is not complete until there is an apprehension of how the offering of Christ for sin has brought in delight for God.

• Instead of the moral corruption of the man who has come into evidence in the sin, and who has been sacrificially ended in the death of Christ, there is the supreme excellence of One delightful to God, and its holy fragrance. The priest would resume his service in the blessed consciousness of this.

If we have sinned, the way to get right with God, and to please God, is to avail ourselves of Christ as the sin-offering.

• Sometimes a great deal of the regret which is felt is not really "grief according to God", but the mortification of wounded vanity. This may lead to a resolve to be more careful another time, but it does not lead to increased apprehension of Christ, and it does not put the soul right with God.

The complete consumption in holy judgment of what was offensive to God is seen typically in the burning of the whole bullock outside the camp. This implies a deep sense in the soul of God's entire rejection of the man from whom the sin proceeded.

• The wrong thing done is traced to the root, as we may see in Psalm 51, and the soul is brought into harmony with God as to the character of the man after the flesh and as to the judgment which has come upon that man in the death and judgment-bearing of Christ.

• It is there that we really find "a clean place", for the man of sin and shame and defilement is ended in a holy sacrifice, and the "ashes" speak of judgment eternally exhausted.

The case of the priest comes before that of "the whole assembly",

• for priestly exercise and discernment would be needed to take right account of the sin of the whole assembly

• so that the sin-offering as in view of priestly sensibilities and restoration of priestly service comes first.

• It remains for us to note the application of the same principles to the different cases which follow.

The sin of "the whole assembly" is a very serious matter, because, like the sin of the anointed priest, it interferes with the service of God.

• If the whole assembly sins against
  • "any of all the commandments of Jehovah in things which should not be done",

• it must affect the service of God. The thing may be "hid from the eyes of the congregation", but it is not hid from the eyes of the Lord, and instead of that being before Him which is for His pleasure, there is that which is an offence to Him.

I doubt whether we are sufficiently exercised about the sin of "the whole assembly". Revelation 2 and 3 shows us the sin of the whole assembly.

• It is hid from the eyes of many, but it has really "become known"; the Lord has made it known. Would any one venture to say that the present state of "the whole assembly" gives God pleasure? No, it is an offence to Him.

• It has left its first love, it has ceased to be in subjection to Jesus as Lord, it does not hold Christ as Head, nor does it own in a practical way the blessed reality of the presence of the Holy Spirit. There is an order established generally which is of man and not of God. The mustard seed has become a great tree.

• All this is a very grave sin, and the Lord has made it known that there might be opportunity to repent. In the epistles to five of the assemblies, Revelation 2, 3 there is a call to repent.

• "The elders of the assembly" have had the opportunity to come with the sin-offering and lay their hands on its head. If there is no repentance the Lord will assuredly remove the candlestick, and spue the assembly out of His mouth. Things are just on the eve of this being done.

Many will admit that things are not what they ought to be, but will excuse them on the ground of human infirmity, or errors in judgment, or want of light.

• The Lord Himself, in grace, takes account of the sin in Leviticus 4 as done "inadvertently". But the plain fact is that all the things in the Christian profession of which the Lord disapproves are SIN.

• Place is given everywhere to the man who was condemned at the cross. Whatever is wrong in the christian profession, and contrary to the commandments of the Lord, springs from man after the flesh. The one who brings the sin-offering judges this in the light of the fact that Christ bore the judgment of that man and died to bring him to an end before God.

• In the recognition of this he can call on the Lord out of a pure heart, as morally apart, by the death of Christ, from that man. But this makes the sin of "the whole assembly" a very grave matter, and when we see it in this light we must take the path of separation.

I would put it to any heart that loves the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity, Would you like to go on with something of which He disapproves?

• If the congregation and the elders of the assembly will not bring the sin-offering of the congregation, the faithful individual must.

• And how could we call on the Lord out of a pure heart if we go on with things which He has made known to us to be sin?

• Hence 2 Timothy comes in. We are to withdraw from iniquity, to separate from vessels to dishonour, and to turn away from those who have a form of piety but deny its power.

Those who own the sin of the whole assembly, and avail themselves of Christ as the "sin-offering of the congregation", can truly "call on the Lord out of a pure heart"; and I do not doubt that such can know something of forgiveness in an assembly sense.

• If the spiritual features of the assembly are found amongst saints in some measure, and the service of God, and the enjoyment of assembly privilege, it is blessed evidence of forgiveness and of restoring mercy. I think many have tasted something of the reality of this.

• In the early part of the last century many godly persons felt deeply the sin of the assembly; not merely their personal failures but that "the whole assembly" had departed from God's thoughts.

• Priestly exercise was brought about as to what was suitable to God, and much light was given as to His ways and purposes, and as to Christ and the assembly.

• This led to a judgment of things in the light of the death of Christ, and to a movement of separation, and the result has been a revival, in measure, of the true spiritual features of the assembly, and of the service of God, and of the enjoyment of assembly privilege.

There is such a thing as assembly exercise as well as individual exercise, and it is deeper than anything purely individual could be, because it is connected with what is suitable to God in His house.

• So that for saints who are professedly walking together as owning the truth and principles of the assembly to
  • "do somewhat against any of all the commandments" of the Lord

• – however inadvertently done – is a serious matter. But grace has anticipated the possibility of such a thing, and has made provision for it.

• The sin-offering for the assembly corresponds with that for the anointed priest; the exercise in these two cases seems to be measured by the divine estimate of the sin, and the apprehension of Christ which meets it is a very full one.

• In the following cases there is not with each the same degree of self-judgment, or of apprehension of Christ; it is according to the measure and depth of exercise with each. But in the case of the anointed priest and the assembly a divine measure of exercise is called for, having its answer in a large apprehension of Christ.

We cannot go on carelessly with the things of God. There is a tendency to make light of things which are really movements of the flesh, but if we make light of such things God does not.

• "I will be hallowed in them that come near me, and before all the people I will be glorified", Leviticus 10: 3.

• We cannot do that which should not be done, and go on with the service of God as if nothing had happened. There must be self-judgment, and the sin-offering brought.

• But grace has provided that which will fully and divinely adjust the whole matter, and grace would use even the sin to deepen our self-knowledge, and to give us enlarged apprehension of Christ.

"A prince" or "ruler" represents one prominent in the congregation – one who has cared for the order of the people of God.

• It is more serious for such to sin than for "one of the people of the land", and therefore it calls for a stronger and more energetic apprehension of Christ in sin-offering character to secure forgiveness and restoration.

• One who has been in any way prominent amongst the people of God must have got his place by having certain moral qualities or spiritual formation. He would be a greater man morally than "the people of the land"; otherwise his place would have been only fleshly pretension.

• But I have no doubt this scripture contemplates a true "prince", not a fleshly pretender. When the sin of such comes to his knowledge he gives evidence that he is a "prince" by bringing a "male" offering. He has a more vigorous apprehension of Christ, and therefore a deeper self-judgment, than "one of the people of the land".

In the case of one who has been a "prince" this would be justly looked for in view of restoration of confidence and fellowship, when his sin had been such as to interfere with these. The offering must be in proportion to the offerer.

• In a "prince" God would look for such an apprehension of Christ as would give great energy to self-judgment. Such would not spare or screen himself in any way.

• The spiritual energy in which he would judge himself would go beyond anything that his brethren might require. His exercises would give them an insight into soul-experiences which would deepen God's work in their souls.

David is the great example in Scripture of a "prince" who sinned; it is very instructive for us to observe the sin-offering exercises of David. They are fully detailed for us in what are called the penitential Psalms. Psalm 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, 143.

• These Psalms are not only an encouragement to souls under exercise, but they give us an insight into experiences which are perhaps beyond our own moral depth. They minister to self-knowledge, and to the knowledge of God.

• We should carefully ponder them in connection with the sin-offering. Each one was written by a "prince".

Christ is always available as the sin-offering, and the sooner we avail ourselves of Him the better. It is good to be so established in grace that when we sin we avail ourselves at once of Christ as the sin-offering.

• God looks for an apprehension of Christ as sin-offering in proportion to the spiritual capacity of the individual.

• What is spoken of in Scripture as sinning wilfully is turning away from Christ – deliberately turning away from the sin-offering as apostates do. If a man does that there is no other remedy available; there is nothing left to bring him to repentance.

Grace is the true power of holiness. Grace never excuses sin or makes light of it, but it shows me the holy One of God going to the cross and being made sin.

• In His unutterable anguish and suffering I learn what sin is before God, and that it has been judged in Him that I might learn to judge it in myself.

If the sin of a believer is of such a nature as to suspend the confidence and fellowship of his brethren, that confidence cannot be restored without evidence that he has judged himself.

• Two birds or a handful of flour would not suffice or be accepted, if a man ought to bring a sheep! A female goat is accepted from "one of the people of the land", but a "prince" must bring a male.

• The measure of one's self-judgment is the measure in which we have apprehended Christ as the sin-offering, and in a "prince" God looks for this to be an energetic exercise. It is not saying lightly, "I am sorry".

• What a profound depth of self-judgment appears in the Psalms we have referred to! They are the exercises of a "prince" who sinned, and they have become moral instruction for all the people of God.

• We see there a character and energy of self-judgment that is wonderful, and as we look into greater depths of experimental self-knowledge in another than we have sounded in ourselves, it shows us what we are.

• We are thus morally deepened, and we get a true sense of what Christ died for. When a man really gets to the root of things, as David did, he has done with making excuses.

The blood being put on the horns of the altar of burnt-offering, and the fat burned on the altar, links the sin-offering with the burnt-offering. I do not think anyone would go truly through the exercise of the sin-offering with God without reaching the burnt-offering.

• Psalm 51 is a deep sin-offering exercise, but it ends with the thought of the burnt-offering, and God doing good to Zion and building the walls of Jerusalem.

• It would not be like God to leave us merely with the negative thought of being relieved of the sin. We do not leave God's presence without getting a sense of the sweet odour of Christ in burnt-offering character. We are not only in perfect clearance from sin, but we are in divine acceptance.

• And the thought of good being done to Zion, would suggest that every sin-offering exercise contributes to the strength and blessing of the assembly. The experience of the one who brings his sin-offering – what he has acquired of Christ in relation to his exercise – results in a contribution to the good of the assembly.

• And the mention of the peace-offering. verses 26, 31 would seem to be suggestive of the restoration of the privilege of fellowship with the people of God. If a man is really right with God he will be put right with his brethren also.

If a brother has sinned God would encourage him to avail himself of Christ as the sin-offering. That is the first thing to be concerned about.

• If he comes into the apprehension of Christ and of His death in relation to his sin he will judge himself. He will then be a spiritually deepened man – a "converted" or "restored" man. Luke 22: 32 – and he will be available, like Peter, for the comfort and strengthening of his brethren.

• The power of God in grace is such that one who has sinned can be fully restored to the confidence of the brethren, and made a greater help to them than he was before. This shows what God is, and the better we know God the more qualified we shall be to help in the restoration of those who sin.

• But this is priestly work. It requires that we should eat the sin-offering for our brethren. Leviticus 6. In this way we make the sin our own. Indeed we can never think before God of the sin of a brother or sister without realizing that it is a mirror in which we can see what we are ourselves.

• But in eating the sin-offering we also realize what the sin has cost Christ and how His death alone could remove it. Then we can take up advocacy and pray for our brother. In 1 John Jesus Christ the righteous is the Advocate, and at the end of the epistle the saints are put in the place of advocacy:
  • "If any one see his brother sinning a sin not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life, for those that do not sin unto death", 1 John 5: 16.

• If you pray for a brother you have a moral title to go to him, and to speak to him as one who has made his sin your own. One who has done so will have moral power.

Little needs to be added as to the sin-offering of "one of the people of the land", save to note that the offerer in this case brings typically a weaker apprehension of Christ than I the "prince"; he brings a female goat or sheep.

• It is not that his sin is more easily atoned for, or that anything less than the full value of the death of Christ could atone for it. But we are occupied in these chapters with Christ and His death as known and apprehended by the faith and affections of saints, and in this we cannot go beyond our measure.

• Perhaps the three classes spoken of in this chapter might answer in some way to John's three grades of babes, young men, and fathers. God would not look for the measure of exercise in a babe that He would rightly look for in a father. But things have to be taken up in truth according to our measure.

• The soul has to avail itself of Christ, and to apprehend the import of His death so that there may be a true judgment of the root from which the sin proceeded. If I sin I am entitled, through infinite grace, to lay my hand upon Christ, and He is never far away. The sin-offering always lies at the door, as God said to Cain.

• Everything has been reached and judged in the death of Christ; it is for us to come into the apprehension of it. Then we not only judge ourselves rightly, but we get a blessed sense of forgiveness, and an enlarged appreciation of Christ.

It is noticeable that the section of this book referring to the sin-offering is longer than that referring to the other offerings; it extends from chapter 4: 1 to chapter 5: 13.

• Then the trespass-offering is in chapter 5: 14-26.

• That so much should have to be said on this subject is sad evidence of the existence of much amongst the people of God that calls for it.

• In verses 1-6 of this chapter we have three specific instances, which would probably cover in principle every kind of sin amongst the people of God.

1. The first is failure in respect of witness;

2. the second is failure as to the maintenance of separation;

3. and the third is failure as to sobriety or self-control.

The first instance of guilt is that of one who refrains from uttering that of which he should bear witness. It shows that such a thing is likely to occur among the people of God.

• One has known instances of persons being in a position to bear witness of evil which should have been made known, who have failed to utter it. This is a serious matter, for it is said of such,
  • "If he do not give information then he shall bear his iniquity".

But there is another side of things to which this would apply. We are left here in the place of witness for Christ, and there are times when we are directly challenged –

• when we "hear the voice of adjuration"

• – and if we fail to bear witness we are guilty.

• The Lord heard "the voice of adjuration" when before the High Priest. Matthew 26: 63, and He witnessed a good confession.

• We are responsible to be confessors of the truth – confessors of Christ – but we often fail to utter what we should witness; we shrink from the reproach which is connected with the Name of the Lord Jesus.

• Christ Jesus witnessed the good confession in the presence of the High Priest and of Pontius Pilate, 1 Timothy 6: 13, and this would show that "confession" is not amongst believers, but in the presence of the hostile world.

• It does not mean telling christians that one believes in Jesus, but owning Him before unbelievers.

True confession is in answer to a challenge. At school, or in the office, or at the works, you are asked to do something, or to go somewhere, and you are obliged to decline because you know that it would not please the Lord Jesus.

• Then the challenge comes, Why not? Now you have to utter what is in your heart!

• Sometimes we evade the reproach – which is really a privilege and honour – by merely saying, I do not go to the pictures, or whatever it is. But tell them why! The Lord Jesus has become great and precious to you.

• In the presence of those to whom He is nothing confess that He is great to you, He is Lord to you! Such a confession involves cost, because it involves bearing the reproach of Christ; that is really the greatest and truest honour.

Our witness is to be of what we have "seen or known" in Christ.

• If we have travelled along the moral road mapped out in this book, and learned Christ as the burnt-offering, the oblation, the peace-offering, and the sin-offering, He has acquired a great place in our affections, and we are to witness accordingly.

• We have "seen or known" something that is worth confessing. Then let us confess it!

• Many hold back because they feel they will bungle over it. Perhaps you will bungle, but never mind, get it out! There is tremendous power in just saying, Jesus is Lord to me. The man to whom you say it knows, at the bottom, that Jesus ought to be Lord to him, and his conscience will support your confession, whatever he may say with his lips, and the Holy Spirit will support it too.

• Some are kept back from witnessing of what they have "seen and known" by the fear that they will not be consistent. But the witness gets divine support; all the power of the kingdom of God supports a confessor of the Lord Jesus. Satan would keep us back from being true witnesses so that we might not get the support of the kingdom.

• A man, who in a foreign land was ashamed of the British flag, could not expect to be supported by British power if he got into difficulties. You may depend upon it that in God's kingdom the flag will be honoured and supported. Then let us not be ashamed of it.

I suppose most of us know what it is to have sinned by failing to utter what was in our hearts!

• Why did we not utter it? Because we shrank from the cost, and we missed an opportunity of bringing Christ into evidence. It was for the moment a hiding of Christ and a retaining of self.

• Every true confession brings Christ into evidence in a positive way; there is something aggressive about it; it is additional to the quiet and retiring life of one who does not want the world or its things.

• One cannot but feel that there is often a holding back of witness to what has been "seen or known". And such a holding back, when one is definitely challenged, is sin.

Then in verses 2 and 3 it is a question of touching what is unclean.

• The world is full of many different kinds and degrees of uncleanness, as we see in figure in these verses. Large things and small things – beast, cattle, or crawling thing. Unless we preserve separation there is not only personal failure, but the fellowship is compromised.
  • "Wherefore come out from the midst of them, and be separated, saith the Lord, and touch not what is unclean, and I will receive you; and I will be to you for a Father, and ye shall be to me for sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty", 2 Corinthians 6: 17, 18.

• We cannot be on terms of intimacy and friendship with the unconverted, or make companions of them and walk in their ways, without being rendered unclean.

• The unclean creatures of verse 2 would perhaps typify things outside oneself – association with unbelievers as referred to in 2 Corinthians 6. While the "uncleanness of man", verse 3 would perhaps be more what we get in 2 Corinthians 7: 1.
  • "Having therefore these promises, beloved, let us purify ourselves from every pollution of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in God's fear".

• That is every uncleanness which we find in ourselves; we have to preserve purity from it all.

The third form of specific sin. verse 4 is "talking rashly with the lips, to do evil or to do good, in everything that a man shall say rashly with an oath".

• If it was "to do evil" one ought never to have said it at all; if it was "to do good" one ought not to say it without doing it. The sin here lies in the rashness of what is said, and the more rash a man is in his speech the more likely is he to strengthen what he says by an oath. See Matthew 26: 74.

• Strong asseveration is very often found identified with rashness and sin. A man whose intents and purposes are formed in the fear of God does not speak rashly, nor does he need to use anything in the nature of an oath. Our Lord has said,
  • "But let your word be Yea, yea; Nay, nay; but what is more than these is from evil. or, the evil one", Matthew 5: 37.

• Alas! the unsubdued state of the heart often discloses itself in the rashness of the lips! Indeed James says, "If any one offend not in word, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body too".

If one has sinned in any of the three ways here spoken of, the moment comes "when he knoweth it".

• The prophetic word comes home, either in secret or through ministry, and there is the consciousness of having allowed what is of the flesh. A cloud comes over the joy; there is not freedom in the service of the Lord, or in prayer, or in fellowship with the brethren.

• Then an upright soul turns to God in confession, and brings his trespass-offering. Provision is made for cleansing, and for learning in a new way the value of Christ, as we have seen in chapter 4.

It is very encouraging to see the grace that makes provision for one who is not able to bring a sheep or a goat.

• The one contemplated in verses 7-10 is feebler in his exercises, and in his apprehension of Christ. But he gets cleansing and forgiveness though he can only bring "two turtle-doves or two young pigeons".

• God takes account of the actual conditions which are found amongst His people, and in this the measures of all are not alike. There is not with all the same capacity for the apprehension of Christ, and therefore, not the same capacity for self-judgment.

• The cause of these differences, and of some having less ability than others, is not explained here, and we need not attempt to account for it. It exists as a matter of fact, and God recognizes it, and we have to recognize it. There are moral differences just as there are mental and physical differences.

• In this chapter God takes account in grace of different capacities in His people. The man who brings two birds has a smaller apprehension than the one who brings a sheep. But even he is able to discern the difference between Christ as the sin-offering and as the burnt-offering.

• The second bird seems to take the place here of the fat in the larger offerings, and brings in the thought of the blessed acceptability – the positive excellence and sweet fragrance – of Christ in the offering of Himself.

• So that it indicates an apprehension in the offerer not only of clearance, but of the excess that secures for him through the death of Christ a return to the joy of acceptance.

There is an even smaller measure in one who brings "the tenth part of an ephah of fine flour".

• This represents the feeblest measure of exercise that is taken account of in this connection. There is no true perception in such an offerer that his sin necessitated the death of Christ. He does not measure it in its true gravity, nor realize that sin is such a solemn thing that death is its penalty.

• But he has a sense that he has done wrong, and he has also a sense of the perfectness of Christ. He could say of Him, like the thief, "This man has done nothing amiss". He judges himself in some measure – perhaps a small measure – in the light of what Christ was.

• And he has a conviction that only what was seen in Christ will do for God. He has the impression in his soul that Christ is needed, and he has to do with God about his sin in the consciousness of this, and in the grace of God he gets forgiveness.

It is wonderful how God accepts any measure of true exercise, and any measure in which a soul apprehends Christ and judges himself in the light of Christ, and this ought to have its answer in what we look for in one another.

• We must not expect to find the same depth of self-judgment in every one. If we have to do with a brother whose exercises are feeble we are apt to say that there is little in him. This is perhaps true, but it should not lead us to think little of him.

• There is more need for our priestly service for him, and that he should be cared for and helped. If I regard him as of no account, I show that I no more understand his divine value than he does himself!

These provisions made in grace do not in any way excuse carelessness or lightness as to sin. No one can say, It does not matter whether I judge myself deeply or not.

• God knows our ability, and if we ought to bring a sheep He will not accept a handful of flour. We may be assured that the priest would never accept two birds from a man who was able to bring a goat!

• But while remembering this as to ourselves, we should remember as to others that all have not the same apprehension of Christ in sin-offering character, and therefore have not the same capacity for self-judgment.

• And the provisions of this chapter meet very graciously the exercises of many who have sinned, whose distress is that they do not feel able to judge themselves as deeply as they would like to do. Satan often uses this to keep souls in bondage.

• f you are conscious that you have sinned, and if you have had to do with God about it in spiritual reality, and have availed yourself of Christ as the sin-offering according to your measure, you may be fully assured that the sin is forgiven.

• And your moral capacity is really being increased by the exercise; you are learning more fully to distinguish "good and evil", Hebrews 5: 14, and to judge the latter in view of Christ and of His death.

"If any one act unfaithfully and sin through inadvertence in the holy things of Jehovah". Such a one has failed to render what was due to God.

• The tithes are the last thing mentioned in this book, and they are "holy to Jehovah", Leviticus 27: 30-33. There was no prosperity in Israel when the tithes were not brought. See Malachi 3: 8-12.

• Our lives are to be so ordered that there is something distinctly for God. When this is so, the way we act in our households and in our business, ministers to our spiritual food, and helps us as Levites. See Deuteronomy 14: 22-23, 29; Numbers 18: 21.

• If the tithes are rendered there is food in God's house. Malachi 3: 10, and you may depend upon it that if you minister to the house, the house will minister to you! Then the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, will have their share; grace will flow out in every direction where there is need.

• If there is a lack of food and blessing it raises the question whether "the whole tithe" has been brought "into the treasure-house". If we considered more for God, and His portion, the result would be much food to be enjoyed when we come together. Deuteronomy 14: 22-23. And what we are as dwelling in the land would minister to what we are as Levites.

One cannot doubt that there is much unfaithful acting "in the holy things of Jehovah". But a soul really conscious of having sinned in this way would be exercised to make up the deficiency, and even to go beyond.

• And it is noticeable that the principle of "valuation" comes in here. This is not left to the individual conscience, but to the valuation Moses. If there is a trespass in the "holy things" none can estimate it but the One who is Son over God's house.

• As to God's holy things Christ is the only One who can justly estimate unfaithfulness, and what is needed to put things right. There must be a special having to do with Him.

• It is important to see that there is such a thing as "the shekel of the sanctuary". That is, a divine standard of moral value.

• People do not think much of a trespass in "holy things" today. It is appalling how holy things are trifled with, and made the plaything of the mind of man. God's redemption rights are ignored, and the holiness of His sanctuary profaned, in innumerable ways. But there is One who rightly estimates everything. We see this in Revelation 2 and 3.

If there has been unfaithfulness in the "holy things" one must get to the Lord about it, and get His valuation.

• This brings in a marked difference from the sin-offering, in which the offering is according to the capacity of the one who has sinned.

• In the trespass-offering all is according to the valuation of Moses. This brings in a divine estimate, and therefore in each case the offering is a ram.

Moses is a type of Christ as Son over God's house; every trespass must be valued by Him.

• Verses 17-19 expressly refer to one who does not even know that he has sinned.
  • "Yet is he guilty, and shall bear his iniquity … he hath certainly trespassed against Jehovah".

• One should always remember the possibility of having sinned without knowing it. Paul said,
  • "I am conscious of nothing in myself; but am not justified by this; but he that examines me is the Lord", 1 Corinthians 4: 4.

• I may not know that I have trespassed, but Moses may know! How important it is then really to have to do with the Lord, and get His valuation of things! I trust our souls feel the need of taking up the exercise of Psalm 139.
  • "Search me, O God, and know my heart; prove me, and know my thoughts; and see if there be any grievous. or idolatrous way in me; and lead me in the way everlasting".

• We shall get the Lord's valuation at the judgment-seat, but it would be better to get it beforehand. For the trespass-offering is available now, and it gives opportunity for increase in the knowledge of Christ.

• Believers are sometimes afraid of facing things with the Lord: they do not know how much gain there is in doing so.

Getting the valuation of Christ leads to bringing an offering of full maturity and strength, and this secures a corresponding energy of self-judgment.

• Christ values "by shekels of silver, according to the shekel of the sanctuary".

• He knows perfectly the divine rights which have been infringed, and the holiness of the sanctuary which has been offended. And the result of having to do with Him is that we are able to bring "the ram of the trespass-offering".

• A ram indicates maturity and energy; it is a very strong and distinctive apprehension of Christ as covering in the value of His death the sin which has been committed in the "holy things".

If we have sinned in regard to the "holy things", a wonderful measure of restoration is open to us through the grace of God.

There is ability in the man who brings the trespass-offering to "make restitution", and even to "add the fifth part thereto". Thus God gets more in result than He would have had originally.

After Mark's failure and restoration Paul could say that he was "serviceable to me for ministry", and his Gospel indicates a very energetic appreciation of Christ.

• I have no doubt he got a divine valuation of things, and brought his trespass-offering, and made restitution with a fifth part added. We have all gained by his exercise.

• The soul that has brought the ram of the trespass offering will be henceforth an enlarged contributor in the assembly.

If some divine principle has been ignored by the people of God, the trespass will not be put right until they accept that principle and act on it.

• And when such a trespass is rightly felt it will lead to a special care about that principle which would correspond with the "fifth part" added.

The trespass-offering involves restitution. Grace comes in to enable one to make full reparation.

• It is not merely that atonement is made, but whether in the case of what is due to God or to one's neighbour, it is fully rendered with an added fifth.

• I suppose that Mark in going to be with Paul in prison at Rome at the close of his life was really undertaking a more difficult and dangerous service than the one he had shrunk from in earlier days. He added the fifth part.

• It is not simply being forgiven, and going on with God as forgiven, but the failure is made good so that the one whose rights had been infringed is better off than he was before!

• I have injured a brother – said something untrue of him or the like – and I have really brought the trespass-offering according to the valuation of the Lord, I shall restore in full.

• I shall not be afraid of letting myself down too much; I shall add the fifth part thereto. And the result will be that the brother I have injured will think more of me than he ever did before, for he has now seen more of the grace of God in me.

• Thus God has gained, for He has had the Ram of the trespass-offering brought to Him;
  • the one who was trespassed against has gained, for all that was taken away has been restored with twenty per cent interest;

  • and the trespasser has gained, for he has learned to distinguish good and evil in a truer way, and he has acquired an apprehension of Christ which he had not before, so that he can bring more of Christ to the assembly than he ever did before.

• So that the whole assembly gains also. How happy would it be if every wrong amongst the people of God were righted in this way! And this is undoubtedly what the grace of God would bring about. It is a fine finish to the exercises which Leviticus 4 and 5 bring before us.

'An entrusted thing or a deposit'. verse 6: 2 may suggest that we hold a good deal on trust for the people of God, and it is a serious exercise as to whether we are true to the trust, and discharging its obligations.

• Whatever we have of Christ, and of the precious truth of God, belongs to all our neighbours. We hold it, in a sense, upon trust for all saints, and we are under obligation to see that – so far as in us lies – they get the good of it.

• One feels sometimes like saying to believers, 'I have some very valuable property of yours in my charge, and the sooner you put in your claim for it the better pleased I shall be'.

• All the precious truth in regard to Christ and the assembly is a "good deposit entrusted", and we have a holy responsibility to see that it does not suffer any diminution or damage in our hands, but that it is preserved in its full value, and held faithfully for the whole church to whom it belongs.

• The gospel, too, is a sacred trust. These things are not to be held as if they were our exclusive property; the belong to many others.

• Paul had the sense of having things entrusted to him, and he was exercised not to be guilty in regard to them. Romans 1: 14-15; 1 Corinthians 9: 16-23; 1 Timothy 1: 11; etc.

The first thing in "the law of the burnt-offering" is that "the burnt-offering shall be on the hearth on the altar all night unto the morning, and the fire of the altar shall be kept burning on it".