LEVITICUS 17
The first part of this chapter relates to the fellowship of God’s people. In considering chapter 16 we have seen the blessed character of our approach to God according to the value of the Sin-offering of the day of atonement, and according to Christ as the One who has gone within the veil. But peace-offerings relate to the fellowship in which we walk with others in the place where Christ died. And the truth of fellowship involves the whole question of what our enjoyments consist in, and where we find them. God loves His people too well to bear that they should have enjoyments apart from Him.
The elder brother in Luke 15 did not care for the merriment and rejoicing which were going on in the father’s house; he had no communion with his father’s delights; he had a fellowship of his own. “To me hast thou never given a kid that I might make merry with my friends”. It was “I” and “my friends” without his father; he “would not go in” to take part in the communion of infinite grace. His fellowship was really an idolatrous one, for it was as much apart from his father as were the self-gratifications of the younger son in the far country.
It is against such selfish and idolatrous enjoyments that this chapter warns us. Every ox, or sheep, or goat slaughtered was to be brought to Jehovah, to the entrance of the tent of meeting, and sacrificed as a peace-offering to Jehovah. “And they shall no more sacrifice their sacrifices unto demons, after whom they go a whoring”. Any enjoyments that cannot be taken up with God, and shared with His people as in relation to Him at the altar, may be suspected as likely to open the door to what is idolatrous.
“Neither be ye idolaters, as some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play” (1 Corinthians 10: 7). They gratified themselves in the absence of Moses, and without God. To do so is to forget that Christ has died here, and that He is absent as rejected by the world. In introducing the subject of fellowship the Apostle says, “Wherefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. 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 bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of the Christ?” And in contrast with this he says “that what the nations sacrifice they sacrifice to demons, and not to God. Now I do not wish you to be in communion with demons. 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” (1 Corinthians 10: 14 - 22).
In a professedly christian country we have not idols of wood or stone, but there are a thousand things which practically rob God of His place in the hearts of His people. Things which have no connection with His altar, and no place in the spiritual fellowship to which He has called His people. All worldly amusements have this character, and much that is connected with worldly religion is really idolatrous, because it tends to please and satisfy men at a distance from God.
[p. 213] For a man to kill his ox, sheep, or goat without bringing it to the tent of meeting simply meant that he was going to have a feast in which God had no part. “That man shall be cut off from among his people”. He had morally cut himself off by making provision to enjoy himself without God. There was no sacrificial character about an animal slaughtered apart from the altar: it did not speak of Christ at all; it only represented a using of what God had given providentially for self-gratification. This is exactly what the world does, and it is in principle idolatrous. God loves His people, and would have all their happiness connected with Himself. He would have each one of His people to say truthfully, “My God, the spring of all my joys”.
Peace-offerings connected with the altar and the tent of meeting can be participated in by all the people of God that are “clean”. Everything that truly belongs to the fellowship — all that is of Christ; and that comes to us through His death, and the holy love of God revealed to us through death — can be shared by all who love God. If I have a source of gratification which is not the common portion of all saints I might well ask, What is its character? What we can enjoy in common lies entirely outside the world; it is the fellowship of the body and blood of Christ; and this puts our enjoyments really on the resurrection side of death. We may enjoy together feeding upon Christ, with the happy consciousness that what we enjoy is the common portion of all who love God, and that we enjoy it as near to God, and in communion with His altar.
“The tent of meeting” was the rallying point for the whole congregation. It would remind us of our relations with all the brethren. We stand committed [p. 214] to a holy partnership, and we have all to be true to it. Should I like to know that all saints were doing what I am doing? If not, can it be right for me to do it? If I do what is not according to the truth of Christian fellowship, I misrepresent all the brethren, as well as failing to maintain what is due to the Lord. Each partner is to be a true representative of all the others. Everything that we do either ministers to the support of the fellowship or weakens it. A young believer just starting on a two-years’ cruise in a large vessel, lay in his hammock the first night out from Portsmouth, praying about the two years during which he might perhaps hardly have any Christian fellowship, and the thought came to him, Here you are with all these men, and you do not know that there is one believer amongst them to report what you say or do, and yet the way you conduct yourself during these two years will affect for strengthening or weakening the whole company of saints on earth! It is good to remember that each partner in the fellowship represents all the partners. Sometimes a believer may think he is of no account, and it does not matter what he does, or where he goes, or how he spends his time! But each believer is one of the partners in the fellowship, and what he does is either true to the fellowship or is a misrepresentation of it. I heard the other day of a brother being seen at a football match! What kind of witness was that?
In the wilderness position it is important to maintain what is due to the Lord, and what is consistent with the fellowship to which we are called. So that it is a continual exercise not to take up anything for enjoyment that we do not hold in communion with God, and with those who love Him. But “in the land”, as Deuteronomy 12 tells us, “according to all the desire of thy soul thou mayest slay and eat flesh in all thy gates, according to the blessing of Jehovah thy God which he hath given thee” (verse 15). Your “gates” are on divine territory now, and your border has been enlarged there (verse 20), and every trace of idolatry extirpated (verses 2, 3). You are in “the rest” and “the inheritance” (verse 9), you love all saints, and you have “gates” in which you can enjoy what your soul desires. The burnt-offerings and the hallowed things are all still connected with the place where Jehovah sets His Name, but what the soul desires can be enjoyed in “all thy gates”. This is not “in the camp” or “out of the camp”, but souls established, in type, on divine territory. They are wonderful “gates” when you consider what is cherished and nourished there — the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, the widow. See Deuteronomy 14: 29. When you have “gates” like that you can be trusted. They are the “gates” of a people who are in the affections of sons, and who enjoy a God-given inheritance in a spirit of grace towards those who are dependent. They have “bowels of compassions” — the first feature of the elect of God in Colossians 3. “The desire of thy soul” in Deuteronomy 12 is typically the desire of the new man, and the “gates” are only open to receive the blessing of Jehovah (verse 15), and to administer that blessing in a spirit of grace to others. To enjoy such a portion all the year round is a wonderful preparation for going up to “the place which Jehovah your God will choose ... to set his name there”.
The difference between Leviticus 17 and Deuteronomy 12 brings out the difference between saints viewed as being true to the fellowship in the wilderness, and viewed as [p. 216] enjoying the inheritance in the land. In one position constant watchfulness against the intrusion of what is idolatrous is called for. In the other what is typified is the enjoyment in rest and liberty of divine favour and goodness on divine territory where all is received from God and used for God. What was killed in those “gates” was not for self-gratification, but in the enjoyment of what was God-given, and to minister to others in the spirit of grace. It was there the enjoyment of the inheritance.
Leviticus 17: 10 - 14 renews the commandment against eating blood, which had been first given to Noah (Genesis 9: 4), and repeated in Leviticus 3: 17; Leviticus 7: 26, but now the reason is given. “I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that maketh atonement for the soul. Therefore have I said unto the children of Israel, No soul of you shall eat blood”. The lessons of the blood were so distinctive, and so vital to all their relations with God, that He would not allow any use of blood which might enfeeble them. Blood was always to be connected in their thoughts with atonement.
It has pleased God that man should be in a condition on earth in which “the soul (or life) of the flesh is in the blood”. If man’s blood is shed his life is taken. In the wisdom of God this is also true of the animals, that they might be suitable to represent man sacrificially, though they have no spirit that stands morally in relation to God — as man has. Man as in flesh, having his life in the blood, has fallen, and come under the penalty of death. If man is to have righteousness with God, or life, or blessing, it must be on the ground of the death of Another. The “coats of skin” (Genesis 3: 21) were the first lesson as to this, disclosing [p. 217] the wondrous thought of God that man, the fallen and naked sinner, might be clothed with a divine righteousness through death. Every animal that is killed for man’s benefit speaks of Christ, for it is given by God (Genesis 9: 3) to suggest to man that he may benefit through death.
Then every life that was taken sacrificially emphasized the lesson. The blood was given upon the altar to make atonement. Every animal that is killed for food speaks of man as being sustained through the death of Another. Every animal killed in sacrifice spoke of man being in relation with God through the death of Another. Both remind man that his own life in flesh is forfeited, and that he may enjoy good through a life being taken over which he had not the slightest claim. God originated that life, and alone had rights in regard to it, and if in goodness and mercy He permits the creature whose life in flesh is forfeited to benefit by another creature life being taken, His rights must be owned. He reserves the blood. It is as obligatory upon christians to abstain from eating blood as it was upon the children of Israel. See Acts 15: 29. It is a question of the permanent rights of God over His creatures on earth.
But this statement that “the life of the flesh is in the blood” can hardly be considered without our hearts being reminded of the wondrous fact that there has been One in that condition whose life was not forfeited. The blessed Son of God took part in blood and flesh. See Hebrews 2: 14 and the note in the New Translation. He came into that condition absolutely without taint of sin; He “knew no sin”; He was the Holy One of God. But He took part in that condition of flesh and blood in which man had [p. 218] been created and had fallen and become sinful and subject to death. In that condition of flesh and blood sin attached to us; our lives were forfeited; we were under the penalty of death. In that condition of flesh and blood sin did not attach to Him, and therefore His life was not forfeited; death had no claim on Him whatever. But He came into that condition where “the life of the flesh is in the blood” in view of the accomplishment of atonement. He took part in blood and flesh that His blood might be poured out, and the life ended sacrificially that was forfeited by the just judgment of God upon sin. His blood was given upon the altar to make atonement. The very condition to which, in us, sin attached was brought to an end in the vicarious death of that sinless One. He never resumed the life in blood and flesh. He was raised having “flesh and bones” (Luke 24: 39) but having poured out His blood for atonement. He has laid down the life which was in the blood, and He lives eternally now in resurrection life and a spiritual and glorified body. The same Blessed Man, unchanged in all that He was morally, but in a new and eternal condition to which sin can never attach, and in which He dies no more.
“It is the blood that maketh atonement for the soul”. We know how the adversaries of our faith deride the thought of this. They regard it as offensive, and only suited to an unenlightened age. But man is a sinner, and under death. No doubt the thought of this is offensive also. If we set aside the thought of atoning blood we have not got rid of all that is offensive! But, thank God! the precious fact remains that the blood speaks of what meets in divine grace [p. 219] the actual and undeniable facts of the situation. It goes to the very root of the tremendous questions which all men have to face. Men may be, as Peter says, “willingly” ignorant. They may resolutely shut their eyes to the fact that man is fallen and under death. They may dream out schemes of morality and philosophy, indifferent to the fact that they are useless as a remedy for man’s condition. They may even profess to accept the moral teachings of the Bible while refusing its doctrine of atonement. But the fact remains that man is sinful; his life is forfeited; he cannot put himself right. It is the voice of a Saviour God that says, “The life of the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that maketh atonement for the soul”. Man’s life in flesh is forfeited; he is under the penalty of death. Whatever his views he cannot get away from this, offensive as the thought may be. But if infinite love has considered the situation, and a Sinless One — a Divine Person — has come into flesh and blood that an unforfeited life of infinite value might be given in the way of atonement, what a revelation it is of what God is!
Man’s life in flesh is in the blood; if you shed his blood his life is gone. But man in that life is fallen; he is a sinner under death. Is man content to leave it at that? If so, he must be prepared to abide the consequences. But if man is content to leave it so, God is not. He has sent His blessed Son in holy Manhood to take part in blood and flesh that His blood might be given for atonement. It is in this way that we know the love and righteousness of a Saviour God.
[p. 220] Blood speaks of life poured out. Man is ever to respect that; it is never to be a common thing to him, or a thing he can use as he likes. Every life taken for man’s benefit speaks of Christ and of atonement. The principle of vegetarianism is contrary to Scripture; the real root of it is the enemy’s hatred of the idea that man is to benefit through death. But it is only death that can make atonement or secure blessing for sinful men.