LEVITICUS 1
The Book of Leviticus has in view a people in covenant relations with God, in whose midst God dwells, and who have movements of heart Godward. God had said to Moses, “When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain” (Exodus 3: 12). He had said to Pharaoh, “Let my son go, that he may serve me” (Exodus 4: 23). Here we see the manner and order of that service — the service of a free and willing people; and we learn that every outgoing of heart in the service of God is concerning Christ. Blessed service! Blessed those whose privilege it is to take it up!
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 [p. 2] 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 - 1 Corinthians 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 [p. 3] 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 [p. 4] 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. One exercise is as to acceptance, and Christ as the burnt-offering is the answer to that. Another is with regard to perfection in an object for the heart, and the meat-offering is Christ as the answer to that exercise. A third is with reference to fellowship, and the peace-offering is Christ in relation to that. 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 [p. 5] 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?
[p. 6] 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 burnt-offering comes first, the offering for acceptance. The sin-offering comes last; it is only as we know Christ as set forth in the previous offerings that we can rightly estimate sin. It is in the light of the obedient and perfect One that we can alone truly learn the character of the lawless one. In the light of One wholly devoted to God in obedience and love we discern how hateful lawlessness is, and how intense, searching and all-consuming is the judgment which has come upon sinful flesh.
The offerer in this chapter has the consciousness that he approaches God in divine favour. In the priest we [p. 7] 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 [p. 8] 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 [p. 9] 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 [p. 10] 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 [p. 11] 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.
[p. 12] 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 [p. 14] 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 [p. 15] 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 [p. 16] 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.