THE PEACE-OFFERING FOR THANKSGIVING
E.C.Burr
The offerings in this book, beloved, have very much instruction for us, perhaps less gone over and enquired into by us than they have been at one time. Perhaps we would profit from enquiring into them. They present, as we know, a range of thoughts as to what God found in Jesus, both in His life and in His death and in His present life. The burnt-offering has perhaps peculiarly in mind what He was when He offered Himself to God, a sacrifice "for a sweet-smelling savour" (Eph 5: 2), something in a sense that you might almost say God needed to find from man; and the sin-offering and the trespass-offering needed by the people, provided in grace by God, and in another sense needed by God Himself, that He might be able to go on with a people amongst whom sins and trespasses interfered with communion both among themselves and with Himself; and the oblation in its blessedness, as Mr Lyon used to say, to go in before God and enjoy Christ with Him, a very blessed thing, the Christ once humbled here, or the Christ who is now glorified, to be fed on in His manhood as the oblation.
The peace-offering no doubt presents something for God, but something also for us because it speaks, as we well know, of the prosperity and enjoyment that the brethren have, and of their fellowship together in that enjoyment, as they enjoyed this peace or prosperity offering when it was offered. I referred to this chapter because of what is added to the earlier reference to the peace-offering in the beginning of the book. As the saints know, the offerings are prescribed, then the law of them is set out so that the people would know how to offer what God had ordained, and you might say, the way He required things. It is very important that we should know the way God requires the things that are presented to Him, just as Jesus says in the gospel, "No one comes to the Father unless by me" (John 14: 6) and as Paul says in the epistle to the Ephesians, "For through him we have both access by one Spirit to the Father", chap 2: 18. Not only what is yielded is prescribed but the way of it as well.
The peace-offering is presented in this chapter peculiarly in relation to thanksgiving, as it says: "If he present it for a thanksgiving". No doubt that is with us constantly. Many things occur for which we have the occasion for thanksgiving. We should not forget it. Some of us were speaking on Lord's day about the way in which the prayer meeting is announced, and noticing that here and there it is announced as a meeting for prayer and thanksgiving. Whether it is announced for thanksgiving or not, it would be well that thanksgiving entered into it, because I think it is the spirit of thanksgiving that leads to the worship that should underlie the prayer meeting and frequently find expression in it. So that things are presented here in a certain way on a high level of enjoyment. The peace-offering is for enjoyment in any case, and then it is for thanksgiving, so that the people, or the man that offers a peace-offering for thanksgiving, is in a happy, liberated, joyful state. What I wanted to remark on is that while there are the cakes and the unleavened wafers mingled with oil, what there is peculiarly in addition to them is that there is the fine flour saturated with oil. I thought it was interesting that that entered into the peace-offering for thanksgiving. Now of course, if we referred to the oblation, we would think of the fine flour as representing the humanity of Jesus, and there is no reason why in the setting of the peace-offering we should have that aspect of things out of our minds. In fact, I do not suppose that any of us would ever think of coming to God without some thoughts of Jesus as there as Man. If we come in our failure, it is to think of Him in His perfection. If we come with a sense of things being right, we appreciate Him all the more as the firstborn among many brethren. However we come to God we would have some distinct sense of the humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ. But I wondered whether one would be justified too in applying this thought of the fine flour to the way in which fellowship is actually to be enjoyed and, you might say, handled among us. It reminds me of the scripture that we had before us in the reading on Lord's day: "that they may be one as we" (John 17: 11), and as you think of Jesus as Man saying that to the Father you get some impression, in the relationship with the Father to which He there refers, of the quality of the relationships which are intended to subsist among, in that setting, the disciples, or we might say to subsist among the brethren. And I would think that when He asked the Father to keep the disciples which He had given Him in His name "that they may be one as we", the character of that would be something like the feel of the fine flour, because there were no inconsistencies in the relationships between the Father and the Son. Everything was perfect, everything could be touched and handled. Everything was of a blessed consistency. Everything was delightful and soft - one might say tender - as one handled it; the blessedness of the relationship between the Father and the Son. It has been remarked before by Mr Darby, in regard to the fine flour, that if there was one thing that stood out in the character of Jesus it was grace. And as you came with the peace-offering for thanksgiving, and you brought the fine flour, I think that you would feel, as you touched the aspect of fellowship in the peace-offering, that that was the normal state of relationships among the brethren: a state formed by grace, that was easily handled, that had no anomalies or inconsistencies in it. That was what was intended to be enjoyed in the peace-offering for thanksgiving - a very blessed thing to have to do with, to enjoy, even to experience. And of course if we think of things on this level we must think of them in relation to what belongs to the body rather than what is external, what the Spirit in the scripture our brother has referred to is about to warn us against; how there would be departure and all that kind of thing. You have to touch things in the area where you are beyond what has come in by way of breakdown, to touch something of the reality of what the relationship among brethren was intended to be. As you handled the fine flour in the peace-offering you would be saying "How good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity" (Ps 133: 1) and, as it says here, it is saturated with oil. I suppose that in that enjoyment you would find that diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit had been maintained (see Eph 4: 3). The fine flour saturated with oil would be the product of something which could be suitably added to the peace-offering, something related, as I say, to the unity of the Spirit kept in the uniting bond of peace.
One thinks of Barnabas going to Antioch. He just went into the meeting and he saw the grace of God. What I suppose he saw was that the brethren were together in the gain of the peace-offering for thanksgiving and that the fine flour was there, mingled with oil. If one characteristic stood out it was grace. What he saw when he went in was the grace of God, and it must have been in the power of the Spirit, saturated with oil. There is no hope, beloved, of touching these things in their reality apart from the power of the one Spirit. If we think of things we might study in Scripture (and I value the references to what we might study), one is the references to the one Spirit. You would be quite surprised how often Paul refers to the one Spirit.
I think the fine flour saturated with oil is found in the saints enjoying prosperity and fellowship together in the power of one Spirit. The integrity and consistency and smoothness and fineness of the flour brought and enjoyed, and I suppose that according to this (because this is the law, this is not optional) if you could not bring the fine flour like this you could not bring a peace-offering. That would be something to sober us, that if there are anomalies and if there are inconsistencies, if there are irregularities, the question is whether the peace-offering can be brought, and if the peace-offering cannot be brought, then God is deprived and the priests are deprived and the sons of Aaron are deprived; Israel is deprived if it cannot be brought.
Therefore beloved, I think that the Spirit might test us as to how far the reality of fellowship is on the level that can be brought to God in the area of prosperity and enjoyment and peace. How real is that? How much is it known? And if any of us is discerning that in any way it is not known, then I suppose the thing to do is to go back to the trespass-offering and the sin-offering and discover what has brought in the inconsistencies, that they might be removed in the power of Christ's death, so that the fine flour saturated with oil might become available for enjoyment as the peace-offering is offered to God by one who comes with thanksgiving.
There are many things that occur, beloved, that test us. It is always a mistake to promote a crisis amongst the brethren. It indicates more one's own state of mind than it does the state of the brethren. It is a mistake to promote crises. It is a mistake to think that every small difference of opinion threatens division, but this is not to say that we are not to be concerned about things that come in of that kind, things that do indicate an inconsistency: I do something different from you, and which of us is right? Perhaps neither, but the need is that we are both in the gain of fine flour - companies, localities, brethren every where, all needing to be kept in the gain of fine flour as marking the reality of what can be brought along with prosperity-offerings so that there is fulness for God. As I say, beloved, this is the law, it is not optional. This is not 'if any man will', this is the law of the peace-offering. If you want to bring a peaceoffering you have to come like this. As has been said (I have said it myself often before), a peace-offering is not to make peace; it is a sign that peace exists, a sign of enjoyment, happiness and liberty already existent. The peace-offering is brought in order to display what exists, and it displays, amongst other things, the reality of this fine flour. I am sure one would be supported in connecting it with "that they may be one as we". That is the enjoyment of things on the level of the fellowship, if one could use that word, the communion at least which Jesus enjoyed with the Father, enjoyed among the saints.
Well beloved, the desires of the saints are for prosperity, they are for peace, they are for communion for fellowship, for love amongst themselves, for the unity of the Spirit. Let us be sure that each of us is contributing to it and that if, as Paul says to the beloved Philippians, any be otherwise minded God would reveal it to them (chap 3: 15), reveal it to any of us, reveal it to any place, any company, any person, in order that this might be enjoyed universally.
LONDON
18 July 1978