THE NEW MEAT-OFFERING
[p. 125] THE NEW MEAT-OFFERING
What we get at the end of Acts 2 is the “new meat-offering” — the fulfilment of what was typified in the feast of Pentecost. The new meat-offering refers to Christians, as set together in the power of the Holy Spirit, and I have turned to this scripture because it brings before us, in a figurative way, different things which need to have their moral effect upon us, if we are to be found here truly as part of the new meat-offering.
There are four feasts mentioned in the verses I have read: the passover, the feast of unleavened bread, the feast of first-fruits, and Pentecost. It is in connection with the latter that the new meat-offering comes in.
Just a few words about what we find at the beginning of the chapter — “the sabbath to Jehovah” (verse 3). When God looked upon everything that He had made, and found it “very good”, He rested on the seventh day from His work (Genesis 1: 31; Genesis 2: 1 - 3). But it is interesting and important to see that God did not make known the sabbath to men until redemption was accomplished in type — that is, until He had brought Israel out of Egypt (see Ezekiel 20: 12). But from the beginning it was the mind of God to have a rest for Himself, and to have men to share His rest.
God rests in what is “very good”, and when sin came in there could be no rest for God in anything that sin touched. The coming in of God’s beloved Son introduced that in which God could rest. Of Him He could say, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight” (Matthew 3: 17). That blessed One went into death that sin might be dealt with and removed to the glory of God. Now He has “ascended up above all the heavens, that he might fill all things” (Ephesians 4: 10).
God’s purpose is to head up all things in Christ, and thus bring about a sabbath — a perfect rest — for Himself, and He will have His saints to enter into that rest and share it with Him.
People think Christians are narrow-minded, but it is the man of the world who is narrow-minded; he is occupied with small things which will soon pass away; but the Christian is occupied with great things which will be permanent — he looks forward to the time when Christ will fill the universe with glory, and bring in perfect rest for God. This is the great end of all God’s ways.
But now let us look at the four feasts. The passover comes first. We cannot go farther until we know the import of this feast. “Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us” (1 Corinthians 5: 7). Taking up the type of the passover I attach great importance to the words, “The blood shall be for you as a sign”. The other side is often spoken of: “When I see the blood, I will pass over you” (Exodus 12: 13). But I want to speak now of the blood as God’s great token to men.
God has provided for His own glory in the death of Christ, and the blood is the token of this. God’s will and thought is to bring men into grace and blessing, and the great token of this is the blood — that is, the death of Christ. The blood is God’s great token to men of what is in His mind; it is that by which He speaks to men in grace.
Of what is it the token? Well, it shows me, first, that I am under death and judgment. If Christ must needs have suffered that blessing might reach me, it shows in the most solemn way that I am under death and judgment. Why should He — the holy, spotless Lamb of God — die and bear the judgment if we were not under it? Many have not peace with God because they have never learned this. Think much, my friend, of the precious blood of Christ! What you are, and what you deserve, is seen by the fact that nothing but the death of Christ could make blessing possible for you. To see this produces true repentance towards God.
[p. 127] I have heard of some missionaries who went to Greenland, and sought for a long time to bring the natives to repentance by speaking to them about their sins and pressing the claims of the law. No result was produced until one day — almost by accident, as men speak — they spoke of the death of Christ as a sacrifice for sin. This did what all their previous efforts had failed to accomplish. Many were broken down in repentance and a work of God began. It is a great thing to learn the depths of your ruin and distance from God by the death of Christ. The blood is a token to you of this. Your condition is such that only by the death of Christ could blessing reach you from God. But if the blood is a token of my state and condition as under death and judgment, it is also a token that divine love has reached me there. God has sent His Son to die and bear the judgment. Love brought Him where sin brought me; He has gone into it all and under it all for me. By this I know divine love. How blessed to have such a wonderful token!
Then there is another thing. Not only has divine love reached me, but divine righteousness is in my favour. Now that Christ has died, the righteousness of God is in favour of man, and is made known in the gospel. Righteousness has been established by love and is in favour of man. The blood is the token of this. God’s great voice to men is the death of Christ. The blood is the great token of His love and righteousness as a Saviour God. Have we kept the passover? Have we learned the great and blessed meaning of God’s token?
Then the next thing is the feast of unleavened bread. This was in close connection with the passover — as soon as the passover had ended the feast of unleavened bread began. All leaven had to be put away (Exodus 13: 6, 7). Leaven invariably typifies what is evil. Turn to 1 Corinthians 5: 2 - 8: “Ye are puffed up”. That is what leaven does. The Corinthians were not keeping the feast of unleavened bread; they had not purged out the old leaven. This is a far deeper thing than dealing with the wicked person. They needed to deal with [p. 128] themselves. They had great spiritual gifts and endowments, but they were puffed up and their glorying was not good.
There was the working of leaven. This is a deeply solemn thing. If Christ has gone into death for us as our passover, how can we be puffed up or glory in the flesh which He died to remove? How can I wish to be a big man here, or to show myself off where Christ died for me? To do so is unrighteousness. If I have learned the meaning of the passover I must purge out the old leaven. I cannot allow self-importance. It may be there; I find it in my flesh, but I do not allow it; I judge it, and turn from it.
God allowed the case of this wicked person to arise that the condition of the whole company might be exposed, and that they might purge out the leaven that was working amongst them. If saints are puffed up they have no capacity to judge what is evil. There had been no allowance of the flesh, or of what was merely natural in the preaching of the apostle (see 1 Corinthians 1: 17; 1 Corinthians 2: 1 - 5). “Wisdom of word” would have emptied the cross of Christ of its meaning. It would have given a place to the man who was set aside there. God will not have flesh to glory in His presence. It is a terrible thing to think that man will use even divine gifts to exalt himself.
If I realise what I am there is no room for glorying in myself. “Foolish” “weak” “base” “despised”, “things which are not” — that is what I am. The only things we can boast in are the choice of God, the cross, and Christ. If I am really going after Christ I do not want to be important myself. If self-importance works we are in great danger of falling into Satan’s hands. You may say that we all fail in this. Yes, but the great thing is, what are we after? What line are we on in mind and spirit? If after Christ we are set to refuse the flesh; God has crucified the flesh in the death of Christ, and we take the same attitude. “They that are of the Christ have crucified the flesh ...” (Galatians 5: 24). The Spirit would certainly not give the flesh any place. “If, by the Spirit, ye [p. 129] put to death the deeds of the body, ye shall live” (Romans 8: 13).
I trust God will exercise us all about this. It is not servile bondage; it is true liberty. If you lose your divine joy for a bit of self-gratification you are like a man throwing away diamonds for sand. We cannot afford to gratify the flesh; if we do we lose our divine liberty. A well-known servant of the Lord said, ‘If I my tastes deny, when I might gratify, I suffer bitterly, but sweet is liberty’. Do not make any mistake about this, you cannot enjoy divine liberty unless you keep the flesh in the place of death where God has put it. You may fail in carrying this out, but are you set for it? It is better to fail with your face in the right direction than to get on well in the wrong direction. The Corinthians were full, they were rich and reigning as kings; they were going in the wrong direction.
Now we come to the feast of the first-fruits. This speaks of a risen Christ; Christ is the first-fruits in resurrection (see 1 Corinthians 15: 20, 23). The sheaf of first-fruits was waved on the next day after the Sabbath (verses 10, 11), that is, on the first day of the week — the resurrection day. There is a moral order in these feasts. I do not think one comes to the apprehension of Christ as the First-fruits of a resurrection order until the Passover is known, and the feast of unleavened bread kept. Paul presented the cross to bring the Corinthians to self-judgment, before he spoke to them of Christ in a resurrection order.
“To be accepted for you” (verse 11). It is a great thing to know a Man of another order as our acceptance before God. Not many understand the moral import of the resurrection, that it introduces an entirely new order of things. In 1 Corinthians 15 where the apostle speaks so much of resurrection, the great point is that there is an entirely new order. We have been of the order of the man made of dust, but we now belong to the order of that blessed Man who is of heaven. He is the heavenly One — the First-fruits of a resurrection order.
[p. 130] We learn the blessedness of our acceptance now in Him, and at His coming we shall be divested of every trace of the man made of dust, and we shall bear the image of the heavenly One.
Our acceptance is set forth in that blessed Man of a resurrection order. Many believers live too much in the Old Testament. They think of being purged with hyssop so as to be clean, and of their sins being made white as snow, and their transgressions being blotted out as a thick cloud, but they remain on the old ground of men in the flesh. The Christian is on a new footing altogether. The risen Christ is the measure of his acceptance, and of his clearance. It is a blessed thing to see Christ as the Sheaf of first-fruits; it takes us off the ground of good or improved self. By divine grace we are of the order of the heavenly One, and very soon we shall have actually left flesh and blood, and shall be conformed to His image.
Then fifty days (verse 16) after the waving of the sheaf of firstfruits came the feast of Pentecost, when the new meat-offering was waved before Jehovah. The saints of the assembly are the new meat-offering. In the absence of Christ God secures a company on earth to bring out in that company the blessed perfection of Christ. Note that as to the two wave loaves, “with leaven shall they be baken” (verse 17). There was to be no leaven in the meat-offering of Leviticus 2, which represented Christ personally, but in the new meat-offering there was leaven. But mark well, the loaves were “baken”. Baking arrests all the action of leaven. God deals with us so as to arrest the action of the leaven. He brings the fire to bear upon us so that self-judgment is wrought in us, and the leaven does not work. If the flesh is kept under judgment the fruit of the Spirit comes out in the saints; Christ comes out in us for the pleasure of God; we become the new meat-offering.
We are in the feast of Pentecost now. At the end of Acts 2 we see the new meat-offering — three thousand people displaying the Spirit of Christ, walking in unselfish love, in [p. 131] unity, and joy, and praise (verses 41 - 46). People think it was wonderful that they should speak with so many tongues, but it was far more wonderful that three thousand persons should be found in unity, and that the Spirit of Christ should characterise them all, so that none said “that aught of the things which he possessed was his own” (Acts 4: 32). That was the new meat-offering, and that pentecostal company is on the earth still, and through grace we are part of it.
God’s great thought is to bring Christ out in us. We first learn Him as our Passover sacrificed for us. Then we have to keep the feast of unleavened bread; there must be self-judgment. The first epistle to the Corinthians was all to bring them to self-judgment, to keep the feast. Then when they judged themselves the second epistle was written, full of the precious ministry of a risen and exalted Christ. In that second epistle we read, too, of God’s discipline which comes in to help us by the practical setting aside of the flesh. Paul was helped by the “thorn for the flesh” (2 Corinthians 12: 7). If we really desire that Christ should come out in us, God will help us. It is better to have a check put upon the flesh by the discipline of God than to have the best thing the devil could give you in the world. When the apostle was reduced to absolute weakness the power of Christ tabernacled over him. If the flesh is set aside and the power of Christ tabernacles over us, and the Spirit of Christ is in us, the result will be that the life of Jesus will be manifest in our mortal flesh. We shall be found here as the new meat-offering.