THE FEASTS (1)
[p. 260] THE FEASTS (1)
In the early chapters of this book we have the “offerings”; they express the attitude of God towards the one who approaches Him by them. The flesh is there seen to be intolerable to God, and God will not have what is after it; He must get rid of the flesh. Afterwards in the ‘feasts’ we see how we can approach God, having learnt in the offerings His attitude towards us.
The feasts were institutions for Israel, but to us they represent formative principles, the means by which we are enabled to draw near. The chapters immediately previous bring out that man and all his doings are obnoxious to God, and that raises the question, how are we to be for God? It is by the formative work of the Spirit of God. Aaron had to go into the holiest covered by blood; man as such could not go in. Death was upon Israel which he represented, so Aaron had to go in with the witness of death. Now all must be by the Spirit of God.
The first seven chapters present, as has been said, the attitude of God consequent on the offering of Christ. The burnt-offering was for acceptance, the sin-offering for restoration. Sins were not put to account when there was no law, so that there was no sin-offering until the law. In the peace-offering we apprehend that the cause of disturbance has been removed from before God, so that man is free to enjoy such prosperity as God may give him down here. Then from chapters 12 to 15 we get an idea of the sources of defilement which are in the flesh, and this is seen even from the birth. Then after the day of atonement, in chapters 17 to 22, we learn that the ways of the people of God must be consonant with the holiness of Jehovah, who would have neither the doings of Egypt nor of the Canaanites.
We come then in chapter 23 to the feasts, in which we [p. 261] can discern the principles by which we are formed for approach to God. The first great point in the formative work of the Spirit as illustrated in this chapter is the eating of unleavened bread; eating is appropriation, we begin with sincerity and truth. Then in the wave-sheaf is set forth in Christ risen the thought of acceptance for man, there is a point of rest for God. You begin with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, and then you apprehend man in acceptance in resurrection. We learn the value of the passover after we have believed the gospel; it is one thing to learn the attitude of God towards us, and another to approach God in the value of that attitude.
The sabbath is brought in because the rest of God is the end of all His ways. If you had not a prospect of enjoying the rest of God, you would not entertain the idea of approaching God now. You cannot get out of the life of responsibility as long as you are down here, but there is something outside of and beyond the life of responsibility. It is very important to apprehend God’s rest, to know what God has secured for Himself. There is for God a point of complacency, in spite of a world of moral confusion, and that is Christ. The offerings present Christ in death; the feasts are connected with a living Christ. God rests now in Christ, and we labour to enter into that rest. We get an idea of this in Matthew 11, “Come unto me ... and I will give you rest”. The great point now is to find the spot where God is complacent, and this He has in Christ. Christ came to finish the work of God, and He is the finish. The work of the Spirit of God in us now is to bring our souls into the apprehension of this rest. God could not find any place of rest after sin had come in till Christ came, and if we want to find rest it must be where God rests.
God’s activities are shewn now in His ways and discipline with His people, but He wants to bring us to a point of rest, and unless we apprehend this we do not worship. People may praise God for His mercies, but [p. 262] they will want more mercies tomorrow, but in Christ there is a point of rest where there is nothing more to desire. The first day of the week represents typically the heavenly brought into communion with the earthly. The sabbath is God’s mercy to man down here, and it is a great point on the first day of the week — which is to us a sabbath — to relax every kind of work that is possible. As christians we come into the good of everything which God has provided for man; but in association with Christ, we reach a point of rest where there is the possibility of being before God, with all that is of the flesh excluded, that is the truth of a man in Christ.
The first principle of christian life is sincerity and truth; we have to eat the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. The sacrifice of the passover was, in the first place, for God, the unleavened bread was for the people. Having the Spirit, we must walk in self-judgment; the seven days of the feast represent the whole period of our time here. If there is not “sincerity and truth”, we cannot maintain practical relations with God. Sincerity and truth are not found in any man until he is born again. No man “doeth truth” until he is born of God. Sincerity is that there is no kind of reserve on your part toward God.
In the feast of first-fruits we have come to the sanctification of the church, to the apprehension of our being set apart for God in the Spirit. The harvest is for God. We have acceptance in Christ risen, “As he is, so are we in this world”. He is our righteousness. This settles every question. Everything unsuitable to God is excluded. It is not a question of how far we enter into it, but we are in acceptance in Christ risen. Christ is righteousness for us; if Christ risen is accepted for us, we cannot be under law. The apprehension in the soul of what Christ is as risen results in conformity to Christ, so that the purpose of God should be fulfilled in us. And this is accomplished in us now morally in the formative power of the Spirit. And [p. 263] though leaven is seen in the two wave-loaves, yet they were offered to God as the first-fruits of the harvest.