After the ceremonial acts of “washing” and “shaving” already referred to, we read, “Then let them [_i. e._, the Levites] take a young bullock with his meat-offering, even fine flour mingled with oil, and another young bullock shalt thou take for a sin-offering. And thou shalt bring the Levites before the tabernacle of the congregation: and thou shalt gather the whole assembly of the children of Israel together: and thou shalt bring the Levites before the Lord: and the children of Israel shall put their hands upon the Levites: and Aaron shall offer the Levites before the Lord for an offering of the children of Israel, that they may execute the service of the Lord. And the Levites shall lay their hands upon the heads of the bullocks; and thou shalt offer the one for a sin-offering, and the other for a burnt-offering, unto the Lord, to make an atonement for the Levites.”
Here we have presented to us, in type, the two grand aspects of the death of Christ. The sin-offering furnishes the one, the burnt-offering furnishes the other. Into the details of those offerings we do not enter here, having sought to do so in the opening chapters of our “Notes on Leviticus.” We would merely observe here that in the sin-offering we see Christ bearing sin in His own body on the tree, and enduring the wrath of God against sin; in the burnt-offering, we see Christ glorifying God even in the very matter of making atonement for sin. Atonement is made in both; but in the former, it is atonement according to the depth of the sinner’s need; in the latter, it is atonement according to the measure of Christ’s devotedness to God. In that, we see the hatefulness of sin; in this, the preciousness of Christ. It is, we need hardly say, the same atoning death of Christ, but presented in two distinct aspects.[4]
Now, the Levites laid their hands on both the sin-offering and the burnt-offering; and this act of the imposition of hands expressed the simple fact of identification. But how different the result in each case! When Levi laid his hands on the head of the sin-offering, it involved the transfer of all his sins, of all his guilt, of all his fierceness, cruelty, and self-will to the victim; and on the other hand, when he laid his hands on the head of the burnt-offering, it involved the transfer of all the acceptableness of the sacrifice, of all its perfectness, to Levi. Of course, we speak of what the type set forth. We do not undertake to state aught as to Levi’s intelligent entrance into these things; we merely seek to unfold the meaning of the ceremonial figure; and, most assuredly, no figure could be more expressive than the imposition of hands, whether we view it in the case of the sin-offering or in the case of the burnt-offering. The doctrine of all this is embodied in that most weighty passage at the close of 2 Cor. v., “He hath made Him [Christ] to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” “‘And thou shalt set the Levites before Aaron, and before his sons, and offer them for an offering unto the Lord. Thus shalt thou separate the Levites from among the children of Israel; and the Levites shall be Mine. And after that shall the Levites go in to do the service of the tabernacle of the congregation; and thou shalt cleanse them, and offer them for an offering. For they are wholly given unto Me from among the children of Israel; instead of such as open every womb, even instead of the first-born of all the children of Israel, have I taken them unto Me. For all the first-born of the children of Israel are Mine, both man and beast: on the day that I smote every first-born in the land of Egypt I sanctified them for Myself. And I have taken the Levites for all the first-born of the children of Israel. And I have given the Levites as a gift to Aaron and to his sons from among the children of Israel, to do the service of the children of Israel in the tabernacle of the congregation, and to make an atonement for the children of Israel: that there be no plague among the children of Israel, when the children of Israel come nigh unto the sanctuary.’ And Moses and Aaron and all the congregation of the children of Israel did to the Levites according unto all that the Lord commanded Moses concerning the Levites, so did the children of Israel unto them.” (Num. viii. 13-20.)
How forcibly are we reminded, by the foregoing lines, of the words of our Lord in John xvii.—“I have manifested Thy name unto the men which Thou gavest Me out of the world: Thine they were, and Thou gavest them Me; and they have kept Thy word.... I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which Thou hast given Me; for they are Thine. And all Mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine; and I am glorified in them.” (Ver. 6-10.)