It demands a very large measure of spiritual capacity to enter into the depth and meaning of this marvelous passage. To eat the sin-offering or the trespass-offering is, in figure, to make another’s sin or trespass one’s own. This is very holy work. It is not every one who can, in spirit, identify himself with the sin of his brother. To do so in fact, in the way of atonement, is, we need hardly say, wholly out of question. There was but one who could do this, and He—adored forever be His name!—has done it perfectly.
But there is such a thing as making my brother’s sin my own, and bearing it in spirit before God, as though it were my own. This is shadowed forth by Aaron’s sons eating the sin-offering in the most holy place. It was only the _sons_ who did so.—“Every _male_ shall eat it.”[15] It was the very highest order of priestly service. “In the most holy place shalt thou eat it.” We need to be very near to Christ in order to enter into the spiritual meaning and application of all this. It is a wonderfully blessed and holy exercise, and it can only be known in the immediate presence of God. How little we really know of this the heart can testify. Our tendency is, when a brother has sinned, to sit in judgment upon him—to take the place of a severe censor—to look upon his sin as a something with which we have nothing whatever to do. This is to fail sadly in our priestly functions—it is refusing to eat the sin-offering in the most holy place. It is a most precious fruit of grace to be able so to identify one’s self with an erring brother as to make his sin one’s own—to bear it, in spirit, before God.
This, truly, is a very high order of priestly service, and demands a large measure of the spirit and mind of Christ. It is only the spiritual who really enter into this; and, alas! how few of us are truly spiritual! “Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, _ye which are spiritual_, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” (Gal. vi. 1, 2.) May the Lord give us grace to fulfill this blessed “law.” How unlike it is to every thing in us! How it rebukes our harshness and selfishness! Oh to be more like Christ in this as in all beside!
But there was another order of priestly privilege, not so high as that which we have been considering. “And this is thine: the heave-offering of their _gift_, with all the wave-offerings of the children of Israel: I have given them unto thee, and to thy sons and to thy _daughters_ with thee, by a statute forever: _every one that is clean_ in thy house shall eat of it.” (Ver. 11.)
The daughters of Aaron were not to eat of the sin-offerings or the trespass-offerings. They were provided for according to the utmost limit of their capacity; but there were certain functions which they could not discharge—certain privileges which lay beyond their range—certain responsibilities too weighty for them to sustain. It is far easier to have fellowship with another in the presentation of a thank-offering than it is to make his sin our own. This latter demands a measure of priestly energy which finds its type in Aaron’s “sons,” not in his “daughters.” We must be prepared for those varied measures amongst the members of the priestly household. We are all, blessed be God, on the same ground; we all stand in the same title; we are all in the same relationship, but our capacities vary; and while we should all aim at the very highest standard of priestly service, and the very highest measure of priestly capacity, it is of no possible use to pretend to what we do not possess.
One thing, however, is clearly taught in verse 11, and that is, we must be “_clean_” in order to enjoy any priestly privilege or eat of any priestly food—clean, through the precious blood of Christ applied to our conscience—clean, through the application of the Word, by the Spirit, to our habits, associations, and ways. When thus clean, whatever be our capacity, we have the richest provision made for our souls, through the precious grace of God. Hearken to the following words: “_All the best_ of the oil, and _all the best_ of the wine, and of the wheat, the first-fruits of them which they shall offer unto the Lord, them have I given thee. And whatsoever is _first ripe_ in the land, which they shall bring unto the Lord, shall be thine; _every one that is clean_ in thy house shall eat of it.” (Ver. 12, 13.)[16]
Here, assuredly, we have a princely portion provided for those who are made priests unto God. They were to have the very best and the very first of every thing which the Lord’s land produced. There was “the wine which maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine, and bread which strengtheneth man’s heart.” (Ps. civ. 15.)