A Brighter Day Begins with His Word.

Simeon, Charles, 1759-1836 • SECTION 565

The Peace-Offering.

← Horae Homileticae — Volume 1 of 21

will never accept. Let the whole soul be his ; and there shall not be any offering which you can present, which shall not receive a testimony of his approbation here, and an abundant recompence hereafter: for, " if there be only a willing mind, it shall be accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not."]

Lev. vii. 11. This is the law of the sacrifice of peace-offerings.

IN the order in which the different offerings are spoken of, the peace-offering occurs the third; but, in the third chapter, the law of the peace-offerings is no further stated than it accords with the burnt- offering ; and the fuller statement is reserved for the passage before us. Hence in the enumeration of the different offerings in verse 37, the peace-offering is fitly mentioned last. That we may mark the more accurately its distinguishing features, we shall state,

I. The particular prescriptions of this law —

Many of them were common to those of the burnt- offering ; the sacrifices might be taken from the herd or from the flock : the offerer was to bring it to the door of the tabernacle, and to put his hands upon it : there it was to be killed; its blood was to be sprinkled upon the altar, and its flesh, in part at least, was to be burnt upon the altar. Of these things we have spoken before ; and therefore forbear to dwell upon them now.

But there were many other prescriptions peculiar to the peace-offering ; and to these we will now turn our attention. We notice,

1. The matter of which they consisted —

[Though the sacrifices might be of the herd or of the flock, they could not be offoivls : a turtle-dove or pigeon could not on this occasion be offered. In the burnt-offering, males only could be presented; but here it might be either male or female. In the meat-offering, either cakes or wafers might be offered ; but here must be both cakes and wafers : in the former case, leaven was absolutely prohibited ; but here it was enjoined ;

Public domain historical edition (1832-33); scan/OCR from Internet Archive.

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