giving offence to the religious feelings of the E:zyptians (Exod. viii. 26) ; but the idea -0f sacrifice being the appointed means of serving God was preserved (Ei:od. v. 3; viii. 27). Moses, Aaron, and the elders of Israel took part in a sacrificial meal with Jethro in the wilderness (Exod. xviii. 12). And the covenant made at Sinai was ratified by burnt offerings and peace offerings (Exod. xxiv. 5). Indeed, the Book of Psalms declares the method of entering into covenant with God to be "by sacrifice." "Gather my saints together unto me; those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice" (Ps. I. 5). "The Christian covenant was thllS ratified (Heh. ix. 15), as well as the covenants of Noa.h, Abraham, and Moses. II. THERE .A.BE THREE CLASSE!I OF B.A.OBIJ'IC.ES UNDEB THE Mos.A.lo DISPENSATION, :ESSENTULLY DIFFERING IN CHABACTEB- Burnt offerings ; Peace offerings; Sin offerings ; beside Meat offerings, ordinarily attached to the burnt offerings, ana Trespass offerings, a species of sin offering. III. WHAT WAS TREIB MEANING. 1. In general, they served, as before, as a means -0f reconciliation between God and man, as a means of access for man to God. This purpose they fulfilled to all humble-minded men, whether their full meaning was understood or no. To the more spiritually minded they were also a means of instruction in sacred mysteries to be revealed hereafter. 2. Specifically, they each taught their own lesson and brought about, symbolically .and ceremonially, each their own effect. The sin offering taught the need of, and symbolically effected, the propitiation of ,God's anger and the expiation of man's sin. The burnt offering t{lught the lesson of self-surrender, and symbolically effected the ·surrender of the offerer to God. The peace offering taught the lesson of the necessity and joyousness of communion between God and man, and symbolically represented that communion u existing between the offerer and God. IV. WHENCE THEY DERIVED THEIR El'FICACY. Their efficacy was derived from representing and foreshadowing the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, the sin offering typi- fying the propitiation and expiation once for all there wrought, the burnt offering the perfect self-surrender of the sinless sufferer, the peace offering the reconciliation thereby -effected and continued between God and his people. Vers. 3-17.-The burnt offering. It was wholly consumed by the fire of God's -altar; nothing was left for the after consumption either of the offerer or even of God's ,ministers, as in the other sacrifices. I. IT TYPIFIBB THE ENTIRE SELF-SURRENDER OF CHRIST TO Go». 1. In his eternal resolve to redeem by becoming man. "2. In the humility of his birth on earth. ·a. In the silence in which his youth was spent. 4. In the narrow limits within which he confined his ministry. '5. Jn the victory won over his human will in the Garden of Gethsemane. 6. In his yielding his lifo to his Father on the cross. -JI. EX.UdPLE HEREIN TO UB. IJ.. We must surrender what is evil- Bad habits, e.g. sloth, drunkenness. Bad affections, e.g. love of money, hodily indulgence. Bad passions, e.g. ill temper, pride. ·2. We must surrender what God does not think fit to give us, though not in ltselt ·.-vii, such as- Health, Domestic happiness, Worldly success. Ill. THE CHRISTIAN TEMPER RESULTING FROM SELF·SURRENDEIL. 1. Acquiescence in God's will. ·.2. Cheerfulness in rendering that acquiescence. 6 THE ROOK OF LEVITICUS. [an. T, 1--,.17..
3. Spiritual peace and happiness arising from the consciousness of havincr-yielded 0 our- will to our Father's will. ~ 4. Love to the brethren. Cf. Eph. v. 2: "Walk in love, as Christ also loved us, and gave himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour."
Vers. 5-9.-Mediation. The sacrificial act cannot be completed, though it can, be begun, by the offerer alone. The intervention of God's priest is requisite, and it is his hand which performs the most solemn portion of the rite. Thus there is taught the need of mediation and of a mediator when a work of atonement is to be accomplished. " The expiation was always made or completed by the priest, as the sanctified mediator between Jehovah and the people, or, previous to the institution of the Aaronio priest- hood, by Moses, the chosen mediator of t"he covenant. . . . It is not Jehovah -who makes the expiation, but this is invariably the office or work of a mediator, who inter- nnes between the holy God and sinful man, and by means of expiation averts the- wrath of God from the sinner, and brings the grace of God to bear upon him" (Keil). Hence, the great work of atonement, of which all other atonements are but shadows,. was performed by the One Mediator between God and man, the man Jesus Christ.