The Pulpit Commentary — Leviticus — Section 77

Vers. 7-13.-The offering of dai1y life. It is interesting to perceive how the instructions here recorded made it possible for all classes of the people to briug sacri- fices to Jehovah. None could complain of want of sufficient means or of the necessary cooking utensils. All such objections are forestalled by these inclusive arrangements. Whether consisting of "cakes" or "wafers," whether baked on a flat iron plate or boiled in a pot, the offering was lawful and acccptiible. How, then, can we imagine that Christian work and gifts are so restricted in their nature as to be procurable only by a few? . I. 'l'HE MATERIAL, OF WHICH THIS OFFERmG WAS COMPOSED. "His offering shall be or fine flour." The sacrifice God desires is of what man deems most precious, viz. life. Ae the animal was killed, giving up its life to God, so now there is presented in this oblation: 1. Something that belongs to daily life. 2. Contributing to its support; 3. and ~n}oyment. By bestowing of our substance upon God, all our property is sanctified. To tiet apart specifically a portion of time in which to worship God, hallows the remainder of the week. See in Jesus the true Meal Oblation, the Bread of •Life. We ask the Father to accept hie offering on our behalf, and we also live on him as our spiritual food. 4. The sample presented must be of the best of its kind. God will not be slighted with scanty adoration and inferior exercise of our powers. Only wheiiten flour is permitted. II. ACCOMPANIMENTS OF THE OFFERING. Allusions to the Jewish sacrifices are frequent in the New Testament,, aud we cannot be wrong in guiding ourselves by sucb. 32 THE BOOK OF LEVITICUS. [ea. u. 1-16~ ----------------------------------- an interpretation of these figurative regulations. 1. Oil must be added. It was the element of consecration, and reminds us of the needful anointing of the Spirit to qualify- us for our duties. "Ye have an unction from the Holy One." As used, like butter, to impart a relish to food, it became a symbol of gladness. So the Christian motto is,. "Rejoice in the Lord al way." 2. Frankincense is required that a pleasant odour may ascend to the skies. So may our service be redolent to earth and heaven of a fragrant. ~avour. In Rev. viii. 3, incense is offered with the prayers of the saints, and speaks to us of the intercession of Christ, by which our pleadings are made effectual. Let prayer be the constant attitude of our souls, and let us connect the Saviour with all we do and ~ay. 3. It must be seasoned with s:ilt, a remembrance and an emblem of God'n covenant, by which his people are admitted t.o intimacy and friendship with him. The status of the believer is an indissoluble alliance with the Almighty on the ground of promise and oath. This is his privilege and motive power. Every sacrifice must be salted with the salt of holy obedience, producing peace and purity, and preserving it from corruption. III. THINGS PROHIBITED. 1. Leaven, the emblem of wickedness, of hypocrisy, of fermenting putridity. 2. Honey, which, though sweet and increasing the delight with which food is partaken of, quickly turns to bitterness e.nd corruption. It is regarded as typical of fleshly lusts which war against the soul, that love of the world which mars Christian character. The warning conveyed by these prohibitions is worthy of being Eharply outlined in modem days, when the tendency waxes stronger to obliterate the dividing line between the Church and the world, and attempts are made t.o pu1ify the impure, or t.o whiten the outside of supulchres, and t.o seduce Christians into the belief that all the pursuits and pleasures of life may be harmlessly indulged in, and even s:i.nc.tified to the glory of God. The first intention may be good, but the ultimate issue is unbounded licence. Christ and Belia!, light and darkness, can have no lasting concord. We may, however, take the leaven and honey as indicating the truth that some things lawful in themselves and at certain seasons, are at other times displeasing to God. The mirth and music and demeanour that are innocent as such, may not befit us in the solemnity of special circumstances, for example, the worship of the sanctuary, "To everything there is a season." CoNCLUSION. The perfect realization of every offering is seen in the Lord our Saviour. What a matchless life was his I No stain of malice or lust; grace, beauty, purity, all exemplified in fullest degree; on him the Spirit ever rested; his words and works a continual sacrifice to his Father, evoking the exclamation, "This is my beloved Son: hear him." As the heavenly Manna, he satisfies the wants of his kingdom of priests,. and his Body was consumed in the flames of Calvary as our memento before God.- S. R. A. Vere. 1 2.-Tlte minchah, a type of Christ. Because the minchah was an offer- inl7 witho~t blood, and therefore was not intended as a sacrifice for sin (Heb. ix. 22). so~e have supposed that it was i_n use before the J!'all. This op_inion, however, has but little to sustain it. We certarnly read of the mrnchah as havrng been offered by Cain (Gen. iv. 3) • but then Abel, at the same time, offered the holocaust, or sin. offering which no 'one dreams of having formed any part of the original worship in Eden. 'Cain's fault was not in having offered the rninchah, but in not associating with. it some sin sacrifice. It is questionable whether the minchab, under the Law, was ever offered without such an accompaniment. Yet we may view the minchah as a type o( Christ. For- . I ALL THE HOLY BREAD TYPIFIED CHRIST. 1. TJ,e manna was of this class. (IJ It~ called "bread from heaven" (i;ee Neh. ix.15). (2) Compare John vi. 31-35, 41 0 48-51. 2. The skew-bread also 'l,)as of this class. (1) It was the bread of heaven~ for it rested in the sanctuary, which was one of the typical "heavenly places." (2) It rested under the splendours of the Shechinah, and therefore took its name, "Bread of !laces," vi.z. of God. The Dread of the Sacred Presence. 3. Bo was this bread of the minchah. (1) This, indeed, was offered in the outer court; for there the altar st.ood. But so was Christ offered "outside the gate" of Jerusalem, and outside the courts of heaven. (2) Dut it was, li~e. the sh?w-brcad,_ des~lne~ to be eaten in the sanctuary. So is Chri.i;t eaten by his spmtual pnesthood 1n his krngdom of heaven upo11. earth. OH, II. 1-16.] TIIE IlOOK OF LEVITIGGS. 33