The Pulpit Commentary — Leviticus — Section 147

How ennobli11g the thought of being sharers with God and his servants I We all partake of the same food, and are made " one bread and one body " (1 Cor. x. 17). '!'here is a better sauce than hunger! It consists in previous dedication to God. Selfish ex- clusion of the rights of God diminishes the intensity and narrows the sphere of our delights. Not the miser, but the Christian donor, knows the joys of property.-S. R. A. Vers. l-8.-'l7ill law of the trespa.si offering. This, like the other offerings, was generally considered before (see chs. v. aud vi. 1-7). The repetition here, according to Hebrew usage, gives emphasis and solemnity to the injunctions. The subject is reopened to show more particularly the duties and privileges of the priesthood con- cerning it. And we notice- I. THAT THE TRESPASS OFFERING IS DESCRIBED AS MOST HOLY. 1. It was most holy as typifying Christ. (1) Intrinsically there could be neither sin nor holiness in the animal that was offered up. It was not a moral being. Nor could it be most holy in the sense of removing moral guilt; for it could not do this. • For this purpose God never "required" it; never "desired" it (l Sam. xv. 22; Ps. xl. 6; Ji. 16 ; Isa. i. 11; Hos. vi. 6; Heb. x. 1-4). (2) But the guilt offering of Calvary can literally "take sin away," and so accomplish the will, the desire, and the requirement of a just and merciful God (Ps. xl. 6-8; Heb. x. 4-10). Christ is therefore indeed "Most Holy;" and the guilt offering of the Law was so called putatively as typifying him. Accordingly, 2. It was killed at the north side of the altar. (1) "It is most holy. In the place where they kill the burnt offering shall they kill the trespass offering" (vers. 1, 2). But the burnt offering was killed at the north side of the altar (eh. i. 11). So was Calvary at the north side of Jerusalem. (2) Because this is given a.s a reason why the trespass offering was to be accounted "most holy," the Jews have countenance here for their tradition that the less holy sacrifices were slain at the south-west corner of the altar. 3. It was eaten in the holy place. (1) "Every male among the pri~sts shall eat thereof: it shall be eaten in the holy place: it is most holy" (ver. 6). '!'his was what the Jews distinguished as "the eating within the cnrlains," in allusion to the court of the tabernacle, which was enclosed with curtains. (2) In these feastings the priests cultivated fellowship; and the fellowship was religious in proportion as they had the vision of their faith clear to look to the end of the things to be abolished. Faith is the true principle of religious fellowship. (3) The females "among the priests" might eat of the "holy things ; " but of the things distinguished as "most holy" they had no right to eat. Since the Fall down to the coming of the "Seed of the woman," a distinction between male and female was maintained, but now it is abolished. God's curse upon the woman has strangely been converted into the greatest blessing to man- kind. Even in anger God is love. II. SuKDBY DIRECTIONS GIVEN TO THE PRIESTS. 1. With the blood of the guilt offering they were to sprinkle the altar. (1) 'l'he altar was the raised platform upon which the sacrifices were offered up to God. The eminence of Calvary was, more panicularly considered, the altar upon which the Great Sacrifice was offered. But in the grander sense, when the great universe is viewed, as Paul views it, as the true temple of God, the earth itself was the altar. 'l'he welfare of the universe is concerned in the death of Christ (Eph. i. 10; Phil. ii. 9, 10; Col. i. 20). (2) '!'he sprinkling of the altar with the blood, in this view, would show that the earth, the common in- 'heritance of man, which was cursed for his sake, is redeemed with the price of the precious blood of Jesus. And being redeemed by the price of his blood, it is destined also to be redeemed by the power of his arm (see Eph. i. 14; iv. 30), What glorious things are in reversion I (3) The Mishna records a tradition thus rendered by Bishop Patrick: "That there was a scarlet line which went round about the altar exactly iu the middle, and the blood of the burnt offerin~s was sprinkled round about above the iine, but that of the trespass offerings and peace ofTerings round about below it." llut these traditions are generally refinements without authority. Let us he thankful for the" sme word of prophecy." 2. They were to burn the fat upon fl,,e alta1·. (1) Not the fat intermingled with the flesh. This was not offered upon the altar, except, of course, in the holocaust; nor was it forbidden as food. Had it been so, what em- liarrasswents must tender consciences have suffered I '!'here is nothing unreasonable in the service of God. (2) The fat burnt was chiefly that found in a detached state, viz. OH. VII, 1-38,] THE BOOK OF LEVI'l'ICUS. 107