The Pulpit Commentary — Leviticus — Section 215

(3) As there are varieties of clean and also of unclean animals, so are there varieties and degrees of goodness, on the one hand, and of wickedness on the other, amongst men. Still the classes are but two. The one is led by Christ, the other by Satan (Matt. xii. 30; xxv. 2, 32, 33). To which class do you belong? II. TBE LAW IN THE LE'ITEB IS NOW CHANGED. l. The go.-pelisfreely preachd to the Gentilu. (1) They are not now under obligation to be proselyted to Judaism. This subject was debated in the early Church, and settled at the Council of Jerusalem. (2) The same decision, which was at the instance of Peter to whom the Lord had assigned that distinction (see Matt. xvi. 19), released the Jews also from the yoke of the Law (see Acts xv.). 2. This waa according to prophetic indication. (1) Under the figure of the unclean wolf dwelling with the Iamb, etc., Isaiah (xi.) describes the Gentile and Jew as to be wonderfully reconciled in the days of Messiah. (2) To show that the Jew must have no fellowship with the Gentile, the Law forbade the yoking together of the clean ox with the unclean ass (Deut. xxii. 10). But prophecy anticipates the blessedness of the time when the seed, viz. of the gospel, should be sown beside all waters-not those of Judma only, but of the wide world; and that in this business the ox and the ass-the Jew and the Gentile-should become fellow-workers (see Isa. mii. 20; comp. also Deut. xxv. 4; 1 Cor. iL 9-11; 1 Tim. v. 18). 3. Pet~r', viaion in- structed him that this time was come. (1) The animals contained in the sheet were those described as unclean in the Law, and represented the Gentiles. Peter, therefore, when commanded to kill ,md eat, hesitated, for that he "had never eaten anything that was common or unclean." He therefore held that "it was an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company or come unto one of another nation." (2) But the linen sheet which enclosed the animals was the emblem of purity ; and they were thrice lifted into the heavens. To these symbols agreed also the voice which said, "What God bath cleansed that call not thou common." (3) When therefore Peter had all this corroborated by the counter-vision of Cornelius, he was convinced that henceforth he "should not call any man common or unclean." For the universality of the mercy of the gospel had been testified in that the sheet was knit at the four comers, showing that the Gentiles were to be gathered together from the four quarters of the world. III. THB LAW IN ITS BPIRlT STILL ABIDES. 1. For the gospel, is that spirit. (1) The glory on the face of Moses was veiled to the Jews. So concerned were they with the letter that they could not steadfastly look upon the true glory of their own Law. Moses therefore put a vail upon his face, viz. the vail of the letter. This vail is still upon their hearts, and must so remain until they turn to the Lord, or become converted to Christ. (2) When Moses tumed to the Lord, from whom he derived his glory, he took off the vail; and it is the same glory which falls upon us. The only difference is that in the spirit of the Law we see the glory of the Lord reflected from the face of Moses ; but in the spirit of the gospel we see the same glory as Moses himself saw it, immediately, in the face of Jesus. (3) 'l'hus passing from the Law to the gospel, a spiritual person is changed from glory to glory. This brightening transfi~1ration is effected "by the Spirit of the Lord," or, as the margin construes it," by the Lord who is the Spirit,'' viz. of the Law. The Spirit of the Lord is the Spirit of the Law. 2. The gospel insists upon moral p11rity. (1) We have seen that the law of yoking together the ox and the ass is repeo.led under the gospel. 'Ibis was as to the letter. But we shall find it still insisted upon, viz. as to the spirit. For Paul clearly refers to it (2 Cor. vi. 14) when he forbids the unequal yoking together of Christians and infidels. (2) In the spirit of it Christ came not to destroy, but to fulfil, the Law, and tbat to the jot and tittle (Matt. v. 17-20). What a rebuke is here to the 11.ntinomian I What a stumbling-block to the Jew Is the antinomianism in false theories of Christianity I Christians who neglect the study of the Law miss the benefit of many glorious views of precious gospel truth. How just is the remark of Augustine, that " the Old 'l'estament, when rightly understood, is one great prophecy of the New" !-J. A. M. Vere. 9-12.-The waters and their inhabitants. "Here," says Mnimonidos, "the exposition of this sentence,• A word spoken according to his two faces is as apples of gold in (m•:,1110) maschyoth of silver' (Prov. xxv. 11). Maschyoth are a kind of lattice or netw<Yrk having very small interstices. Therefore 'when a word spoken according to both its faces' (that is, according to its exterior and interior signification) is likened LEVITlctJS. ll  li8 THE BOOK OF LEVITICUS. [CH, XL 1-47.