The Pulpit Commentary — Leviticus — Section 399

feast" (see John vii. 37). Upon it the full round of sacrifices were offered (ver. 37). On this day also the people of God returned to their houses, and so celebrated their entrance into Canaan after the toils of the wilderness, and anticipated the rest of heaven. The freedom from servile work on this day showed that at the last day all toil will terminate in the glorious rest of eternity. (3) This was the day on which "Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst," etc. (John vii. 37, 38). The occasion appears to have been that of the priest's pouring out as a libation water which be bad drawn from the pool of Siloam in a golden flagon, This ceremony was not prescribed in the Law. Jesus calls off attention from human ceremonies to himself. 2. On the fifteenth day they gathered the boughs for their booths (ver. 40). (1) This employ- ment had its obvious economic use. They needed the shelter which their tabernacles afforded. (2) But there was a religious import in what they did; and the trees were emblematical. The thick shady trees, such as the oak or beech, afforded shelter and protection,and suggested the protection and shelter of the covenant of God. The" palm" was an emblem of victory (Rev. vii. 9). The "willows of the brook" represented the thriving condition of the happy (Isa. xliv. 4). The olive was a symbol of peace (see Neh. viii.15). When Jesus proved himself to be" the Resurrection and the Life" by his miracle upon Lazarus, the people acknowledged it by the boughs of trees (John xii. 13). 3. Sacrifices were offered which were reduced in number each succeeding day. (1) (For the account of the sacrifices, see Numb. xxix. 12-38.) (2) Could the reduction in the number be intended to foreshow that the typical sacrifices were destined to vanish away? Jacob seems to have anticipated this feast on bis entering into Canaan (see Gen. :xxxiii. 17). Anticipations of the Law, as well 111 of the gospel, are often seen in the history of the patriarchs. After the plague upon the enemies of Jerusalem in the last days of the Gentiles, tlie remnant will turn to the Lord, and keep the Feast of Tabernacles (see Zech. xiv. 16). The gospel teaches us now to go out to Christ without the camp.-J. A. M. Vers. ~.-The influence of sacred recollections. The great festival of the Passover derived all its meaning from one memorable historic scene. It annually recalled one event of surpassing interest, and, by so doing, it impressed all susceptible souls with those leading truths to which God called Israel to bear its living testimony. We look at- I. THE BPEOIAL SCENE WHICH THIS FEAST COMMEMORATED, AND THE INFLUENCJI: IT WAS FITTED TO EXERT. What a night in Hebrew history that night of the Lord's Passover! What false confidence in every Egyptian, what agitated hearts nnd trembling hopes in every Hebrew, home! With what solemn a.we, and yet with what thrilling expectation, did their forefathers in the lnnd of bondage partake of that strange meal I With what eager carefulness did they see that the saving blood-stream marked the lintels of the door which would shut in their dear ones I And what a morning on the morrow I What joyous congratulations in each Hebrew home when they all met, in life and health, on that memorable march I And what terrible consternntion, what wild cries of anguish and remorse in those Egypti:in houses where the angel of death had flot passed by, but had struck his fearful stroke I It was the hour or Jehovo.h's most signal interposition ; it was the hour of national redemption. They might well remember it "in all their dwellings through all their generations." This festivnl recalled the scene and also the deliverance to which it immediately Jed. And the influence on the minds of all who observed it, both parents and children, was, or surely should have been: 1. To strengthen their attachment to one another. There was danger, with the distribution into tribes, and with the Jordan cutting off two tribes and o. half from the rest, that their national unity might be lost, and thus the distinctiveness for which they were called into being disappear. These common, sacred memories would help to bind them together and to keep them one. 2. To preserve their allegiance to their Divine Deliverer. 'l'hese sacred recollections must excite (1) a sense of deepest obligation; (2) o. correspondin~ feeling of profound gratitude for such signal mercy; (3) a consequent renewal of their consec1ntion of themselves to Jehovah's service; and especially (4) a determination to live that life of purity aud separateness from heathen iniquity of which the "unleavened bread" spoke daily to their minds. JI. NATIONAL UROIEB WRIOH WE HAVE RECEIVED l!'BOH GoD AND 'HIE INFLUENCE 364: THE BOOK OF LEVITICUS. [ cH. nm. G-44.