Leviticus 1

Notes

Ver. 2-9. The Jewish oblations, in their matter and ceremonies, were not only typical of Christ, but most of them also emblems of the moral duties of Christians, whether ministers or people. The matter of the offerings pointed at qualities in Christ, or in his people and their service. The male sex figured out the excellency of these; the being without blemish their purity; the voluntariness, the willingness and cheerfulness with which God must be served. The presenting at the door of the tabernacle, in ordinary cases (for in extraordinary ones it might be otherwise, 1 Sa. 7. 9; 11. 15; 2 Sa. 24. 18; 1 Ki. 8. 64; 18. 32; Ju. 6. 26), imported the acceptableness to be through the person and mediation of Christ. The laying on of the offerer's hand imported the transferring of guilt on the sacrifice and devoting it to God. The sprinkling of the blood round about the altar imported the divinity of Christ's atonement, and the extensive virtue of it to all the church and ordinances thereof. The washing of the inwards and legs imports the perfect holiness of heart and life in Christ, and which ought to be in his people. The burning of the whole flesh imported that Christ was, and his people ought to be, wholly devoted to God. The holy fire denoted divine justice in Christ, and holy love in him and in his people.—[Ver. 3. The gospel—and we may rightly so speak—the gospel revealed to Moses begins with an offering, saying, 'If any man (even the chief of sinners) offer an offering, rather, bring near an offering, thus announcing that no one can come near to God but by sacrifice; and that those who were once afar off 'are made nigh by the blood of Christ,' Ep. 2. 13, 'who offered up himself,' He. 7. 27. It must be an offering without blemish, either from malformation, disease, injury, or spot, comp. Mal. 1. 14; Nu. 19. 2, 9, 11, with 28. 3, wherein it is a lively image of him who was offered without 'blemish or spot,' 1 Pe. 1. 19, while it also demands of the offerer that 'holiness without which no man shall see the Lord,' He. 12. 14. It must be a free-will offering; so Christ testifies, 'I lay down my life—no man taketh it from me—I lay it down of myself,' Jn. 10. 17, 18. It must be offered before the Lord, not within, but at the door of the tabernacle; so Christ was offered up not in heaven, but upon earth, in virtue of which offering he summons the 'everlasting doors to be lifted up' for the entrance of 'the King of glory,' Ps. 24. 7; 1 Co. 2. 8; into which he entered as our forerunner, at once a priest and a sacrifice for ever.—Ver. 4. The laying of the hands on the head of the sacrifice, directs also to Christ, for 'the Lord laid on him the iniquities of us all,' Is. 53. 6; 1 Pe. 2. 24. The sacrifice was accepted for atonement, that is, as the original implies, for covering the sin, agreeably to Ps. 32. 1; Ro. 4. 6; and so, reconciling God and man by the honouring of the violated law, Ro. 5. 11; Is. 42. 21.—Ver. 5. The sacrifice must be killed, thus 'it behoved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead,' Lu. 24. 46. Because, 'without shedding of blood there is no remission of sin,' He. 9. 22; and the believer receives this remission, because, in the sight of God and the law, and his own conscience, he is reckoned actually as dead in and with Christ, Ro. 6. 2-11; 1 Pe. 2. 24, and actually risen with him, and sitting with him in heavenly places, Col. 3. 1; Ep. 1. 19, 20; 2. 1, 5, 6, of all which, the Spirit working the life of faith in him is now the evidence and earnest, 2 Co. 5. 5. The blood is sprinkled, to exemplify its extended applicability. 'God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him might not perish,' Jn. 3. 16. It is sprinkled round about upon the altar, to exhibit the believer protected, on all sides, against the charge of the broken law; and thus, 'there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus,' Ro. 8. 1.—Ver. 6. The flaying of the sacrifice is the emblem of the grievous external cruelties inflicted on our Lord and his church, Mi. 3. 3. The cutting in pieces portrays the efforts at total extinction, first directed against our Lord and his apostles, and occasionally, in some countries and throughout all ages, against his faithful witnesses, Mat. 27. 20; 1 Co. 4. 9; Re. 6. 9.—Ver. 7. The fire—diffusing the savour, and causing the elementary parts to ascend towards heaven, in new forms, is first the emblem of that baptism, 'with the Holy Ghost, and with fire,' Mat. 3. 11, by which 'the love of God is shed abroad in the heart,' Ro. 5. 5, the desire to 'do good unto all men, and especially to them of the household of faith,' Ga. 6. 10, becomes 'an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well pleasing to God,' Phi. 4. 18. Secondly, the fire is the emblem of divine feeling against sin which our Lord endured because he bare our sins, 1 Pe. 2. 24; Ps. 22. 1; comp. He. 10. 5-7 with Ps. 40. 6, then read Ps. 40. 2, 12, 13, as descriptive of the fire of suffering in which our Lord was tried. The wood in order, as necessary to the speedy kindling and maintenance of the fire, sets forth to us the regular observance of those various ordinances whose use is to 'stir up the gift that is in us,' 2 Ti. 1. 6, and cause 'our hearts to burn within us,' Lu. 24. 32, while Jesus 'talks with us by the way,' in the closet, in his word, or at his holy table. The head, the most elevated part of the body, the chief seat of the senses, the natural emblem of dignity and power—the fat of the inwards, the emblem of health, abundance, rest—are first devoted to the sacrifice. Most appropriate pictures of Him who is 'the head over all things to the church,' Ep. 1. 22, who is the 'health of our countenance,' Ps. 42. 11, and who alone to the labouring and heavy laden can secure eternal rest, Mat. 11. 28.—Ver. 9. The inwards as the receptacle of unseen and natural impurity, the legs as exposed to visible and contracted uncleanness, are, before sacrifice, to be washed in water. The washing of the inwards is thus explained by David, 'Thou desirest truth in the inward parts,' Ps. 51. 6; see Ps. 139. 23, 24. Alas! what an unexpected discovery is made when the inwards of an unrenewed heart are laid bare. 'Deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked,' Je. 17. 9, is the fountain, and out of it 'proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false-witness, blasphemies,' Mat. 15. 19, 'the things which defile a man,' the outward man, and demand that 'clean water' of the Spirit, which alone can cleanse the heart and the life from all their filthiness, Eze. 36. 25, of all this the spotless Saviour was the reverse, 'he knew no sin,' neither—when sought by his bitter enemies—'neither was guile found in his mouth,' 2 Co. 5. 21; 1 Pe. 2. 22. To complete the sacrifice, the priest burns all upon the altar. So Christ offered his whole person. Though in co-equal Godhead, he offered himself humbled, Phi. 2. 8; though in sinless manhood, he was numbered with the transgressors, his soul was troubled, and his body crucified, Mar. 15. 28; Jn. 12. 27; 1 Co. 1. 23. And so likewise the believer who draws 'nigh by the blood of Christ,' offers not a divided service, but his 'whole body, soul, and spirit,' to God. C.]

Ver. 11. [The former offering of the bullock, ver. 3, was at the door of the tabernacle which looks to the east, and there it appears to have been killed. The offering of the sheep or of the goats is however to be killed on the side of the altar northward. Why northward? Of Zion it is said, 'Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King,' Ps. 48. 2. Now what excellence of situation is this! Simply, in the northern hemisphere, and beneath a burning sun, the excellence of shade. Now this is one of the Scripture emblems of Christ's protection. 'A man shall be an hiding-place from the wind, a covert from the tempest, the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.' 'The Lord is thy keeper, thy shade upon thy right hand. The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night,' Ps. 121. 5. Of a shade from the sun thus speaks the prophet, Is. 4. 6; 25. 1, 4, 'There shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime from the heat.' 'O Lord, thou hast been a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat.' According to these views, the sacrifice northward, being within the shadow of the altar, represents the refuge, protection, and covering, which the sacrifice of Christ affords to the believer, who can well adopt the words of the bride, Ca. 2. 3, 'I sat under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste.' C.]

Reflections.—In the oblation of these valuable, social, patient, pure, and peaceful animals, let me behold my all-excellent, social, patient, peaceful, and holy Redeemer, as presented before God in the counsel of peace, brought into this world, and in due time presented at Jerusalem; as bearing our sins in his own blessed body; and as offered by himself a sweet-smelling sacrifice, without spot unto God, to make possible our salvation through the pardon of our sin! How willingly he presented himself! How painful and dolorous were his sufferings, and chiefly those of his soul, while his love to us made him to suffer the most cruel pain bearing our sins. He expired on a cross on the north-west of Jerusalem, and extends the virtue of his death daily to all known parts of the world! For us, poor and destitute criminals, he exerted all his care; suffered his soul and body to be divided asunder; but neither separated from his Godhead! And, after lying in his grave, he put off every mark of mortality and pain, and ascends to his throne on the right hand of God. What precious meat and drink offerings of blessings and comfort to himself and to my soul do attend this oblation!—Let me, therefore, all inflamed with his dying love, cheerfully render to the Lord the best that I have. Acknowledging myself the servant of death, and rejoicing that Jesus has borne my sins and guilt, let me, though unworthy to enter into God's house, offer my whole self, and all that I have, to the Lord, as a holy sacrifice, acceptable through Jesus Christ. Washed in every part, may my whole soul be inflamed with the sacred fire; the love of God shed abroad in my heart by the Holy Ghost! May a holy and prudent zeal for the Lord consume and burn up every selfish care and inward corruption; and influence me earnestly to lay out all my gifts and graces in winning poor sinners to a God in Christ.