Leviticus 23

Notes

[Ver. 4. Feasting and holiness are generally esteemed incompatible; but there is no more necessary separation than between God and man. Now God and man we never find reconciled to each other, Ro. 8.7, unless in the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, 2 Co. 5.18-20; so feasting and holiness we will never find united, until we have learned 'to use the world without abusing it,' 1 Co. 7.31; a lesson which nothing short of 'the renewing of the Spirit,' Tit. 3.5, can effectuate. C.]

Ver. 5. [The Jews reckoned two concurrent years; the one sacred, relating to religion, the other civil, relating to temporalities. The sacred year began with the equinoctial new-moon in spring; and on the fourteenth day the passover, the parent of all their feasts, was celebrated.—Note, The Jewish feasts begin with the death of the lamb, and the sprinkling of its blood, after which immediately follows deliverance from bondage. So the believer's first joy dates from his knowledge of his Saviour's sorrows; his hunger and thirst are after righteousness, and he is filled, Mat. 5.6; he keeps the perpetual feast, of a new year of a new life, because 'Christ his passover is sacrificed for him,' 1 Co. 5.7, 8. C.]

Ver. 17. [Why is leaven so strictly prohibited in the passover, and on so many other occasions? see Ex. 12.15; 13.7; 34.25; Le. 2.11; 6.17; 10.12; and why, in the feast of pentecost (which signifies fifty, and was so called because on the fiftieth day from the passover (this feast was celebrated), why, in this feast, is the commixture of leaven directly enjoined? Let it be observed, that a principle is good or bad according to the commixture. Thus, love, commingled with the world, cannot co-exist with the love of God, 1 Jn. 2.15; but love, commingled with the knowledge of Christ, is very God dwelling in the heart, 1 Jn. 4.16. Love in the one combination we must expel; love in the other must abound more and more, Phi. 1.9; 1 Th. 3.12. It is thus that leaven representing the active principle of the sinner in a state of worse than Egyptian bondage, Ro. 6.16, is utterly to be cast out; while leaven representing the active principle of a believer 'made free from sin,' Ro. 6.18, is carefully to be retained. This feast being one of the harvest, the leaven might well represent the secret blessing of increase the Lord had openly given; and being a feast of thanksgiving, would also set forth the secret, yet all-pervading and increasing, quality of grace, as it is written, Am. 4.5, 'Offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven;' and again, 2 Pe. 3.18, 'Grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.' For the kingdom of heaven, both in the heart of a single believer and of the whole church, 'is like leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened,' Mat. 13.33. C.]

Ver. 24. [On account of the trumpets of rams' horns employed in announcing the jubilee, Le. 25.9, and by Joshua at Jericho, ch. 6.4, as well as by Asaph, Ps. 81.3 (for the Hebrew original distinguishes them from the silver trumpets, Nu. 10.2, 10), many of the Jewish rabbins are of opinion that the feast of trumpets was a memorial of the deliverance of Isaac by the substitution of a ram, Ge. 22.13: and because the original Hebrew in the text means a shout of a multitude, as well as blowing of trumpets, others are of opinion that it was an anniversary memorial of creation, according to Job 38.7. Basil and Theodoret considered it a memorial of the trumpet in the delivery of the law on Sinai, Ex. 19.16; Patrick, as a solemn celebration of the entrance of the civil new year. Both Jennings and Cruden deliver it as an admitted opinion that the Scriptures do not, as in other cases, acquaint us with the occasion of its institution. Now, this being contrary to the analogy of Scripture, in which quotation and comparison constitute (under the Spirit of God) the great instruments of interpretation, let us therefore search the Scriptures, and we will find it recorded, Ps. 81.3, 'Blow ye the trumpet in the new-moon, on our solemn feast day. For this was a statute for Israel, and a law of the God of Jacob. This he ordained in Joseph (the sold deliverer) for a testimony, when he (the Lord) went out through (or against) Egypt, where I heard a language that I understood not.' Is not the trumpet sound, therefore, a memorial of the judgment of Egypt and the deliverance of Israel, and of the unintelligiole Egyptian tongue? For such is the sound of the trumpet, except blown by an experienced trumpeter, and falling upon the practised ear of the soldier instructed in the secret meaning of the different calls, see Nu. 10.4; 1 Co. 14.8. Hence, in the New Testament, the trumpet's voice is always for judgment and deliverance, as in 1 Co. 15.52; and in the last scenes of Revelation, during the trumpet of the seventh angel, we are told, 'the mystery of God shall be finished,' Re. 10.7, which terminates in the succeeding chapters, see 11.15, 18; 12.9-12; 17.1; 18.1, 2, 4; 19.6, 7, in the judgment and destruction of the mystical Babylon, and the final deliverance of the church of the redeemed. C.]

Reflections.—While I consider these sacred festivals as memorials—of the finished work of creation—of Israel's deliverance from Egypt—of the giving of the law at Sinai—of the provocation of the golden calf, and reconcilement relative to it—and of the Hebrews dwelling in tents—let me also discern them as typical figures of the gospel rests in the apostolic, millennial, and eternal periods. Jesus' person, work, and fulness appear as the end and substance of them all; and the oblations then offered represent to me Jesus, my whole burnt-offering, who kept the law and glorified all the divine perfections in my stead; Jesus, my sin-offering, who pardons every crime; Jesus, my peace-offering, whose sacrifice was acceptable to God, quiets my conscience, and comforts my heart; Jesus, my meat-offering, who is meat indeed for the nourishment of my soul. Yea, they represent to me how his people, and their services offered through him, are the delight of his Father, and the joy of his own heart. In the first-fruits of barley and flour let me behold Jesus in his debasement and glory, as having in all things the pre-eminence, sanctifying the whole harvest of lost men, and all their fruits of righteousness; and as offered to be the present and endless nourishment of my soul. Let them also figure out the lovers of God, who are first-fruits to God and the Lamb; and their ready and acceptable service. In the passover I discern him as our passover sacrificed for us. In the feast of unleavened bread, I see him, as through his whole life, a man of sorrows; but holy, harmless, and undefiled. In pentecost, I behold him exhibited as the law-fulfiller in the apostolic period for the salvation of multitudes. In the feast of trumpets, 'I hear the gospel sound, from morning to evening of the Christian period, proclaiming a full salvation, through a crucified Redeemer, to all the ends of the earth. In the fast of expiation, I again behold him finishing transgression, and making an end of sin, the sin of a whole lost world, in one day; and having by himself purged away our sins, sitting down at the right hand of the majesty in the heavens, there to appear in the presence of God for us. And in the feast of tabernacles he is prefigured as tabernacling in our nature and world, that we might have familiar fellowship with him, particularly in the apostolic and millennial, but chiefly in the eternal period. Let me bless the Lord for such manifold memorials of Jesus; and especially that our privileges under the gospel are still more excellent, our enemies themselves being judges. Let me observe holy seasons in a holy manner. Let the Sabbaths of the Lord be kept in all our hearts, in all our dwellings, and by all under our care. Let us honour the Lord with the first-fruits of all our substance. While kind to strangers, to the poor and destitute, let us hearken to the joyful sound of salvation to miserable sinners; and, looking on Jesus Christ as crucified for us, let us afflict our souls till God himself wipe away all tears from our eyes; and when our harvest and vintage of labours are ended, then shall we commemorate with pleasure our hardships by the way, and rejoice to change them for an eternal weight of glory.