“ ‘If his offering is a sacrifice of peace offerings, if he offers it from the herd, whether male or female, he shall offer it without defect before Yahweh. He shall lay his hand on the head of his offering, and kill it at the door of the Tent of Meeting. Aaron’s sons, the priests, shall sprinkle the blood around on the altar. He shall offer of the sacrifice of peace offerings an offering made by fire to Yahweh. The fat that covers the innards, and all the fat that is on the innards, and the two kidneys, and the fat that is on them, which is by the loins, and the cover on the liver, with the kidneys, he shall take away. Aaron’s sons shall burn it on the altar on the burnt offering, which is on the wood that is on the fire: it is an offering made by fire, of a pleasant aroma to Yahweh.
“ ‘If his offering for a sacrifice of peace offerings to Yahweh is from the flock, either male or female, he shall offer it without defect. If he offers a lamb for his offering, then he shall offer it before Yahweh; and he shall lay his hand on the head of his offering, and kill it before the Tent of Meeting. Aaron’s sons shall sprinkle its blood around on the altar. He shall offer from the sacrifice of peace offerings an offering made by fire to Yahweh; its fat, the entire tail fat, he shall take away close to the backbone; and the fat that covers the entrails, and all the fat that is on the entrails, and the two kidneys, and the fat that is on them, which is by the loins, and the cover on the liver, with the kidneys, he shall take away. The priest shall burn it on the altar: it is the food of the offering made by fire to Yahweh.
“ ‘If his offering is a goat, then he shall offer it before Yahweh. He shall lay his hand on its head, and kill it before the Tent of Meeting; and the sons of Aaron shall sprinkle its blood around on the altar. He shall offer from it as his offering, an offering made by fire to Yahweh; the fat that covers the innards, and all the fat that is on the innards, and the two kidneys, and the fat that is on them, which is by the loins, and the cover on the liver, with the kidneys, he shall take away. The priest shall burn them on the altar: it is the food of the offering made by fire, for a pleasant aroma; all the fat is Yahweh’s.
“ ‘It shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations in all your dwellings, that you shall eat neither fat nor blood.’ ”
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 6, 9, 13, 17 A sacrifice of thanksgiving offered for peace and prosperity,…
A sacrifice of thanksgiving offered for peace and prosperity, either generally or particularly.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 17 Lev 3:1 And if his oblation [be] a sacrifice…
Lev 3:1 And if his oblation [be] a sacrifice of peace offering, if he offer [it] of the herd; whether [it be] a male or female, he shall offer it without blemish before the LORD.
Ver. 1. Whether it be a male or female.] In Christ there is neither male nor female, but all one. {Gal 3:28} Souls have no sexes. In thank offerings, the female also might pass: to teach that God looks not so much to the worth of the gift as the honesty of the heart that offers it. Leavened bread also in this case was accepted. {Lev 7:13}
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 5, 9, 11, 16, 17 Whether it be a male or female; which were…
Whether it be a male or female; which were allowed here, though not in burnt-offerings, because those principally respected the honour of God, who is to be served with the best; but the peace-offerings did primarily respect the benefit of the offerer, and therefore the choice was left to himself.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv1, 6 The burnt-offerings had regard to God as in himself…
The burnt-offerings had regard to God as in himself the best of beings, most perfect and excellent; they were purely expressive of adoration, and therefore were wholly burnt. But the peace-offerings had regard to God as a benefactor to his creatures, and the giver of all good things to us; and therefore these were divided between the altar, the priest, and the owner. Peace signifies, 1. Reconciliation, concord, and communion. And so these were called peace-offerings, because in them God and his people did, as it were, feast together, in token of friendship. The priest, who was ordained for men in things pertaining to God, gave part of this peace-offering to God (that part which he required, and it was fit he should be first served), burning it upon God's altar; part he gave to the offerer, to be eaten by him with his family and friends; and part he took to himself, as the days-man that laid his hand upon them both. They could not thus eat together unless they were agreed; so that it was a symbol of friendship and fellowship between God and man, and a confirmation of the covenant of peace. 2. It signifies prosperity and all happiness: Peace be to you was as much as, All good be to you; and so the peace-offerings were offered either, (1.) By way of supplication or request for some good that was wanted and desired. If a man was in the pursuit or expectation of any mercy, he would back his prayer for it with a peace-offering, and probably put up the prayer when he laid his hand upon the head of his offering. Christ is our peace, our peace-offering; for through him alone it is that we can expect to obtain mercy, and an answer of peace to our prayers; and in him an upright prayer shall be acceptable and successful, though we bring not a peace-offering. The less costly our devotions are the more lively and serious they should be. Or, (2.) By way of thanksgiving for some particular mercy received. It is called a peace-offering of thanksgiving, for so it was sometimes; as in other cases a vow, Lev 7:15, Lev 7:16. And some make the original word to signify retribution. When they had received any special mercy, and were enquiring what they should render, this they were directed to render to the God of their mercies as a grateful acknowledgment for the benefit done to them, Psa 116:12. And we must offer to God the sacrifice of praise continually, by Christ our peace; and then this shall please the Lord better than an ox or bullock. Observe,
I. As to the matter of the peace-offering, suppose it was of the herd, it must be without blemish; and, if it was so, it was indifferent whether it was male or female, Lev 3:1. In our spiritual offerings, it is not the sex, but the heart, that God looks at, Gal 3:28.
Read full note →
II. As to the management of it. 1. The offerer was, by a solemn manumission, to transfer his interest in it to God (Lev 3:2), and, with his hand on the head of the sacrifice, to acknowledge the particular mercies for which he designed this a thank-offering, or, if it was a vow, to make his prayer. 2. It must be killed; and, although this might be done in any part of the court, yet it is said to be at the door of the tabernacle, because the mercies received or expected were acknowledged to come from God, and the prayers or praises were directed to him, and both, as it were, through that door. Our Lord Jesus has said, I am the door, for he is indeed the door of the tabernacle. 3. The priest must sprinkle the blood upon the altar, for it was the blood that made atonement for the soul; and, though this was not a sin-offering, yet we must be taught that in all our offerings we must have an eye to Christ as the propitiation for sin, as those who know that the best of their services cannot be accepted unless through him their sins be pardoned. Penitent confessions must always go along with our thankful acknowledgments; and, whatever mercy we pray for, in order to it we must pray for the removal of guilt, as that which keeps good things from us. First take away all iniquity, and then receive us graciously, or give good, Hos 14:2. 4. All the fat of the inwards, that which we call the tallow and suet, with the caul that encloses it and the kidneys in the midst of it, were to be taken away, and burnt upon the altar, as an offering made by fire, Lev 3:3-5. And this was all that was sacrificed to the Lord out of the peace-offering; how the rest was to be disposed of we shall find, Lev 7:11, etc. It is ordered to be burnt upon the burnt-sacrifice, that is, the daily burnt-offering, the lamb which was offered every morning before any other sacrifice was offered; so that the fat of the peace-offerings was an addition to that, and a continuation of it. The great sacrifice of peace, that of the Lamb of God which takes away the sins of the world, prepares the altar for our sacrifices of praise, which are not accepted till we are reconciled. Now the burning of this fat is supposed to signify, (1.) The offering up of our good affections to God in all our prayers and praises. God must have the inwards; for we must pour out our souls, and lift up our hearts, in prayer, and must bless his name with all that is within us. It is required that we be inward with God in every thing wherein we have to do with him. The fat denotes the best and choicest, which must always be devoted to God, who has made for us a feast of fat things. (2.) The mortifying of our corrupt affections and lusts, and the burning up of them by the fire of divine grace, Col 3:5. Then we are truly thankful for former mercies, and prepared to receive further mercy, when we part with our sins, and have our minds cleared from all sensuality by the spirit of judgment and the spirit of burning, Isa 4:4.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–14 And if his oblation be a sacrifice of peace…
And if his oblation be a sacrifice of peace offering,.... The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan render it, the "sacrifice of holinesses", or "sanctifications"; so called, not because they were more holy than other sacrifices; for they were what the Jews (c) call the lighter holy things, in distinction from the most holy things, such as the meat offerings were, Lev 2:10 but as Ainsworth suggests, either because none but holy persons might eat of them, Lev 7:19 though this also was enjoined in other sacrifices, or because hereby the name of God was sanctified. These offerings were either by way of thanksgiving for favours received, or for free devotion, or as a vow, and in order to obtain for himself that offered and family health and safety, peace and prosperity, see Lev 7:11 all which the word used signifies; and these sacrifices are by the Septuagint called "sacrifices of salvation" or "health", because offered either in gratitude for it, or to enjoy it; or else they were offered to make peace and reconciliation, and therefore are called peace offerings, and that they were for this purpose is certain from Eze 45:15 and Gersom says they had their name from hence, because they bring peace between God and men; they were a kind of a pacific festival between God, the priests, and the owner, and were typical of Christ, who has made peace for us by his blood and sacrifice. There is something very offensive to God in sin, it being a breach of his law, and contrary to his nature and will, provoking to the eyes of his glory, deserving of wrath, and death itself, and so not only sets man at a distance from him, but creates an enmity between them; hence a peace offering became necessary; such an one man could not bring acceptable to God; for neither his repentance nor good works would do; but Christ has offered up himself a sacrifice, and thereby has made reconciliation for sin and sinners, and procured peace with God for them; the consequence of which is spiritual peace here, and eternal peace hereafter; and so is a "sacrifice of peaces", as the Hebrew phrase here may be literally rendered, and is the proper antitype and full completion of this sort of sacrifice:
if he offer it of the herd; that is, a bullock:
Read full note →
whether it be a male or female; as it might be either; showing, as some think, that in Christ Jesus, and in the Gospel churches, and under the Gospel dispensation, there is no distinction of male and female, with respect to blessings and privileges, Gal 3:28 or rather as others, denoting both strength and weakness in Christ; strength in his obedience, and weakness in his sufferings; strong he was as the man of God's right hand made so by him, and yet was crucified through weakness:
he shall offer it without blemish before the Lord: signifying the perfection and purity of Christ's sacrifice of peace offering in the sight of God: "before the Lord"; this, according to Gersom, was on the west side of the court.
(c) Misn. Zebachim, c. 5. sect. 7.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 5, 9, 11, 16, 17 Directions concerning peace-offerings. A bullock or an heifer, ver.…
Directions concerning peace-offerings. A bullock or an heifer, ver. 1-5. A lamb, ver. 6-11. A goat, ver. 12-16. No fat or blood to be eaten, ver. 17.
A peace-offering - This was an offering for peace and prosperity, and the blessing of God, either,
Read full note →
1. obtained, and so it was a thank-offering, or,
2. desired; and so it was a kind of supplication to God. A female - Which were allowed here, tho' not in burnt-offerings, because those principally respected the honour of God, who is to be served with the best; but the peace-offerings did primarily respect the benefit of the offerer, and therefore the choice was left to himself. Burnt-offerings had regard to God, as in himself the best of beings, and therefore were wholly burned. But peace-offerings had regard to God as a benefactor to his creatures, and therefore were divided between the altar, the priest, and the offerer.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 5, 9, 11, 12, 17 The law of the peace-offering in general, 1-5.
CHAPTER III
The law of the peace-offering in general, 1-5.
Read full note →
That of the peace-offering taken from the flock, 6-11;
and the same when the offering is a goat, 12-17.
NOTES ON CHAP. III
Verse 1. Peace-offering] שלמים shelamim, an offering to make peace between God and man; See Clarke on Le 7:38, and Ge 14:18.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 5, 9, 16, 17 Lev 3:1. A sacrifice of peace-offering — The original…
Lev 3:1. A sacrifice of peace-offering — The original word here used, שׁלמים, shelamim, is in the plural number, and is properly rendered peaces, pacifications, and also payments. These were offerings for peace, prosperity, and the blessing of God; either, 1st, Obtained, and then they were thank-offerings, or peace-offerings for thanksgiving, as they are termed, Lev 7:15. Or, 2d, Desired; and so they were a kind of supplications to God. Sometimes, again, they were offered by way of vow, (Lev 7:16; Pro 7:14,) in expectation of peace and future blessings; for peace, in the Hebrew language, signifies all manner of prosperity and happiness. In this case they were properly termed payments, namely, of the vows previously made. Sometimes they were offered without any antecedent obligation of a vow, in which case they were called free-will-offerings, Lev 7:11; Lev 7:16. Those sacrifices which were called sin-offerings and trespass-offerings, supposed the offerer to be obnoxious to the divine justice on account of sin, and God to be displeased; and they were appointed for atonement and reconciliation. But peace-offerings supposed God to be reconciled to the offerer, and him to be at peace with God; in testimony of which reconciliation and peace, the offerer was in this case admitted to partake of the altar. For whereas, in the holocausts, or whole burnt-offerings, the altar consumed all the flesh of the sacrifice, neither the priest nor any of the people being allowed to partake; and in the sin and trespass offerings, though the priests did partake, yet the offerers had no share; in these peace-offerings the offerers themselves were allowed to partake of the sacrifice, and feast upon it. They partook of the Lord’s table, and that was a sign of favour and friendship. For eating together was always esteemed so, and was therefore used in ancient times in making covenants and agreements. Thus, when Christ becomes our peace, and being justified through his blood, we are made one with him and with his followers; through him we have communion with God, and with his people in his ordinances, finding the flesh of Christ to be meat indeed, and his blood drink indeed. Through the exercise of faith in his sacrifice, which puts away sin, love to him and each other is shed abroad in our hearts, and while we gratefully offer and dedicate ourselves to his service as a free-will-offering, we rejoice in each other’s gifts and graces, and communicate to one another’s necessities. This fellowship with the Father and the Son, and one with another, is happily shadowed forth, and seems to have been intended to be represented in this significant ceremony of the Jewish Church. Whether it be male or female — Females were allowed here, though not in burnt-offerings, because those principally respected the honour of God, who is to be served with the best, but the peace-offerings did primarily respect the benefit of the offerer, and therefore the choice was left to himself. Again, burnt-offerings had regard to God, as in himself the best of beings, and therefore were wholly burned. But peace-offerings had regard to God as a benefactor to his creatures, and therefore were divided between the altar, the priest, and the offerer.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 16, 17 The peace-offering (like the burnt-offering, Lev 1:3, and the…
The peace-offering (like the burnt-offering, Lev 1:3, and the Minchah, Lev 2:1) is here spoken of as if it was familiarly known before the giving of the Law. “Peace-offering” seems preferable to “thank-offering,” which occurs in several places in the margin of our Bible. “thank-offering” appears to be the right name for a subordinate class of peace-offering.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11, 14, 17 Peace-offerings. Peace, in the Scripture language, signifies happiness, welfare,…
Peace-offerings. Peace, in the Scripture language, signifies happiness, welfare, or prosperity; in a word, all kinds of blessings. Such sacrifices, therefore, as were offered either on occasion of blessings received, or to obtain new favours, were called pacific or peace-offerings. In these some part of the victim was consumed with fire on the altar of God: other parts were eaten by the priests, and the persons for whom the sacrifice was offered. (Challoner) --- Female beasts might here be sacrificed, but not birds. The victims were either offered to praise God for past favours, or to comply with some vow, or were perfectly free, chap. vii. 12. Three sorts of victims, the ox, the sheep, and the goat, denoted all those who served God in innocence, or in the state of penance. (Du Hamel) Of these sacrifices "of the perfect," none of the unclean could taste, chap. vii. 20. When only flour or bread was given, the donor received no part again.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v1 1And if his oblation [offering1] be a sacrifice of…
C.—PEACE-OFFERINGS
Lev_3:1-17
Read full note →
1And if his oblation [offering1] be a sacrifice of peace-offering, if he offer it of the herd; whether it be a male or female, he shall offer it without blemish before the Lord. 2And he shall lay his hand upon the head of his offering, and kill it at the door of the tabernacle of the [om. the2] congregation: and Aaron’s sons the priests shall sprinkle the blood upon the altar round about. 3And he shall offer of the sacrifice of the peace-offering an offering made by fire unto the Lord; the fat that covereth the inwards, and all the fat that is upon the inwards, 4and the two kidneys, and the fat that is on them, which is by the flanks, and the caul above the liver, with [on3] the kidneys, it shall he take away. 5And Aaron’s sons4 shall burn it on the altar upon the burnt-sacrifice, which is upon the wood that is on the fire: it is an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the Lord.
6And if his offering for a sacrifice of peace-offering unto the Lord be of the flock; male or female, he shall offer it without blemish. 7If he offer a lamb [sheep5] for his offering, then shall he offer it before the Lord. 8And he shall lay his hand upon the head of his offering, and kill it before6 the tabernacle of the [om. the2] congregation: and Aaron’s sons shall sprinkle the blood thereof round about upon the altar. 9And he shall offer of the sacrifice of the peace-offering an offering made by fire unto the Lord; the fat thereof, and the whole rump [fat tail7], it shall he take off hard by the back-bone: and the fat that covereth the inwards, and all the fat that is upon the inwards, 10and the two kidneys, and the fat that is upon them, which is by the flanks, and the caul above the liver, with [on3] the kidneys, it shall he take away. 11And the priest shall burn it upon the altar: it is the food of the offering made by fire8 unto the Lord.
12, And if his offering be a goat, then he shall offer it before the Lord. 13And he shall lay his hand upon the head of it, and kill it before the tabernacle of the [om. the2] congregation: and the sons of Aaron shall sprinkle the blood thereof upon the altar round about. 14And he shall offer thereof his offering, even an offering made by fire unto the Lord; the fat that covereth the inwards, and all the fat that is upon the inwards, 15and the two kidneys, and the fat that is upon them, which is by the flanks, and the caul above the liver, with [on3] the kidneys, it shall he take away. 16And the priest shall burn them upon the altar: it is the food of the offering made by fire for a sweet savour: all the fat is the Lord’s [as food of an offering made by fire for a sweet savour, shall all the fat be the Lord’s9]. 17It shall be a perpetual statute for your generations throughout all your dwellings, that ye eat neither fat nor blood.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
Lev_3:1. קָרְבָּן=offering, as in Leviticus 2.
Lev_3:2. See on Lev_1:3, Text. Note 3.
Lev_3:4. ַעל must here be translated on, not with, since the kidneys have just been mentioned.
Lev_3:5. The Sam., LXX. and one MS. add the priests. So also the LXX. and one MS. in Lev_3:8, and the Sam. and LXX. in Lev_3:13.
Lev_3:7. כֶּבֶשׂ=כֶּשֶׂב, according to Bochart (Hieroz. I. 33), a sheep of intermediate age between the טָלֶה=lamb and the אִַיִל of three years old. It is, however, often applied to the sheep of one year in which case the age is mentioned, as Lev_14:10; Num_7:15; Num_7:17; Num_7:21, etc. In Pro_27:26 it is described as yielding wool. In the A. V. the form כֶּבֶשׂ is uniformly rendered lamb, except in Exo_12:5, while the other form is translated sheep nine times, and lamb four times. There is no ground for this distinction.
Lev_3:8. The locality for killing the victim is made more definite by the insertion in one MS. and in the Syr.: “before the Lord at the door of.” The LXX. makes the same insertion in Lev_3:13.
Lev_3:9. אַלְיָה, according to all interpreters the fat tail of the ovis laticaudata, a variety common in Arabia and Syria, but in modern Palestine said to be the only variety. The tail is described as of rich marrowy fat, of the width of the hind quarters, and often trailing on the ground. The word occurs only in this connection (Exo_29:22; Lev_7:3; Lev_8:25; Lev_9:19), and is rendered by all the ancient versions, except the LXX. (ὀσφύς), tail. So also Jos. Ant. iii. 9, 2.
Lev_3:11. The sense is expressed by the addition in 2 MSS. and in the LXX. of the words from Lev_1:9; Lev_1:13; Lev_1:17, רֵיחַ־נִחוֹחַ (=a sweet-smelling savor.)
Lev_3:16. The A. V. seems unnecessarily complicated, as there are but two clauses in this verse. After “savour” the Sam., LXX., and some MSS. add “to the Lord.”
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
The peace-offering, like the offerings of the preceding chapters, is spoken of as already in common use, and the law is given for its proper regulation. The offerings of this, as of the previous chapters, were voluntary. The peace-offering differed from the oblation in being animal, and from the burnt-offering in not being wholly consumed, but after a small portion had been burned, and a portion given to the priest, the remainder reverted to the offerer for a sacrificial meal (Lev_7:11-21); a further difference is in that the burnt-offerings were only male, the peace-offerings either male or female; and still further, doves were not allowed in the peace-offerings, because they were too small for the necessary division, and for the sacrificial feast.
The full form זֶבַח שְׁלָמִים used here, is nearly always employed in Leviticus; but the peace-offering is probably intended by the simple וֶכַח of Lev_23:37 (Lev_7:16-17 does not, and Lev_17:8 may not mean peace-offering), and it certainly is by שְׁלָמִים in Lev_9:22. The latter, as the determining word, is frequently used elsewhere alone, as Exo_20:24; Exo_32:6; Deu_27:7; Jos_8:31, etc. The word is variously derived, and has various shades of signification attached to it: (1) Thank-offering, Gesenius, Fürst, Luther, Rosenmüller, Winer, Bähr, etc.,θυσία χαριστηρία, Jos. Ant. iii. 9, 2; (2) Meat-offering, Zunz; (3) Salvation-offering,σωτήριον, LXX. most frequently (i.e. in the Pent., Josh., Judges, Chron., Ezra, Amos), Philo; (4) Peace-offering,size:24pt">εἰρηνικός, LXX. (in Samuel, Kings, Prov.), Aq., Sym., Theod., Vulg., A. V. The last two senses are very similar; the first seems less appropriate, partly because the strictly thank-offering appears as a special variety of this more general class (Lev_7:11-12); partly because the שְׁלָמִים were offered not only in thanks for benefits received, but also in times of distress and in supplication for the divine help (Jdg_20:26; Jdg_21:4; 1Sa_13:9; 2Sa_24:25). Outram says: Sacrificia salutaria in sacris literis shelamim dicta, ut quæ semper de rebus prosperis fieri solerent, impetratis utique aut impetrandis. Lange brings together the several meanings in the name Heilsopfer, salvation or saving offering “in the common sense of blessing or prosperity-offering.” In English the already accepted peace-offering seems to express sufficiently the same sense, and is therefore retained. The law (Lev_7:12-16) distinguishes three kinds of peace-offerings—thanksgiving, vow and free-will offerings; the only difference in their ritual being in the length of time during which their flesh might be eaten.
The peace-offerings are not called “most holy” like the oblation, but only “holy,” and the priests’ portion might be eaten by their families in any “clean place” (Lev_7:31 with Lev_10:14; Lev_23:20). The portion which reverted to the offerer to be eaten as a sacrificial feast might be partaken of only by those who were legally “clean” (Lev_7:20-21). The peace-offerings were prescribed on a variety of occasions, and as they were the necessary offerings of sacrificial feasts, and hence of all solemn national rejoicings, they were the most common of all sacrifices. From Numbers 15 it appears that, like the burnt-offering, they were always accompanied by the meat and the drink-offering.—Lange: “The peace-offering refers to prosperity as Jehovah’s free gift in past, present, and future. As regards the past, it is a simple praise and thank-offering (an Eben Ezer, Amo_5:22). In reference to a happy present, it is a contentment, joy, or feast-offering. As it relates to a future to be realized, to an experience of salvation yet to come, to a deliverance or an exhibition of mercy that is prayed for with a vow, it is a votive offering. The prescriptions in regard to the various kinds are different. Here it is said, that the animal to be slain may be either male or female, only it must be without blemish. In Lev_7:15 sq. nothing of the praise-offering might be left over until the next day, whereas the vow, or free-will offering might be eaten also on the next day, but not on the third day.” Lange then points out that in the case of those vow, or free-will offerings which were to be burnt-offerings, a male was required, Lev_22:19, without blemish. “Even an abnormal formation of the victim, too long or too short legs of the animal [Lev_7:22-23] was enough to make it unsuitable for the vow-offering, but still not for the free-will offering. So every kind of prosperity was to be hallowed to the Lord.”10
Sacrificial feasts were at least as old as the time of Jacob (Gen_31:54), and became common among all nations; but the distinctive name of peace-offering first appears when Moses came down with the law from Mt. Sinai (Exo_24:5). The thing signified, however, must have been already familiar to the people, for the word recurs in connection with the idolatrous sacrifice of Aaron when Moses had again gone up into the Mount (Exo_32:6).
Two kinds of victims were allowable: of the “herd,” or of the “flock.”
Lev_3:1-5. The peace-offering of the herd, i.e. a bullock or a cow.
Lev_3:1. The victim both in this and in the other kind (Lev_3:6) might be of either sex. According to Herodotus, this was directly contrary to the Egyptian law, which forbade offering the female in sacrifice: θηλείας οὐ σφι ἔξεστι θύειν (Lev_2:41). As in the case of other offerings, the victim must be “without blemish.” There was ordinarily no restriction of age, although in some special cases yearling lambs are mentioned (Lev_23:19; Num_7:17).
Lev_3:2. The laying on of the offerer’s hand and the sprinkling of the blood by the priest are the same as in the case of the burnt-offering; hence no signification can be attached to these acts in the one case which will not apply in the other also, except of course in so far as an act of essentially the same meaning might be somewhat modified by its connections.
Lev_3:3-4. There were four parts to be burned upon the altar: (1) the fat that covereth the inwards,i.e. the large net, omentum,Jos_3:9; Jos_3:2, ἐπίπλους, caul, or adipose membrane found in mammals attached to the stomach and spreading over the bowels, and which in the ruminants abounds with fat; (2) all the fat which is upon the inwards,i.e. the fat attached to the intestines, and which could be peeled off; (3) the two kidneys, and the fat that is on them, which is by the flanks, or loins, i.e. the kidneys and all the fat connected with them; the kidneys are the only thing to be burned except the fat; (4) the smaller net, omentum minus, or caul above the liver, which stretches on one side to the region of the kidneys, hence on the kidneys,עַל = by them, not with them, they having been just before mentioned. The word יֹתֶרֶת occurs only in Ex. (twice) and Lev. (nine times) always in connection with כָּבַד=the liver; it is described as above or upon the liver, and hence is not to be understood, as has often been done, of the liver itself, or of a part of it. These four include all the separable fat in the inside of the animal (and in addition to these was the fat tail in the case of the sheep), so that, Lev_3:16, they are called “all the fat,” so also Lev_4:8; Lev_4:19; Lev_4:26; Lev_4:31; Lev_4:35; Lev_7:3.
Lev_3:5. Aaron’s sons shall burn.—The burning on the altar, and the sprinkling of the blood (Lev_3:2), being the acts by which the sacrifice was especially offered to God, were always and in all sacrifices the priestly function.
Upon the burnt sacrifice.—This rendering is quite correct, and is in accordance with the ancient versions. The sense given by Knobel “according to” or “in the manner of the burnt-offering” is inadmissible. על may sometimes bear this sense (Exo_12:51; Psa_110:4); but it is rare, and not likely to be the meaning here. As a matter of fact, peace-offerings ordinarily followed especial burnt-offerings, and always the daily burnt-offering, which would so seldom have been entirely consumed when the peace-offering was offered, that the fat might naturally be described as placed upon it.
Lev_3:6-16. The peace-offerings of sheep or goats.
The ritual for the second kind of peace-offering is the same as for the first; it is repeated in case the victim should be a sheep (Lev_3:6-11), and in case it should be a goat (Lev_3:12-16). Only in the case of the sheep, on the principle of burning all the separable fat, the tail (see Textual, Lev_3:9) must also be laid upon the altar.
Lev_3:11. (Comp. Lev_3:16.) The food of the offering made by fire unto the Lord.—This is a common expression applied to sacrifices generally (“my bread,” Num_28:2; “Bread of God,” ch.Lev_21:6; Lev_21:8; Lev_21:17; Lev_21:21-22; Lev_22:25); yet especially mentioned only in connection with the peace-offerings. It is used only of the portions of the victim burned upon the altar, and is expressly distinguished from the portion eaten by the priests (Lev_21:22). By a natural figure, the whole victim being food, the part of it given to Jehovah by burning upon the altar is called the food of Jehovah, and shows the communion between Him and the worshipper brought about by the sacrifice. It is not necessary, however, to realize this figure by attributing to the Hebrews the thought—belonging to the later heathen—that God actually required food; such a notion was foreign to their whole theology.
Lev_3:16. All the fat—i.e., all that has been enumerated—all the separable fat of the victim.
Lev_3:17. Throughout all your dwellings.—This applies to the life in the wilderness when all sacrificial animals slain for food were required to be offered as peace-offerings before the Lord (Lev_17:3-7); whether it applies also to the subsequent life in the land of promise, when this restriction was to be removed (Deu_12:15; Deu_14:22-23; Deu_15:22-23), has been much debated. In the passages removing that restriction, mention is made only of the blood which must be poured out, and in the Song of Moses (Deu_32:14), the “fat of lambs” is especially mentioned among the blessings to be enjoyed.
Ye shall eat neither fat nor blood.—The prohibition of the separable fat (חֶלֶב in contradistinction to the מִשְׁמָן or שֶׁמֶן the fat mixed with the flesh which might be eaten, Neh_8:10) for food springs immediately from the fact that it was especially consecrated to God, and therefore not to be used by man. If we seek the reason of this consecration it is not to be sought on hygienic grounds (Rosenmüller), but rather in its connection with the animal economy. As blood is described as “the life” of the animal, so is the fat a stored-up source of life, drawn upon for sustaining life whenever, in deficiency of food or other exigency, it is required. It thus stands more nearly related in function to the blood, and became naturally the appropriate portion for the altar. Its proper development was also a mark of perfection in the animal. It is further to be borne in mind that the fat was considered the choice portion, and hence the word was figuratively used of excellence (Gen_27:28; Gen_45:18, etc.) and thus the fat, as the best, was reserved for God’s portion. The prohibition is repeated with still stronger emphasis, Lev_7:23-25. but with the exception that the fat of animals dying of themselves may be applied to other uses (Lev_3:24). It has always been understood by the Jews that the prohibition respects only the fat of animals that might be offered in sacrifice. Comp. Lev_7:23.
Nothing is here said of the disposal of the flesh of the victim, the law of this being given in detail, Lev_7:11-36.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
I. As all vegetable food was sanctified by the oblation, so all animal food was by the peace offering. In the wilderness this was literally carried out by the presenting of all animals fit for sacrifice as offerings, sprinkling their blood and burning their fat upon the altar; later, when in Palestine this became impossible on account of the distances, the idea was kept up in the prohibition of the blood for food. The general principle thus expressed for all time is that God’s gifts to man are to be acknowledged as from Him, and due return made to Him, or otherwise they are profaned.
II. In the expression “Food of the Lord,” although figurative, we recognize the idea of communion between God and man, expressed by a part of the sacrifice burned on the altar, and called by this name, while another part was eaten by the offerer at the sacrificial feast. Similarly the Eucharist is spoken of in 1Co_10:21 as the “Lord’s table.” In this respect the peace-offering under the old dispensation signified the same thing as the Eucharist under the new—the communion of the devout worshipper with God. It was eminently a feast of love towards God and man; the worshipper communicated with God by feasting on the sacrifice offered to Him, and by the portion eaten by the priests as His representatives, and with man by feasting with his friends on the remainder. It is happily described by Wordsworth as “an Eucharist coupled with an offertory.”
III. All sacrifices were necessarily typical of Christ, and each of them had in this respect its peculiar significance; with the peace-offering He is especially connected by the prophecy of Isaiah (Isa_53:5) “the chastisement of our peace was upon Him,” and by the frequent application of this word to Him and to His sacrifice in the New Testament, (Rom_5:1; Eph_2:14-16; Col_1:20, etc.).
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
“The Peace-offering is the expression of the feeling that man might receive or ask only a pure prosperity from God, and might offer it to Him again.” Lange. In this offering “God, the Master and Judge, was merged in God, the Benefactor and Rescuer” Kalisch. In the feasting of the offerer with his friends upon the flesh of the sacrifice was expressed clearly the idea of communion with God; yet even in this offering, the blood must be sprinkled upon the altar;—in the nearest approach of sinful man to God, there must still be propitiation.
In the peace-offering any sacrificial animal, of either sex, and of any age was allowable; God gives man the largest latitude of choice in the ways of expressing his gratitude. He also sanctifies as a means of communion with Him whatever He has appointed as the means of approaching Him in any way. The Christian may commune with God in work, in prayer, in sacraments, in study of His word.
In this sacrifice the fat was burnt upon the altar, and certain choice parts given to the priests to be eaten with their families; so in our thanksgivings, first let the Giver of all good be recognized, and the best of all be given back to Him; and then let a portion be given also to those who maintain His service, that the main part which remains may be enjoyed by us with a holy joy.
The sacrifice for sin (see Leviticus 4) was limited to that which was prescribed, nothing more was allowed; the peace-offerings might be unlimited in number and in value: so man now may seek forgiveness only in the way God has provided,—he can add nothing to its efficacy; but to the expression of his thankfulness, and to his desire for communion with God, no bounds are set. He may go as far as he can, and his offerings will be looked upon with approbation as “a sweet savor unto the Lord.”
The feast upon the sacrifice of peace-offerings might include all the members of the offerer’s family. Thus was the joyous family feast, like every other human relation and condition, brought by the Levitical law into relation with duties to God, and sanctified by His blessing and by symbolical communion with Him.
A true sacrifice of praise is offered by those who glorify God in their lives. This constitutes the Christian peace-offering of communion with God in its highest form—that of thanksgiving for His inestimable benefits showed forth in a sincere obedience to His commands. Origen.
Footnotes:
[1]Lev_3:1. קָרְבָּן=offering, as in Leviticus 2.
[2]Lev_3:2. See on Lev_1:3, Text. Note 3.
[3]Lev_3:4. ַעל must here be translated on, not with, since the kidneys have just been mentioned.
[4]Lev_3:5. The Sam., LXX. and one MS. add the priests. So also the LXX. and one MS. in Lev_3:8, and the Sam. and LXX. in Lev_3:13.
[5]Lev_3:7. כֶּבֶשׂ=כֶּשֶׂב, according to Bochart (Hieroz. I. 33), a sheep of intermediate age between the טָלֶה=lamb and the אִַיִל of three years old. It is, however, often applied to the sheep of one year in which case the age is mentioned, as Lev_14:10; Num_7:15; Num_7:17; Num_7:21, etc. In Pro_27:26 it is described as yielding wool. In the A. V. the form כֶּבֶשׂ is uniformly rendered lamb, except in Exo_12:5, while the other form is translated sheep nine times, and lamb four times. There is no ground for this distinction.
[6]Lev_3:8. The locality for killing the victim is made more definite by the insertion in one MS. and in the Syr.: “before the Lord at the door of.” The LXX. makes the same insertion in Lev_3:13.
[7]Lev_3:9. אַלְיָה, according to all interpreters the fat tail of the ovis laticaudata, a variety common in Arabia and Syria, but in modern Palestine said to be the only variety. The tail is described as of rich marrowy fat, of the width of the hind quarters, and often trailing on the ground. The word occurs only in this connection (Exo_29:22; Lev_7:3; Lev_8:25; Lev_9:19), and is rendered by all the ancient versions, except the LXX. (ὀσφύς), tail. So also Jos. Ant. iii. 9, 2.
[8]Lev_3:11. The sense is expressed by the addition in 2 MSS. and in the LXX. of the words from Lev_1:9; Lev_1:13; Lev_1:17, רֵיחַ־נִחוֹחַ (=a sweet-smelling savor.)
[9]Lev_3:16. The A. V. seems unnecessarily complicated, as there are but two clauses in this verse. After “savour” the Sam., LXX., and some MSS. add “to the Lord.”
[10]In regard to the question whether the peace-offering embraces also the supplicatory offering, Lange says: “It is understood that the vows themselves were supplications, from which the accompanying offering might also be called a supplicatory offering; but a peculiar supplicatory offering to strengthen the supplication would have been prejudicial to the freedom of the divine hearing. It shows a fine distinction that the free praise and thank-offerings (Thoda), which were preceded by no vows, were exalted above the vow-offerings and free-will offerings, inasmuch as these latter might be accompanied by a selfish feeling.”
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv2, 3, 4, 12, 17 he shall lay his hand upon the head of…
he shall lay his hand upon the head of his offering--Having performed this significant act, he killed it before the door of the tabernacle, and the priests sprinkled the blood round about upon the altar.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 9, 11, 17 1. Sacrifice of peace offering — Although this is…
THE PEACE OFFERING.
1. Sacrifice of peace offering — Although this is not spoken of till after the giving of the decalogue, Exo_20:24, the manner of the mention then made implies that it was a customary offering. Hence we have styled it traditional. It is chiefly eucharistic, with the subordinate notion of propitiation, as will be seen in the laying of the hand upon the victim and in the sprinkling of the blood. Hence the Seventy render it θυσια σωτηριου, “a sacrifice of salvation,” implying that it restores peace. But since no distinct reference is made to sin or to its priestly atonement, as in the sin offering, (Lev_4:20,) we have called it a thanksgiving offering of one in the enjoyment of the peace afforded by a clear conscience. This is corroborated by the fact that it was to be eaten by the offerer and his friends in a festive banquet. It was the vehicle of communion with Jehovah and with those who feared his name.
Read full note →
Of the herd — See note on Lev_1:2.
Male or female — The whole burnt offering, the type of Christ, was a male victim.
Without blemish — See note on Lev_1:3.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 5, 9, 11, 17 1. And if his oblation] This clause introducing the…
1. And if his oblation] This clause introducing the Peace-Offering corresponds to Lev_1:3 which stands at the beginning of the regulations for the Burnt-Offering.
The Peace-Offering may be either male or female, (a) of the herd (Lev_3:1-5) or of the flock either (b) a lamb (Lev_3:7-11), or (c) a goat (Lev_3:12-16). The age is not specified. The procedure should be carefully compared with that for the Burnt-Offering in ch. 1. There is nothing corresponding to the last clauses of Lev_1:3-4 referring to acceptance and atonement.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 16, 17 (1) A sacrifice of peace offering.—The peace offering of…
III.
(1) A sacrifice of peace offering.—The peace offering of which this chapter treats, consisted of two kinds, the peace offering from the herd (Lev_3:1-5), and the peace offering from the flock (Lev_3:6-15). As in the case of the burnt offering (Lev_1:3), the ox is mentioned first, because it is most costly and more important.
Read full note →
Whether it be a male.—Whilst in the case of the burnt offering (Lev_1:3; Lev_1:10) the male only was legal, there is no distinction of sex here, nor is there any limitation of age. All that was required was that it should be without any organic defect.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. H. Mackintosh 1880 · Public Domain On v1 Leviticus 3
Leviticus 3
The more closely we contemplate the offerings, the more fully do we see how that no one offering furnishes a complete view of Christ. It is only by putting all together, that anything like a just idea can be formed. Each offering, as might be expected, has features peculiar to itself. The Peace offering differs from the burnt offering, in many points; and a clear understanding of the points in which any one type differs from the others, will be found to help much in the apprehension of its special import.
Read full note →
Thus, in comparing the peace offering with the burnt offering, we find that the threefold action of "flaying," "Cutting it into its pieces," and "washing the inwards and legs" is entirely omitted; and this is quite in character. In the burnt offering, as we have seen, we find Christ offering Himself to, and accepted by God, and hence, the completeness of His self-surrender, and also the searching process to which He submitted Himself, had to be typified. In the peace offering, the leading thought is the communion of the worshipper. It is not Christ as enjoyed, exclusively, by God, but as enjoyed by the worshipper, in communion with God. Therefore it is that the whole line of action is less intense. No heart, be its love ever so elevated, could possibly rise to the height of Christ’s devotedness to God, or of God’s acceptance of Christ. None but God Himself could duly note the pulsations of that heart which throbbed in the bosom of Jesus; and, therefore, a type was needed to set forth that one feature of Christ’s death, namely, His perfect devotedness therein to God. This type we have in the burnt offering, in which, alone, we observe the threefold action above referred to.
So, also, in reference to the character of the sacrifice. In the burnt offering, it should be "a male without blemish;" whereas, in the peace offering, it might be "a male or female," though equally "without blemish." The nature of Christ, whether we view Him as enjoyed exclusively by God, or by the worshipper in fellowship with God, must ever be one and the same. There can be no alteration in that. The only reason why "a female" was permitted in the peace offering, was because it was a question of the worshipper’s capacity to enjoy that blessed One, who, in Himself, is "the same yesterday, today, and for ever." (Heb. 13)
Again, in the burnt offering, we read, "The priest shall burn all;" whereas, in the peace offering, a part only was burnt, that is, "the fat, the kidneys, and the caul. This makes it exceedingly simple. The most excellent portion of the sacrifice was laid on God’s altar. The inward parts - the hidden energies - the tender sensibilities of the blessed Jesus, were devoted to God as the only One who could perfectly enjoy them. Aaron and his sons fed upon "the wave breast" and "the heave shoulder."* (See carefully Lev. 7: 28-36) All the members of the priestly family, in communion with their head, had their proper portion of the peace offering. And now, all true believers constituted, by grace, priests unto God, can feed upon the affections and the strength of the true Peace Offering - can enjoy the happy assurance of having His loving heart and powerful shoulder to comfort and sustain them continually.** "This is the portion of the anointing of Aaron, and of the anointing of his sons, out of the offerings of the Lord made by fire, in the day when he presented them to minister unto the Lord in the priest’s office; which the Lord commanded to be given them of the children of Israel, in the day that he anointed them by a statute for ever throughout their generations." (Lev. 7: 35, 36)
{*The "breast" and the "shoulder" are emblematical of love and power - strength and affection.}
{**There is much force and beauty in verse 31: "The breast shall be Aaron’s and his sons." It is the privilege of all true believers to feed upon the affections of Christ - the changeless love of that heart which beats with a deathless and changeless love for them.}
All these are important points of difference between the burnt offering and the peace offering; and, when taken together, they set the two offerings, with great clearness, before the mind. There is something more in the peace offering than the abstract devotedness of Christ to the will of God. The worshipper is introduced; and that, not merely as a spectator, but as a participator - not merely to gaze, but to feed. This gives very marked character to this offering. When I look at the Lord Jesus in the burnt offering, I see Him as One whose heart was devoted to the one object of glorifying God and accomplishing His will. But when I see Him in the peace offering, I find One who has a place in His loving heart, and on His powerful shoulder, for a worthless, helpless sinner. In the burnt offering, the breast and shoulder, legs and inwards, head and fat, were all burnt on the altar - all went up as a sweet savour to God. But in the peace offering, that very portion that suits me is left for me. Nor am I left to feed, in solitude, on that which meets my individual need. By no means. I feed in communion - in communion with God, and in communion with my fellow priests. I feed, in the full and happy intelligence, that the selfsame sacrifice which feeds my soul has already refreshed the heart of God; and, moreover, that the same portion which feeds me feeds all my fellow worshippers. Communion is the order here - communion with God - the communion of saints. There was no such thing as isolation in the peace offering. God had His portion, and so had the priestly family.
Thus it is in connection with the Antitype of the peace offering. The very same Jesus who is the object of heaven’s delight, is he spring of joy, of strength, and of comfort to every believing heart; and not only to every heart, in particular, but also to the whole church of God, in fellowship. God, in His exceeding grace, has given His people the very same object that He has Himself. "Truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ." (1 John 1) True, our thoughts of Jesus can never rise to the height of God’s thoughts. Our estimation of such an object must ever fall far short of His; and, hence, in the type, the house of Aaron could not partake of the fat. But though we can never rise to the standard of the divine estimation of Christ’s Person and sacrifice, it is, nevertheless, the same object we are occupied With, and, therefore, the house of Aaron had "the wave breast and the heave shoulder." All this is replete with comfort and joy to the heart. The Lord Jesus Christ - the One "who was dead, but is alive for evermore," is now the exclusive object before the eye and thoughts of God; and, in perfect grace, He has given unto us a portion in the same blessed and all-glorious Person. Christ is our object too - the object of our hearts, and the theme of our song. "Having made peace by the blood of his cross," He ascended into heaven, and sent down the Holy Ghost, that "other Comforter," by whose powerful ministrations we feed upon the breast and shoulder "of our divine "Peace Offering." He is, indeed, our peace; and it is our exceeding joy to know that such is God’s delight in the establishment of our peace that the sweet odour of our Peace offering has refreshed His heart. This imparts a peculiar charm to this type. Christ, as the burnt offering, commands the admiration of the heart; Christ, as the peace offering, establishes the peace of the conscience, and meets the deep and manifold necessities of the soul. The sons of Aaron might stand around the altar of burnt offering; they might behold the flame of that offering ascending to the God of Israel; they might see the sacrifice reduced to ashes; they might, in view of all this, bow their heads and worship; but they carried nought away for themselves. Not so in the peace offering. In it they not only beheld that which was capable of emitting a sweet odour to God, but also of yielding a most substantial portion for themselves on which they could feed, in happy and holy fellowship.
And, assuredly, it heightens the enjoyment of every true priest to know that God (to use the language of our type) has had His portion, ere he gets the breast and the shoulder. The thought of this gives tone and energy, unction and elevation to the worship and communion. It unfolds the amazing grace of Him who has given us the same object, the same theme, the same joy with Himself. Nothing lower - nothing less than this could satisfy Him. The Father will have the prodigal feeding upon the fatted calf, in fellowship with Himself. He will not assign him lower - place than at His own table, nor any other portion than that on which He feeds Himself. The language of the peace offering is, "it is meet that we should make merry and be glad" - "Let us eat and be merry." Such is the precious grace of God! No doubt, we have reason to be glad, as being the partakers of such grace; but when we can hear the blessed God saying, "Let us eat and be merry," it should call forth from our hearts a continual stream of praise and thanksgiving. God’s joy in the salvation of sinners, and His joy in the communion of saints, may well elicit the admiration of men and angels throughout eternity.
Having, thus, compared the peace offering with the burnt offering, we may, now, briefly glance at it, in connection with the meat offering. The leading point of difference, here, is that, in the peace offering, there was blood-shedding, and in the meat offering, there was not. They were both "sweet savour" offerings; and, as we learn, from Lev. 7: 12, the two offerings here very intimately associated. Now, both the connection and the contrast are full of meaning and instruction.
It is only in communion with God that the soul can delight itself in contemplating the perfect humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ. God the Holy Ghost must impart, as He must also direct, by the word, the vision by which we can gaze on "the Man Christ Jesus." He might have been revealed "in the likeness of sinful flesh;" He might have lived and laboured on this earth; He might have shone, amid the darkness of this world, in all the heavenly lustre and beauty which belonged to His Person; He might have passed rapidly, like a brilliant luminary, across this world’s horizon; and, all the while, have been beyond the range of the sinner’s vision.
Man could not enter into the deep joy of communion with all this, simply because there mould be no basis laid down on which this communion might rest. In the peace offering, this necessary basis is fully and clearly established. "He shall lay his hand upon the head of his offering, and kill it at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation: and Aaron’s sons, the priests, shall sprinkle the blood upon the altar round about." (Lev. 3: 2) Here, we have that which the meet offering does not supply, namely, a solid foundation for the worshipper’s communion with all the fullness, the preciousness, and the beauty of Christ, so far as He. by the gracious energy of the Holy Ghost, is enabled to enter thereunto. Standing on the platform which "the precious blood of Christ "provides, we can range, with tranquillised hearts, and worshipping spirits, throughout all the wondrous scenes of the manhood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Had we nought save the meat offering aspect of Christ, we should lack the title by which, and the ground on which, we can contemplate and enjoy Him therein. If there were no blood-shedding, there could be no title, no standing place for the sinner. but Leviticus 7: 12 links the meat offering with the peace offering, and, by so doing, teaches us that, when our souls have found peace, we can delight in the One, who has "made peace," and who is "our peace."
But let it be distinctly understood that while, in the peace offering, we have the shedding and sprinkling of blood, yet sin-bearing is not the thought. When we view Christ, in the peace offering, He does not stand before us as the bearer of our sins, as in the sin and trespass offerings; but (having borne them) as the ground of our peaceful and happy fellowship with God. If sin-bearing were in question, it could not be said, "It is an offering made by fire of a sweet savour unto the Lord." (Lev. 3: 5 comp. with Lev. 4: 10-12) Still, though sin-bearing is not the thought, there is full provision for one who knows himself to be a sinner, else he could not have any portion therein. To have fellowship with God we must be "in the light;" and how can we be there? Only on the ground of that precious statement, "the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin." (1 John 1) The more we abide in the light, the deeper will be our sense of everything which is contrary to that light, and the deeper, also, our sense of the value of that blood which entitles us to be there. The more closely we walk with God, the more we shall know of "the unsearchable riches of Christ."
It is most needful to be established in the truth that we are in the presence of God, only as the partakers of divine life, and as standing in divine righteousness. The Father could only have the prodigal at his table, clothed in "the best robe," and in all the integrity of that relationship in which He viewed him. Had the prodigal been left in his rags, or placed" as a hired servant" in the house, we never should have heard those glorious words, "Let us eat and be merry: for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found." Thus it is with all true believers. Their old nature is not recognised as existing, before God. He counts it dead, and so should they. It is dead, to God - dead, to faith. It must be kept in the place of death. It is not by improving our old nature that we get into the divine presence; but as the possessors of a new nature. It was not by repairing the rags of his former condition that the prodigal got a place at the Father’s table, but by being clothed in a robe which he had never seen, or thought of before. He did not bring this robe with him from the "far country," neither did he provide it as he came along; but the father had it for him in the house. The prodigal did not make it, or help to make it; but the father provided it for him, and rejoiced to see it on him. Thus it was they sat down together, to feed in happy fellowship, upon "the fatted calf."
I shall now proceed to quote at length "the law of the sacrifice of peace offering," in which we shall find some additional points of much interest - points which belong peculiarly to itself: "And this is the law of the sacrifice of peace offerings, which he shall offer unto the Lord. If he offer it for a thanksgiving, then he shall offer with the sacrifice of thanksgiving unleavened cakes mingled with oil, and unleavened wafers anointed with oil, and cakes mingled with oil, of fine flour fried. Besides the cakes, he shall offer for his offering leavened bread with the sacrifice of thanksgiving of his peace offerings. And of it he shall offer one out of the whole oblation for an heave offering unto the Lord, and it shall be the priest’s that sprinkleth the blood of the peace offerings. And the flesh of the sacrifice of his peace offerings for thanksgiving shall be eaten the same day that it is offered; he shall not leave any of it until the morning. But if the sacrifice of his offering be a vow, or a voluntary offering, it shall be eaten the same day that he offereth his sacrifice: and on the morrow also the remainder of it shall be eaten; but the remainder of the flesh of the sacrifice on the third day shall be burnt with fire. And if any of the flesh of the sacrifice of his peace offerings be eaten at all on the third day, it shall not be accepted, neither shall it be imputed unto him that offereth it: it shall be an abomination, and the soul that eateth of it shall bear his iniquity. And the flesh that toucheth any unclean thing shall not be eaten; it shall be burnt with fire: and as for the flesh all that be clean shall eat thereof. But the soul that eateth of the flesh of the sacrifice of peace offerings that pertain unto the Lord, having his uncleanness upon him, even that soul shall be cut off from his people. Moreover, the soul that shall touch any unclean thing, as the uncleanness of man, or any unclean beast, or any abominable unclean thing, and eat of the flesh of the sacrifice of peace offerings, which pertain unto the Lord, even that soul shall be cut off from his people." (Lev. 7: 11-21)
It is of the utmost importance that we accurately distinguish between sin in the flesh, and sin on the conscience. If we confound these two, our souls must, necessarily, be unhinged, and our worship marred. An attentive consideration of 1 John 1: 8-10 will throw much light upon this subject, the understanding of which is so essential to a due appreciation of the entire doctrine of the peace offering, and more especially of that point therein at which we have now arrived. There is no one who will be so conscious of indwelling sin as the man who walks in the light. "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us." In the verse immediately preceding, we read, "the blood of Jesus Christ his Son Cleanseth us from all sin." Here the distinction between sin in us, and sin on us, is fully brought out and established. To say that there is sin on the believer, in the presence of God, is to call in question the purging efficacy of the blood of Jesus, and to deny the truth of the divine record. If the blood of Jesus can perfectly purge, then the believer’s conscience is perfectly purged. The word of God thus puts the matter; and we must ever remember that it is from God Himself we are to learn what the true condition of the believer is, in His sight. We are more disposed to be occupied in telling God what we are in ourselves, than to allow Him to tell us what we are in Christ. In other words, we are more taken up with our own self-consciousness, than with God’s revelation of Himself. God speaks to us on the ground of what He is in Himself and of what He has accomplished, in Christ. Such is the nature and character of His revelation of which faith takes hold, and thus fills the soul with perfect peace. God’s revelation is one thing; my consciousness is quite another.
But the same word which tells us we have no sin on us, tells us, with equal force and clearness, that we have sin in us. "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." Every one who has "truth "in him, will know that he has "sin" in him, likewise; for truth reveals every thing as it is. What, then, are we to do? It is our privilege so to walk in the power of the new nature, that the "sin" which dwells in us may not manifest itself in the form of "sins." The Christian’s position is one of victory and liberty. He is not only delivered from the guilt of sin, but also from sin as a ruling principle in his life. "knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin . . . . . .let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof...For sin shall not have dominion over you: for we are not under the law, but under grace." (Rom. 6: 6-14) Sin is there in all its native vileness; but the believer is "dead to it." How? He died in Christ. By nature he was dead in sin. By grace he is dead to it. What claim can anything or any one have upon a dead man? None whatever. Christ "died unto sin once," and the believer died in Him. "Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: knowing that Christ being raised from the dead, dieth no more, death hath no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God." What is the result of this, in reference to believers? "Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." Such is the believer’s unalterable position, before God so that it is his holy privilege to enjoy freedom from sin as a ruler over him, though it be a dweller in him.
But, then, "if any man sin," what is to be done? The inspired apostle furnishes a full and most blessed answer: "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1: 9) Confession is the mode in which the conscience is to be kept free. The apostle does not say, "If we pray for pardon, he is gracious and merciful to forgive us." No doubt, it is ever happy for a child to breathe the sense of need into his father’s ear - to tell him of feebleness, to confess folly, infirmity, and failure. All this is most true; and, moreover, it is equally true that our Father is most gracious and merciful to meet His children in all their weakness and ignorance; but, while all this is true, the Holy Ghost declares, by the apostle, that, "if we confess," God is "faithful and just to forgive." confession, therefore, is the divine mode. A Christian, having erred, in thought, word, or deed, might pray for pardon, for days and months together, and not have any assurance, from 1 John 1: 9, that he was forgiven; whereas the moment he truly confesses his sin, before God, it is a simple matter of faith to know that he is perfectly forgiven and perfectly cleansed.
There is an immense moral difference between praying for forgiveness, and confessing our sins, whether we look at it in reference to the character of God, the sacrifice of Christ, or the condition of the soul. It is quite possible that a person’s prayer may involve the confession of his sin, whatever it may happen to be, and thus come to the same thing. But, then, it is always well to keep close to scripture, in what we think, and say, and do. It must be evident that when the Holy Ghost speaks of confession, He does not mean praying. And, it is equally evident that He knows there are moral elements in, and practical results flowing out of, confession, which do not belong to prayer. In point of fact, one has often found that a habit of importuning God for the forgiveness of sins, displayed ignorance as to the way in which God has revealed Himself in the Person and work of Christ; as to the relation in which the sacrifice of Christ has set the believer; and as to the divine mode of getting the conscience relieved from the burden, and purified from the soil, of sin.
God has been perfectly satisfied, as to all the believer’s sins, in the cross of Christ. On that cross, a full atonement was presented for every jot and tittle of sin, in the believer’s nature, and on his conscience. Hence, therefore, God does not need any further propitiation. He does not need ought to draw His heart toward the believer. We do not require to supplicate Him to be "faithful and just," when His faithfulness and justice have been so gloriously displayed, vindicated, and answered, in the death of Christ. Our sins can never come into God’s presence, inasmuch as Christ who bore them all, and put them away, is there instead. But, if we sin, conscience will feel it, must feel it; yes, the Holy Ghost will make us feel it. He cannot allow so much as a single light thought to pass unjudged. What then? Has our sin made its way into the presence of God? Has it found its place in the unsullied light of the inner sanctuary? God forbid! The "Advocate" is there - "Jesus Christ the righteous," to maintain, in unbroken integrity, the relationship in which we stand. But, though sin cannot affect God’s thoughts in reference to us, it can and does affect our thoughts in reference to Him.* Though it cannot make its way into His presence, it can make its way into ours, in a most distressing and humiliating manner. Though it cannot hide the Advocate from God’s view, it can hide Him from ours. It gathers, like a thick, dark cloud, on our spiritual horizon, so that our souls cannot bask in the blessed beams of our Father’s countenance, It cannot affect our relationship with God, but it can very seriously affect our enjoyment thereof. What, therefore, are we to do? The word answers," if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." By confession, we get our conscience cleared; the sweet sense of our relationship restored; the dark; cloud dispersed; the chilling, withering influence removed; our thoughts of God set straight. Such is the divine method; and we may truly say that the heart that knows what it is to have ever been in the place of confession, will feel the divine power of the apostle’s words, "My little children, these things write I unto you, THAT YE SIN NOT." (1 John 2: 1)
{*The reader will bear in mind that the subject treated of in the text, leaves wholly untouched the important and most practical truth taught in John 14: 21-23, namely, the peculiar love of the Father for an obedient child, and the special communion of such a child with the Father and the Son. May this truth be written on all our hearts, by the pen of God the Holy Ghost}
Then, again, there is a style of praying for forgiveness, which involves a losing sight of the perfect ground of forgiveness, which has been laid in the sacrifice of the cross. If God forgives sins, He must be "faithful and just," in so doing. But it is quite clear that our prayers, be they ever so sincere and earnest, could not form the basis of God’s faithfulness and justice, in forgiving us our sins. Nought save the work of the cross could do this. There the faithfulness and justice of God have had their fullest establishment, and that, too, in immediate reference to out actual sins, as well as to the root thereof, in our nature. God has already judged our sins in the Person of our Substitute, "on the tree;" and, in the act of confession, we judge ourselves. This is essential to divine forgiveness and restoration. The very smallest unconfessed, unjudged sin, on the conscience, will entirely mar our communion with God. Sin in us need not do this; but if we suffer sin to remain on us, we cannot have fellowship with God. He has put away our sins in such a manner, as that He can have us in His presence; and, so long as we abide in His presence, sin does not trouble us. But, if we get out of His presence, and commit sin, even in thought, our communion must, of necessity, be suspended, until, by confession, we have got rid of the sin. All this, I need hardly add, is founded, exclusively, upon the perfect sacrifice and righteous advocacy of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Finally, as to the difference between prayer and confession, as respects the condition of the heart before God, and its moral sense of the hatefulness of sin, it cannot, possibly, be over-estimated. It is a much easier thing to ask, in a general way, for the forgiveness of our sins than to confess those sins. Confession involves self-judgement; asking for forgiveness may not, and, in itself, does not. This alone would be sufficient to point out the difference. Self-judgement is one of the most valuable and healthful exercises of the Christian life; and, therefore, anything which produces it, must be highly esteemed by every earnest Christian.
The difference between asking for pardon, and confessing the sin, is continually exemplified in dealing with children. If a child has done anything wrong, he finds much less difficulty in asking his father to forgive him, than in openly and unreservedly confessing the wrong. In asking for forgiveness, the child may have in his mind a number of things which tend to lessen the sense of the evil; he may be secretly thinking that he was not so much to blame, after all, though, to be sure, it is only proper to ask his father to forgive him; whereas, in confessing the wrong, there is just the one thing, and that is self-judgement. Further, in asking for forgiveness the child may be influenced, mainly, by a desire to escape the consequences of his wrong; whereas, a judicious parent will seek to produce a just sense of its moral evil, which can only exist in connection with the full confession of the fault - in connection with self-judgement.
Thus it is, in reference to God’s dealings with His children, when they do wrong. He must have the whole thing brought out and thoroughly judged. He will make us not only dread the consequences of sin which are unutterable - but hate the thing itself, because of its hatefulness, in his sight. Were it possible for us, when we commit sin, to be forgiven, merely for the asking, our sense of sin, and our shrinking from it, would not be nearly so intense; and, as a consequence, our estimate of the fellowship with which we are blessed, would not be nearly so high. The moral effect of all this upon the general tone of our spiritual constitution, and also upon our whole character and practical career, must be obvious to every experienced Christian.*
{*The case of Simon Magus, in Acts 8, may present a difficulty to the reader. But of him, it is sufficient to say that one "in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity, "could never be set forth as a model for God’s dear children. His case in nowise interferes with the doctrine of 1 John 1: 9. He was not in the relationship of a child, and, as a consequence, not a subject of the advocacy. I would further add, that the subject of the Lord’s prayer is by no means involved in what is stated above. I wish to confine myself to the immediate passage under consideration. We must ever avoid laying down iron rules. A soul may cry to God, under any circumstances, and ask for what it needs. He is ever ready to hear and answer.}
This entire train of thought is intimately connected with. and fully borne out by, two leading principles laid down in "the law of the peace offering."
In verse 13, of the seventh of Leviticus, we read, "he shall offer for his offering leavened bread." And, yet, at verse 20, we read, "But the soul that eateth of the flesh of the sacrifice of peace offerings, that pertain unto the Lord, having his uncleanness upon him, even that soul shall be cut off from his people." Here, we have the two things clearly set before us, namely, sin in us, and sin on us. "Leaven" was permitted, because there was sin in the worshipper’s nature. "Uncleanness" was forbidden, because there should be no sin on the worshipper’s conscience. If sin be in question, communion must be out of the question. God has met and provided for the sin, which He knows to be in us, by the blood of atonement; and, hence, of the leavened bread in the peace offering, we read, "of it he shall offer one out of the whole oblation for an heave offering unto the Lord, and it shall be the priest’s that sprinkleth the blood of the peace offerings." (ver. 14) In other words, the "leaven," in the worshipper’s nature, was perfectly met by the "blood" Of the sacrifice. The priest who eats the leavened bread, must be the sprinkler of the blood. God has put our sin out of His sight for ever. Though it be in us, it is not the object on which His eye rests. He sees only the blood; And, therefore, He can go on with us, and allow us the most unhindered fellowship with Him. but if we allow the "sin" which is in us to develop itself in take shape of "sins," there must be confession, forgiveness, and cleansing, ere we can again eat of the flesh of the peace offering. The cutting off of the worshipper, because of ceremonial uncleanness, answers to the suspension of the believer’s communion now, because of unconfessed sin. To attempt to have fellowship with God in our sins, would involve the blasphemous insinuation that He could walk in companionship with sin. "If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth." (1 John 1: 6)
In the light of the foregoing line of truth, we may easily see how much we err, when we imagine it to be a mark of spirituality to be occupied with our sins. Could sin or sins ever be the ground or material of our communion with God? Assuredly not. We have just seen that, so long as sin is the object before us, communion must be interrupted. Fellowship can only be "in the light;" and, undoubtedly, there is no sin in the light. There is nought to be seen there, save the blood which has put our sins away, and brought us nigh, and the Advocate which keeps us nigh. Sin has been for ever obliterated from that platform on which God and the worshipper stand in hallowed fellowship. What was it which constituted the material of communion between the Father and the prodigal? Was it the rags of the latter? Was it the husks of "the far country?" By no means. It was not anything that the prodigal brought with him. It was the rich provision of the Father’s love - "the fatted calf." Thus it is with God and every true worshipper. They feed together, in holy and elevated communion, upon Him whose precious blood has brought them into everlasting association, in that light to which no sin can ever approach.
Nor need we, for an instant, suppose that true humility is either evidenced or promoted by looking at, or dwelling upon, our sins. An unhallowed and melancholy mopishness may, thus, be super induced; but the deepest humility springs from a totally different source. Whether was the prodigal an humbler man, "when he came to himself" in the far country, or when he came to the Father’s bosom and the Father’s house? Is it not evident that the grace which elevates us to the loftiest heights of fellowship with God, is that alone which leads us into the most’ profound depths of a genuine humility Unquestionably. The humility which springs from the removal of our sins, must ever be deeper than that which springs from the discovery of them. The former connects us with God; the latter has to do with self. The way to be truly humble is to walk with God in the intelligence and power of the relationship in which He has set us. He has made us His children; and if only we walk as such, we shall be humble.
Ere leaving this part of our subject, I would offer a remark as to the Lord’s Supper, which, as being a prominent act of the Church’s communion, may, with strict propriety, be looked at in connection with the doctrine of the peace offering. The intelligent celebration of the Lord’s Supper must ever depend upon the recognition of its purely eucharistic or thanksgiving character. It is, very especially, a feast of thanksgiving - thanksgiving for an accomplished redemption. "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?" (1 Cor. 10: 16) Hence, a soul, bowed down under the heavy burden of sin, cannot, with spiritual intelligence, eat the Lord’s Supper, inasmuch as that feast is expressive of the complete removal of sin by the death of Christ. Ye do show the Lord’s death till he come." (1 Cor. 11) in the death of Christ, faith sees the end of everything that pertained to our old-creation standing; and, seeing that the Lord’s Supper" shows forth" that death, it is to be viewed as the memento of the glorious fact that the believer’s burden of sin was borne by One who put it away for ever. It declares that the chain of our sins, which once tied and bound us, has been eternally snapped by the death of Christ, and can never tie and bind us again. We gather round the Lord’s table in all the joy of conquerors. We look back to the cross where the battle was fought and won; and we look forward to the glory where we shall enter into the full and eternal results of the victory.
True, we have "leaven" in us; but we have no "uncleanness" on us. We are not to gaze upon our sins; but upon Him who bore them on the cross, and put them away for ever. We are not to "deceive ourselves" by the vain notion "that we have no sin" in us; nor are we to deny the truth of God’s word, and the efficacy of Christ’s blood, by refusing to rejoice in the precious truth that we have no sin on us, for "the blood Of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. It is truly deplorable to observe the heavy cloud that gathers round the Supper of the Lord, in the judgement of so many professing Christians. It tends, as much as anything else, to reveal the immense amount of misapprehension which obtains, in reference to the very elementary truths of the gospel. In fact, we know that when the Lord’s Supper is resorted to on any ground save that of known salvation - enjoyed forgiveness - conscious deliverance, the soul becomes wrapped up in thicker and darker clouds than ever. That which is only a memorial of Christ is used to displace Him. That which celebrates an accomplished redemption is used as a stepping-stone thereto. It is thus that the ordinances are abused, and souls plunged in darkness, confusion, and error.
How different from this is the beautiful ordinance of the peace offering! In this latter, looked at in its typical import, we see that the moment the blood was shed, God and the worshipper could feed in happy, peaceful fellowship. Nothing more was needed. Peace was established by the blood; and, on that ground, the communion proceeded. A single question as to the establishment of peace must be the death-blow to communion. If we are to be occupied with the vain attempt to make peace with God, we must be total strangers to either communion or worship. If the blood of the peace offering has not been shed, it is impossible that we can feed upon "the wave breast" or "the heave shoulder." But if, on the other hand, the blood has been shed, then peace is made already. God Himself has made it, and this is enough for faith; and, therefore, by faith, we have fellowship with God, in the intelligence and joy of accomplished redemption. We taste the freshness of God’s own joy in that which He has wrought. We feed upon Christ, in all the fullness and blessedness of God’s presence.
This latter point is connected with, and based upon, another leading truth laid down in "the law of the peace offering." "And the flesh of the sacrifice of his peace offerings for thanksgiving shall be eaten the same day that it is offered: he shall not leave any of it until the morning." That is to say, the communion of the worshipper must never be separated from the sacrifice on which that communion is founded. So long as one has spiritual energy to maintain the connection, the worship and communion are also maintained, in freshness and acceptableness; but no longer. We must keep close to the sacrifice, in the spirit of our minds, the affections of our hearts, and the experience of our souls. This will impart power and permanency to our worship. We may commence some act or expression of worship, with our hearts in immediate occupation with Christ; and, ere we reach the close, we may become occupied with what we are doing or saying, or with the persons who are listening to us; and, in this way, fall into what may be termed "iniquity in our holy things." This is deeply solemn, and should make us very watchful. We may begin our worship in the Spirit and end in the flesh. Our care should ever be, not to suffer ourselves to proceed for a single moment beyond the energy of the Spirit, at the time, for the Spirit will always keep us occupied directly with Christ. If the Holy Ghost produces "five words" of worship or thanksgiving, let us utter the five and have done. If we proceed further, we are eating the flesh of our sacrifice beyond the time; and, so far from its being "accepted," it is, really, "an abomination." Let us remember this, and be watchful. It need not alarm us. God would have us led by the Spirit, and so filled with Christ in all our worship. He can only accept of that which is divine; and, therefore, He would have us presenting that only which is divine.
"But if the sacrifice of his offering be a vow or a voluntary offering, it shall be eaten the same day that he offereth his sacrifice: and on the morrow also the remainder of it shall be eaten." (Lev. 7: 16) When the soul goes forth to God in a voluntary act of worship, such worship will be the result of a larger measure of spiritual energy than where it merely springs from some special mercy experienced at the time. If one has been visited with some marked favour from the Lord’s own hand, the soul, at once, ascends in thanksgiving. In this case, the worship is awakened by, and connected with, that favour or mercy, whatever it may happen to be, and there it ends. But, where the heart is led forth by the Holy Ghost in some voluntary or deliberate expression of praise, it will be of a more enduring character. But spiritual worship will always connect itself with the precious sacrifice of Christ.
"The remainder of the flesh of the sacrifice, on the third day, shall be burnt with fire. And if any of the flesh of the sacrifice of his peace offerings be eaten at all on the third day, it shall not be accepted, neither shall it be imputed unto him that offereth it: it shall be an abomination, and the soul that eateth of it shall bear his iniquity." Nothing is of any value, in the judgement of God, which is not immediately connected with Christ. There may be a great deal of what looks like worship, which is, after all, the mere excitement and outgoing of natural feeling. There may be much apparent devotion, which is, merely, fleshly pietism. Nature may be acted upon, in a religious way, by a variety of things, such as pomp, ceremony, and parade, tones and attitudes, robes and vestments, an eloquent liturgy, all the varied attractions of a splendid ritualism, while there may be a total absence of spiritual worship. Yea, it not infrequently happens that the very same tastes and tendencies which are called forth and gratified by the splendid appliances of so-called religious worship, would find most suited aliment at the opera or in the concert room.
All this has to be watched against by those who desire to remember that "God is a spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." (John 4) Religion, so called, is, at this moment, decking herself with her most powerful charms. Casting off the grossness of the middle ages, she is calling to her aid all the resources of refined taste, and of a cultivated and enlightened age. Sculpture, music, and painting, are pouring their rich treasures into her lap, in order that she may, therewith, prepare a powerful opiate to lull the thoughtless multitude into a slumber, which shall only be broken in upon by the unutterable horrors of death, judgement, and the lake of fire. She, too, can say, "I have peace offerings with me; this day have I paid my vows . . . . . . I have decked my bed with coverings of tapestry, with carved works, with fine linen of Egypt. I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon." (Prov. 7) Thus does corrupt religion allure, by her powerful influence, those who will not hearken to wisdom’s heavenly voice.
Reader, beware of all this. See that your worship stands inseparably connected with the work of the cross. See that Christ is the ground, Christ the material, and the Holy Ghost the power of your worship. Take care that your outward act of worship does not stretch itself beyond the inward power. It demands much watchfulness to keep clear of this evil. Its incipient workings are most difficult to be detected and counteracted. We may commence a hymn in the true spirit of worship, and, through lack of spiritual power, we may, ere we reach the close, fall into the evil which answers to the ceremonial act of eating the flesh of the peace offering on the third day. Our only security is in keeping close to Jesus. If we lift up our hearts in "thanksgiving," for some special mercy, let us do so in the power of the name and sacrifice of Christ. If our souls go forth in "voluntary" worship, let it be in the energy of the Holy Ghost. In this way shall our worship exhibit that freshness, that fragrance, that depth of tone, that moral elevation, which must result from having the Father as the object, the Son as the ground, and the Holy Ghost as the power of our worship.
Thus may it be, O Lord, with all thy worshipping people, until we find ourselves, body, soul, and spirit, in the security of thine own eternal presence, beyond the reach of all- the unhallowed influences of false worship and corrupt religion, and also beyond the reach of the various hindrances which arise from these bodies of sin and death which we carry about with us!
---------------------
NOTE. - It is interesting to observe that, although the peace offering itself stands third in order, yet "the law" thereof is given us last of all. This circumstance is not; without its import. There is none of the offerings in which the communion of the worshipper is so fully unfolded as in the peace offering. In the burnt offering, it is Christ offering Himself to God. In the meat offering, we have Christ’s perfect humanity. Then, passing on to the sin offering, we learn that sin, in its root, is fully met. In the trespass offering, there is a full answer to the actual sin in the life. But, in none is the doctrine of the communion of the worshipper unfolded. This latter belongs to "the peace offering;" and, hence, I believe, the position which the law of that offering occupies. It comes in, at the close of all, thereby teaching us that, when it becomes a question of the soul’s feeding upon Christ, it must be a full Christ, looked at in every possible phase of His life, His character, His Person, His work, His offices. And, furthermore, that, when we shall have done, for ever, with sin and sins, we shall delight in Christ, and feed upon Him, throughout the everlasting ages. It would, I believe, be a serious defect in our study of the offerings, were we to pass over a circumstance so worthy of notice as the above. If "the law of the peace offering" were given in the order in which the offering itself occurs, it would come in immediately after the law of the meat offering; but, instead of that, "the law of the sin offering, and "the Law of the trespass offering "are given, and, then, "the law of the peace offering" closes the entire.
C. H. Mackintosh, Notes on the Pentateuch — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 5, 6, 9, 11, 16, 17 THE PEACE OFFERING. The peace offering, though the instructions…
THE PEACE OFFERING. The peace offering, though the instructions here given respecting it precede those relating to the sin offering (for a reason to be stated hereafter), is the last in order of the sacrifices when they were all presented together. First, the sin offering taught the need of, and symbolically wrought, propitiation and atonement; next the burnt offering represented the absolute surrender of man"s will to God"s will; then the meat offering, by its gift of homage, declared the loyal submission of the offerer; and then followed the peace offering, symbolizing the festive joy which pervades the souls of those who are in communion with God. the essential characteristic of the peace offering is the feast upon the sacrifice, participated in symbolically by God (by means of the part consumed on the altar, and the part eaten by his ministers) and actually by the offerer and his companions. It served as a memorial to the Israelites of the institution of the covenant between God and themselves (a covenant in the East being ordinarily ratified by the parties to it eating together), and reminded them of the blessings thence derived, which naturally called forth feelings of joyous thankfulness; while it prefigured the peace wrought for man by the adoption in Christ, through which he has communion with God.
Peace offering, Zebach shelamim, "sacrifice of peace offerings." The singular, shelem, occurs once. (Amo_5:22) The conditions to be fulfilled by a Jew who offered a peace offering were the following:
Read full note →
1. He must bring either
a. a young bull or cow, or
b. a young sheep of either sex, or
c. a young he-goat or she-goat.
2. He must offer it in the court of the tabernacle.
3. In offering it he must place, or lean, his hand upon its head.
4. He must kill it at the door of the tabernacle.
5. He must provide three kinds of cakes similar to those offered in the meatoffering, trod leavened bread. (Lev 7:11-1-3)
The priest had:
1. To catch the blood, and strike the sides of the altar with it, as in the burnt sacrifices.
2. To place upon the burnt offering, smoldering upon the altar, all the internal fat of the animal"s body, together with the kidneys enveloped in it, and, in the case of the sheep, the fat tails, for consumption by the fire.
3. To offer one of each of the three different kinds of unleavened cakes, and one loaf of the leavened bread, as a heave offering.
4. To wave the breast of the animal backwards and forwards, and to heave the leg or haunch upwards and downwards, in token of consecration. (see notes on Lev_7:14, Lev_7:30, Lev_7:31)
5. To take for his own eating, and that of his brethren the priests, the three cakes and loaf and haunch that had been heaved and waved.
6. To return the rest of the animal, and the remaining cakes and loaves, to the offerer, to serve as a feast for him and his, to be eaten the same or the next clay, in the court of the tabernacle. The lesson taught by the peace off, ring was the blessedness of being in union with God as his covenant people, and the duty and happiness of exhibiting a joyous sense of this relation by celebrating a festival meal, eaten reverently and thankfully in the house of God, a part of which was given to God"s priests, and a part consumed symbolically by God himself. The burnt offering had typified self-surrender; the meat offering, loyal submission; the peace offering typified the joyous cheerfulness of those who, having in a spirit of perfect loyalty surrendered themselves to God, had become his children, and were fed at the very board at which he deigned symbolically to partake. The most essential part of the meat offering was the presentation; of the burnt offering, the consumption of the victim on the altar; of the peace offering the festive meal upon the sacrifice. The combined burnt and meat offering was the sacrifice of one giving himself up to God; the peace offering, that of one who, having given himself up to God, is realizing his communion with him. In this respect the peace offering of the old dispensation foreshadows the Lord"s Supper in the new dispensation. Several other names have been proposed for the peace offering, such as thank offering, salvation offering, etc. No name is more suitable than peace offering, but the word must be understood not in the sense of an offering to bring shout peace, but an offering of those who arc in a state of peace, answering to the Greek word airnhikh , rather than to the Latin word pacifica. "A state of peace anti friendship with God was the basis and sine qua non to the presentation of a shelem, and the design of that presentation, from which its name was derived, was the realization, establishment, verification, and enjoyment of the existing relations of peace, friendship, fellowship, and blessedness" (Kurtz, "Sacrificial Worship").
Vers. 1-17. The peace offering
was not a sacrifice denoting self-devotion like the burnt-offering, nor a tender of homage like the meat offering, but a feast upon a sacrifice, which God and man symbolically joined in partaking of. The offering consisted of an animal and unleavened cakes and (generally) leavened bread, of which a share was given to God"s altar and priests on the one hand, and to the offerer and his friends on the other. It represented the blessedness and joyousness of communion between God and man. "The character of these feasts cannot be mistaken. It was that of joyfulness tempered by solemnity, of solemnity tempered by joyfulness. The worshipper had submitted to God an offering from his property; he now received back from him a part of the dedicated gift, and thus experienced anew the same gracious beneficence which had enabled him to appear with his wealth before the altar. He therefore consumed that portion with feelings of humility and thankfulness; but he was bidden at once to manifest those blissful sentiments by sharing the meat, not only with his household, which thereby was reminded of the Divine protection and mercy, but also with his needy fellow-beings, whether laymen or servants of the temple. Thus these beautiful repasts were stamped both with religious emotion and human virtue. The relation of friendship between God and the offerer which the sacrifice exhibited, was expressed and sealed by the feast, which intensified that relation into one of an actual covenant; the momentary harmony was extended to a permanent union. And these notions could not be expressed more intelligibly, at least to an Eastern people, than by a common meal, which to them is the familiar image of friendship and communion, of cheerfulness and joy" (Kalisch).
I IT WAS A FEDERAL FEAST, REMINDING THE ISRAELITES OF THE INSTITUTION OF the COVENANT. In early times the method of making a covenant was dividing animals in halves and passing between them, (see Gen_15:9, 10 Jer_34:18, Jer_34:19) or otherwise offering them in sacrifice, (Gen_8:20 Gen_15:9 Psa_1:5) and then feasting together.
When Abraham"s servant; asked for Rebekah for his master, he refused to eat and drink until he had made his agreement; (Gen_24:33) but after it was completed, "they did eat and drink, he and the men that were with him". (Gen_24:54) Jacob held a solemn feast after he and Laban had made a covenant together. (Gen_31:54) The feast upon the peace offerings, whether offered by the whole congregation or by individuals, served as a memorial of the covenant made between God and their fathers, (see Exo_24:5, where the name peace offering is first used) and it made rejoice in being God"s peculiar people in union and communion with him.
II IT LOOKED FORWARD AS WELL AS BACKWARDS. Like the Passover, it at once commemorated a historical event and prefigured a blessing to come. The Passover looked backwards to the deliverance from Egypt, and forward to "Christ our passover sacrificed for us;" and in like manner the peace offering feast commemorated the making of the covenant, and prefigured the blessed state of communion to be brought about by the sacrifice of the cross. Communion is typified and proved in the New Testament as well as the Old by eating and drinking together. (Luk_14:15 Act_10:41 Rev_19:9)
III SACRIFICE IN RELATION TO CHRISTIANS. We have no sin offering to offer. The full, perfect, and sufficient Sacrifice for sins was made once for all upon the cross; we have only to appropriate the merits of that one offering by faith. Nor have we a burnt offering to offer. The full surrender of himself by a perfect Man was once for all made in the Garden of Gethsemane and on Calvary; we can but follow the great Example. But we may still offer the meat offering, in a spiritual sense, by giving the service which declares us to he faithful subjects of God; and we may spiritually offer the peace offering, whenever with grateful hearts we offer praise and thanksgiving to God for having brought us into union and communion with himself.
IV THE HOLY COMMUNION IS the SPECIAL MEANS OF OUR EXHIBITING THE JOYOUS SENSE OF BEING THE CHILDREN OF GOD. It is not a sin offering, being neither a repetition nor a continuation, but a commemoration, of the great Sin Offering of the cross; it is not, therefore, propitiatory. Neither is it a burnt offering, for Christ"s self-surrender cannot be reiterated or renewed, but only commemorated. But it answers to the meat offering, inasmuch as in it we offer our alms and "the creatures of bread and wine" as tokens of our loyalty, and receive back in requital" the strengthening and refreshing of our souls by the Body and Blood of Christ." And it is a peace offering, for therein we feast at God"s board, exhibiting our joyful thankfulness for having been admitted into covenant with him, offering "our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving," and rejoicing in the assurance thus given us "that we are very members incorporate in the mystical body of" Christ our Lord.
V THE BLESSEDNESS OF A SENSE OF PEACE WITH GOD. First, we must feel the need of reconciliation, and a desire to rid ourselves of the obstacles in the way of it. Then we must go to Christ to have our sins nailed to his cross; and thus, "being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ", (Rom_5:1) "and the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus", (Php_4:7) "and the God of peace shall be with us". (Php_4:9)
HOMILIES BY R.M. EDGAR Chapter 3Fellowship with God and man as illustrated in the peace offering
also Lev_7:11-21, 28-34 19:6-8 22:29, 30; of 1Jn_1:6, 7 Joh_6:33. We have found in the burnt offering the principle of entire personal consecration, and in the meat offering that of consecrated life-work. We have seen how these have their perfect fulfillment only in the case of Jesus Christ, while in other cases they are preceded by an acknowledgment of sin and shortcoming, and of acceptance as coming through another. In the peace offering we have a further stage of religious experience. Part of the sacrifice, whatever it may be, is binned on the altar, part is assigned to the priests, and part is returned to the offerer, to constitute the staple of a social feast. Moreover, the portion laid upon the altar is expressly called "the bread of God" (hwOhyl hvai verse 11. Hence the idea of the offering is that God and his mediating priests and his sacrificing servants are all partaking of the one animal, the one food; that is to say, are all in fellowship. This is the crown of religious experience conscious fellowship with God and with one another. It is what John refers to when he says, "If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin". (1Jn_1:6, 1Jn_1:7)
I IN HOLDING FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD AND MAN LARGE LIBERTY OF SELECTION IS ALLOWED. The animal presented might be a female or a male, and even, in the case of a free-will offering, an animal might be presented which had something superfluous. (Lev_22:23) For, if fellowship is to be expressed, then, provided God is presented with what is perfect, what remains to represent man"s share in the fellowship might fairly enough be imperfect. This wider range of selection emphasizes surely the fact that we may hold fellowship with God through any legitimate thing. We shall presently indicate the subject-matter of fellowship with God; meanwhile it is well to notice the large selection allowed.
II IT IS A PRELIMINARY OF FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD TO ACKNOWLEDGE SIN AND RECEIVE ACCEPTANCE THROUGH A SUBSTITUTE. God"s rights are thus respected and acknowledged as our Moral Governor. To venture into the charmed circle of fellowship without the benefit of the bloodshedding is to presume before God. Hence the peace offering was done to death, and its blood sprinkled on the altar before the feast began. The fellowship with God, which has not been preceded on the part of sinners like ourselves by confession of sin and acceptance, is sure to be hollow at the best.
III IN ANY FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD WE MUST RECOGNIZE HIS RIGHT TO THE BEST PORTION OF THE FEAST. The priest was directed to take the fat that covereth the inwards, and all the fat that is upon the inwards, with the kidneys and the lobe of the liver, and, in case of a sheep, the tail of fat, and he was to burn all these upon the altar of burnt offering, in the ashes of the burnt offering. This was recognizing God"s right to the best portion to the flos carnis, the "tit-bits," as we would call them. Now, it is only natural to suppose that, whatever be the subjectmatter of our fellowship with God he will enter more fully into the fellowship and make more of it than we can do. This will be more apparent when we notice in the sequel the different legitimate subjects of fellowship.
IV IN FELLOWSHIP WITH ONE ANOTHER, MOREOVER, WE MUST RECOGNIZE THE POSSIBILITY OF OTHERS ENTERING INTO the SUBJECT MORE FULLY THAN OURSELVES. The priestly class had the wave breast and heave leg assigned to them as their share. Next to God"s portion, these were the best portions of the beast. It indicated plainly the liberal scale of "ministerial support" which God would foster, and it prompted the self-denial of true fellowship. For a feast is a poor thing in which the host retains the best things for himself. His pleasure should be to confer the best on others. For the time being he literally "esteems others better than himself.
V LET US NOW INDICATE THE LEGITIMATE SUBJECTMATTERS FOR FELLOWSHIP WHICH ARE TYPIFIED IN the PEACE OFFERINGS. Here, then, we have three sets of individuals partaking of the one organic whole God on his altar, his mediating priests at the tabernacle, and the offerer and his friends. What does the organic whole represent? And the only answer is, what God and man can have fellowship about. This evidently includes a very wide range indeed.
1. Jesus Christ. He is the great subject-matter of fellowship as between God and man, and between man and man. Hence he is called "the bread of God" which came down from heaven, the bread on which, so to speak, God feeds, as well as the bread he gives to nourish the world. If we think for a moment of the supreme delight which God the Father takes in his well-beloved Son, it is only faintly imaged by the portions placed upon the altar. What fellowship must God have in looking down upon his Son dedicated to life and death to redeem and sustain a sinful race! Indeed, we cannot enter into such an unparalleled experience; no wonder it should be said, "All the fat is the Lord"s." Yet this does not prevent us on our part from feasting joyfully and by faith upon Jesus. He becomes the subject-matter of our fellowship and joy.
2. God"s Word. This is another subject-matter of fellowship. How often does God use it in communicating with our souls! and is it not the choicest phraseology we can find in returning his fellowship through prayer? How much more, besides, does God see in the Word, and get out of it, than we do! If the crucible of criticism is only revealing the splendours of the Word, how much more must God see in it! "Thy word is very pure, therefore thy servants love it.
3. Ourselves. For fellowship is having something in common with another. If, then, we are altogether consecrated to God, if we say from the heart, "Lord, we are thine; undertake for us," we become, so to speak, the medium of fellowship as between God and us. God"s delight in us is beyond conception. "The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in them that hope in his mercy." And, as we realize God"s right and delight in us, life becomes a joyful feast to us. The exercise of all our powers becomes a conscious joy, a feast of love, and all around us are the better for our being.
4. Every legitimate subject or engagement. For all may be made subject-matter of fellowship with God. Nothing worth living for but may be made the medium of communion with him. All learning will prove more delightful if undertaken with God. All social engagements will prove more enjoyable if spent with God. Every occupation, in fact, becomes increasingly blissful in proportion to our fellowship with God in it. It is the feast of life: he sups with us, and enables us to sup with him. (Rev_3:20)
5. Every blessing received and vow registered. For this peace offering was either the expression of praise for some mercy received or the covenant-sign of some fresh resolution. It corresponded very largely to our Eucharistic celebrations. Just as in feasting upon the symbols of our Saviour"s dying love we hold fellowship with God and with each other in thinking of all we have received and all we now resolve, so was it in the older feast. The offerer, as he entertained his friends, rejoiced in the goodness he had got from God, and pledged himself in gratitude. The peace offering thus expresses the truth regarding the fellowship possible between God and man, and between the brotherhood. R.M.E.
HOMILIES BY S.R. ALDRIDGE Vers. 1-5. A general view offerings.
A supplementary account of the manner in which the peace offerings are to be presented unto the Lord is contained in chapter 7. Reserving fuller distinct consideration of them till our arrival there, it may be instructive now to derive some general lessons from a comparison between this present chapter and the preceding chapters, which tell us of the burnt and meat offerings.
I EACH SEASON AND CIRCUMSTANCE HAS ITS APPROPRIATE OFFERING. Different names are bestowed upon the offerings. A general name for all is corban, a gift, a means of approach. It may be "a burnt offering", (Lev_1:3) significant of entire dedication; or "an offering of an oblation", (Lev_2:1) a present of flour or grains, an acknowledgment of God"s goodness, and an expression of desire to obtain his good will; or "a sacrifice of peace", (Lev_3:1) denoting a wish to live in concord with Jehovah, recognizing his will and enjoying his favour. Thus the devout Israelite could never be without a fitting means of approach, whatever his state of mind or whatever the crisis in his life. So we may always have something to offer our heavenly Father, whether in suffering or health, in adversity or prosperity, in age or youth, desiring increased sanctification, or blessing, or usefulness, whether thankful for the past or requesting grace for the future. Even the one atonement of Jesus Christ, like a prism that exhibits different colours according to our position, may appear a diversified offering, according as the pressing need of the moment may seem to be deliverance from wrath, peace, happiness, self-dedication, temporal prosperity, or the light of God"s countenance.
II BY THE DIFFERENCE IN OFFERINGS GOD SEEMS TO DESIRE TO AWAKEN AND DEVELOP DIFFERENT MORAL SENTIMENTS. Our chequered experience has its part to fulfill in calling into play every faculty of the mind and spirit. God likes a good "all-round" character, strong at all points, and only exercise can secure this. He would have his people attend to all the requirements of the Christian life, to manifest all the virtues, knowledge and faith, gratitude and hope, patience and vigour. We must not deem any voyage or journey superfluous; no accident but may benefit us; the holiness meeting, the evangelistic service, the workers" conference, each may be profitable in turn.
III ONE OFFERING DOES NOT INTERFERE WITH THE PRESENTATION OF ANOTHER OF A DIFFERENT KIND. In verse 5 we read that the fat of the peace offering is placed upon the burnt offering, probably upon the remains of the morning sacrifice. So that the one becomes a foundation for the other, and clashing is obviated. The sacrifice of the congregation does not prevent the sacrifice of the individual, nor does the general offering prove a hindrance to the special. Family prayer is no obstacle to private supplication, nor does the stated worship of the sanctuary exclude extraordinary gatherings. The fear of some good people lest regular meditation and service should grow formal and check any outburst of enthusiasm, or any sudden prompting to special effort, is seen to be groundless.
IV CERTAIN REGULATIONS ARE COMMON TO ALL OFFERINGS. Burning on the altar belongs to bloody and unbloody sacrifices, death and sprinkling of blood of necessity only to the former. In every case the offering must be of the best of its kind, if an animal "without blemish," if of grain "fine flour." What we say or do for God should be with our might; in whatever service for him we engage, it must be with full affection and earnest zeal. And every sacrifice required the mediation of a priest. Christ must be the inspiration of our acts, the way of acceptance consecrating all our gifts of money, strength, and time. By him we die (as did the sentient victim) to the world, by him we live to the glory of God. S.R.A.
HOMILIES BY J.A. MACDONALD Vers. 1-5. The peace offering.
We may get a clear conception of the peace offering by noticing the points of difference between it and the burnt offering described in the first chapter of this book.
I IT DIFFERS IN ITS TITLE.
1. The burnt offering is in the Hebrew called (hlw) olah.
(1) This term comes from (hl) alah, to ascend. The reason is that the whole animal was converted, by the action of the fire of the altar, into flame and sparks, vapour and smoke, in which forms it rose from the altar, and as it were ascended to God.
(2) It described the completeness in which Christ offered himself to God in the flames of the "spirit of burning". (Heb_9:14)
(3) It also sets forth how completely we should devote ourselves as living sacrifices to God, (Rom_12:1) and how constantly our thoughts and affections should rise into the heavens. (Php_3:20 Col_3:1-3)
2. This is called ( shelamin.
(1) The verb from which this noun is derived is ( shalem, to complete or make whole; and the noun is well rendered peace offering.
(2) It was, therefore, considered as making up that which was lacking in the sinner, in order to reconcile him to God. In cases of distress, peace offerings as well as burnt offerings were offered up. (Jud_1:20:26) So are we "reconciled to God by the death of his Son.
(3) In making covenants, or entering into the covenant, peace offerings were associated with burnt offerings in like manner. (Exo_24:5) Paul manifestly alludes to the peace offering in Eph_2:14-19. "He is our peace" is equivalent to saying, "He is our peace offering.
II IT DIFFERS IN ITS VICTIMS.
1. In respect to the kinds.
(1) Three classes of animal were specified as proper for the holocaust: there were those of the herd; there were those of the flock; and there were those of the fowls.
(2) In the peace offering there are only two. Animals from the herd and from the flock are specified, but there is no mention of turtle-doves or young pigeons here. The reason of this is that it would be difficult to treat fowls as peace offerings were treated in relation to the fat; and the animals are so small that if divided as peace offerings the portions would be small. There is thoughtful consideration for the welfare of his people in all the laws of God.
2. In respect to the sexes.
(1) The animals devoted as burnt offerings were males. This is specified in relation to the burnt offering of the herd. Also to that of the flock. Masculine pronouns are used in relation to that of the fowls. The neuter, "it," verse 15, should have been rendered" him" (see Hebrew text).
(2) In respect to the peace offering, the matter of sex is optional.
(3) The reason may be this. The burnt offering appears to have been partly an expression of adoration, in which it is proper to give to God all our strength and excellence. The peace offering was divided between God, the priests, and the offerer. Here, then, was a feast of friendship, and the sexes are helpful to our friendships.
III IT DIFFERS IN THE TREATMENT OF ITS VICTIMS.
1. There were points of agreement here.
(1) The offering must be without blemish. Acceptable service must be without blemish, and this can only be rendered to God through Christ. (Jud_1:24, 25)
(2) The hand of the offerer must be laid on the head of the offering. This was intended as a solemn transfer of sin, and acknowledgment that the suffering is vicarious. How graphically expressive of the faith of the sinner in the great Saviour!
(3) The sacrifice must be killed at the door of the tabernacle. Christ is the door. There is no other entrance into the holy place of his Church on earth but by him. The holy led to the holiest. If we do not belong to his spiritual Church on earth, we cannot belong to his glorious Church in heaven. There was a visible Church near, but still, in the bulk of its members, outside the door! Still there are multitudes only in the outer courts.
(4) The blood must be sprinkled upon the altar round about. It is by the blood of Jesus that we enter the "new and living way.
2. But there were points of difference.
(1) Instead of the holocaust the fat only was offered here (verses 3-5). The fat in the peace offering appears to correspond to the oil in the meat offering.
(2) In this view it will represent those graces of the mind which are the fruits of the Spirit.
(3) Burnt offerings and peace offerings were consumed together (verse 5). The great sacrifice of Christ prepares the altar for sacrifices of praise. These were not accepted till we were reconciled through him. J.A.M.
HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON Vers. 1-16. The foundation of fellowship with God.
The "sacrifice of peace offering" was one of fellowship. Its distinctive features are brought out in Le 7. (see Homily there). The sacrifice enjoined in this (third) chapter ispreliminary to the sacred feast which was to follow. Its significance is found in the fact that the act of communion with God could only come after the oblation had been presented. We learn, therefore
I THAT SACRED JOY BEFORE GOD CAN ONLY FOLLOW RECONCILIATION WITH HIM. the Hebrew people might not come to the tabernacle and have a solemn feast near the sacred Presence until the animal had been slain and its blood sprinkled on the altar (verses 1, 2, 8, 13). Conscious unworthiness must first be taken away by the shed blood of bull or lamb, and then priest and people might rejoice together before the Lord. First purity, then peace. (Jam_3:17) We may aspire
(1) to sit down with the people of God at the table here, or
(2) to mingle with those who shall partake of the marriage supper of the Lamb hereafter; but there is no welcome from lips Divine until sin has been confessed and forgiven. First, penitence at the cross of the Redeemer and trust in his atoning sacrifice; then fellowship with God and his people.
II THAT A FULL SELF-SURRENDER MUST PRECEDE THE ACT OF COMMUNION. When the animal had been slain, the priest was to present to God the fat, the kidneys, etc. (verses 3, 4, 9, 10, 14, 15), special stress being laid on "the inwards;" the best and richest parts, those which had been the life of the animal, were offered to the Lord, as representing the animal itself, and so the offerer himself. He symbolically offered himself to God through these vital parts of the victim. When we draw near to a service of sacred fellowship and joy, or when we anticipate the communion of the skies, we should act on the truth that "our God has commanded our strength", (Psa_68:28) that the appeal for his mercy through Christ should be accompanied with a free, full surrender of our whole selves, the consecration of our very best, the "inward parts the understanding, the affections, the will to him and his service.
III THAT FAITH IN CHRIST AND THE CONSECRATION OF OURSELVES RESULT IN HIS PERFECT PLEASURE WITH US: "It is an offering... of a sweet savour unto the Lord" (verses 5, 16). When the oblation was complete, then the offerer stood in the position of one who might rejoice in the Divine Presence and feast with the holy people and with God. Accepted in Christ, and having "yielded ourselves unto God" in unreserved consecration, we may feel that God"s good pleasure, his full Divine complacency, rests upon us; we may walk in the light of his reconciled countenance all the day long. Two supplementary truths offer themselves to our thought in these verses.
1. That every soul must personally and spiritually engage in acceptable service. The offerer was "to lay his hand on the head of the offering, striking and significant act, by which he clearly intimated his consciousness of sin, and his desire that the victim might represent him in the sight of God its blood his life, its organs his capacities. We may not trust to our mere bodily presence while God is being approached and besought, or while Christ"s redeeming work is being pleaded, or while words of dedication are being uttered in prayer. There must be the positive, sympathetic, personal participation, or we stand outside the service and the blessing.
2. That we must intelligently discriminate between the obligatory and the optional in the service of God. Certain things were imperative in the act of worship, other things were left to the choice of the individual. In the gospel of Christ and the worship of God there are things essential that none may depart from, e.g. the humble heart, the act of faith and self-surrender, the spirit of obedience toward God and of love toward man; there are other things which are left to personal discretion, e.g. times and methods of devotion, scale of contribution, sphere of usefulness. Yet in these optional matters we are not to act inconsiderately or irrationally, but according to the direction of wisdom and the teachings of experience. C.
HOMILIES BY R.A. REDFORD Vers. 1-17. The peace offerings,
also called thank offerings or salvation offerings. The twofold object to acknowledge salvation received, to supplicate salvation desired. Three kinds praise offerings, vow offerings, free-will offerings. Considerable freedom permitted in them, though still restrictions observed. Male and female victims, of the herd and flock, but only those without blemish. No pigeons permitted, because a pair of pigeons insufficient for the sacrificial meal, which was so important a constituent of the service. Combination of the burnt sacrifice with the peace offering in the consumption by fire of the suet or fat of the internal organs, and of the fat tail of the sheep. The fat and the blood offered to the Lord in a special manner, by fire and sprinkling "on the altar round about.
The offering distinguished. Oblation denotes its voluntary character; sacrifice its intimate connection with the altar, that is, its participation in the atoning significance of all the bloody sacrifices which carried in them the idea of reconciliation with God through the blood of the covenant. Peace offering, the specific distinction, recognizing the fact that, whether the prominent feeling expressed was praise or prayer, still the offerer was standing on the ground of covenant fellowship with God. We may take these offerings generally to symbolize salvation as a realized fact. We find under this general fact these three constituent spiritual realities included:
I Intercourse re-established between God and man, and expressed in grateful praise and willing dependence.
II Salvation as a fact resting on continued faith; the three parts of the sacrifice being the offerer"s part, the priest"s part, and Jehovah"s part, all essential and harmonized in one offering.
III Joy of salvation, both individual and social, typified in the sacrificial meal, God, as it were, giving back the victim to be the source of delight both to the priest and the offerer.
On each of these points the details of the sacrifice have their significance.
I RECONCILIATION. Re-established intercourse between God and man, grateful praise, willing dependence. Here we may notice the two sides of the sacrifice: that turned towards man it is willingly brought, it is a valuable gift, it is brought as a peace offering to give praise or to accompany vows and prayers; that turned towards God, it is a confession of sin, an obedience rendered to the Law, a renewal of the covenant, a confirmation of the promises, a seal of grace. Intercourse between man and God.
1. Distinguish between the truth as set forth in Scripture, and man"s self-derived ideas.
(1) Consider the non-scriptural views: the notions of the mystic or of the transcendentalist man"s lifting himself to God, or being lifted up by ecstasy; the rationalistic conception that God and man meet in nature, or in human consciousness, and that such intercourse in the mere laws of fact or thought is sufficient. All such reconciliation ignores the fallen state of man, can supply no gospel of peace, is contradicted by the plain development of righteousness in the course of the world; and therefore the necessity made evident that man, as going on to meet the future, should be prepared to meet his God in judgment, in the great adjustment of right and wrong. The mere moralist falls into a similar error when he teaches that the partial obedience of human life to Divine Law, the recognition practically of an ideal moral standard, is a reconciliation between the highest moral Being and his creature.
(2) Place opposite to these defective and erroneous views the teaching of Scripture. Out of the original source of all, the will of God, that is, his infinite nature or character, in actual relation to his universe, comes forth the reconciliation. Revelation from the beginning an invitation of God to man to intercourse. The Mosaic Law was the development of the preceding covenant, which, under patriarchal ministry, was a gospel of peace. The reconciliation was placed on the foundation of sacrifice, that is, man"s surrender, blending with God"s promise of forgiveness and life, the preservation of righteousness in the acceptance of man"s homage to the Divine character, the assurance of peace in a covenant of friendship and interchange of love.
2. This intercourse between God and man being thus established, it is expressed in grateful praise and willing dependence on man"s part, in the bestowment of peace and sanctification on God"s part. The peace offering typified the life of man as a continual reciprocation of covenant intercourse: the presentation of gifts to God, the acceptance in return of Divine grace. Thus was religion set forth. It is not separated from the earthly life, but it is its consecration. It is not a meritorious purchase of Divine favour, or turning away of wrath, or covering of the reality of transgression with sacrifice, but a thankful dedication of saved life, a subjection of all to the will of the Father, an appropriation of heavenly gifts. Perhaps the fact that no poor man"s offering is prescribed may indicate that the truth was already implied, though not so distinctly expressed as afterwards in the Psalms and Prophets, that God would have mercy and not sacrifice, that he laid no stress upon the actual presentation of a peace offering so long as the man himself and his life were offered in devout obedience and thankful spirit. "Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me: and to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I show the salvation of God". (Ps 1)
II SALVATION AS A FACT RESTS ON CONTINUED FAITH. In every peace offering there were three parts the offerer"s, the priest"s, Jehovah"s. On each occasion, therefore, the main elements of salvation were recognized, which were these:
1. Free grace.
2. Mediation.
3. Self-surrender.
In each the offerer"s faith makes salvation a fact.
1. In bringing a peace offering to Jehovah, the worshipper cast himself by faith on the free grace which opened the way for him to reconciliation and peace. "We love him because he first loved us." The Jew failed to see this freedom of Divine love, and hence became a bond slave under the power of his ritual The gospel has exalted the Divine element so high above the human in the advent of the Son of God, that it is no longer possible to hide it. "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself." "The Lord hath visited his people." We build all on the foundation stone which God himself hath laid. We begin with the person of Christ, divinely glorious. Our faith lays hold of eternal life in him who was the Life and the Light of men.
2. The offerer brought the victim, but the priestly mediation, was a necessary part of the ceremony. Salvation as a fact rests not only upon the free and infinite love of God, but upon the manifested righteousness and ceaseless intercession of the Saviour. "Aaron"s sons sprinkle the blood; Aaron"s sons burn the fat on the altar on the burnt sacrifice; a sweet savour unto the Lord." Our life as a saved life is a continual application to ourselves by faith of the merit and efficacy of the Saviour"s atonement and ministry as our great High Priest. The "truth as it is in Jesus" is the food of our thoughts, the joy of our hearts, the strength of our obedience. Salvation as a fact is realized forgiveness, progressive holiness in communion with Christ, victory through his grace over the world and all enemies, and at last participation in the glorification of the Divine Man, and admission into his eternal kingdom.
3. Self-surrender was both in the presentation of the offering and in the position of the offerer, laying his hand on the head of the victim, killing it, and giving up the assigned portions to the altar and fire; all was confession, consecration, obedience. Our faith is essentially a yielding of ourselves to God. We find oar salvation a fact, just as we "put off the old man and put on the new man;" just as we "count all things loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord." Our offering is a peace offering, both of the past and for the future. We are no longer our own. Christ is all to us, and so we are Christ"s, and Christ is God"s.
III JOY OF SALVATION, typified in the sacrificial meal, in which the representatives of God and man, in the priests and offerer, met together in social festivity. This was anticipation of the sacred meal, the Supper of the Lord, in which sacrificial joy was celebrated in the new society, in the kingdom of God. The Christian"s joy is preeminently joy of salvation. He builds all happiness on the fact of reconciliation with God. He lives his new life not unto himself, but unto Christ and to Christ"s people. The social gladness, which was an element in the peace offering, points to the fact that the redemption of Christ effects a deliverance of society from its bondage and misery, as well as the individual soul from its sin and ruin. Such a message is specially wanted in these times, when the world groans under its burdens, and strives in vain after a true liberty and peace. What offerings are laid on the altar of war! Yet they are consumed in vain. There is no happy banquet of fellowship and brotherhood coming out of such sacrifices. God invites us to the joy of a new-made world. He bids us proclaim the way of peace to be through the obedience of Christ. How sweet the savour to the Lord when the whole human family shall offer up its peace offering, acceptable, because identified with the offering of Calvary, uniting all together in a sacred festivity of gladness! R.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On v1 A sacrifice of peace-offering.
Lev_3:1-17
A sacrifice of peace-offering.
Read full note →
The peace-offering
The word peace in the language of the Scriptures, has a shade of meaning not commonly attached to it in ordinary use. With most persons it signifies a cessation of hostilities, harmonious agreement, tranquillity, the absence of disturbance. But in the Scriptures it means more. Its predominant import there is, prosperity, welfare, joy, happiness. The original Hebrew word includes both these meanings. The old Greek version renders it by terms which signify a sacrificial feast of salvation. We may, therefore, confidently take the peace-offering as a joyous festival, a solemn sacrificial banqueting, illustrative of the peace and joy which flows to believers from the atoning work of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our sanctification through His blood and Spirit. Religion is not a thing of gloom, but of gladness.
I. The peace-offering was a bloody offering. Everything in Christian life, justification and sanctification, the forgiveness of our sins, and the acceptableness of our services, our hopes, and our spiritual festivities, run back into Christs vicarious sufferings, as their fountain and foundation. This is the centre from which all Christian doctrine, and all Christian experience, radiates, and into which it ultimately resolves itself. Without this, Christianity dwindles down into a cold and powerless morality, with no warming mysteries, no animating sublimities, no melting affections, no transforming potencies. Without this, the soul languishes like a plant excluded from the sunshine, or flourishes only in its own disgrace. If we would have a feast of fat things, the provision must come from the altar of immolation.
II. The peace-offering comes after the meat-offering. We must present the fine flour of our best affections, and the fresh firstfruits of uncorrupted obedience, before we can come to feast upon the rich provisions of the altar. We mast surrender ourselves to God, and give up to Him in a covenant of salt before we can taste of the peace-offering, or be happy in the Lord.
III. The peace-offering was so arranged that the most inward, the most tender, and the most marrowy part of the sacrifice became the Lords part. The inner fat of the animal, the kidneys, the caul of the liver, and, if a sheep, the great fatty outward appendage, were to be burned on the altar, a sweet savour unto the Lord. God must be remembered in all our joys. Especially when we come to praise and enjoy Him, and to appropriate to our hearts the glad provisions of His mercy, must we come offering to Him the inmost, tenderest, and richest of our souls attributes. It was thus that Jesus was made a peace-offering for us. And as He devoted every rich thought, every strong emotion, for us, we must now send back the same to Him without stint or tarnish. We may love our friends; but we must love Christ more. We may feel for those united to us in the bonds of domestic life; but we must feel still more for Jesus and His Church. We may be moved with earthly passions; but the profoundest and best of all our emotions must be given to the Lord. The fat, the kidneys, and the most tender and marrowy parts are His.
IV. The peace-offerings were sacrifices of gratitude and praise--a species of joyous, thankful banquetings. When the Jew came to make a peace-offering, it was with his heart moved and his thoughts filled with some distinguished mercy. The true Christian has been the subject of wonderful favours. He has had deliverance wrought for him, to which he may ever refer with joyful recollection. He considers the length, and breadth, and depth, and height of that love which thus interposed for his rescue--the mighty woes which the Lord endured for him--the secure ground upon which he now stands in Christ Jesus--and his soul overflows with tremulous gladness. He is melted, and yet is full of delight. He is solemnly joyous. What to say or do he hardly knows. He weeps, and yet exults while he weeps. The whole thing to him becomes a feast of profoundly solemn joy, in which he would gladly have all the world to participate.
V. But the feasting of the peace-offering was on sacred food. The people might have feasts at home, and have other banquets; but they were not peace-offerings. And so the Christian may have feasts and viands apart from the sacred food furnished directly from Christ. There is much virtuous enjoyment in this world of a merely secular sort, from none of which does Christianity exclude us. But all these are mere home-feasts on common viands. The food that was eaten in the joyous feast of the peace-offering fell from the altar. It was holy. No defiled person or stranger was allowed to touch it or to partake of it. And so, superadded to the common joys of ordinary life, the Christian has a feast with which the stranger dare not meddle--a feast of fat things, of which the pure only, can taste--a banquet of holy food proceeding directly from the altar at which His sacrifice was made. Let us briefly review some of the faithful Christians peculiar joys. Let us follow him a little into the sources of his consolation, and see of what sort his feast is.
1. First of all is the great and cheering conviction of his heart that there is a God; that the universe is not an orphan, but has a righteous, almighty, and loving Father, who sees all, and provides for all, and takes care of all.
2. The next is the joyous light that shines upon him from Gods revelation, relieving his native perplexities, comforting his heart, filling him with pleasant wisdom, and kindling radiance along all his path. Here the riddle of life is explained to him, his duty made plain, and his conscience put to rest.
3. Along with these are the gifts and graces of a present redemption.
4. And beyond all present experiences, he is authorised to look forward to still higher and greater things in the future, (J. A. Seiss, D. D.)
The peace-offerings
I. Their nature. They were sacrifices of thanksgiving, whereby the godly testified their gratitude to God for the benefits received from Him.
II. The difference between them and other sacrifices.
1. Generally they were thus distinguished from other sacrifices, which are afterward prescribed (Lev_4:5), because these were voluntary, the other necessary and commanded; and the peace-offerings were never offered alone, but always joined with other sacrifices, showing that the godly should begin always with giving of thanks.
2. Herein it also differs from the holocaust, which might be of birds; but so were not the peace-offerings, because they were to be divided; so could not the holocaust of birds (Lev_1:17).
3. The holocausts, which were of beasts, were only of the males, but the peace-offerings might be either males or females, because this kind of sacrifice was not so perfect as the other.
III. Why the peace-offerings were confined to these three kinds--oxen, sheep, goats.
1. All these were a figure of Christ, who indeed was that Peace-offering whereby God is reconciled to us: the ox resembled His fortitude; the sheep His innocence; the goat, because He took our flesh, like unto sinful flesh.
2. Some apply them to the divers qualities of the offerers: the ox signifying the workers and keepers of the law; the sheep, the simple; the goats, the penitent.
3. But the true reason why these beasts are prescribed only for peace-offerings, not turtledoves or pigeons, as in the burnt-offerings, is because they could not rightly declare their gratitude to God in giving things of no value.
IV. What blemishes and other impediments were to be avoided. The impediments which made the beasts unfit for sacrifice were either general in respect of the kind, or particular in regard of the thing offered.
1. For the kind. Some were both unlawful for meat and sacrifice (chap. 11:3), others for sacrifice but not for meat (Deu_14:4).
2. The particular impediments were either intrinsical in the things themselves, or extrinsical without.
(1) The inward defects were such as made them altogether unfit for any kind of sacrifice, as if they were blind, broken, scabbed, &c.
(2) The external impediments were such as came by touching any unclean thing.
V. Why the fat, as of the belly, kidneys, and liver, was set apart for sacrifice.
1. Generally hereby is signified that all our carnal desires are to be mortified by the fire of the Spirit.
2. More particularly by the fat which covereth the inward parts where the heart is, the seat of anger is insinuated, that we should temper our wrath; and by the kidneys and reins, wherein is the strength of lust, carnal concupiscence; and by the liver the fountain of heat, the gluttonous desire, may be understood all which must be sacrificed unto God. Hereunto the signification of the Hebrew word here used agreeth; for chelaioth, the kidneys, is derived of Calah, desire.
3. And further, because the fat is of its own nature, without sense, and so signifieth the hardness of the heart, which is the cause of unbelief: hereby they were admonished to remove and take away all hardness of heart.
VI. Whether it were required generally in all sacrifices that blood should be sprinkled on the altar. AS there was difference in the end, use, and manner of sacrifices, for some were only for the honour of God, as the burnt-offerings; some for the benefit of the offerer, either for obtaining of some benefit, or giving thanks for some benefit received, as the peace-offerings, or for expiation of sin, so there was difference in the sprinkling and offering of the blood; yet because in all sacrifices there was some relation unto the expiation of some sin, there was an oblation of blood in all sacrifices, &c.; and so the apostle saith that in the law without effusion of blood, there was no remission, whereof this reason is given because the life is in the blood, and therefore the Lord gave the blood for the expiation of their souls (Lev_17:11), that whereas they themselves had deserved to die for their sins.
VII. Of the manner and order of the peace-offerings.
1. The priest killed the beast, sprinkled the blood, flayed it, and took out the inwards.
2. Then he cut the flesh in pieces, and separated the breast and right shoulders with the inwards, and put them into the owners hands.
3. Then the priest put his hands under the owners, and waved all before the Lord; if many Joined in one oblation, one waved for all, the women waved not, but the priest, unless in the offering of jealousy (Num_5:1-31.), and of a Nazarite (Num_6:4). After he salted the inwards, and laid them on the altar, and the priest had the breast and right shoulder, the owner the rest; but the priest was not to have his part until the Lord were first served and the inwards burnt.
VIII. What became of the remainder of the peace-offerings which was not burnt on the altar. Though it be not here expressed, yet it may be gathered out of other places that the priests had part, and the offerer that brought it had his portion also, so then some sacrifices there were of the which nothing remained, as the burnt-offerings.
1. In some other, the part which remained was to be eaten only among the males of the children of Aaron; and they were the sin-offerings (Lev_6:18).
2. But the heave-offerings and shake-offerings, as the shoulder and breast, were lawful to be eaten, not only by the males and sons of the priests, but by their daughters also (Num_18:17).
3. But in the peace-offerings there was greater liberty, for of them they which brought the offering might eat (Pro_7:14). (A. Willet, D. D.)
The peace-offering; or, fellowship with the Father and the Son
I. In the peace-offering we have a beautiful type of the making and bestowing peace, and thereby admitting to fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ; one of the most blessed privileges resulting to the Lords people from His death. The peace-offering being the central one of the five, as set forth in the opening chapters of Leviticus, seems to tell us that peace was the central object of the Fathers loving purpose when He gave His Son. His desire and design was to give His people peace. We see it as regards Israel of old (Lev_26:6; Num_6:26; 1Ch_22:9), and no less in the gospel dispensation (Luk_2:14), for when we were enemies we were reconciled . . . (Rom_5:10). In the burnt-offering His people are seen as accepted worshippers; in the peace-offering both as participating in the personal result to offerer of previous offerings, and feeding on what delights the heart of God, typified by portions consumed by fire on the altar.
II. Male or female (Lev_3:1; Lev_3:6) were permitted in peace-offering, not male only, as in burnt-offering, which, pertaining to God alone, must be what was esteemed the highest order of offering; while in peace-offering man had a large portion, and this may account for the distinction. Some think the alternative of male or female indicates greater or less appreciation, estimation, or enjoyment of Christ by the worshipper; female perhaps implying deeper love, male stronger devotion. Others take it as showing how God, in His grace and love, would give every facility for approaching Him in and through Christ. And again, as the laying on of offerers hand (Lev_3:2; Lev_3:8; Lev_3:13) tells of identification of offerer and offering, the thoughts are led to Gal_3:28, where we read, There is neither male nor female; for ye are all one in Jesus Christ. Under the Levitical dispensation the males only were to go up at stated periods to worship (Exo_23:17; Exo_24:23); but the mention of male or female in the type before us seems to point onward to this dispensation, in which such distinction no longer exists; for each one, whether male or female, who is justified by faith, has peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ (Rom_5:1).
III. The blood sprinkled by Aarons sons, the priests (verses 2, 8, 13), tells of the worshipper approaching God on the ground of reconciliation made (Rom_5:11, mar.). Jesus made peace . . . (Col_1:20). God calls His people to peace (1Co_7:15). He fills with (Rom_15:13), and keeps in perfect peace the trusting one (Isa_26:3). Jesus gives peace (Joh_14:27), for He gave Himself (Tit_2:14); and if we have Christ as our life (Col_3:4), He is our Peace (Eph_2:14) likewise; and dwelling in us by His Spirit, peace is the fruit (Gal_5:22).
IV. The Lords portion is--not the whole, as in burnt-offering, but--the choicest parts. The fat with portions of inwards (Lev_3:3-5; Lev_3:9-11; Lev_3:14-16), representing the rich excellences or preciousness of the Lord Jesus (see Psa_37:20, mar., same word as Isa_43:4), His truth, purity, wisdom, &c. (Psa_51:6; Joh_14:6; Job_38:36; 1Co_1:24). This was typified by the burning on the altar, called the food of the offering made . . . (Lev_3:5; Lev_3:11; Lev_3:16). The burnt-offering was continual (Exo_29:42; Num_28:6); and the peace-offering being burnt upon it tells of virtue of former, possessed by latter. The meat-offering also was offered with peace-offering, the three sweet-savour offerings together, to the full satisfaction of the Father; and giving solid ground for--
V. Communion or fellowship, to which God calls those who are accepted in the Beloved (1Co_1:9; Eph_1:6). Fellowship signifies partnership, companionship; and what treasures and blessings does this ensure (Isa_45:3; Col_2:3), as portrayed by the portions assigned to priest and offerer, graciously permitted to partake of what delights the Fathers heart! This is the striking feature of peace-offering. Breast waved may tell of risen with Christ (Col_3:1); shoulder heaved, that He, who is the strength of our life (Psa_27:1), is on high; breast representing affection, and shoulder strength of Him whose love is strong . . . which many waters cannot quench (Son_8:6); for He is everlasting Strength (Isa_26:4). Upon His heart and shoulders Jesus bears His people (as typified in high priests dress, Exo_28:12; Exo_28:29), now, in the presence of God (Heb_9:24), while they feast in His banqueting house under His banner love (Son_2:4), and are strengthened with might by . . . (Eph_3:16).
VI. Unleavened cakes--offered with peace-offering when for a thanksgiving (Lev_7:12)--tell of holy life of Jesus as inseparably connected with His death, for had He not magnified the law and . . . (Isa_42:21), He could not have atoned for the sins of those who had broken it. They tell also of holiness needed in offerer (Heb_12:14), and for such holiness and fellowship there must be abiding and walking in the light (Joh_15:4; Joh_15:6; 1Jn_1:6-7; 1Jn_2:6). This is further seen in what is said of--
VII. LEAVEN AND UNCLEANNESS (Lev_7:13; Lev_7:20-21). The leavened bread offered besides the cakes betokens sin in the offerer, never wholly eradicated while life lasts. Our best efforts are tainted by sin (Isa_64:6), and need the cleansing blood; but though sin is within, it is not to reign or have dominion over those under grace, who, being justified by faith in the precious blood . . . (sprinkled in type by priest, chap. 3:13), are reckoned dead to sin, and risen with Christ to newness of life (Rom_5:1; Rom_5:9; Rom_6:1-2; Rom_6:4-7; Rom_6:11-12). (Lady Beaujolois Dent.)
The peace-offering
I. In its contrast to the other offerings, it may be sufficient to enumerate two chief points--
1. It was a sweet-savour offering; and--
2. The offerer, God, and the priest were fed by it.
(1) In the peace-offering the offerer feasts, in other words, finds satisfaction, and feeds upon the same offering of which a part has already satisfied God: for a part of the peace-offering, the fat, the blood, the inwards, before the offerer can touch his part, must have already been consumed on the altar. I fear that there are but too many saints who never realise this aspect of the offering, and therefore never fully experience that satisfaction which the offering has purchased for them. Thank God, the sufficiency of His work does not depend upon our apprehension of it. But our satisfaction depends much on our apprehension. It is because we apprehend so little that we have so little comfort. And our strength particularly depends on our apprehension of that view of Christ which the peace-offering teaches; for strength is sustained by food, and the peace-offering shows man fed by the sacrifice. Yet how little is this view of Christ apprehended! Am I asked the cause? It is because so few really know acceptance.
(2) The offerer feasts with God. Man (in Christ) and God find common food. The offering is shared between them. The thought here is not, as in the burnt-offering, merely that God finds satisfaction in the offering. It includes this, but it goes further. It shows communion; for God and man share together.
(3) But further, in the sacrifice of peace-offerings, the offerer feasts with the priest. The sacrificing Priest, as I have already observed, is always Christ, viewed in His official character as Mediator. We learn here how the offering, which He offered as man, feeds, that is, satisfies Him, not only as man, but also as Mediator. To understand this we must recollect and apprehend the varied relations in which Christ stands connected with the offering; for He appears for us in many offices, in more than one relation. In connection with the offering alone we see Him, as I have said, in at least three characters. Now, if this simple distinction be apprehended, it will be manifest that there are things true of Christ in one relation which are by no means true of Him in another. For instance, His intercession for us is as Priest. As the Offering, He does not intercede; as Lamb, He dies for us. So again as Priest and Offerer, He is fed; as the Lamb, as the Offering, He is not fed. Now there are offerings in which the priest finds food, but from participating in which the offerer is excluded: some of the sin-offerings are of this latter character, for in them the priest is fed, while the offerer has nothing. The sin-offerings, as we shall see more fully in the sequel, are man satisfying offended justice. They are not man giving something sweet to God, but man receiving from God in iris offering the penalty of sin. These sin-offerings supply food to the priest, that is, Christ as Mediator finds satisfaction in them, but they afford Him no food as man the offerer: as man in them He only confesses sin. The priest, Gods official servant, is satisfied, because offended justice is vindicated: but man, who pays the penalty in his offering, finds no satisfaction in the act.
(4) But the type takes us further still, and shows us the priests children also sharing with the offerer in the peace-offering. They, too, as well as the offerer, the priest, and God, find satisfaction in this blessed offering. Our first question here, of course, must be, Who are represented by the priests children? We have already seen that the Priest is Christ--Christ viewed in His official character as Mediator. His children, that is, His family, are therefore the Church. Just as of old he that really feasted with God in the peace-offering could not do so without sharing with Clods priests, so now communion with God, if enjoyed at all, must be shared with all in communion with Him. There is no question of choice: it cannot be otherwise; for he that is in communion with God must be in communion also with all whom He communes with.
II. The different grades or varieties which are observed in this offering. These show us the different measures of intelligence with which this view of Christs offering may be apprehended. And here, as there are several distinct sharers in the offering--for God, man, and the priest, have each a portion--it may be well to consider each portion separately with its particular differences, since in each portion there are distinct varieties observed.
1. First, then, as to Gods part in the peace-offering. In this certain varieties at once present themselves; some of them relating to the value of the offering, others connected with the offerers purport in the oblation.
(1) To speak first of the varieties touching the value of the offering. We have here, just as in the burnt-offering, several different grades. There is the bullock, the lamb, the goat; and these respectively represent here what they do in the burnt-offering. Each gives us rather a different thought as to the character of Christs blessed offering.
2. But there are other varieties noticed in the type, as to that part of the peace-offering which was offered to God, which are connected, not with the value of the offering, but with the offerers purport in bringing the oblation. If we turn to the seventh chapter, where the distinction I refer to is mentioned, it will be seen that the peace-offering might be offered in two ways. It might be offered either as a thanksgiving, that is for praise, or as a vow or voluntary offering, that is for service. If it were seen to be offered for thanksgiving, many particulars are noticed respecting mans share in it, which are entirely lost sight of and omitted when it is seen to be offered for a vow. And most of the varieties in the peace-offering (I may say all the varieties touching the priests and offerers part in it) depend upon the view which may be taken of the general character of the offering, whether it were offered for thanksgiving, or whether it were offered for a vow.
(2) The priests and offerers part, and the varieties which are observable here. It will be found that the particulars respecting this portion of the peace-offering differ very much according as the offering is apprehended for praise or for service.
(a) In the offering for praise, a meat-offering is offered of which the offerer as well as the priests partake. The purport of the meat-offering is the fulfilment of the second table of the Decalogue; man offering to God as a sweet savour the perfect accomplishment of his duty towards his neighbour. The peculiarity here is that the offerer partakes of this meat-offering--a thing not permitted in the common meat-offering. The common meat-offering shows us the fulfilment of the law, simply with reference to God, to satisfy Him. But that same fulfilment of the law has other aspects, one of which is, that it satisfies the offerer also. This is the truth brought out in the peace-offering, in which the offerer, as well as God, finds satisfaction in the fulfilment of all righteousness. And this satisfaction is not only in the fulfilment of that part of the law which had reference to God, and which was represented by the offering of a life, but in that part also which referred to man, and was represented by the unleavened cakes of the meat-offering. The latter part of this appears to be quite lost sight of, unless the peace-offering is apprehended as offered for praise.
(b) But further, in the offering for praise leavened cakes also are seen to be offered with the sacrifice. Those cakes represent the offering of the Church. When Christs work is seen merely as the vow, as a matter of service, the Churchs offering does not come into sight: but when His offering is seen for praise, that is for Gods glory, the Church is seen united with Him.
3. One cake out of all the oblation is given to the priest who sprinkles the blood, while the remainder, belongs to him who brings the offering. Christ, as Priest, finds food and satisfaction not only in His own blessed and perfect offering: He feeds also on the leavened cake: the offering of His Church, with all its failings, satisfies Him.
4. The last particular noticed respects the period during which the peace-offering was to be eaten. The time for eating the offering for praise was the same day, or until the morning: in the vow-offering there is a little difference; it might be eaten the same day and on the morrow, or until the third day. Now the morning and the third day are sufficiently common types, and are both constantly used, I believe, to denote the resurrection: but I am not so certain as to the different aspect of the resurrection represented by each of them. I am disposed, however, to think that the morning represents the resurrection as the time of Christs appearing, while the thought connected with the third day is simply deliverance from the grave. In either case the main truth remains the same--that the peace-offering is our food until the resurrection: but in the one case we eat as those whose time is short, in the night it may be, but in hope of the morning; in the other the thought of the morning is lost, and instead of it we see days of labour to intervene. I need not say that the first is the higher and happier view. (A. Jukes.)
Christ our Peace-offering
1. Be persuaded and encouraged to feed and feast upon Christ our Peace-offering. Do not say, Such and such may; if I had such parts and such abilities, and so eminent as such and such, I durst believe. This blessed Peace-offering is not for the priests only, for saints of the highest rank and greatest eminency, but for the common people also. Do but draw near with a pure heart, and then come and welcome.
2. Do not defer the eating of your peace-offerings. Take heed of a procrastinating spirit.
3. Let all your peace-offerings be seasoned with the new leaven of grace and holiness; get this blessed leaven of the kingdom of God into your hearts.
4. Give God the fat, the strength, the vigour of your spirits, the best of your endeavours; do not leave the worst you have to Him, the very dregs of time at night, when you are all sleepy, for prayer and family duties, when you have spent the strength of your time in your callings.
5. Take heed of accounting the blood of the peace-offering a common thing. But, as the typical blood might not be eaten, but was sacred to the Lord, let the blood of Christ be sacred and precious to you.
6. To you that believe, let Christ be precious. There is a reverential esteem of Him in the hearts of all that are His. (S. Mather.)
The peace-offering
Some anxious soul sighs for felt peace with God. What shall be done? God smooths the way. His voice declares, Let the appeasing victim be now brought. Peace rightly sought shall surely be obtained. Now mark this victim. It may be male or female. It may be taken from larger cattle, or from sheep or goats (Lev_3:1; Lev_3:6; Lev_3:12). There is permission of unwonted breadth. The prince, the peasant, from richest pastures, or bare mountains brow, may readily obtain the expiating means. But from whatever flock the male or female came, one test must prove it. It must be free from fault. A blameless type proclaims the blameless Lord. God next directs the offerer to touch its head (Lev_3:2). This act denotes the transfer of all guilt. The burdened thus rolls off his load. The lightened shoulder thus receives relief. The victim is then slain (Lev_3:2). Here is the wondrous fact, which is the light of types, and rites, and prophecies. Death falls on Christ. He claims the dying place. The slaughtered animal was then divided. The best--the choicest of the parts, were placed on the burning altar. Another portion was the priests own due. The rest supplied the offerer with food.
1. God claims His share. All which seems rich and precious is first brought to Him. The holy fire reduces it to dust.
2. Provision is then made for those who ministered. The altar-servant never wants. They who leave all for God have all in God.
3. The offerer then takes his part and eats. We see the essence of true faith. It finds soul-sustenance in Jesus work. (Dean Law.)
The best for God
1. That in all things we should give thanks unto God. This is all the recompense which God requires for all His benefits.
2. That the best things are to be offered to God. Especially in spiritual duties the fat must be offered, that is, the heart and inward affection. Ambrose well says, Thy affection gives a name to thy work.
3. To abstain from all kinds of cruelty (Lev_3:17).
4. That all the parts and members of our body should be dedicated to Gods service. (A. Willet, D. D.)
The peace-offerings
These peace-offerings were offered first of all, on the recovery of peace with God in consequence of the expiation. The expiatory offering was first, not the peace-offering: first the atonement, then the calm that results from peace with God through Christ the Atonement. These peace-offerings were also presented as expressive of thanksgiving for mercies, blessings, and benefits that had been received. They were also presented on the performance of a vow that had been made by any of the children of Israel. You will notice another feature in all these offerings--that the offerer might kill the lamb, but the priest of Levi alone might offer it: so Jew and Gentile slew with wicked hands the Lord of glory, but He Himself was the Priest that presented Himself a sacrifice on the altar of Deity, perfect and complete, for the sins of all that believe. These offerings were also made, I may mention, at the consecration of priests, on the expiry of a Nazarites vow, at the dedication of the Tabernacle and the Temple, and at the presentation of firstfruits. You will notice that in the Jewish economy everything brought a Jew to the Temple, and above the Temple, to the Temples God. Was he afflicted? He prayed. Was he merry? He sung psalms. Was he blessed with a golden harvest? He gave the firstfruits to God. Had he finished a vow? He went to God to thank Him. Had he received any mercy, was he enriched with any blessing? He felt it his first duty to ask Gods blessing, to give to God praise, and to expect prosperity in the ratio in which he did so. Does God expect less of us in this dispensation? And yet how often do we murmur when we lose, how rarely are we thankful when we gain! You will notice, too, in this account, that the person that made the offering was to lay his hand upon the head of the victim that was slain. What a beautiful picture is that of our interest in Christ Jesus! The poor Jew--though this was not confessing sin in this chapter, but giving thanks--yet whether he confessed his sins or gave thanks he did the same; he laid his hand upon the head of the victim, confessed his sins over it, gave thanks over it; and all the sin was transferred typically to the victim that suffered, and all the glory transferred typically to him who was the great antitype and object of that victim. Thus the believer still lays, not his literal hand--for ours is the economy of the Spirit; whatever a Jew did materially, mechanically, palpably, that a Christian does spiritually, but no less truly and really. The Jew laid his literal hand upon a literal victims head; the Christian lays the trust of his heart upon an unseen but not an unknown Saviour. I say, the Jew laid his hand upon the head of his victim, confessed his sins, and was forgiven; the Christian lays, not his hand, but his heart, not upon a slain bullock or a slain lamb, but on a once slain but now living Saviour. And as sure as the Jew got ceremonial forgiveness by doing literally that act, so surely will the greatest sinner that thus leans, and looks to, and trusts in the only Atonement, receive the pardon and the remission of his sins. (J. Cumming, D. D.)
The peace sacrifice
Peace through the blood of His Cross, Reconciliation in the body of His flesh through death, Fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ, are the great leading truths in the peace sacrifice. The prodigals repentance, the return home, the ready embrace, the ring, the rich feast within the house, the mutual rest and rejoicing--all are here; nothing is lacking to assure our hearts before God. If there be any lack, it is our want of ability to appreciate the rich and varied grace displayed in every particular of the peace-offering. Happy is it for us that the possession of its blessings does not depend upon the measure in which we understand the type. The peace of God which passeth all understanding is the sure portion of all the justified. It belongs to the babe in Christ as much as to the more advanced in Divine knowledge. (F. H. White.)
The sacrificial feast of the peace-offering
How are we to conceive of the sacrificial feast of the peace-offering? Was it a feast offered and presented by the Israelite to God, or a feast given by God to the Israelite? In other words, in this feast who was represented as host and who as guest? Among other nations than the Hebrews it was the thought in such cases that the feast was given by the worshipper to his god. This is well illustrated by an Assyrian inscription of Esarhaddon, who, in describing his palace at Nineveh, says: I filled with beauties the great palace of my empire, and I called it the palace which rivals the world. Ashur, Ishtar of Nineveh, and the gods of Assyria, all of them, I feasted within it. Victims, precious and beautiful, I sacrificed before them, and I caused them to receive my gifts. But here we come upon one of the most striking and instructive contrasts between the heathen conception of the sacrificial feast and the same symbolism as used in Leviticus and other Scripture. In the heathen sacrificial feasts it is man who feasts God; in the peace-offering of Leviticus it is God who feasts man. Do we not strike here one of the deepest points of contrast between all of mans religion and the gospel of God? Mans idea always is, until taught better by God: I will be religious and make God my friend by doing something, giving something for God. God, on the contrary, teaches us in this symbolism, as in all Scripture, the exact reverse--that we become truly religious by taking, first of all, with thankfulness and joy, what He has provided for us. A breach of friendship between man and God is often implied in the heathen rituals, as in the ritual of Leviticus; as also in both a desire for its removal and renewed fellowship with God. But in the former man ever seeks to attain to this intercommunion of friendship by something that he himself will do for God. He will feast God, and thus God shall be well pleased. But Gods way is the opposite. The sacrificial feast at which man shall have fellowship with God is provided, not by man for God, but by God for man, and is to be eaten, not in our house, but spiritually partaken in the presence of the invisible God. (S. H. Kellogg, D. D.)
Reason for minute prescriptions
Some may think that these prescriptions are so needlessly specific and minute that they appear unworthy of the God that instituted them. But you will recollect that this people were surrounded by dense masses of heathenism, just as the Dutch are by the sea, and that every provision made in Israel was to keep at bay the inrush of heathenism, and to present a people that should be the witnesses of God in spite of heathendom; and the very rites and ceremonies that they were to practise were designedly minute, that there might be no opening for conformity to the heathen, very often crossing those of the heathen; that they might be a marked, a distinctive, and a peculiar people. There is, therefore, far greater wisdom in these prescriptions than strikes the superficial reader. And another reason why all this is given so minutely is that the great subject of the teaching of Christianity is the Atonement. That is the heart and the life of Christianity; all else without that is hard and dry; all its precepts pervaded by that are full of life, and not hard. Well, then, these rites and ceremonies were minute in order to impress upon the Jewish mind and upon the mind of humanity itself the great ideas of substitution, atonement, vicarious sacrifice, till this idea became so familiarised to the hearts of mankind that they should be able not only to appreciate, but to hail with gratitude and joy that perfect Atonement of which these were the shadows--that finished sacrifice to which these pointed as John the Baptist pointed to the Saviour. (J. Cumming, D. D.)
Peace-offerings turned to sin
Few ordinances were more blessed than these peace-offerings. Yet, like the Lords Supper with us, often were they turned to sin. The lascivious woman in Pro_7:14 comes forth saying, I have peace-offerings with me; this day have I paid my vows. She had actually gone up among the devoutest class of worshippers to present a thank-offering, and had stood at the altar as one at peace with God. Having now received from the priest those pieces of the sacrifice that were to be feasted upon, lo! she hurries to her dwelling and prepares a banquet of lewdness. She quiets her conscience by constraining herself to spend some of her time and some of her substance in His sanctuary. She deceives her fellow-creatures, too, and maintains a character for religion; and then she rushes back to sin without remorse. Is there nothing of this in our land? What means Christmas mirth after pretended observance of Christs being born? What means the sudden worldliness of so many on the day following their approach to the Lords Table? What means the worldly talk and levity of a Sabbath afternoon or evening after worship is done? Contrast with this the true worshipper, as he appears in Psa_66:1-20. He has received mercies and is truly thankful. He comes Up to the sanctuary with his offerings, singing, I will go into Thy house with burnt-offerings: I will pay Thee my vows, which my lips have uttered, and my mouth hath spoken, when I was in trouble. In the burnt-offering we see his approach to the altar with the common and general sacrifice; and next, in his paying vows we see he has brought his peace-offerings with him. Again, therefore, he says at the altar, I will offer to Thee burnt sacrifices of fatlings. This is the general offering, brought from the best of his flock and herd. Then follow the peace-offerings. With the incense of rams; I will offer bullocks with goats. Having brought his offerings, he is in no haste to depart, notwithstanding; for his heart is full. Ere, therefore, he leaves the sanctuary he utters the language of a soul at peace with God (verses 16-20). (A. A. Bonar.)
Charles Wesleys peace-offering
Although Charles Wesley had been engaged in preaching the gospel with much diligence and earnestness, he did not know what it was to enjoy peace with God until he was in his thirtieth year. Being laid low by an alarming illness, and seeming as if he were going to die, a young Moravian named Peter Bohler, who was undergoing a course of preparation by him to go out as a missionary, asked him, Do you hope to be saved? Charles answered, Yes. For what reason do you hope it? Because I have used my best endeavours to serve God. The Moravian shook his head and said no more. That sad, silent, significant shake of the head shattered all Charles Wesleys false foundation of salvation by endeavours. He was afterwards taught by Peter Bohler the way of the Lord more perfectly, and brought to see that by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ men are justified. And now in his sick-room he was able to write for the first time in his life, I now find myself at peace with God; and it was on this occasion he composed that beautiful hymn, O for a thousand tongues to sing my great Redeemers praise.
Peace proclaimed
When Russia was in one of her great wars the suffering of the soldiers had been long and bitter, and they were waiting for the end of the strife. One day a messenger in great excitement ran among the tents of the army shouting, Peace! peace! The sentinel on guard asked, Who says Peace ? And the sick soldier turned on his hospital mattress and asked, Who says Peace? And all up and down the encampment of the Russians went the question, Who says, Peace? Then the messenger responded, The Czar says Peace. That was enough. That meant going home. That meant the war was over. No more wounds and no more long marches. So to-day, as one of the Lords messengers, I move through this great encampment of souls and cry, Peace between earth and heaven! Peace between God and man! Peace between your repenting soul and a pardoning Lord! It you ask me, Who says Peace? I answer, Christ our King declares it. My peace I give unto you! The peace of God that passeth all understanding. (Christian Age.)
On terms of peace with God
Some one could not understand why an old German Christian scholar used to be always so calm and happy and hopeful when he had so many trials and sicknesses and ailments. A man secreted himself in the house. He said, I mean to watch this old scholar and Christian; and he saw the old Christian man go to his room and sit down on the chair beside the stand and open the Bible and begin to read. He read on and on, chapter after chapter, hour after hour, until his face was all aglow with the tidings from heaven; and when the clock struck twelve he arose, shut his Bible, and said, Blessed Lord, we are on the same old terms yet. Good-night. Good-night.
Praise-offering
A servant girl in great anxiety of soul sought the help of her minister. All his explanations of the gospel and applications of it to her case failed to bring peace. She said she had tried to pray, but dared not speak to God. If you cannot pray, said the minister, perhaps you can praise. He recommended her to go home and sing the 103rd Psalm--O thou, my soul, bless God the Lord. She departed with a light heart, singing as she went. And, said the minister in telling the story, she is singing still, praising and praying and rejoicing with joy unspeakable and full of glory. (S. S. Chronicle.)
Peace through Christ
A young lady went to Rome to study art. Having a great liking for it, she soon became one of the first modellers in the city. While she was busy at work one day a companion called to see her, and began to give a long description of a ball to which she had recently been, and talked of dresses, jewellery, flowers, &c. The young lady turned, and looking at her friend, said, Be done; I am sick and tired of it. I have gone through and experienced it all myself. And then she added, Oh, if you could only tell me where I might get rest! Her companion, a little taken by surprise, hastily left. The young artist sat there wondering where she might find rest. She had secured the praise of man, but that did not satisfy her--she was looking for something higher; and shutting herself in her room that night, she began to think, and as she was thinking a bright thought entered her mind. She rose and brought forth a little Testament which had been lying untouched since a kind friend had given it to her with these words, Now, mind, if ever you are in trouble, or weary, just open this little book and read, and you will find rest. And now she thought, I will see if I can find the rest she promised. After she had looked a little her eyes fell on these words in Rom_5:1 : Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Her eyes rested long on that verse, until at last she found Christ as her Saviour, and obtained rest in Him.
Peace through the Atonement
Professor Shedd has well said, Whoever is granted this clear, crystalline vision of the Atonement will die in peace, avid pass through all the unknown transport and terror of the day of doom with serenity and joy. It ought to be the toil and study of the believer to render his conceptions of the work of Christ more vivid, simple, and vital; for whatever may be the extent of religious knowledge in other directions, whatever may be the worth of his religious experience in other phases, there is no knowledge and no experience that will stand him in such stead in those moments that try the soul as the experience of the sense of guilt quenched by the blood of Christ.
Gospel peace
I saw a picture in London of the battle of Waterloo years after the battle had passed, and the grass had grown all over the sacred places, and the artist--for it was a masterpiece--had represented a dismounted cannon, and then a lamb, which had wandered up from the pasture field, sound asleep in the mouth of the cannon. Oh, what a suggestive picture it was to me I and I thought right away that the war between God and the soul is ended, and right amid the batteries of the law that once quaked with fiery death now you may behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.
I went to Jesus as I was,
Weary and worn and sad;
I found in Him a resting-place,
And He has made me glad.
(T. De Witt Talmage.)
Gratitude offering
A poor widow brought a basket of fine fruit to a rich man, and begged him to accept it as a present. He did so, knowing that he would make her happier by accepting it as a gift than he would by paying her for it liberally. The gift had cost her self-denial. She would not sell her choice fruit, that she might have the privilege of bestowing it upon one who needed nothing at her hands. She counted it a privilege to practise self-denial for the sake of one who was rich and needed nothing that she could give. Why was it? That rich man had saved the life of her son; he had found him, in want and sickness, in a distant city. He watched him till he was able to travel, when he furnished him with the means of returning to his mother. Hence her gratitude. Did that rich man place that widow under obligations to gratitude as God has placed every one of us? Has not God done for us infinitely more than that rich man did for the widows son? Can we count up His favours to us? Can we estimate the value of His unspeakable gift? Do we count it a privilege to practise self-denial for His sake? Depend upon it, we have very little religion unless we can see and feel that it is a great privilege for a sinner to practise self-denial for his Saviours sake. (Great Thoughts.)
The fat.
Fat and blood not to be eaten
You may here observe how they were forbidden to eat either fat or blood. The Lords prohibition of fat might teach them to like and use a meanest, moderate, and fitting diet, which, as it is good for the body, so also hath it profit for the soul. He that loveth wine and oil, saith the wise man, shall not be rich; and Beware of surfeiting and drunkenness, of excess and belly-cheer, often saith the Scripture in regard of the soul. Fasting and prayer are joined together, not feasting and prayer. A ship too much laden sinketh; and a body too much stuffed with fulness of bread perisheth. It is a double conquest to conquer thyself, and it is a double destruction to destroy thyself. Johns meat was locusts and wild honey--a moderate diet. The companion of gluttony is rottenness, and the follower of drunkenness is forgetfulness and sottishness. Gods people are here forbidden to eat their fat, and think ever on the meaning. Blood also was forbidden to them, that so they might learn to take heed of cruelty and to taste of mercy and lovingkindness in all their actions and behaviour. God is merciful, and we must follow Him; Satan and his members are bloody and cruel, we must avoid it. (Bp. Babington.)
If his offering be a goat.--
The goat in sacrifice
The goat stands here in the same relation to the peace-offering from the herd as did the turtledove and pigeon to the bullock of the whole burnt sacrifice. The poorer sort might bring the goat; when he could not bring the blood of bulls he brought the blood of goats. And thus stilt they were prevented from attaching importance to the mere type. The goat represents Jesus, as one taken out of the flock for the salvation of the rest. Let us suppose we saw a flock of goats appearing from Mount Gilead (Son_6:5). The lion from Bashan rushes upon this flock; one is seized, and is soon within the jaws of the lion! This prey is enough; the lion is satisfied and retires; the flock is saved by the death of one. This incidental substitution does not indeed show forth the manner of our Substitutes suffering; but it is an illustration of the fact that one dying saved the whole flock. The goat is one of a class that go in flocks in Palestine, and so are fitted to represent Christ and His people. And perhaps the fact of an animal like the goat being selected to be among the types of Christ was intended to prevent the error of those who would place the value of Christs undertaking in His character alone. They say, Behold His meekness; He is the Lamb of God! Well, all that is true; it is implied in His being without blemish. But that cannot be the true point to which our eye is intended to be directed by the types; for what, then, becomes of the goat? They may tell us of the meekness of the lamb and patience of the bullock, and tenderness of the turtledove; but the goat, what is to be said of it? Surely it is not without a special providence that the goat is inserted where, if the order of chap. 1. had been followed, we would have had a turtledove? The reason is to let us see that the main thing to be noticed in these types is the atonement which they represented. Observe the stroke that falls on the victim, the fire that consumes the victim, the blood that must flow from the victim, whether it be a bullock, a lamb, a turtledove, or a goat. The Socinian view of Christs death is thus contradicted by these various types, and our eye is intently fixed on the atoning character of the animal more than on anything in its nature. (A. A. Bonar.)
.
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On vv1, 16 Lev_3:1-17; Lev_7:11-34; Lev_19:5-8; Lev_22:21-25
THE PEACE OFFERING
Lev_3:1-17; Lev_7:11-34; Lev_19:5-8; Lev_22:21-25
Read full note →
IN chapter 3 is given, though not with completeness, the law of the peace offering. The alternative rendering of this term, "thank offering" (marg. R.V), precisely expresses only one variety of the peace offering; and while it is probably impossible to find any one word that shall express in a satisfactory way the whole conception of this offering, it is not easy to find one better than the familiar term which the Revisers have happily retained. As will be made clear in the. sequel, it was the main object of this offering, as consisting of a sacrifice terminating in a festive sacrificial meal, to express the conception of friendship, peace, and fellowship with God as secured by the shedding of atoning blood.
Like the burnt offering and the meal offering, the peace offering had come down from the times before Moses. We read of it, though not explicitly named, in Gen_31:54, on the occasion of the covenant between Jacob and Laban, wherein they jointly took God as witness of their covenant of friendship; and, again, in Exo_18:12, where "Jethro took a burnt offering and sacrifices for God; and Aaron came and all the elders of Israel, to eat bread with Moses father-in-law before God." Nor was this form of sacrifice, any more than the burnt offering, confined to the line of Abrahams seed. Indeed, scarcely any religious custom has from the most remote antiquity been more universally observed than this of a sacrifice essentially connected with a sacrificial meal. An instance of the heathen form of this sacrifice is even given in the Pentateuch, where we are {Exo_32:6} how the people, having made the golden calf, worshipped it with peace offerings, and "sat down to eat and to drink" at the sacrificial meal which was inseparable from the peace offering; while in 1 Corinthians 10, Paul refers to like sacrificial feasts as common among the idolaters of Corinth.
It hardly needs to be again remarked that there is nothing in such facts as these to trouble the faith of the Christian, any more than in the general prevalence of worship and of prayer among heathen nations. Rather, in all these cases alike, are we to see the expression on the part of man of a sense of need and want, especially, in this case, of friendship and fellowship with God; and, seeing that the conception of a sacrifice culminating in a feast was, in truth, most happily adapted to symbolise this idea, surely it were nothing strange that God should base the ordinances of His own worship upon such universal conceptions and customs, correcting in them only, as we shall see, what might directly or indirectly misrepresent truth. Where an alphabet, so to speak, is thus already found existing, whether in letters or in symbols, why should the Lord communicate a new and unfamiliar symbolism, which, because new and unfamiliar, would have been, for that reason, far less likely to be understood?
The plan of chapter 3 is very simple; and there is little in its phraseology requiring explanation. Prescriptions are given for the offering of peace offerings, first, from the herd (Lev_3:1-5); then, from the flock, whether of the sheep (Lev_3:6-11) or of the goats (Lev_3:12-16). After each of these three sections it is formally declared of each offering that it is "a sweet savour," "an offering made by fire," or "the food of the offering made by fire unto the Lord." The chapter then closes with a prohibition, specially occasioned by the directions for this sacrifice, of all use by Israel of fat or blood as food.
The regulations relating to the selection of the victim for the offering differ from those for the burnt offering in allowing a greater liberty of choice. A female was permitted, as well as a male; though recorded instances of the observance of the peace offering indicate that the male was even here preferred when obtainable. The offering of a dove or a pigeon is not, however, mentioned as permissible, as in the case of the burnt offering. But this is no exception to the rule of greater liberty of choice, since these were excluded by the object of the offering as a sacrificial meal, for which, obviously, a small bird would be insufficient. Ordinarily, the victim must be without blemish; and yet, even in this matter, a larger liberty was allowed {Lev_22:23} in the case of those which were termed "freewill offerings," where it was permitted to offer even a bullock or a lamb which might have "some part superfluous or lacking." The latitude of choice thus allowed finds its sufficient explanation in the fact that while the idea of representation and expiation had a place in the peace offering as in all bloody offerings, yet this was subordinate to the chief intent of the sacrifice, which was to represent the victim as food given by God to Israel in the sacrificial meal. It is to be observed that only such defects are therefore allowed in the victim as could not possibly affect its value as food. And so even already, in these regulations as to the selection of the victim, we have a hint that we have now to do with a type, in which the dominant thought is not so much Christ, the Holy Victim, our representative, as Christ the Lamb of God, the food of the soul, through participation in which we have fellowship with God.
As before remarked, the ritual acts in the bloody sacrifices are, in all, six, each of which, in the peace offering, has its proper place. Of these, the first four, namely, the presentation, the laying on of the hand, the killing of the victim, and the sprinkling of the blood, are precisely the same as in the burnt offering, and have the same symbolic and typical significance. In both the burnt offering and the peace offering, the innocent victim typified the Lamb of God, presented by the sinner in the act of faith to God as an atonement for sin through substitutionary death: and the sprinkling of the blood upon the altar signifies in this, as in the other, the application of that blood Godward by the Divine Priest acting in our behalf, and thereby procuring for us remission of sin, redemption through the blood of the slain Lamb.
In the other two ceremonies, namely, the burning and the sacrificial meal, the peace offering stands in strong contrast with the burnt offering. In the burnt offering all was burned upon the altar; in the peace offering all the fat, and that only. The detailed directions which are given in the case of each class of victims are intended simply to direct the selection of those parts of the animal in which the fat is chiefly found. They are precisely the same for each, except in the case of the sheep. With regard to such a victim, the particular is added, according to King Jamess version, "the whole rump"; but the Revisers have with abundant reason corrected this translation, giving it correctly as "the fat tail entire." The change is an instructive one, as it points to the idea which determined this selection of all the fat for the offering by fire. For the reference is to a special breed of sheep which is still found in Palestine, Arabia, and North Africa. With these, the tail grows to an immense size, sometimes weighing fifteen pounds or more, and consists almost entirely of a rich substance, in character between fat and marrow. By the Orientals in the regions where this variety of sheep is found it is still esteemed as the most valuable part of the animal for food. And thus, just as in the meal offering the Israelite was required to bring out of all his grain the best, and of his meal the finest, so in the peace offering he is required to bring the fat, and in the case of the sheep this fat tail, as the best and richest parts, to be burnt upon the altar to Jehovah. And the burning, as in the whole burnt sacrifice, was, so to speak, the visible Divine appropriation of that which was placed upon the altar, the best of the offering, as appointed to be "the food of God." If the symbolism, at first thought, perplex any, we have but to remember how frequently in Scripture "fat" and "fatness" are used as the symbol of that which is richest and best; as, e.g., where the Psalmist says, "They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of Thy house"; and Isaiah, "Come unto Me, and let your soul delight itself in fatness." Thus when, in the peace offering, of which the larger part was intended for food, it is ordered that the fat should be given to God in the fire of the altar, the same lesson is taught as in the meal offering, namely, God is ever to be served first and with the best that we have. "All the fat is the Lords."
In the burnt offering, the burning ended the ceremonial: in the nature of the case, since all was to be burnt, the object of the sacrifice was attained when the burning was completed. But in the case of the peace offering, to the burning of the fat upon the altar now followed the culminating act of the ritual, in the eating of the sacrifice. In this, however, we must distinguish from the eating by the offerer and his household, the eating by the priests; of which only the first-named properly belonged to the ceremonial of the sacrifice. The assignment of certain parts of the sacrifice to he eaten by the priests has the same meaning as in the meal offering. These portions were regarded in the law as given, not by the offerer, but by God, to His servants the priests; that they might eat them, not as a ceremonial act, but as their appointed sustenance from His table whom they served. To this we shall return in a subsequent chapter, and therefore need not dwell upon it here.
This eating of the sacrifice by the priests has thus not yet taken us beyond the conception of the meal offering, with a part of which they, in like manner, by Gods arrangement, were fed. Quite different, however, is the sacrificial eating by the offerer which follows. He had brought the appointed victim; it had been slain in his behalf; the blood had been sprinkled for atonement on the altar; the fat had been taken off and burned upon the altar; the thigh and breast had been given back by God to the officiating priest; and now, last of all, the offerer himself receives back from God, as it were, the remainder of the flesh of the victim, that he himself might eat it before Jehovah. The chapter before us gives no directions as to this sacrificial eating; these are given in Deu_12:6-7; Deu_12:17-18, to which passage, in order to the full understanding of that which is most distinctive in the peace offering, we must refer. In the two verses last named, we have a regulation which covers, not only the peace offerings, but with them all other sacrificial eatings, thus: "Thou mayest not eat within thy gates the tithe of thy corn, or of thy wine, or of the oil, or the firstlings of thy herd, or of thy flock, nor any of thy vows which thou vowest, nor thy free will offerings, nor the heave offering of thy hand: but thou shalt eat them before the Lord thy God in the place which the Lord thy God shall choose, thou and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy man servant, and thy maid servant, and the Levite that is within thy gates; and thou shalt rejoice before the Lord thy God in all that thou puttest thy hand unto."
In these directions are three particulars; the offerings were to be eaten, by the offerer, not at his own home, but before Jehovah at the central sanctuary; he was to include in this sacrificial feast all the members of his family, and any Levite that might be stopping with him; and he was to make the feast an occasion of holy joy before the Lord in the labour of his hands. What was now the special significance of all this? As this was the special characteristic of the peace offering, the answer to this question will point us to its true significance, both for Israel in the first place, and then for us as well, as a type of Him who was to come.
It is not hard to perceive the significance of a feast as a symbol. It is a natural and suitable expression of friendship and fellowship. He who gives the feast thereby shows to the guests his friendship toward them, in inviting them to partake of the food of his house. And if, in any case, there has been an interruption or breach of friendship, such an invitation to a feast, and association in it of the formerly alienated parties, is a declaration on the part of him who gives the feast, as also of those who accept his invitation, that the breach is healed, and that where there was enmity, is now peace.
So natural is this symbolism that, as above remarked, it has been a custom very widely spread among heathen peoples to observe sacrificial feasts, very like to this peace offering of the Hebrews, wherein a victim is first offered to some deity, and its flesh then eaten by the offerer and his friends. Of such sacrificial feasts we read in ancient Babylonia and Assyria, in Persia, and, in modern times, among the Arabs, Hindoos, and Chinese, and various native races of the American continent: always having the same symbolic intent and meaning-namely, an expression of desire after friendship and intercommunion with the deity thus worshipped. The existence of this custom in Old Testament days is recognised in Isa_65:11 (R.V), where God charges the idolatrous Israelites with preparing "a table for the god Fortune," and filling up "mingled wine unto (the goddess) Destiny"-certain Babylonian deities; and in the New Testament, as already remarked, the Apostle Paul refers to the same custom among the idolatrous Greeks of Corinth.
And because this symbolic meaning of a feast is as suitable and natural as it is universal, we find that in the symbolism of Holy Scripture, eating and drinking, and especially the feast, has been appropriated by the Holy Spirit to express precisely the same ideas of reconciliation, friendship, and intercommunion between the giver of the feast and the guest, as in all the great heathen religions. We meet this thought, for instance, in Psa_23:5 : "Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of my enemies"; Psa_36:8, where it is said of Gods people: "They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of Thy house"; and again, in the grand prophecy in Isaiah 25, of the final redemption of all the long-estranged nations, we read that when God shall destroy in Mount Zion "the veil that is spread over all nations, and swallow up death forever," then "the Lord of hosts shall make unto all peoples a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined." And in the New Testament, the symbolism is taken up again, and used repeatedly by our Lord, as, for example, in the parables of the Great Supper {Luk_14:15-24} and the Prodigal Son, {Luk_15:23} the Marriage of the Kings Son, {Mat_22:1-14} concerning the blessings of redemption; and also in that ordinance of the Holy Supper which He has appointed to be a continual reminder of our relation to Himself, and means for the communication of His grace, through our symbolic eating therein of the flesh of the slain Lamb of God.
Thus, nothing in the Levitical symbolism is better certified to us than the meaning of the feast of the peace offering. Employing a symbol already familiar to the world for centuries, God ordained this eating of the peace offering in Israel, to be the symbolic expression of peace and fellowship with Himself. In Israel it was to be eaten "before the Lord," and, as well it might be, "with rejoicing."
But, just at this point, the question has been raised: How are we to conceive of the sacrificial feast of the peace offering? Was it a feast offered and presented by the Israelite to God, or a feast given by God to the Israelite? In other words, in this feast, who was represented as host, and who as guest? Among other nations than the Hebrews, it was the thought in such cases that the feast was given by the worshipper to his god. This is well illustrated by an Assyrian inscription of Esarhaddon, who, in describing his palace at Nineveh, says: "I filled with beauties the great palace of my empire, and I called it the Palace which rivals the World. Ashur, Ishtar of Nineveh, and the gods of Assyria, all of them, I feasted within it. Victims, precious and beautiful, I sacrificed before them, and I caused them to receive my gifts."
But here we come upon one of the most striking and instructive contrasts between the heathen conception of the sacrificial feast and the same symbolism as used in Leviticus and other Scripture. In the heathen sacrificial feasts, it is man who feasts God; in the peace offering of Leviticus, it is God who feasts man. Some have indeed denied that this is the conception of the peace offering, but most strangely. It is true that the offerer, in the first instance, had brought the victim; but it seems to be forgotten by such, that prior to the feasting he had already given the victim to God, to be offered in expiation for sin. From that time the victim was no longer, any part of it, his own property, but Gods. God having received the offering, now directs what use shall be made of it; a part shall be burned upon the altar; another part He gives to the priests, His servants; with the remaining part He now feasts the worshipper.
And as if to make this clearer yet, while Esar-haddon, for example, gives his feast to the gods, not in their temples, but in his own palace, as himself the host and giver of the feast, the Israelite, on the contrary, -that he might not, like the heathen, complacently imagine himself to be feasting God, -is directed to eat the peace offering, not at his own house, but at Gods house. In this way God was set forth as the host, the One who gave the feast, to whose house the Israelite was invited, at whose table he was to eat.
Profoundly suggestive and instructive is this contrast between the heathen custom in this offering, and the Levitical ordinance. For do we not strike here one of the deepest points of contrast between all of mans religion and the Gospel of God? Mans idea always is, until taught better by God, "I will be religious and make God my friend, by doing something, giving something for God." God, on the contrary, teaches us in this symbolism, as in all Scripture, the exact reverse; that we become truly religious by taking, first of all, with thankfulness and joy, what He has provided for us. A breach of friendship between man and God is often implied in the heathen rituals, as in the ritual of Leviticus; as also, in both, a desire for its removal, and renewed fellowship with God. But in the former, man ever seeks to attain to this intercommunion of friendship by something that he himself will do for God. He will feast God, and thus God shall be well pleased. But Gods way is the opposite! The sacrificial feast at which man shall have fellowship with God is provided not by man for God, but by God for man, and is to be eaten, not in our house, but spiritually partaken in the presence of the invisible God.
We can now perceive the teaching of the peace offering for Israel. In Israel, as among all the nations, was the inborn craving after fellowship and friendship with God. The ritual of the peace offering taught him how it was to be obtained, and how communion might be realised. The first thing was for him to bring and present a divinely-appointed victim; and then, the laying of the hand upon his head with confession of sin; then, the slaying of the victim, the sprinkling of its blood, and the offering of its choicest parts to God in the altar fire. Till all this was done, till in symbol expiation had been thus made for the Israelites sin, there could be no feast which should speak of friendship and fellowship with God. But this being first done, God now, in token of His free forgiveness and restoration to favour, invites the Israelite to a joyful feast in His own house.
What a beautiful symbol! Who can fail to appreciate its meaning when once pointed out? Let us imagine that through some fault of ours a dear friend has become estranged; we used to eat and drink at his house, but there has been none of that now for a long time. We are troubled, and perhaps seek out one who is our friends friend and also our friend, to whose kindly interest we entrust our case, to reconcile to us the one we have offended. He has gone to mediate; we anxiously await his return; but or ever he has come back again, comes an invitation from him who was estranged, just in the old loving way, asking that we will eat with him at his house. Any one of us would understand this; we should be sure at once that the mediator had healed the breach, that we were forgiven, and were welcome as of old to all that our friends friendship had to give.
But God is the good Friend whom we have estranged; and the Lord Jesus, His beloved Son, and our own Friend as well, is the Mediator; and He has healed the breach; having made expiation for our sin in offering His own body as a sacrifice, He has ascended into heaven, there to appear in the presence of God for us; He has not yet returned. But meantime the message comes down from Him to all who are hungering after peace with God: "The feast is made; and ye all are invited; come! all things are now ready!" And this is the message of the Gospel. It is the peace offering translated into words. Can we hesitate to accept the invitation? Or, if we have sent in our acceptance, do we need to be told, as in Deuteronomy, that we are to eat "with rejoicing."
And now we may well observe another circumstance of profound typical significance. When the Israelite came to Gods house to eat before Jehovah, he was fed there with the flesh of the slain victim. The flesh of that very victim whose blood had been given for him on the altar, now becomes his food to sustain the life thus redeemed. Whether the Israelite saw into the full meaning of this, we may easily doubt; but it leads us on now to consider, in the clearer light of the New Testament, the deepest significance of the peace offering and its ritual, as typical of our Lord and our relation to Him.
That the victim of the peace offering, as of all the bloody offerings, was intended to typify Christ, and that the death of that victim, in the peace offering, as in all the bloody offerings, foreshadowed the death of Christ for our sins, -this needs no further proof. And so, again, as the burning of the whole burnt offering represented Christ as accepted for us in virtue of His perfect consecration to the Father, so the peace offering, in that the fat is burned, represents Christ as accepted for us, in that He gave to God in our behalf the very best He had to offer. For in that incomparable sacrifice we are to think not only of the completeness of Christs consecration for us, but also of the supreme excellence of that which He offered unto God for us. All that was best in Him, reason, affection, and will, as well as the members of His holy body, -nay, the Godhead as well as the Manhood, in the holy mystery of the Trinity and the Incarnation, He offered for us unto the Father.
This, however, has taken us as yet but little beyond the meaning of the burnt offering. The closing act of the ritual, the sacrificial eating, however, reaches in its typical significance far beyond this or any of the bloody offerings.
First, in that he who had laid his hand upon the victim, and for whom the blood had been sprinkled, is now invited by God to feast in His house, upon food given by himself, the food of the sacrifice, which is called in the ritual "the bread of God." the eating of the peace offering symbolically teaches us that if we have indeed presented the Lamb of God as our peace, not only has the Priest sprinkled for us the blood, so that our sin is pardoned, but, in token of friendship now restored, God invites the penitent believer to sit down at His own table, -in a word, to joyful fellowship with Himself! Which means, if our weak faith but take it in, that the Almighty and Most Holy God now invites us to fellowship in all the riches of His Godhead; places all that He has at the service of the believing sinner, redeemed by the blood of the slain Lamb. The prodigal has returned; the Father will now feast him with the best that He has. Fellowship with God through reconciliation by the blood of the slain Lamb, -this then is the first thing shadowed forth in this part of the ritual of the peace offering. It is a sufficiently wonderful thought, but there is truth yet more wonderful veiled under this symbolism.
For when we ask, what then was the bread or food of God of which He invited him to partake who brought the peace offering, and learn that it was the flesh of the slain victim; here we meet a thought which goes far beyond atonement by the shedding of blood. The same victim whose blood was shed and sprinkled in atonement for sin is now given by God to be the redeemed Israelites food, by which his life shall be sustained! Surely we cannot mistake the meaning of this. For the victim of the altar and the food of the table are one and the same. Even so He who offered Himself for our sins on Calvary, is now given by God to be the food of the believer; who now thus lives by "eating the flesh" of the slain Lamb of God. Does this imagery, at first thought, seem strange and unnatural? So did it also seem strange to the Jews, when in reply to our Lords teaching they wonderingly asked, {Joh_6:52} "How can this man give us His flesh to eat?" And yet so Christ and when He had first declared Himself to the Jews as the Antitype of the manna, the true Bread sent down from heaven, He then went on to say, in words which far transcended the meaning of that type, {Joh_6:51} "The bread which I wilt give is My flesh, for the life of the world." How the light begins now to flash back from the Gospel to the Levitical law, and from this, again, back to the Gospel! In the one we read, "Ye shall eat the flesh of your peace offerings before the Lord with joy"; in the other, the word of the Lord Jesus concerning Himself: {Joh_6:33; Joh_6:55; Joh_6:57} "The bread of God is that which cometh down out of heaven, and giveth life unto the world My flesh is meat indeed, and My blood is drink indeed As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he that eateth Me, he also shall live because of Me." And now the Shekinah light of the ancient tent of meeting begins to illumine even the sacramental table, and as we listen to the words of Jesus, "Take, eat! this is My body which was broken for you," we are reminded of the feast of the peace offerings. The Israel of God is to be fed with the flesh of the sacrificed Lamb which became their peace.
Let us hold fast then to this deepest thought of the peace offering, a truth too little understood even by many true believers. The very Christ who died for our sins, if we have by faith accepted His atonement and have been for His sake forgiven, is now given us by God for the sustenance of our purchased life. Let us make use of Him, daily feeding upon Him, that so we may live and grow unto the life eternal!
But there is yet one thought more concerning this matter, which the peace offering, as far as was possible, shadowed forth. Although Christ becomes the bread of God for us only through His offering of Himself first for our sins, as our atonement, yet this is something quite distinct from atonement. Christ became our sacrifice once for all; the atonement is wholly a fact of the past. But Christ is now still, and will ever continue to be unto all His people, the bread or food of God, by eating whom they live. He was the propitiation, as the slain victim; but, in virtue of that, He is now become the flesh of the peace offering. Hence He must be this, not as dead, but as living, in the present resurrection life of His glorified humanity. Here evidently is a fact which could not be directly symbolised in the peace offering without a miracle ever repeated. For Israel ate of the victim, not as living, but as dead. It could not be otherwise. And yet there is a regulation of the ritual {Lev_7:15-18; Lev_19:6; Lev_19:7} which suggests this phase of truth as clearly as possible without a miracle. It was ordered that none of the flesh of the peace offering should be allowed to remain beyond the third day; if any then was left uneaten, it was to be burned with fire. The reason for this lies upon the surface. It was doubtless that there might be no possible beginning of decay; and thus it was secured that the flesh of the victim with which God fed the accepted Israelite should be the flesh of a victim that was not to see corruption. But does not this at once remind us how it was written of the Antitype, "Thou wilt not suffer Thy Holy One to see corruption"? while, moreover, the extreme limit of time allowed further reminds us how it was precisely on the third day that Christ rose from the dead in the incorruptible life of the resurrection, that so He might through all time continue to be the living bread of His people.
And thus this special regulation points us not indistinctly toward the New Testament truth that Christ is now unto us the bread of God, not merely as the One who died, but as the One who, living again, was not allowed to see corruption. For so the Apostle argues, {Rom_5:11} that "being justified by faith," and so having "peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ," our peace offering, having been thus "reconciled by His death, we shall now be saved by His life." And thus, as we appropriate Christ crucified as our atonement, so by a like faith we are to appropriate Christ risen as our life, to be for us as the flesh of the peace offering, our nourishment and strength by which we live.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v1 The Peace Offering of Thanksgiving
The Peace Offering of Thanksgiving
SUGGESTIVE READINGS
Read full note →
Lev_3:1.—A sacrifice of peace offering. Happy are the truths made evident in this peace sacrifice; delightful to God, blessed for man. Peace is established between God and the soul, reconciliation is realised; and the offerer comes to the altar with festive gladness in his heart. Yes, and God also, and the priests, and the offerer’s friends, all join in the sacrificial banquet of joy over peace restored. Its completeness was realised in Christ: “For He is our Peace, who hath made both one” (Eph_2:14). The angels’ carol has become translated into Christian experience—“On earth peace, goodwill toward men.” He who would enter into and enjoy “peace with God,” must bring the Redeemer’s “sacrifice of peace offering” (Rom_5:1)
Whether male or female. Unrestricted freedom in choice of the victim; as though God was so desirous of peace with man that every possible opportunity and convenience should be arranged for effecting conciliation. That is the lesson: and in the atonement of Calvary the plan of appeasement and acceptance is ready of access to every one. No difficulty, no embarrassment, is left by God in the way of our obtaining reconciliation and fellowship with Him.
Lev_3:2.—Lay his hand on … and kill it. Here is the crowning act of the sinner: act of identification with the very death of the victim. Who slew the Sacrifice? even he who lays his hand on Him in order to be saved; yes, saved by the death the sinner himself inflicted! Jesus claims the victim’s place; gives His life for man. Each altar sprinkled with blood proclaims the peace thus bought, peace bought by death. “The chastisement of our peace was upon Him.”
Lev_3:3.—All the fat that is upon the inwards. In the burnt offering it was the fat connected with the limbs and external parts of the victim which God required; but in the peace sacrifice He specifically asks the inward fat which covers the vitals. This denoted inward health; and typified the inmost excellency of Christ. And as this was to be for God, placed and consumed upon His altar, it bespeaks now all the virtue and grace of Jesus in His own essential perfectness and preciousness were necessary to a satisfactory peace between God and man. For what inferior sacrifice could suffice? The enmity and outrage wrought by our sin and sinfulness were such that the most absolute excellence was essential in our propitiatory offering. But Christ offered “all” His virtue to God for us.
Lev_3:5.—On the altar upon the burnt sacrifice. Peace is not the first thing for man to seek with God, but satisfaction: that having been made in the burnt sacrifice, he may “burn” his peace offering “upon the burnt sacrifice.” No basis for peace except the sufferings of Christ. He having been offered in substitution for guilt we may lay our peace offering upon that Sacrifice.
Lev_3:11.—The food of the offering made by fire unto the Lord. God finds “food”—satisfaction, gratification—in the altar offering, in the excellencies of Christ devoted in sacrifice to win man’s acceptance. Grand truth: the presentation of atonement by Jesus for man’s peace yields to God a satisfying “food,” a substantial joy, which both fills all the Divine desires and answers all the Divine demands. The Saviour’s sacrifice was very precious to the holy God.
Lev_3:17.—Eat neither fat nor blood. As the “fat” symbolised the inmost virtue, this law claimed the best as God’s portion: and as the “blood” represented the life of the victim, this law claimed life as inalienably God’s. You owe Him your inmost affections, the most precious qualities of your being; yea, your whole life. Jesus gave them all to His Father: and we should also yield our noblest, our all.
EXPLANATORY HOMILY
i. The spiritual standing, or sacred qualification of the offerer. Peace offerings could be presented only by persons who had already obtained forgiveness of sins (by the sin and trespass offerings, comp. Lev_6:7), and had consecrated themselves as on the altar to Jehovah (by the burnt offering, comp. Lev_7:12), and were thus at peace with God.
This sacrificial regulation indicates an enduring spiritual law: that he who would enter into a state of friendship with God must first have secured expiation of his sins (sin offering), and have consecrated himself (burnt offering) and his substance (meat offering) to the Lord.
ii. Propitiation and self surrender are not absent even in presenting peace offerings. The blood of the victim was sprinkled on the altar, and portions of the carcass were burnt in the fire. Whereas the imposition of hands and slaughter of the substitute by the offerer betokened sense of condemnation and appeal to sovereign grace.
We cannot acceptably offer even sacrifices of peace and praise apart from the meritorious death and substitutionary atonement of Jesus.
iii. Peace offerings were various, both in the victims chosen and in the purpose for which they were offered.
(1) The victims: from the herds or flocks, male or female.
(2) The purpose: thank offerings, votive offerings, free-will offerings. The first expressed gratitude for God’s gracious favours; the second fulfilled a vow made on condition of receiving God’s goodness; the third entreated a mercy, but without conditions, as in a vow, retaining freedom to make return to the Lord as occasion served.
Great variety may mark our thank offerings to God, but the liberty leaves us without excuse if we render nothing to the Lord for all His benefits towards us.
iv. In the distribution of portions of the peace offering a sacrificial feast of fellowship was enacted.
A part to Jehovah, other parts to the priests, and the remainder to the offerer, all meeting in amity and peace, and joyously sharing in the sweet savour offering.
For the reconciliation of man to God, and Divine fellowship with man, occasioned heart gladness to the Divine Father (see parable of Prodigal Son), to the reinstated worshipper, and to the Daysman betwixt them who laid His hand on them both—the mediating Priest.
v. The part of the divided victims were specially apportioned, establishing a law of priority in sacred claims. To God the choicest parts first. These were burned on the altar, and became a “sweet savour unto the Lord.” To the community of priests (“the breast”), and to the officiating priest (“the right hind leg”) next, indicating grateful recognition of Priesthood ministries, specially Christ’s, and fellowship with the sacred priesthood of believers. The sacrificer retained the rest, but only that he, with his friends, might join the sacred repast, and thus emphasize the truth of the communion of saints; they and God’s household, and God Himself, all partaking of the one offering, as a feast of friendship and communion.
Our first aim should be to offer the worthiest to the Lord; next to own grateful obligations to the mediatorial service of Christ; then to establish festal relationship with the household of God, the household of faith. Self last in fellowship, no man living to himself. Christian life joyously communing with the Father, the Mediator, and the Church.
SECTIONAL HOMILIES
Topic: PEACE-OFFERING SACRIFICES (Lev_3:1-5)
Consider—
I. HISTORIC INSTANCES OF PRESENTING THE PEACE OFFERING.
Scripture records of these occurrences are instructive. Some of the occasions when the offering was presented were Divinely appointed.
(a) At the consecration of priests for their holy office and ministry (Lev_7:30-34). (b) At the completion of the term of a Nazarite’s vow (Num_6:14). (c) At the dedication of the completed tabernacle (Num_7:17). (d) At the feast of the first-fruits (Lev_23:19); and (e) At the joyful opening of Solomon’s temple (1Ki_8:63).
Others were spontaneous—
1. For signal experience of Providential deliverance. Thus (a) David in the hour of victory, when “his head was lifted up above his enemies round about him,” resolved to “sacrifice in God’s tabernacle sacrifices of joy” (Psa_27:6). (b) Amid merciful rescues from peril, enumerated in Psalms 107, as when guided through a lone wilderness (Psa_107:4), or brought out of sore oppression (Psa_107:10-14), or upon recovery from wasting sickness (Psa_107:18), or when the haven is reached after terrible voyage (Psa_107:30), etc. Then “let them sacrifice the sacrifice of thanksgiving” (Psa_107:22).
2. As the fulfilment of vows made in troublous circumstances. Thus Jonah “prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish’s belly” (Jon_2:1), and vowed, when “salvation came to him of the Lord” (Lev_3:9), that he would sacrifice unto Him with the voice of thanksgiving, and pay that he had vowed” (Lev_3:9). [See also Psa_116:3; Psa_116:17-19.]
3. As a seal of fervent and trustful prayer. So did the confederate tribes before going to battle against the victorious Benjamites. They “went up and came to the house of God and wept, and sat there before the Lord, and fasted that day until even, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord” (Jdg_20:26). [See Addenda, p. 38, Sacrifices of Peace.] Consider again the—
II. SACRED SENTIMENTS PROMPTING TO THE OFFERING OF THE PEACE SACRIFICES
Noting the attitude of thought, the feelings of heart, with which the sacrifices were presented, we shall realise the religious affections which found expression in this form of altar offering.
1. Prominent, as a motive to the peace offering, is thanksgiving. It presented a sacrifice of praise to God; it yielded an offering to Jehovah’s glory. This implies a heart of gratitude in man; a reverent sense of the goodness of God; a desire to perform some act to His glory and praise. In Lev_7:12 it is distinctly marked as intended “for a thanksgiving.” The worshipper should seek God not alone with requests, and under sense of danger or need, but with the homage of joy. “I will sacrifice sacrifices of joy. I will sing,” etc. (Psa_27:6). “God hath done great things for us, whereof we are glad.” “What shall I shall render unto the Lord for all His benefits towards me?” “Bless the Lord, O my soul,” etc. “Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift.” We are to glorify God with praises. Hence the exhortation, “By Him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His name” (Heb_13:15). [See Addenda, p. 38, Thanksgiving.]
2. Equally manifest, as a motive to the peace offering, is dedication. Thus it is provided that “the sacrifice of his offering [may] be a vow” (Lev_7:16). This means a consecration to some act of service for God. As the “sweet savour” ascended to God it bore to Heaven a hostage and pledge of practical godliness and grateful obedience which should follow. “Praise waiteth for Thee, O God, in Zion, and unto Thee shall the vow be performed” (Psa_65:1). “I will go into Thy house with burnt offerings, I will pay Thee my vows which my lips have uttered, etc. I will offer unto Thee burnt sacrifices of fatlings, with the incense of rams,” etc. (Psa_66:13-15). Christian life should assuredly be yielded in devotion to the Lord in return for the grace we have received.
III. GOSPEL REALISATIONS OF THE TYPICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PEACE OFFERINGS
1. The varieties in the victims symbolise the manifold aspects of Christ’s gracious offering. As in the burnt offering. [See on Chapter 1]
2. The different motives prompting the offering suggest the various purposes Christ’s sacrifice effected. His peace offering both was for God’s praise, in sinners reconciled; and for man’s dedication, in Christian lives being vowed and devoted to His service. For when “made nigh” in Christ it is our joy to live unto God in loving, willing obedience. Christ’s sacrificial life represented both significant aspects of the peace offering: it was an offering to Divine praise and glory, and an enactment of man’s grateful consecration to God.
3. The blessed reconciliation of God and man was sealed in the peace offering of Jesus. “Having made peace through the blood of His cross, by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself,” etc. (Col_1:20).
IV. PRESENT-DAY OBLIGATIONS IN THE LIGHT OF THE ANCIENT PEACE OFFERINGS.
1. He who would offer praise to God must do so at the altar. That was the place where the offering was made. Nothing, no grateful affection, no dedicatory vow, may go from man to God irrespective of the altar. Nothing can be accepted, nothing is permitted, apart from Christ’s sacrifice. The peace offering must be “on the altar upon the burnt sacrifice” (Lev_3:5); something additional to and following upon Christ’s atoning merits. Gratitude is beautiful, dedication is right; but God will have neither—from sinful man—apart from the Saviour’s grace. These are lovely flowers which can only properly unfold and bloom under the radiance of the Cross.
2. Divine graciousness summons us to the sacrifices of thankful devotion. Not a moment but our hearts and lips should be pouring out streams of praise, the sweet savour of love, the homage of joy, the evidence that we are the Lord’s: “wherefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.”
3. Peace with God in Christ is the basis of a joyful godly life. Praise can only be where peace is realised and enjoyed. All our happiness rests on our being in Christ, partakers of “peace with God through Jesus.” Then we can “also joy in God” (Rom_5:1; Rom_5:11). And Christian life should “show forth the praises of Him who hath called us out of darkness,” etc. (1Pe_2:9). Blessed peace which imparts such joy and inspires such praise!
Topic: THE FEAST OF MAN’S FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD (Lev_3:3; Lev_3:9; Lev_3:14; Lev_3:16)
“He shall offer of the sacrifice of the peace offering unto the Lord.” Not the whole, but a part was to be burnt on the altar fire, and “Aaron’s sons shall burn it—i.e., the specified portion which God required (see Lev_3:4). And this part participation by God is further particularised in Lev_3:16—“The priest shall burn them upon the altar; it is the food of the offering made by fire for a sweet savour; all the fat is the Lord’s.”
The remaining parts (chap. 7) were distributed to the priests who ministered and the offerer himself. Thus the peace offering was shared by God with man; they met together in a sacrificial feast, and partook of the same altar oblation. To eat together is a sign of friendship and fellowship.
I. SUCH PRIVILEGED COMMUNION BETWEEN GOD AND MAN IS ESTABLISHED ON SPECIAL CONDITIONS.
Who is the man who thus is admitted to feast with God? May anyone adventure into such privilege? Are there no restrictions or conditions regulating so wondrous an incident?
1. Fellowship between God and man must be at the altar of sacrifice. There, where sin is acknowledged, atoned and purged; where substitution is accepted for the life of sinful man; where “no condemnation” is attained by penalty having been laid upon the Victim. Only there can God meet man in friendship. Sacrifice must go first.
2. Fellowship proceeds on the recognition that we yield our highest affections and virtues first to God. That victim being offered is in the offerer’s stead, and represents man. What part of the man does God require? The very choicest part; just as He was to have the inmost vitalities and fat of the sacrifice. It means that before God can have blessed communion with man, man must give God his inmost affections and noblest powers in ready consecration; that, indeed, it is only in the act of such dedication of our highest qualities to Him God comes into fellowship with man at all. God would have refused to partake of the feast if any inferior part had been presented Him. We must bring our first energies, our purest love, if God is to “sup with us and we with Him” (Rev_3:20).
3. Fellowship can only be enjoyed in connection with intervening priestly services. “Aaron’s sons,” etc. (Lev_3:2-4). No communion, no acceptance with God apart from the mediation of Jesus.
4. Fellowship with God requires that we associate His priests with us in the feast. [Compare chap Lev_7:14; Lev_7:31-35.] The lessons of this enactment are
(1) Generous attention to and support of those who minister to us in holy things. We “reap their spiritual things,” and should show appreciation.
(2) Communion with the saints who unite with us in temple service. All fellow Christians are “priests.”
(3) Largeness of heart in sharing with others the blessings we enjoy. Give a better portion to them than that we retain for ourselves. “Hospitality one to another without grudging” (1Pe_4:9). In a feast the host gives the best to his guests. The idea is regal. We entertain the King and His courtiers, and place the choicest part of the banquet first before the King; then the best remaining portions we serve to His attendant ministers; for ourselves, happy and honoured that we may sit down at such a banquet and entertain such guests. [See Addenda, p. 38, Blessedness of Peace.]
II SUCH PRIVILEGED COMMUNION POURTRAYS THE JOYOUS EXPERIENCE OPEN TO MAN IN CHRIST
Felicity is the prevalent sentiment in such a feast. Joy with God; joy in Jesus; joy among fellow saints. But all this blessedness is in connection with a sacrificed life. As all our felicity springs from the redemption of Jesus.
1. God’s satisfaction and delight with the choice virtues of Jesus. Christ, as our Representative, is here giving Himself to God for us, and He finds sweet savoury food in the offering (Lev_3:11; Lev_3:16). “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” For the inmost affections of Jesus were all supremely consecrated to His Father. Yet there was also another cause of God’s delight in Jesus—that He offered Himself as the sacrifice for man’s salvation: “therefore doth My Father love Me because I lay down My life.” God looked on the altar, saw that to Him were yielded the best affections of His Son, and saw equally that His life was readily offered as a Peace Sacrifice for sinners, that the Father and the family might be again at one.
2. Man’s blessedness in the experiences of fellowship in Christ Jesus. Peace is not all we find in Him, but happiness, “joy unspeakable and full of glory”: “a feast of fat things.” Christian life is a banquet. “Eat, O my friends.” And it is a feast, not upon faulty and false diet, which mocks the cravings and hopes of men, but is upon an offering “without blemish,” the choicest of the flock. Christ Himself is the food of the believer.
“Yes. Thou art precious to my soul.”
Happy they who are “partakers of Christ Jesus,” and live upon Him. He “satisfies our mouth with good things,” and so daintily feasts the heart’s longings that “His joy remains in us, and our joy is full.”
Note: This feast of fellowship was both an expression of love by the offerer of the sacrifice, and in turn nourished that love in him by communion with God and His Church.
3. Christ’s own happiness in the feast of man’s fellowship with God. The priest had a choice part in the sacrifice. He who is “Priest over the house of God” shares in this glad banquet. Himself the Victim sacrificed, He is also the mediating and partaking Priest. How does this open to view the heart of Christ: He as mediating Priest joins in the gladness of the event of communion reinstated between God and man: feasts with us as the intervening Friend, and is satisfied with the portion which is His. For can our Lord be other than satisfied with His part in the transaction? It is through His mediation that God and men feast together. And in the delighted love of the Father and the grateful happiness of man Jesus finds a rich satisfaction: it is “the joy set before Him” for which He “endured the cross, despising the shame.”
(1) Into such a feast He asks to be admitted, as He appeals at the sinner’s heart: “Behold I stand at the door and knock; if any man will hear My voice and open the door, I will come in and sup with him and he with Me.”
(2) To such a feast He comes when His saints gather at the sacramental table. “With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you.” “This do in remembrance of Me.” “There am I in the midst of you.”
(3) For such a feast He is preparing in the Father’s house. That “supper of the Lamb” was often in His thoughts when on earth (Luk_14:15; Luk_22:16; Luk_22:18). “He saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb” (Rev_19:9). Joy will indeed fill the Saviour’s heart then; for “He shall see of the travail of His soul and shall be satisfied” (Isa_53:11).
Topic: PEACE BY FULFILLING DIVINE CONDITIONS (Lev_3:2-5, etc.)
Temporal blessings God showers down alike upon the evil and the good. Unsolicited He loads mankind daily with His benefits. But for spiritual blessings He will be inquired of. Specified means must be employed that pardon and peace may be enjoyed. The first part of the peace offering was expiatory; then came the Eucharistic feast.
I. THE OFFERING WAS TO BE CAREFULLY CHOSEN. The strongest, best and purest parts were to be kept exclusively sacred to the Lord. Everything was to be done in order, and according to minute directions.
II. THE OFFERING WAS TO BE PERSONALLY APPROPRIATED. No offering by proxy; each offerer to offer for himself with his own hands. Not enough to purpose in the heart, to have sound views and clear knowledge of what required. The act must promptly, personally be performed.
III. THE OFFERING WAS TO BE CHEERFULLY PRESENTED. (This fully shown in chap. 7.) All not to be consumed as in holocaust; the offered had anticipation of partaking with priests of residue in joyful fellowship.
Our inestimable privilege is to have fellowship with the Father and with His Son Christ Jesus, who has left to the world through His Church the Divine legacy of Peace. He is our peace, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us and God.—F. W. B.
Topic: PEACE RESULTING FROM PROPITIATION (Lev_3:1-17)
Reconciliation and restoration to God bring peace; hence the peace offering, so peculiarly significant of tranquil joy, follows the burnt and meat offerings. In this festival God, the priests, and the people partook together. It signified to complete, to make whole, and was therefore a symbol of fulness, fellowship, and friendship. In it God showed not only that He is to be ministered to by man, but also that He delights to minister to man. The great truth taught is, that reconciliation to God leads to intimate communion with Him.
I. Great freedom was allowed in selection of the Offerings. Any sacrificial animal of either sex, or of any age, might be offered, so long as it was without blemish. The worshipper could suit his own convenience, the demand made was in no way exacting or irksome. The commandments of God are not grievous: we are only expected to offer according to our ability, but what we offer must be the best we have, and offered in a right spirit. “Whether we eat or drink,” etc.
II. Great freedom was allowed in participation of the Offering. Part was to be presented to the Lord, part eaten by the priests, and part by the people; so that God and man, Heaven and earth, would hold festival together, in one solemn covenant. Such a condition of peace was one of the great moral wants of man, for sin had estranged man from God and thrown discord into the human family. This offering proclaimed peace on earth, goodwill to men. Christ our Peace invites us to His table to hold communion with Him, and feed by faith on the sacrifice He has provided. This life of happy communion with God in Christ is the prelude of, and preparation for, the marriage supper of the Lamb.—F. W. B.
OUTLINES ON VERSES
Lev_3:1.—Theme: FAULTLESSNESS IN SACRIFICE. “He shall offer it without blemish unto the Lord.”
I. AS REPRESENTING THE PURITY OF HIM TO WHOM THE OFFERING WAS PRESENTED.
II. AS PRESHADOWING THE PURITY OF HIM WHOM THE OFFERING TYPIFIED.
III. AS SYMBOLISING THE PURITY DESIDERATED BY THE OFFER OF THE SACRIFICE.
Our offerings to the Lord must be complete and pure—by association with the merits of Christ’s perfect sacrifice, and prompted by motives made pure by the indwelling of the Holy Ghost.—F. W. B.
Lev_3:2.—Theme: IDENTIFICATION OF THE OFFERER WITH THE OFFERING. “And he shall lay his hand upon the head of the offering, and kill it at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation” (Lev_3:2).
I. ACTUAL CONTACT.
“Lay hand on,” sig. (a) apprehension, (b) appropriation, (c) identification.
II. ACTUAL COMMITTAL.
“And kill it,” offerer’s own act, acknowledging he deserved to die as the victim his substitute, died. This would (a) teach the heinousness of sin that it needed the sacrifice of life, (b) beget hatred for sin upon which Jehovah thus placed Divine displeasure.
By act of faith we must lay our hand upon the sacred head of Christ, and have a personal interest in His life and death.—F. W. B.
Lev_3:3.—Theme: GOD’S POSITIVE COMMANDS. “And he shall,” &c.
God’s commands to Israel peremptory. How they were to worship, what they were to sacrifice, arbitrarily stated. Though commands are imperious, people are under moral obligations to obey. No room for option or exception when precept associated with unequivocal “shall.” Such commands—
I. EXHIBIT THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE LORD He has right to command without giving reasons or explanations. He has right to do what He pleases with His own.
II. EXERCISE THE FAITH AND PATIENCE OF THE WORSHIPPERS. To obey precepts the reasons for which were hidden would show greater confidence and resignation than were reasons seen.
III. EXALT THE OBEDIENCE OF THE LIFE. The people not required to offer that which cost them nothing, or they would have had mean ideas of worship. God demands large things of us, and “blessed are they that do His commandments.”—F. W. B
Lev_3:8.—Theme: PEACE ASSOCIATED WITH PENITENCE AND PRAYER. “He shall lay his hand upon the head of his offering.”
Until sin is pardoned there can be no real peace, no real enjoyment of the Divine presence. This truth comes out in all the offerings, for every sacrifice was to be the symbol of the broken and contrite heart of the offerer. God was pleased with the sufferings of the victims slain and the savour of their burning carcasses only as they represented the self-surrender of the worshipper, and the incense of holy prayer ascending from the penitent spirit.
I. In the peace offering the offerer acknowledged his guilt. As he laid his hand upon the head of the victim at the Tabernacle door he owned that he was guilty and deserved to die. It would be a public confession of guilt and the need of atonement for offences.
II. In the peace offering the offerer transferred his guilt. God accepted a substitute for the guilty one who deserved to die. Probable that the Hebrews felt more was included in their offerings than they could then see, that they pointed to a greater sacrifice yet to be offered in God’s good time, upon whom would be laid the iniquity of us all.
The privileges associated with Peace offerings would awaken praise. The offerer would stand in the attitude of prayer, as with eyes lifted to Heaven he presented his oblation; he would be filled with praise, as in the house of the Lord he enjoyed peaceful communion. When we commune with God, let us blend penitence, prayer, and praise, remembering blessings received, anticipating blessings to come. With such sacrifices God is well pleased, and in association with them he imparts his own peace, which passeth all understanding.—F W. B.
Lev_3:5—Theme: SUCCESSION IN SACRIFICES. “Burn it on the altar upon the burnt sacrifice, which is upon the wood that is on the fire.”
There is order established by God in—
I. THE SUCCESSIVE SACRIFICIAL OFFERINGS REQUIRED.
1. First on the altar must be laid the burnt offering, which must “all” be burnt, for God required complete consecration of Christ in death to satisfy the fire of His holiness, the demands of His righteous law.
2. Then follows the meat offering, which signifies the presentation of the best and richest life in substitution for man. It asserted His requirement of the first and finest qualities of humanity. Christ must offer His perfect manhood in living form as an obedience offering. Which means, that when God’s holiness finds satisfaction in Christ’s death, Jehovah still demands the full offering of the redeemed man’s living obedience.
3. The peace sacrifice then may be presented, and the man who has satisfied Justice in the death of Christ, and yielded obedience in the life of Christ, may enter into fellowship and peace through Christ. [See Addenda, p. 38, Terms of Peace.]
II. THE SUCCESSIVE SPIRITUAL ATTAINMENTS REACHED.
1. Whole surrender to God. The burnt offering required and enforced that attainment. The redeemed soul lays itself wholly on the altar, is wholly consumed in dedication to God.
2. Perfectness of character; the excellencies of obedience, pure uncorruptness of heart; the submissiveness of will. These are reached in succession, and are suggested in the meat offering.
3. Fellowship with God. Feasting in the blessedness of peace and acceptance with Him in and through Christ Jesus. “O God I will praise Thee, for though Thou wast angry with me, Thine anger is turned away, and Thou comfortest me.”
III. THE SUCCESSIVE REALISATIONS OF CHRISTIAN PRIVILEGE.
1. Acceptance. That is assured as the fruit of the burnt offering. It is offered “for acceptance” (see on Lev_1:5), and God does accept the entire sacrifice for atonement.
2. Spiritual graces. The beauties of Christ become ours; the charms of the anointing Spirit rest on us. “The frankincense, oil, salt,” etc.
3. Joyous communion with God. Raised into blissful privilege, feasting with the Lord and His priests. “Truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.”
IV. THE SUCCESSIVE RELIGIOUS OBLIGATIONS URGED.
Not fellowship and privilege first, but first entire dedication.
Then cultivation of spiritual excellencies.
Following these comes glad fellowship with heaven.
Lev_3:16.—Theme: GOD DESERVES AND DEMANDS THE BEST. “All the fat is the Lord’s.”
I. Not the mere bones of rigid formalism.
II. Not the mere sinews of strenuous observances.
III. Not the mere skin of outward profession.
IV. Not the mere blood of ardent enthusiasm, but the—
V. “Fat”—the richest, fullest, best that we can offer: not lean, shrivelled work or worship, but “the fat for the Lord,” the most prime and precious we can procure. Let us give our youth and strength, our richest love and fullest fervour to Him who is worthy of all.—F. W. B.
Lev_3:17.—Theme: OBEDIENCE THE TEST OF FAITH. “It shall be a perpetual statute.”
It would require faith to constantly obey, for the offerings would seem to be—
I. AN INFLICTION OF NEEDLESS PAIN.
II. A WASTE OF VALUABLE LIFE.
III. UNEQUAL TO THE END DESIGNED:—that there should be any correspondence between the physical suffering of brutes and atonement for moral guilt of man.
We cannot formulate a rationale of the great Peace offering presented in the Gospel. It is beset with formidable difficulties Faith, not reason, must lead us to the Cross, the hand of simple trust must appropriate the blessings of salvation.
Note: The CULPABILITY OF DISOBEDIENCE.
To omit obedience to the statutes of Jehovah was sin, because of transgression of His law.
Omission would spring from
(1) indifference,
(2) independence,
(3) disloyalty,
(4) rebellion. So now to invitations and commands of Gospel. Christ taught that sins of omission were culpable and condemnatory. The rich man in the parable omitted to care for Lazarus. The man who did not use his talent was punished. The wicked in the day of judgment are represented as being punished for omissions (Mat_25:31-46).—F. W. B.
ILLUSTRATIVE ADDENDA TO CHAPTER 3
SACRIFICES OF PEACE. “They were either intended to testify thankfulness for blessings already received, in which view they are called ‘thank offerings’ in Coverdale’s translation; or were else votive, being offered with prayer for future blessings. No doubt they were sometimes both in one … Only the fat parts were consumed on the altar. A small portion was appropriated to the priest the rest being allowed to the offerer and his guests as an offering feast. Whence Dr. Boothroyd, following Michaelis, prefers to translate Shelamim by ‘feast sacrifice’ rather than ‘peace offering.’ ”—Kitto.
PEACE OF THE GOSPEL. It is a great mercy to have the Gospel of peace, but it is far greater to have the peace of the Gospel.
BLESSEDNESS OF PEACE. “If joy be love exulting, peace is joy reposing. It is love in the green pastures and beside the still waters.”—Dr. James Hamilton.
Father of life and light! Thou good Supreme!
Save me from folly, vanity and vice,
From every low pursuit; and feed my soul
With knowledge, conscious peace, and virtue pure,
Sacred, substantial, never-fading bliss!
THOMSON’S Seasons.
ON EARTH PEACE. “People are always expecting to get peace in heaven; but you know whatever peace they get there will be ready made. Whatever, of making peace they can be blest for, must be on the earth here.”—RUSKIN, Eagle’s Nest.
TERMS OF PEACE
“The consciousness of faith of sins forgiven,
Of wrath appeased, of heavy guilt thrown off,
Sheds on my breast its long-forgotten peace.”
L. J. HALL, Miriam.
THANKSGIVING. “Praise is the rent we owe to God, and the larger the farm the larger the rent. The Lord has many fine farms from which He receives little rent. Thanksgiving is a good thing; thanks-living is better.”—P. HENRY.
Life work. “Let not thy praises be transient—a fit of music, and then the instrument hung by the wall till another gaudy day of some remarkable providence make thee take it down. God comes not guest wise to His saints’ house, but to dwell with them. David took this up for a life work: ‘As long as I live I will praise thee.’ ”—Gurnall.
Constant. “There was a beautiful tradition among the Jews which Lancisius quotes from Philo. It is to this effect: When God had created the world, He asked the angels what they thought of the work of His hands. One of them replied that it was so vast and perfect that only one thing was wanting to it, namely that there should be created a clear, mighty and harmonious voice, which should fill all the quarters of the world incessantly with its sweet sound, thus day and night to offer thanksgiving to its Maker.”—F. W. FABER.
“And touched their golden harps, and hymning praised
God and His works.”
MILTON, Paradise Lost.
“Now God be praised, that to believing souls
Gives light in darkness, comfort in despair.”
Henry VI. ii. 3, § 1.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 The Peace Offering
The Peace Offering
This form of sacrifice takes its name from a Heb. word meaning a 'requital' or giving of thanks, and is therefore called by some the Thank Offering. It is an animal sacrifice, the characteristic feature of which is the disposal of the carcase. The kidneys and the internal fat, and, in the case of sheep, the fat tail also, are offered to God by burning upon the altar (Lev_3:3-5). The choice parts, the breast and the right thigh, fall to the lot of the priests after being dedicated to God in a peculiar way by waving them before Him (see on Lev_7:28-34). The rest of the flesh is eaten by the offerer and his family at a sacrificial meal (Lev_7:15-16). The Peace Offering represents, it is thought, the earliest form of sacrifice, in which the Deity and the worshippers exhibit their good relationship by sharing a common meal. It is therefore the sacrifice expressive of harmony between God and His people. It is a feast of communion: see e.g. Exo_24:9-11.
Read full note →
2. Lay his hand] see on Lev_1:4; Whereas at this point in the sacrifice of a burnt offering, the offerer made a confession of his sins, in the case of the peace offering he uttered a prayer of thanksgiving. This indicates the difference in the signification of the two sacrifices.
3. The internal fat, along with the blood, is regarded as the seat of life and possessing a peculiar sanctity. It must, therefore, never be eaten by man, but always offered to God by burning: see Exo_23:18; Exo_29:13; Lev_3:16-17; Lev_7:22-27; Lev_17:10-16.
4. Caul above the liver] see Exo_29:18.
5. Upon the burnt sacrifice] There would always be some portion of the daily burnt sacrifice smouldering upon the altar. The peace offering is to be laid upon it. The fire never went out: see Lev_6:9, Lev_6:12, Lev_6:13.
9. The whole rump] RV 'the fat tail entire': see on Exo_29:22.
11. Food of the offering] a general epithet applied to sacrifices: cp. Lev_21:6; Lev_22:25; Num_28:2, Num_28:24; Eze_44:7; Mal_1:7 (where the altar is called the 'table of the Lord'). For a protest against this anthropomorphic conception of God as requiring food for His sustenance or delight see Psa_50:8-15.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv1, 4 The peace-offering. The whole work of Christ in relation…
peace-offering
The peace-offering. The whole work of Christ in relation to the believer’s peace is here in type. He made peace, Col 1:20 proclaimed peace, Eph 2:17 and is our peace, Eph 2:14.
Read full note →
In Christ God and the sinner meet in peace; God is propitiated, the sinner reconciled-- both alike satisfied with what Christ has done. But all this at the cost of blood and fire. The details speak of fellowship. This brings in prominently the thought of fellowship with God through Christ. Hence the peace-offering is set forth as affording food for the priests Lev 7:31-34. Observe that it is the breast (affections) and shoulders (strength) upon which we as priests 1Pe 2:9 feed in fellowship with the Father. This it is which makes the peace-offering especially a thank-offering. Lev 7:11; Lev 7:12.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 3. The Peace Offering
3. The Peace Offering
CHAPTER 3
Read full note →
1. The ox (Lev 3:1-5)
2. The sheep or goat (Lev 3:6-17)
This is the third “sweet savour offering,” and is closely linked with the burnt offering, but it differs from it, especially, in that part of it was to be eaten. The peace offering also had the character of a thank offering (Lev 7:11-13). As it was offered on the altar upon the burnt sacrifice, it cannot therefore be separated from Christ offering Himself as the burnt offering. Lev 7:11-34 contains the law of the peace offering and tells of the eating of the peace offering, which is not mentioned in the third chapter. It typifies the gracious results accomplished for the sinner by the death of Christ. The blood is sprinkled upon the altar, which is for propitiation. Fellowship therefore results with praise and thanksgiving. As we shall learn more fully from the seventh chapter about the feeding upon the breast and the shoulder of the peace offering, we pass all this by. However, we call attention to the prominence given to the fat of the sacrifice. It is the type of the inward energy of Christ, expressed in doing the Father’s will, even unto death; and this is called “the food of Jehovah.” He delights in this. The happy scene of how the priests, the offerer and his friends partook of that of which God partakes Himself, we shall see later.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv1, 6, 12 Of the Herd
Of the Herd
v. 1. And if his oblation be a sacrifice of peace-offering, if he offer it of the herd, whether it be a male or female, he shall offer it without blemish before the Lord. The designation "peace-offering" seems to have been the more general term, for these sacrifices included also the thank-offerings and the salvation-offerings. Another division is that into thanksgiving, vow, and free-will offerings, Lev 7:11-18. Some peace-offerings were made in times of distress, the idea associated with them being that of supplication for divine help, Jdg 20:26; Jdg 21:4; 1Sa 13:9; 2Sa 14:25.
Read full note →
v. 2. And he shall lay his hand upon the head of his offering, in the act which declared the animal to be the substitute for the worshiper in the sacrifice, and kill it at the door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation; and Aaron’s sons, the priests, shall sprinkle the blood upon the altar round about, for the purpose of atonement.
v. 3. And he shall offer of the sacrifice of the peace-offering an offering made by fire unto the Lord, certain parts of the animal offered for the purpose of establishing a closer fellowship with God were to be burned on the altar of burnt offering; the fat that covereth the inwards, the large net of adipose membrane in the abdominal cavity, and all the fat that is upon the inwards, that which is only loosely attached to the intestines and may be peeled off without difficulty,
v. 4. and the two kidneys, and the fat that is on them, which is by the flanks, attached to the muscles in the upper pelvic cavity, and the caul above the liver, the small net of adipose membrane extending from the liver to the kidneys, with the kidneys, that is, together with, or upon, the kidneys, as they lay in position, it shall he take away from the rest of the animal.
v. 5. And Aaron’s sons shall burn it, these fatty parts with the kidneys, on the altar upon the burnt sacrifice, which is upon the wood that is on the fire; it is an offering made by fire, of a sweet savor unto the Lord, well-pleasing to Him if made in the right manner, if brought in true faith. These offerings were brought upon, that is, after the burnt offerings of the day.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 3, 6, 9, 12, 15 General Information:
General Information:
Moses continues telling the people what Yahweh wants them to do.
Read full note →
before Yahweh
"in the presence of Yahweh" or "to Yahweh"
lay his hand on the head
This is a symbolic action that identifies the person with the animal he is offering. In this way the person is offering himself to Yahweh through the animal. See how you translated this in Leviticus 1:4. (See: Symbolic Action)
Aaron's sons the priests will sprinkle its blood
It is implied that before they sprinkle the blood, they catch blood in a bowl as the it drains from the animal. (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
translationWords
fellowship offering
flocks
blemish
Yahweh
tent of meeting
Aaron
son
priest
blood
altar
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 4, 5, 6, 9, 11, 12, 17 3:1-17 The peace offering (Hebrew shelem) expressed worship through…
3:1-17 The peace offering (Hebrew shelem) expressed worship through fellowship with the Lord and with others. The Hebrew word is from the same root as shalom, which speaks of wholeness, well-being, harmony, and peace. Shalom means more than a cessation of hostilities between God and the worshiper; it implies a bond of harmonious fellowship. The peace offering was therefore a shared meal celebrating fellowship with God and others (cp. Exod 18:12; 24:9-11; 1 Sam 9:15-24). It could be presented as an expression of thanks (Lev 7:12-15), as a voluntary offering, or in fulfillment of a vow (7:16-18; 22:21). Peace offerings often followed whole burnt offerings (e.g., 1 Kgs 9:25), showing that fellowship with God follows atonement. When we have experienced atonement through Christ, we are able to be at peace with God and with each other (see Acts 2:42; 10:36; Rom 5:1; 1 Cor 10:16; 11:17-34; 2 Cor 5:18-21).
3:1 a male or a female: The whole burnt offering allowed only the use of male animals because it made atonement (1:3, 10). The less formal peace offering permitted both male and female animals (see also 4:28, 32). • no defects: The sacrificial animals had to be healthy. The only exception was the voluntary offering, for which a slight blemish was permissible (22:23).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.