So various were the requirements of the work on hand. Each man"s gift was needed, and each in its place was equally necessary. The jewels on the high-priest"s breastplate were no more nor less essential than the wood that made some peg for a curtain, or than the cheap goat"s-hair yarn that was woven into the coa.r.s.e cloth flung over the roof of the Tabernacle to keep the wet out. All had equal consecration, because all made one whole. All was equally precious, if all was given with the same spirit. So there is room for all sorts of work in Christ"s great house, where there are not only "vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth," and all "unto honour ... meet for the Master"s use." The smallest deed that co-operates to a great end is great. "The more feeble are necessary." Every one may find a corner where his special possession will work into the general design. If I have no jewels to give, I can perhaps find some s.h.i.ttim wood, or, if I cannot manage even that, I can at least spin some other person"s yarn, even though I have only a distaff, and not a loom to weave it in. Many of us can do work only when a.s.sociated with others, and can render best service by helping some more highly endowed. But all are needed, and welcomed, and honoured, and rewarded. The owner of all the slaves sets one to be a water-carrier, and another to be his steward. It is of little consequence whether the servant be Paul or Timothy, the Apostle or the Apostle"s helper. "He worketh the work of the Lord, as I also do," said the former about the latter. All who are a.s.sociated in the same service are on one level.
I remember once being in the treasury of a royal palace. There was a long gallery in which the Crown valuables were stored. In one compartment there was a great display of emeralds, and diamonds, and rubies, and I know not what, that had been looted from some Indian rajah or other. And in the next case there lay a common quill pen, and beside it a little bit of discoloured coa.r.s.e serge. The pen had signed some important treaty, and the serge was a fragment of a flag that had been borne triumphant from a field where a nation"s destinies had been sealed. The two together were worth a farthing at the outside, but they held their own among the jewels, because they spoke of brain-work and bloodshed in the service of the king. Many strangely conjoined things lie side by side in G.o.d"s jewel-cases. Things which people vulgarly call large and valuable, and what people still more vulgarly call small and worthless, have a way of getting together there. For in that place the arrangement is not according to what the thing would fetch if it were sold, but what was the thought in the mind and the emotion in the heart which gave it. Jewels and camel"s hair yarn and gold and silver are all ma.s.sed together. Wood is wanted for the Temple quite as much as gold and silver and precious stones.
So, whatever we have, let us bring that; and whatever we are, let us bring that. If we be poor and our work small, and our natures limited, and our faculties confined, it does not matter. A man is accepted "according to that he hath, and not according to that he hath not." G.o.d does not ask how much we have given or done, if we have given or done what we could. But He does ask how much we have kept back, and takes strict account of the unsurrendered possessions, the unimproved opportunities, the unused powers. He gives much who gives all, though his all be little; he gives little who gives a part, though the part be much. The motive sanctifies the act, and the completeness of the consecration magnifies it. "Great" and "small" are not words for G.o.d"s Kingdom, in which the standard is not quant.i.ty but quality, and quality is settled by the purity of the love which prompts the deed, and the consequent thoroughness of self-surrender which it expresses. Whoever serves G.o.d with a whole heart will render to Him a whole strength, and will thus bring Him the gifts which He most desires.
THE COPIES OF THINGS IN THE HEAVENS
"And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 2. On the first day of the first month shalt thou set up the tabernacle of the tent of the congregation. 3. And thou shalt put therein the ark of the testimony, and cover the ark with the vail. 4. And thou shalt bring in the table, and set in order the things that are to be set in order upon it; and thou shalt bring in the candlestick, and light the lamps thereof. 5. And thou shalt set the altar of gold for the incense before the ark of the testimony, and put the hanging of the door to the tabernacle. 6. And thou shalt set the altar of the burnt offering before the door of the tabernacle of the tent of the congregation.
7. And thou shalt set the laver between the tent of the congregation and the altar, and shalt put water therein.
8. And thou shalt set up the court round about, and hang up the hanging at the court gate. 9. And thou shalt take the anointing oil, and anoint the tabernacle, and all that is therein, and shalt hallow it, and all the vessels thereof: and it shall be holy. 10. And thou shalt anoint the altar of the burnt offering, and all his vessels, and sanctify the altar: and it shall be an altar most holy. 11. And thou shalt anoint the laver and his foot, and sanctify it. 12. And thou shalt bring Aaron and his sons unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and wash them with water. 13. And thou shalt put upon Aaron the holy garments, and anoint him, and sanctify him; that he may minister unto me in the priest"s office.
14. And thou shalt bring his sons, and clothe them with coats: 15. And thou shalt anoint them, as thou didst anoint their father, that they may minister unto me in the priest"s office; for their anointing shall surely be an everlasting priesthood throughout their generations.
16. Thus did Moses: according to all that the Lord commanded him, so did he."--EXODUS xl. 1-16.
The Exodus began on the night after the fourteenth day of the first month. The Tabernacle was set up on the first day of the first month; that is, one year, less a fortnight, after the Exodus. Exodus xix. 1 shows that the march to Sinai took nearly three months; and if to this we add the eighty days of Moses" seclusion on the mountain, we get about six months as occupied in preparing the materials for the Tabernacle. "Setting it up" was a short process, done in a day. The time specified was ample to get ready a wooden framework of small dimensions, with some curtains and coverings of woven stuffs. What a glad stir there would be in the camp on that New Year"s day, when the visible token of G.o.d"s dwelling in its midst first stood there! Our present purpose is simply to try to bring out the meaning of the Tabernacle and its furniture. It was both a symbol and a type; that is, it expressed in material form certain great religious needs and truths; and, just because it did so, it pointed onwards to the full expression and satisfaction of these in Christ Jesus and His gifts. In other words, it was a parable of the requisites for, and the blessings of, communion with G.o.d.
Note, then, first, the general lesson of the Tabernacle as a whole. Its name declares its meaning, "the tent of meeting" (Rev. Ver.). It was the meeting-place of G.o.d with man, as the name is explained in Exodus xxix. 42, "where I will meet with you, to speak there unto thee." It is also named simply "the dwelling"; that is, of G.o.d. It was pitched in the midst of the camp, like the tent of the king with his subjects cl.u.s.tered round him. Other nations had temples, like the solemn structures of Egypt; but this slight, movable sanctuary was a new thing, and spoke of the continual presence of Israel"s G.o.d, and of His loving condescension in sharing their wandering lives, and, like them, dwelling "within curtains." It was a visible representation of a spiritual fact for the then present; it was a parable of the inmost reality of communion between man and G.o.d; and it was, therefore, a prophecy both of the full realisation of His presence among men, in the temple of Christ"s body, and of the yet future communion of Heaven, which is set before us by the "great voice ... saying, Behold, the tabernacle of G.o.d is with men."
The threefold division into court of the worshippers, holy place for the priests, and holiest of all, was not peculiar to the Tabernacle. It signifies the separation which, after all nearness, must still exist.
G.o.d is unrevealed after all revelation; afar off, however near; shrouded in the utter darkness of the inmost shrine, and only approached by the priestly intercessor with the blood of the sacrifice.
Like all the other arrangements of the Sanctuary, the division of its parts declares a permanent truth, which has impressed itself on the worship of all nations; and it reveals G.o.d"s way of meeting the need by outward rites for the then present, and by the mediation of the great High-Priest in the time to come, whose death rent the veil, and whose life will, one day, make the holiest place in the heavens patent to our feet.
The enumeration of the furniture of the Tabernacle starts from the innermost shrine, and goes outward. It was fit that it should begin with G.o.d"s special abode. The "holy of holies" was a tiny chamber, closed in from light, the form, dimensions, materials, and furniture of which were all significant. It measured ten cubits, or fifteen feet, every way, thereby expressing, in its cubical form and in the predominance of the number ten, stability and completeness. It will be remembered that the same cubical form is given to the heavenly city, in the Apocalypse, for the same reason. There, in the thick darkness, unseen by mortals except for the one approach of the high-priest on the day of atonement, dwelt the "glory" which made light in the darkness, and flashed on the gold which covered all things in the small shrine.
Our lesson does not speak of cherubim or mercy-seat, but specifies only the ark of the testimony. This was a small chest of acacia wood, overlaid with gold, and containing the two tables of the law, which were called the testimony, as bearing witness to Israel of G.o.d"s will concerning their duty, and as therein bearing witness, too, of what He is. Nor must the other part of the witness-bearing of the law be left out of view,--that it testifies against the transgressors of itself.
The ark was the centre-point of the divine revelation, the very throne of G.o.d; and it is profoundly significant that its sole contents should be the tables of stone. Egyptian arks contained symbols of their G.o.ds, degrading, b.e.s.t.i.a.l, and often impure; but the true revelation was a revelation, to the moral sense, of a Being who loves righteousness.
Other faiths had their mysteries, whispered in the inmost shrine, which shunned the light of the outer courts; but here the revelation within the veil was the same as that spoken on the house-tops. Our lesson does not refer to the "mercy seat," which covered the ark above, and spoke the need for, and the provision of, a means whereby the witness of the law against the worshipper"s sins should be, as it were, hid from the face of the enthroned G.o.d. The veil which is referred to in verse 3 was that which hung between the holy of holies and the holy place. It did not "cover the ark," as the Authorised Version unfortunately renders, but "screened" it, as the Revised Version correctly gives it. It blazed with colour and embroidered figures of cherubim. No doubt, the colours were symbolical; but it is fancy, rather than interpretation, which seeks meanings beyond splendour in the blue and purple and crimson and white which were blended in its gorgeous folds. What is it which hangs, in ever-shifting hues, between man and G.o.d? The veil of creation, embroidered by His own hand with beauty and life, which are symbolised in the cherubim, the types of the animate creation. The two divisions of the Tabernacle, thus separated by the veil, correspond to earth and heaven; and that application of the symbol is certainly intended, though not exclusively.
We step, then, from the mystery of the inner shrine out to the comparatively inferior sacredness of the "holy place," daily trodden by the priests. Three articles stand in it: the table for the so-called shew-bread, the great lampstand, and the golden altar of incense. Of these, the altar was in the midst, right in the path to the holiest place; and on the right, looking to the veil, the table of shew-bread; while on the left was the lampstand. These three pieces of furniture were intimately connected with each other, and represented various aspects of the spiritual character of true worshippers. The holy place was eminently the people"s, just as the most holy place was eminently G.o.d"s. True, only the priests entered it; but they did so on behalf of the nation. We may expect, therefore, to find special reference to the human side of worship in its equipments; and we do find it. Of the three articles, the altar of incense was in idea, as in locality, the centre; and we consider it first, though it stands last in our list, suggesting that, in coming from the most holy place, the other two would be first encountered. The full details of its construction and use are found in Exodus x.x.x. Twice a day sweet incense was burned on it, and no other kind of sacrifice was permitted; but once a year it was sprinkled, by the high priest, with expiatory blood. The meaning is obvious. The symbolism of incense as representing prayer in frequent in Scripture, and most natural. What could more beautifully express the upward aspirations of the soul, or the delight of G.o.d in these, than the incense sending up its wreaths of fragrant smoke? Incense gives no fragrance nor smoke till it is kindled; and the censer has to be constantly swung to keep up the glow, without which there will be no "odour of a sweet smell." So cold prayers are no prayers, but are scentless, and unapt to rise. The heart must be as a coal of fire, if the prayer is to come up before G.o.d with acceptance. Twice a day the incense was kindled; and all day long, no doubt, it smouldered, "a perpetual incense before the Lord." So, in the life of true communion, there should be daily seasons of special devotion, and a continual glow. The position of the altar of incense was right in the line between the altar of burnt offering, in the outer court, and the entrance to the holiest place; by which we are taught that acceptable prayer follows on reconciliation by sacrifice, and leads into "the secret place of the Most High." The yearly atonement for the altar taught that evil imperfection cleaves to all our devotion, which needs and receives the sprinkling of the blood of the great sacrifice.
The great seven-branched candlestick, or lampstand, stood on the right of the altar, as the priest looked to the most holy place. Its meaning is plain. It is an emblem of the Church as recipient and communicative of light, in all the applications of that metaphor, to a dark world. As the sacred lamps streamed out their hospitable rays into the desert all the night, so G.o.d"s servants are lights in the world. The lamps burned with derived light, which had to be fed as well as kindled. So we are lighted by the touch of the great Aaron, and His gentle hand tends the smoking wick, and nourishes it to a flame. We need the oil of the Spirit to sustain the light. The lamp was a cl.u.s.tered light, representing in its metal oneness the formal and external unity of Israel. The New Testament unity is of a better kind. The seven candlesticks are made one because He walks in the midst, not because they are welded on to one stem.
Consistency of symbolism requires that the table of shew-bread should, like the altar and the candlestick, express some phase of true worship.
Its interpretation is less obvious than that of the other two. The name means literally "bread of the face"; that is, bread presented to, and ever lying before, G.o.d. There are two explanations of the meaning. One sees in the offering only a devout recognition of G.o.d as the author of material blessing, and a rendering to Him of His gifts of outward nourishment. In this case, the shew-bread would be anomalous, a literality thrust into the midst of symbolism. The other explanation keeps up the congruity, by taking the material bread, which is the result of G.o.d"s blessing on man"s toil, as a symbol of the spiritual results of G.o.d"s blessing on man"s spiritual toil, or, in other words, of practical righteousness or good works, and conceives that these are offered to G.o.d, by a strong metaphor, as acceptable food. It is a bold representation, but we may quote "I will sup with him" as proof that it is not inadmissible; and it is not more bold than the declaration that our obedience is "an odour of a sweet smell." So the three pieces of furniture in the holy place spoke of the true Israel, when cleansed by sacrifice and in communion with G.o.d, as instant in prayer, continually raying out the light derived from Him, and zealous of good works, well-pleasing to G.o.d.
We pa.s.s outwards, through another veil, and stand in the court, which was always open to the people. There, before the door of the Tabernacle, was the altar of burnt offering. The order of our chapter brings us to it last, but the order of worship brought the worshipper to it first. Its distinctive character was that on it the blood of the slain sacrifices was offered. It was the place where sinful men could begin to meet with G.o.d, the foundation of all the communion of the inner sanctuary. We need not discuss mere details of form and the like.
The great lesson taught by the altar and its place, is that reconciliation is needed, and is only possible by sacrifice. As a symbol it taught every Israelite what his own conscience, once awakened, endorsed, that sin must be expiated before the sinner and G.o.d can walk in concord. As prophecy, it a.s.sured those whose hearts were touched with longing, that G.o.d would Himself "provide the lamb for the burnt offering," in some way as yet unknown. For us it is an intended prefiguration of the great work of Jesus Christ. "We have an altar." We need that altar at the beginning of our fellowship with G.o.d, as much as Israel did. A Christianity which does not start from the altar of burnt offering will never get far into the holy place, nor ever reach that innermost shrine where the soul lives and adores, silent before the manifest G.o.d between the cherubim.
The laver, or basin, was intended for the priests" use, in washing hands and feet before ministering at the altar or entering the tabernacle. It teaches the necessity for purity, in order to priestly service.
Thus these three divisions of the Tabernacle and its court set forth the stages in the approach of the soul to G.o.d, beginning with the reconciling sacrifice and cleansing water, advancing to closer communion by prayer, impartation of light received, and offering of good works to G.o.d, and so entering within the veil into secret sweetnesses of union with G.o.d, which attains its completeness only when we pa.s.s from the holy place on earth to the most holy in the heavens.
The remainder of the text can only be glanced at in a sentence or two.
It consists of two parts: the consecration of the Tabernacle and its vessels by the anointing oil which, when applied to inanimate objects, simply devoted them to sacred uses, and the consecration of Aaron and his sons. A fuller account is given in Leviticus viii., from which we learn that it was postponed to a later period, and accompanied with a more elaborate ritual than that prescribed here. That consists of three parts: washing, as emblematic of communicated purity; robing, and anointing,--the last act signifying, when applied to men, their endowment with so much of the divine Spirit as fitted them for their theocratic functions. These three things made the "sanctifying," or setting apart for G.o.d"s service, of Aaron and his sons. He is consecrated alone, in order that his primacy may be clearly indicated.
He is consecrated by Moses as the higher; then the sons are consecrated with the same ceremonial, to indicate the hereditary priesthood, and the equality of Aaron"s successors with himself. "They truly were many priests, because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death," and provision for their brief tenure of office was embodied in the consecration of the sons by the side of the father. Their priesthood was only "everlasting" by continual succession of short-lived holders of the office. But the prediction which closes the text has had a fulfilment beyond these fleeting, shadowy priests, in Him whose priesthood is "everlasting" and "throughout all generations."
because "He ever liveth to make intercession" (Heb. vii. 25).
THE BOOK OF LEVITICUS
THE BURNT OFFERING A PICTURE AND A PROPHECY
"And the Lord called unto Moses, and spake unto him out of the tabernacle of the congregation, saying, 2. Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, If any man of you bring an offering unto the Lord, ye shall bring your offering of the cattle, even of the herd, and of the flock. 3. If his offering be a burnt-sacrifice of the herd, let him offer a male without blemish: he shall offer it of his own voluntary will, at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the Lord. 4. And he shall put his hand upon the head of the burnt-offering; and it shall be accepted for him, to make atonement for him. 5. And he shall kill the bullock before the Lord: and the priests, Aaron"s sons, shall bring the blood, and sprinkle the blood round about upon the altar that is by the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.
6. And he shall flay the burnt offering, and cut it into his pieces. 7. And the sons of Aaron the priest shall put fire upon the altar, and lay the wood in order upon the fire: 8. And the priests, Aaron"s sons, shall lay the parts, the head, and the fat, in order upon the wood that is on the fire which is upon the altar: 9. But his inwards and his legs shall he wash in water: and the priest shall burn all on the altar, to be a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the Lord."
--LEV. i. 1-9.
In considering the Jewish sacrificial system, it is important to distinguish the symbolical from the typical value of the sacrifices.
The former could scarcely be quite unnoticed by the offerers; but the latter was only gradually made plain, was probably never very generally seen, and is a great deal clearer to us, in the light of Christ, the Ant.i.type, than it could ever have been before His coming. As symbols, the sacrifices expressed great eternal truths as to spiritual worship and communion, its hindrances, requisites, manner, and blessings. They were G.o.d"s picture-book for these children in religious development. As types, they shadowed the work of Jesus Christ and its results.
The value of the sacrifices in either aspect is independent of modern questions as to their Mosaic origin; for at whatever period the Priest"s Code was promulgated, it equally bears witness to the ruling ideas of the offerings, and, in any case, it was long before Christ came, and therefore its prophecy of Him is as supernatural, whether Moses or Ezra were its author. I make this remark, not as implying that the new theory is not revolutionary, but simply as absolving a student of the religious significance of the sacrificial system from entering here on questions of date.
The "burnt offering" stands first in Leviticus for several reasons. It was derived from patriarchal times; it was offered twice daily, besides frequently on other occasions; and in its significance it expressed the complete consecration which should be the habitual state of the true worshipper. Its name literally means "that which ascends," and refers, no doubt, to the ascent of the transformed substance of the sacrifice in fire and smoke, as to G.o.d. The central idea of this sacrifice, then, as gathered from its name and confirmed by its manner, is that of the yielding of the whole being in self-surrender, and borne up by the flame of intense consecration to G.o.d. Very beautiful is the variety of material which was permitted. The poor man"s pair of pigeons went up with as sweet an odour as the rich man"s young bull. G.o.d delights in the consecration to Him of ourselves and our powers, no matter whether they be great or small, if only the consecration be thorough, and the whole being be wrapped in the transforming blaze.
It is worth while to try to realise the strange and to our eyes repulsive spectacle of the burnt offering, which is veiled from us by its sacred a.s.sociations. The worshipper leads up his animal by some rude halter, and possibly resisting, to the front of the Tabernacle, the courts of which he dared not tread, but which was to him the dwelling-place of G.o.d. There by the altar he stands, and, first pressing his hand with force on the victim"s head, he then, with one swift cut, kills it, and as the warm blood spouts from the mangled throat, the attendant priest catches it in a basin, and, standing at the two diagonally opposite corners of the altar in turn, dashes, with one dexterous twist, half of the contents against each, so as to wet two sides of the altar with one throw, and the other two with the other. The offerer then flays the reeking carcase, tossing the gory hide to the priest as his perquisite, and cuts up the sacrifice according to a fixed method. His part of the work is done, and he stands by with b.l.o.o.d.y hands while the priests arrange the pieces on the pile on the altar; and soon the odour of burning flesh and the thick smoke hanging over the altar tell that the rite is complete. What a scene it must have been when, as on some great occasions, hundreds of burnt offerings were offered in succession! The place and the attendants would look to us liker shambles and butchers than G.o.d"s house and worshippers.
Now, if we inquire into the significance of the offering, it turns on two points--expiation and burning. The former it has in common with other b.l.o.o.d.y sacrifices, though it presents features of its own, even in regard to expiation. But the latter is peculiar to it, and must therefore be taken to be its special teaching. The stages in the whole process are five: the presentation, laying on of hands, slaughter, sprinkling of blood, and burning of the whole carcase. The first three are alike in this and other sacrifices, the fourth is modified here, and the last is found here only. Each has its lesson. The offerer has himself to bring the animal to the door of the Tabernacle, that he may show his willing surrender of a valuable thing. As he stands there with his offering, his thoughts would pa.s.s into the inner shrine, where G.o.d dwelt; and he would, if he were a true worshipper, feel that while G.o.d, on His part, already dwelt in the midst of the people, he, on the other hand, can only enter into the enjoyment of His presence by sacrifice.
The offering was to be "a male without blemish"; for bodily defect symbolising moral flaw could not be tolerated in the offerings to a holy G.o.d, who requires purity, and will not be put off with less than a man"s best, be it ox or pigeon. "The torn and the lame and the sick,"
which Malachi charged his generation with bringing, are neither worthy of G.o.d to receive nor of us to offer. When he pressed his hand on the head of the sacrifice, what was the worshipper meant to think? In all other instances where hands are laid on, some transference or communication of gifts or qualities is implied; and it is natural to suppose that the same meaning attaches to the act here, with such modifications as the case requires. We find that it was done in other b.l.o.o.d.y sacrifices, accompanied with confession. Nothing is said of confession here; but we cannot dismiss the idea that the offerer laid his sins on the victim by that striking act, especially as the very next clause says "it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him." The atonement was made, as we shall see, by the application of the blood to the altar; but the possibility of the victim"s blood atoning for the offerer depended on his having laid his hands on its head. We may perhaps go farther than "transference of sins." Might we not widen the expression, and say "identification," or, to use a word which has become so worn by religious controversy that it slips through our fingers unnoticed, "subst.i.tution"? Did not the offerer say in effect, by that act, "This is I? This animal life shall die, as I ought to die. It shall go up as a sweet savour to Jehovah, as my being should."
The animal invested with this representative character is next to be slain by the offerer, not by the priest, who only performed that part of the ritual in the case of national or public sacrifices. That was distinctly a vicarious death; and, as inflicted by the hand of the person represented by the animal, he thereby acknowledged that its death was the wages of his sin, and allowed the justice of his condemnation, while he presented this innocent life--innocent because not that of a moral being--as his subst.i.tute. So far the worshipper"s part goes. But now, when the act of expiation is to be symbolically represented, and, so far as outward sacrifice could, is to be accomplished, another actor appears. The priest comes forward as mediator between G.o.d and man, and applies the blood to the altar. The difference between the sprinkling of the blood, in the burnt offerings and in the other sacrifices, which had expiation for their princ.i.p.al object, in some of which it was smeared on the horns of the altar, and, in the most solemn of all, was carried into the holiest place, and sprinkled on the mercy-seat, suggests that the essential character of the burnt offering was not expiatory, though expiation was the foundation on which alone the essential character could be reared. The application of the blood was the formal act by which atonement was made. The word rendered "to make atonement" means "to cover"; and the idea conveyed is that the blood, which is the life of the sacrifice, covers the sins of the offerer, so as to make them powerless to dam back the love or to precipitate the wrath of G.o.d.
With this act the expiatory portion of the ritual ends, and we may here pause to look back for a moment on it as a whole. We have pointed out the double bearings of the Mosaic ritual as symbolical and as typical or prophetic. In the former aspect, the emphatic teaching of this rite is that "the wages of sin is death," that "without shedding of blood there is no remission," that G.o.d has appointed sacrifice as the means of entering into fellowship with Him, and that subst.i.tution and vicarious penalty are facts in His government. We may like or dislike these thoughts; we may call them gross, barbarous, immoral, and the like, but, at all events, we ought not to deny that they are ingrained in the Mosaic sacrificial system, which becomes unmeaning elaboration of empty and often repulsive ceremonies, if they are not recognised as its very centre. Of course, the meaning of the sacrifices was hidden from many a worshipper. They became opaque instead of transparent, and hid the great truth which they were meant to reveal. All forms labour under that disadvantage; but that they were significant in design, and largely so to devout hearts in effect, admits of no reasonable doubt.
That which they signified was chiefly the putting away of sin by the sacrifice of innocent life, which stood in the place of the guilty. Of course, too, their benefit was symbolical, and the blood of bulls and goats could never put away sin; but, under the shelter of the outward forms, a more spiritual insight gradually grew up, such as breathes in many a psalm, and such as, we cannot doubt, filled the heart of many a worshipper, as he stood by the bleeding sacrifice on which his own hands had laid the burden that had weighed so heavy on himself. How far the prophetic aspect of the sacrifices was discerned, is a more difficult question. But this at least we know--that the highest level of evangelical prophecy, in Isaiah"s wonderful fifty-third chapter, is reached from this vantage-ground. It is the flower of which these ordinances are the root. We need not enlarge upon the prophetic aspect of the sacrifice. The mere negative sinlessness of the victim points to the "Lamb without blemish and without spot," on whom, as Isaiah says, in language dyed through and through with sacrificial references, "the Lord hath made to meet the iniquity of us all," and who Himself makes "His soul an offering for sin." The modern tendency to bring down the sacrificial system to a late date surely sins against the sacred and all-explaining law of evolution, in the name of which it is attempted, inasmuch as it is an unheard-of thing for the earlier stages of a religion to be less clogged with ceremonial than the later. Psalmist and prophet first, and priest afterwards, is not the order of development.
The remaining part of the ritual was, as we have pointed out, peculiar to the burnt offering. In it alone the whole of the sacrifice was consumed on the altar, with the exceptions of the skin, which was given to the priest, and of the contents of the intestines. Hence it was sometimes called "a whole burnt offering." The meaning of this provision may be apprehended if we note that the word rendered "burn,"
in verse 9, is not that which simply implies destruction by fire, but is a peculiar word, reserved for sacrificial burnings, and meaning "to cause to ascend in smoke or vapour." The gross flesh was, as it were, refined into vapour and odour, and went up to G.o.d as "a sweet savour."
It expressed, therefore, the transformation of the sinful human nature of the worshipper, by the refining power of the fire of G.o.d, into something more ethereal and kindred with the heaven to which it rose.
Or, to put the thought in plainer words, on the basis of expiation, the glad surrender of the whole being is possible and will ensue; and when a man yields himself in joyful self-surrender to the G.o.d who has forgiven his sins, then the fire of the divine Spirit is shed abroad in his heart, and kindles a flame which lays hold on all the gross, earthly elements of his being, and changes them into fire, kindred with itself, which aspires, in ruddy tongues of upward-leaping light, to the G.o.d to whom the heart has been surrendered, and to whom the whole being tends.
This is the purpose of expiation; this is the summit of all religion.
One man has realised to the full, in his life, what the burnt offering taught as the goal for all worshippers. Jesus has lived in the constant exercise of perfect self-surrender, and in the constant unmeasured possession of "the Spirit of burning," with which He has come to baptize us all. If we look to Him as our expiation, we should also find in Him the power to yield ourselves "living sacrifices," and draw from Him the sacred and refining fire, which shall transform our grossness into His likeness, and make even us "acceptable to G.o.d, through Jesus Christ."
STRANGE FIRE
"And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the Lord, which He commanded them not. 2. And there went out fire from the Lord, and devoured them, and they died before the Lord. 3. Then Moses said unto Aaron, This is it that the Lord spake, saying, I will be sanctified in them that come nigh Me, and before all the people I will be glorified. And Aaron held his peace. 4. And Moses called Mishael and Elzaphan, the sons of Uzziel the uncle of Aaron, and said unto them, Come near, carry your brethren from before the sanctuary out of the camp. 5. So they went near, and carried them in their coats out of the camp; as Moses had said. 6. And Moses said unto Aaron, and unto Eleazar and unto Ithamar, his sons. Uncover not your heads, neither rend your clothes; lest ye die, and lest wrath come upon all the people: but let your brethren, the whole house of Israel, bewail the burning which the Lord hath kindled. 7. And ye shall not go out from the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die: for the anointing oil of the Lord is upon you. And they did according to the word of Moses. 8. And the Lord spake unto Aaron, saying, 9. Do not drink wine nor strong drink, thou, nor thy sons with thee, when ye go into the tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations; 10. And that ye may put difference between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean; 11. And that ye may teach the children of Israel all the statutes which the Lord hath spoken unto them by the hand of Moses."--LEV. x. 1-11.
This solemn story of sin and punishment is connected with the preceding chapter by a simple "and." Probably, therefore, Nadab and Abihu "offered strange fire," immediately after the fire from Jehovah had consumed the appointed sacrifice. Their sin was aggravated by the time of its being committed. But a week had pa.s.sed since the consecration of their father and themselves as priests. The first sacrifices had just been offered, and here, in the very blossoming time, came a vile canker. If such licence in setting aside the prescriptions of the newly established sacrificial order a.s.serted itself then, to what lengths might it not run when the first impression of sanct.i.ty and of G.o.d"s commandment had been worn by time and custom? The sin was further aggravated by the sinners being priests, who were doubly obliged to punctilious adherence to the inst.i.tuted ritual. If they set the example of contempt, would not the people better (or, rather, worsen) their instruction?
Unquestionably, their punishment was awfully severe. But we shall entirely misconceive their sin if we judge it by our standards. We are not dependent on forms as Israel was, but the spiritual religion of Christianity was only made possible by the externalism of the older system. The sweet kernel would not have softened and become juicy without the shelter of the hard sh.e.l.l. Scaffolding is needed to erect a building; and he is not a wise man who either despises or would keep permanently standing the scaffold poles.