THE SACRIFICES UNDER THE LAW

THE SACRIFICES UNDER THE LAW The burnt offering, peace offering, sin offering, and trespass offering were bloody sacrifices, involving the slaying of oxen, sheep, goats, doves, and pigeons. The meat offerings were bloodless oblations, consisting of vegetable productions, such as corn, flour, meal, bread, cakes, oils, and salt. It was not, however, till the Israelites were settled in Canaan, that the whole Levitical law was binding on them or could possibly be obeyed. THE BURNT OFFERING The burnt offering was so called because, unlike all other forms of sacrifice, the whole of the body of the victims (the skin only excepted) was entirely consumed by the altar fire, and ascended in smoke to God. Only male animals were permitted to be offered as burnt sacrifices, it was however in the option of the offerer to bring any of the animals already named (Leviticus 1), according as his piety might prompt him, or his means might admit of. When an Israelite brought a bullock as his offering, he led it up to the tabernacle door, where the priests, arrayed in their robes of office, were in attendance; and if on examination they declared it to be without blemish, that is, free from any of the disqualifying defects enumerated in Leviticus 22:17-26, he was permitted to offer it to the Lord there, even before the entrance to the holy habitation. Death was the penalty for offering sacrifices elsewhere. This was in order to prevent idolatry. After putting his hand on the head of the victim, and by that solemn act devoting it to the Lord as his substitute or representative, he slew it, probably on the north side of the altar (Leviticus 1:11), the officiating priest receiving the blood, and sprinkling it around the under part of the altar. The sacrificer then skinned and cut up the carcass, in which duty he may have been assisted by Levites. The legs and inward were washed with water and sprinkled with salt, and all the parts of the body (some say in nearly their natural order) were laid on the altar by the priest, and the whole being consumed by the fire, ascended in smoke to God, to whom it was of a sweet savor. The sprinkling of blood, and the laying of the parts of the victim on the altar, principally constituted the presenting of the sacrifice. A male sheep or goat brought as a burnt offering by an Israelite who may not have been able to afford a bullock, would be as acceptable as the latter, and was presented in the same manner, and with the like ceremonies. It is expressly said that the sheep or goat was slain on the north side of the altar. A turtle dove, or young pigeon, brought by a poor man, was as efficacious as the offering of his richer neighbor; so that the rich and the poor met on a level at the altar. The priest, not the offerer, killed and prepared the bird for the altar. This, probably, was with a view to save the blood, to effect which great care and much practice were necessary. The burnt offering was evidently intended to be an expiatory sacrifice—the victim bleeding, suffering, and dying for the sin of the offerer, in order that he might escape deserved punishment; “it was to make an atonement for him.” It was a self-dedicatory offering as well, and some are of opinion that self-dedication was pre-eminently its design—the entire body of the victim consumed on the altar being significant of the dedication of the offerer of himself to God. The reference in Romans 12:1, is evidently to the burnt offering, and helps to confirm this view. The sin offerings and trespass offerings, on the other hand, were preeminently expiatory sacrifices. When several offerings were presented to God on the same occasion, the sin offering always took precedence—thus seeming to teach, that the offerers were first reconciled to God by the expiatory sacrifice (the sin offering), before, by the burnt offering, they signified the dedication of themselves to Him (Leviticus 8:14-16; Leviticus 9:8-12; Leviticus 16:1-34). It is also worthy of notice that the first sacrifice offered on the altar was a sin offering. The following are a few of many passages seeming to teach that sin and sins were more intimately associated with sin offerings, than with burnt offerings (compare Leviticus 1 with Leviticus 4, 5, 6 : see Psalms 40:6; Hebrews 5:1; Hebrews 10:6; Leviticus 8:14-16; Leviticus 9:8-12; Leviticus 16:11-25).

Besides free-will burnt offerings, brought as individuals might be prompted, burnt offerings had to be offered by individuals at the removal of ceremonial uncleanness of different kinds (Leviticus 12:6; Leviticus 14:19). The following were the public burnt offerings: daily (Exodus 29:38); weekly (Numbers 28:9-10); monthly (Numbers 28:11-16); yearly (Numbers 28:16-26). The burnt offering as well as all the other animal sacrifices typified the atoning death of Christ; indeed, apart from His death, that of the various victims slain at the altar had no meaning. The self-dedicatory character of this offering was strikingly fulfilled in the life of Christ. His every word and act while on earth showed how entirely He was devoted to the will of His Father. “Not as I will, but as Thou wilt.” “My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me.” “Wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business? .... I have glorified Thee on the earth; I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do.” These were memorable utterances of Him whose life from the manger to the cross was one continual burnt offering.

Christians can in no sense fulfill the expiatory aspect of the burnt sacrifice. He who trod the “winepress alone,” has done this once for all by His atoning death. Their duty is to be constantly looking by faith to Him as crucified for them, and to be continually striving, in their daily life, to fulfill the self-dedicatory aspect of the offering. “Ye are bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.” “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” THE MEAT OFFERING When the Scriptures were translated into English, “meat” did not mean “flesh,” as it does now; it meant food in general. The following were varieties of meat offerings:—First, A meat offering of flour, upon which oil has been poured. Second, A meat offering baked in the oven, consisting of unleavened cakes of fine flour mingled with oil, or unleavened wafers anointed with oil. Third, A meat offering of fine flour unleavened, mingled with oil, and baked in a pan. When baked it was parted in pieces, and oil poured on it, the oil being used as butter is with us on bread. Fourth, A meat offering made of fine flour, with oil, and baked in the frying-pan. Fifth, A meat offering of first fruits—”green ears of corn dried by the fire,” with oil and frankincense (Leviticus 2). The offerer brought his offering—one or other of the foregoing—to the priest, who took a part of it, called a “memorial,” which he laid on the altar to be burned. What remained of the offerings, after the memorial or the Lord’s part was taken out of them, belonged to the priest. No honey or leaven was allowed to be mixed with the meat offerings (v. 11), but salt (v. 13) was applied to them all. Leaven, though useful in making bread, has a tendency to corruption. Leavened bread will only keep a few days at most, while unleavened bread will keep a long time. This, probably, was the reason that leaven was forbidden in the offerings. Salt has quite an opposite tendency; it is a powerful preservative, and as applied to the offerings, was designed to show the enduring nature of the covenant between God and the Hebrews. Drink offerings of wine commonly accompanied meat offerings. They were, however, never offered separately; and both formed part of the stated public sacrifices offered daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly (Numbers 28). By bringing a meat offering, an Israelite dedicated to God a part of the choicest of those temporal mercies constituting his daily bread, and by this act acknowledged that he was indebted to his Maker not only for that sample of His bounties, but for the stock, even for all that he possessed.

Although God did not stand in need of food, yet these gifts were of a sweet savor to Him, and His ministering servants were nourished by them—the greater portion going to them, it being only a small part (the “memorial” or God’s part) that was burned on the altar.

Christians should evince their gratitude to God for daily mercies, by bringing gifts and laying them on the New Testament altar. “To do good and to communicate forget not; for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.”

PEACE OFFERING

Peace offerings were taken from the herd or from the flock, and consisted of the same kind of animals that formed the burnt offerings, and, like them, required to be without blemish; they might, however, either be male or female (Leviticus 3). They were slain and skinned, and their blood sprinkled in the same manner as the burnt offerings, but only the fatty parts were burned. The priests got the breast and the right shoulder (Leviticus 7:31-34), which, from the peculiar way they had to present these to the Lord, the one being lifted or heaved up and down, and the other waved to and fro from right to left in the air (Leviticus 7:30; Leviticus 7:32), were called the “heave” and “wave” offerings. All that remained of the carcass belonged to the offerer, who might invite his friends and the poor to feast on it along with him. The priests ate their own portion, and the altar fire devoured God’s part. The offering being thus shared among these three parties, and each of them partaking of it, signified their being at peace and holding communion together, hence the offering is appropriately call a peace offering. Peace offerings of a national character, and on a grand scale, were sometimes offered (Leviticus 9:18; Joshua 8:31; 2 Samuel 6:17; 1 Kings 8:62, etc.).

Although this offering had an expiatory character, its main design does not appear to have been to make atonement for sins, nor to represent the self- dedication of the offerer to God, but rather to express thankfulness to God. Hence it is sometimes called a “thank offering.” An Israelite wishing to express thankfulness to God for mercies received, might do so by bringing a peace offering; or, if he wished to supplicate for blessings, he brought the same form of offerings, thus thanking God for past, while soliciting new favors. Peace offerings were evidently intended to keep alive in the bosoms of the Israelites the combined flame of gratitude, piety, and charity. THE SIN OFFERING AND THE TRESPASS OFFERING The “burnt offering” represented chiefly the dedication to God of a portion of the good things with which the offerer had been favored by providence; the “peace offering” was expressive of the offerer’s gratitude to God for mercies received, or of his desire or prayer for new ones. The “burnt offering’’ and the “peace offering” had also, as we have seen, an expiatory character, but this does not seem to have been their main feature. The main idea, however, of the “sin offering” and the “trespass offering” was that of expiation. These sacrifices were offered for the expiation of certain specified sins (Leviticus 4, 5, 6). THE SIN OFFERING The animals used for sin offerings, with the exception of birds, were the same as those for burnt offerings. The particular one, however, the offerer was required to bring was prescribed by law, yet with an obvious regard to his position in the commonwealth (Leviticus 4:3-28). The priest’s offering, —A priest who had committed any of the specified sins, brought a young bullock, without blemish (Leviticus 4:3-13), to the door of the tabernacle, and there, putting his hands on its head, confessed audibly (according to Jewish writers) the sin he was guilty of, and for which he desired it to make atonement. Having slain it, he carried its blood into the holy place, and there sprinkled the blood seven times before the veil of the sanctuary, rubbed some of it on each of the horns of the golden altar, and on returning to the court, poured out the residue at the foot of the brazen altar. After this, he took off from the carcass the fatty parts, and put them on the altar, where they were burned, and ascended in smoke to God. The fatty parts, next to the blood of the animal, were considered the most precious. All that remained (the head, the flesh, the legs, and the dung) he was required to carry (of course, with the assistance of the Levites) out of the court, and beyond the camp, to a clean place, where the ashes from the altar were poured out, and there burn them. The sin offering for the congregation.—The sin offering for the whole congregation was the same as that for the priest—a young bullock without blemish (Leviticus 4:13-22). It was brought by the representatives of the congregation, the elders, who put their hands on its head, confessing, as they did so, the particular sins of which the people had been guilty. It was slain either by the elders or the priest. The ceremony of sprinkling the blood, burning the fatty parts on the altar, and removing the remainder of the carcass beyond the camp, was the same as in the case of the priest’s offering. The ruler’s sin offering.—The ruler’s offering was a young he-goat (Leviticus 4:22-27). Having put his hands on its head, and confessed his sins over it, he slew it. The priest having received the blood, dipped his finger in it, and rubbed it on the horns of the altar of burnt offerings, and then poured out what was left at the foot of the altar. After this, he burned the fatty parts of the animal on the altar fire. What remained of the victim was not carried beyond the camp, as was the case with the priests’ and the congregation’s offering, but became the property of the priests, who feasted upon it in the holy place. The common person’s offering.—If one of the common people had sinned, the law prescribed for his offering either a young she-goat or a she-lamb (Leviticus 4:27-35). It was presented to God in the same way, and with the like ceremony as the ruler’s offering. The sprinkling of the blood before the veil, and the carrying of the carcass beyond the camp to be burned, in the cases of the priests’ and congregation’s offerings, were intended to denote that the sins of the priests were more heinous than the same sins committed by a private Israelite; and that the sins of a whole congregation were more heinous than the same sins when committed by a single individual. THE TRESPASS OFFERING

It is not easy to distinguish, in some cases, between the sins and offenses for which the law prescribed a “trespass offering” or a “sin offering” but you will find the particular sins for both classes of sacrifices enumerated in Leviticus 4, 5, , 6. “Sin offerings,’’ we have seen, might be brought by priest, congregation, ruler, or private person; trespass offerings, however, were only to be brought by individuals (Leviticus 5:1-19). The usual animal for a trespass offering was a young she-goat or she-lamb; but a poor person was permitted to bring two turtle doves or two young pigeons—the one to be offered as a trespass offering, and the other as a burnt offering; or if he were too poor to offer these, the law mercifully admitted of his bringing instead a meat offering of fine flour, which, however, was not regarded as a meat offering, but as a trespass offering, and hence had an expiatory character which the ordinary meat offering had not. Although a she-lamb or she-goat was the usual trespass offering, yet some trespasses, looked upon as peculiarly heinous, such as those “in the holy things of the Lord,” required the sacrificer to bring a ram. The sacrifices under the law effected the temporal remission of punishment, they could not, however, cleanse the soul from the guilt of sin, nor purchase spiritual and eternal blessings; for “it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins” (Hebrews 10:4; Hebrews 9:12-16). An Israelite who, by sinning, had incurred the penalty of death, provided he had not sinned presumptuously (that is, knowingly, willfully, and deliberately), on bringing the prescribed offering, was pardoned (Leviticus 4:20; Leviticus 4:26; Leviticus 4:31; Leviticus 4:35; Numbers 15:28, etc.); or, one who had become unclean either by violations of the ceremonial law or otherwise, and, in consequence, had been banished from the encampment, on bringing the prescribed sacrifice, was cleansed, and restored to his place in the congregation (Leviticus 13:46-59; Leviticus 14, 15; Numbers 12:15). And, in general, to the individual or nation sacrificing, as the case might be, were continued those distinguished temporal blessings and privileges which as a people the Hebrews enjoyed. To what extent the bulk of the nation understood the typical import of the sacrifices we are not informed; it cannot, however, be doubted that these sacrifices were means of grace to pious Israelites, who were sincerely striving after deliverance, not merely from temporal punishment of sin, but also from its spiritual and eternal penal consequences. Such Israelites had glimpses through these types of the coming Messiah, and by faith in Him as their sin offering to be sacrificed for them had their consciences purged from the guilt of sin by virtue of His atoning blood. Some, no doubt, had stronger faith, and saw with greater clearness than others. Job could say, “I know that my Redeemer liveth,” and the seraphic Isaiah depicted the great sacrifice as distinctly as if with his bodily eyes he had witnessed the crucifixion. The bloody sacrifices, and especially sin offerings, prefigured the offering of Christ for the sins of men. The animals were innocent, so was He who died, not for His own, but others’ sins. Some of them were not only innocent, but patient, meek, and gentle: and He whom they prefigured was meek and lowly. “He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He openeth not His mouth.” The animals were without blemish, and He whom they typified was “without spot, .... holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners.” The eyes, not of erring priests, but those of the all-seeing Jehovah, search the great Victim, and find no fault in Him; “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” The offerer put his hands on the head of the devoted animal, symbolically transferring his guilt to it. On Jesus hath been laid “the iniquity of us all.” The animals were slain. He is the Lamb of God “slain from the foundation of the world.” They bled. Behold the blood flowing from the pierced side of the Redeemer. The sprinkling of the blood was the most solemn act of the priestly office. So Christ’s blood shed, signifies his life given for sinners; “Who gave Himself a ransom for all.” His blood sprinkled on a sinner’s conscience saves from spiritual and eternal death. What of the victim’s body was burned on the altar prefigured the sufferings of Him who groaned and bled on Calvary’s cross. The carcass of the animal, in the cases of the priests’ and the congregation’s offerings, being burned beyond the camp, denoted the heinousness of sin when committed by those parties; and so Christ was crucified not within but beyond the walls of Jerusalem (“without the gate,” Hebrews 13:12); thus signifying that the sins for which He suffered were of the deepest dye, and those not of a nation merely, but of people of every nation; for “He is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world: (1 John 2:2). If an Israelite transgressed the law, he could escape the punishment of his sin (if it were death) by no other means than by sacrifice; or, having contracted ceremonial uncleanness, could not be restored to his place in the congregation, nor be allowed to visit the courts of God’s house, unless he brought the prescribed bloody offering. “Without shedding of blood is no remission.” This speaks to us with no uncertain sound of the “great sacrifice,” and of His precious blood as that alone which can give peace to a troubled conscience, save sinners from spiritual and eternal death, and gain admission for them at last into the courts of the heavenly temple. Blessed by God, “the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.” Have you peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ? If not, remember there is salvation in no other. If you continue to reject Him, your iniquity must remain for ever on your own head, and you will never be able to escape from an avenging God, nor from an accusing conscience, nor from the pains of hell. Escape for your life from so terrible a doom. “For if the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward; how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation.” Escape now; tomorrow may be too late. The gate of the court with the beautiful inscription, “The Door of Mercy” inscribed on its portals, is still open, and if you bend your ear you will hear the sweet voice of Him who is priest, sacrifice, and altar all in one, inviting you to enter and approach, in these winsome words: “Him that cometh unto Me, I will in no wise cast out.” Do enter, we entreat you; and drawing near to Him and putting your hands on his devoted head, say—

I lay my sins on Jesus, The spotless Lamb of God;
He bears them all and frees us From the accursed load.

I bring my guilt to Jesus, To wash my crimson stains
White in His blood most precious Till not a spot remains.