Part 7.1- Law of the Trespass Offering
CHAPTER VII THE LAW OF THE TRESPASS OFFERING.
Leviticus 7:1. It is most holy. Whether for sin or trespass, this is the character of God’s offering: no other can He receive. The offering of the Lord Jesus was for our trespass, not for Himself: He is ever most holy.
Leviticus 7:2. It must be killed where the burnt offering is killed-before the Lord. The variety in the offerings specifies our needs, and the One who could meet them all.
Whether the putting away of sin, the forgiveness of trespass, or the acceptance of worship and access, be the requirement, it is in Christ, and in Him only, that it can be obtained. The blood is to be sprinkled round about upon the altar.
It must be spread out, as it were, before God, to show that it is there, that the sacrifice has been killed, that blood has been shed, even the blood of a most holy thing.
Leviticus 7:3-5. The portion for the fire on the altar of burnt offering is that which was usually burnt, but with the addition of the rump. This seems to point to something more being required than the general acknowledgement that it was God’s; perhaps, because there is not here a question of sin in general, but of a special act of offence or wrong for which restitution must be made.
Leviticus 7:6. Like the sin offering it was for the equal participation of the priests, for " in many things we offend all." It is to be eaten in the holy place, and there is a second warning that it is most holy, as a fact necessary to be remembered in partaking of it. It is a most holy thing before God: we must not have a lower estimation of it.
Leviticus 7:7. The law which commands that the offering should be the special portion of the priest that offers it is here declared to be as that of the sin offering. This, as before noticed, seems to indicate individual blessing to the one specially concerned. But in the fullest sense the Lord Jesus was the priest, and though He was also the offering, yet as being the priest it belonged to Him.
Hence it is in Him and from Him that the equal participation of all the priests comes.
He is the one priest to God, the great priest; and in Him we also are priests to God.
Leviticus 7:8. Then follows the law respecting the special portion in the burnt offering of the priest that offers it. This is the skin, which seems to represent the covering afforded to us by Christ’s perfect righteousness.
Leviticus 7:9. And so with respect to the meat offering.
He is the offering, and it is He Who gives to each their portion. In John 6:51, He says, " the bread that I will give is my flesh." (Compare Matthew 11:27-28).
Leviticus 7:10. But " every meat offering mingled with oil, and dry, shall all the sons of Aaron have, one as much as another." And thus Christ distributes to all alike an equal communion and participation in the blessings which are His own. In Leviticus 2:3, the remnant of the meat offering is said to belong to " Aaron and his sons." The offerings that were dry were the meat offering in the place of the sin offering for trespass (Leviticus 5:11), and the tenth of an ephah of barley meal in the offering of jealousy (Numbers 5:15).
Leviticus 7:11-21. The law of the sacrifice oj peace offerings has been already discussed. There is, however, at the close of the chapter, another special ordinance for " him that offereth the sacrifice of his peace offerings." But we must first notice the verses which significantly intervene.
Leviticus 7:22. " Ye shall eat no manner of fat, &c. Before the question of peace, which is the result of the offerings (Colossians 1:20), can be finally settled, there must be a clear understanding and acknowledgement that all is of God.
All the fat is the Lord’s, and of the beasts that were offered in sacrifice none of it might be eaten. The benefit, the blessing, is ours; but the glory is God’s, for our sufficiency is of Him. And this we need to have ever clearly before the mind. For it is just because the blessings are so great that there is danger of our being lifted up, exalted above measure, and thinking that our own hands have gotten them. And then the sure result would be failure in realizing the power of the blessing; for peace cannot continue with us, if we turn aside to ourselves. And the end of not distinguishing God’s portion will be destruction;-" The soul that eateth it shall be cut off from his people." "The fat of the beast that dieth of itself, and the fat of that which is torn with beasts, may be used in any other use: but ye shall in no wise eat of it." The excellency of God’s sacrifice belongs to God alone, and is for the fire of His altar. What is our own we may use in any other way, but neither offer it to God, nor eat it. Whatever we have by nature is of God, but it cannot be accepted by Him. It is either that which is under the power of death-"dieth of itself"; or that which is subject to the distracting and evil power of the devil in other ways-" torn with beasts "; indeed it is both evil, and unfit for any offering to God. Of some use for our needs in this present world it may be ; but let us never expect to find peace in it.
Leviticus 7:26. " Moreover ye shall eat no manner of blood."For the blood is the life. We are dead in trespasses and sins, and our life, forfeited by guilt, has reverted to God.
We must, therefore, be made to feel this loss, and to know that we cannot recover it of ourselves. But God has given the blood for atonement, and will of His own free grace restore life to us in His Son. And thus, if we have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, the prohibition of this verse is cancelled: we may all drink of His blood and imbibe life from Him. " In any of your dwellings." The things around us, wearing the appearance of life and endurance, have a tendency to counteract the truth that we are dwelling in a region of death, and that there is no hope for any person or thing except in Christ. The penalty of disobedience is the same as for eating the fat-" that soul shall be cut off from his people." The atonement for sin as indispensable to life, and the life itself as coming from God, are equally necessary; and both are to be found only in Christ, all else being under the power of sin and death.
Leviticus 7:28-36. In these verses we have the further and final directions for the peace offering; but they have been already noticed in the remarks on Leviticus 3:1-17.
Leviticus 7:37. " The law " of these offerings is, in conclusion, stated to be that " which the Lord commanded Moses in Mount Sinai, in the day that He commanded the children of Israel to offer their oblations to the Lord in the wilderness of Sinai."
Thus the first seven chapters of Leviticus treat of the grace which the Lord manifested to His people, while they knew nothing better than the hopeless condition of law. These are the precepts which He commanded on the mount above the region of law, but which were to be kept in the wilderness beneath.
We have here in detail the grace of God in Christ Jesus, and learn what God is. With this chapter the first section of the book ends.