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Scripture Reading: Lev.
I. Training them to worship and partake of God:
А. With the offerings — Christ in all aspects:
1. The burnt offering — Lev. 1:3-9:
а. Typifying Christ in His absoluteness for God’s satisfaction.
b. Being the qualification for the sin offering.
2. The meal offering — 2:1-3:
а. Typifying Christ in His human living and daily walk.
b. A part to be burned on the altar to God as an offering by fire for food to God — v. 2; Num. 28:2, 8.
c. The rest to be food to the priests — Lev. 2:3.
3. The peace offering — 3:1-6:
а. Typifying Christ as the peace between God and His people.
b. For the enjoyment of God with His people in fellowship.
4. The sin offering — 4:13-21:
а. Typifying Christ as the sin offering for the sin of God’s people.
b. The whole offering to be burned outside the camp — v. 21.
5. The trespass offering — 5:1-6:
а. Typifying Christ as the trespass offering for the sins, the trespasses, of God’s people.
b. The trespass offering being also considered as a sin offering — v. 6.
B. Through the priests — 1:5-8; 2:2; 3:2; 4:5, 10; 5:8:
1. Typifying Christ as God’s Priest — Heb. 5:5-6.
2. Offering Himself to God for us — 9:14, 26; 10:10.
II. Training them to live a holy, clean, and rejoicing life:
А. Living a holy life — Lev. 18—20:
1. Putting off the old life and putting on the new — cf. Eph. 4:17—5:14.
2. Putting off the former Egyptian conduct — Lev. 18:3a.
3. Not walking in the statutes of the Canaanites — 18:3b.
4. Having God’s holy living according to His holy nature — 19:2; 20:7, 26.
B. Living a clean life:
1. Kept clean in contacting the clean people — ch. 11; Acts 10:11-15.
2. Cleansed from the human impurity by birth — Lev. 12.
3. Cleansed from leprosy — chs. 13—14.
4. Cleansed from all unclean discharges from the human being — ch. 15.
C. Living a rejoicing life:
1. The weekly Sabbath — 23:1-3:
а. Being the principal denotation of all the annual feasts.
b. For God’s redeemed people to rest with God and with one another.
2. The monthly new moon feast — Num. 10:10; 28:11-15.
3. The annual feasts — Lev. 23:2, 4-44:
а. The Feast of the Passover — vv. 4-5; Exo. 12:2-14:
1) Typifying Christ as our Passover — 1 Cor. 5:7.
2) For our initial and foundational salvation.
3) The beginning of our regenerated life — Exo. 12:2.
b. The Feast of Unleavened Bread — Lev. 23:6-8; Exo. 12:15-20:
1) For seven days, typifying the entire course of our Christian life as a feast without sin.
2) Christ being our strength to live a life without sin in our entire Christian life for our enjoyment and rest.
c. The Feast of the Firstfruits — Lev. 23:9-14:
1) Typifying the resurrected Christ — 1 Cor. 15:20.
2) For our enjoyment as a feast in His resurrection.
d. The Feast of Pentecost — of the fiftieth day — Lev. 23:15-21:
1) Typifying the enjoyment of the outpouring of the Spirit.
2) For the formation of the church in two sections, the Jewish and Gentile, typified by the two loaves offered to God on that day — v. 17.
e. The Feast of the Blowing of Trumpets — vv. 23-25:
1) Typifying God’s calling together of His scattered people, the dispersed Israelites — Matt. 24:31.
2) To be fulfilled at Christ’s coming back — v. 30.
f. The Feast of Expiation — Lev. 23:26-32:
1) Typifying the enjoyment of God’s expiation for the whole house of Israel after they will be gathered together by God — Rom. 11:25-27; Zech. 12:10-14.
2) To be fulfilled at the very time of Christ’s descending from the heavens to the Holy Land in His second coming — Rev. 1:7.
g. The Feast of Tabernacles — Lev. 23:33-44:
1) Typifying the enjoyment of the age of restoration — Matt. 19:28.
2) To be fulfilled in the millennium (Rev. 20:4, 6) on the restored earth, not in the new heaven and new earth yet.
4. The Sabbath year — Lev. 25:1-7, 18-22:
а. Typifying Christ as our rest in full.
b. For the land to rest and for the people with their servants, their maids, their hired servants, and their strangers, and with their cattle and the beasts in their land to enjoy food without laboring — vv. 4-7.
5. The jubilee — the Pentecostal year — vv. 8-17:
а. A time of shouting in rejoicing.
b. Typifying Christ as our full release, rest, and joy by redeeming back what we have lost in our rights and what we have sold in ourselves.
c. For us to enjoy in His resurrection in the fullest way forever and ever.
In this chapter we want to continue our fellowship concerning God’s working on His elect through Moses. The entire book of Leviticus shows that God trained His elect to worship and partake of God and to live a holy, clean, and rejoicing life.
The history of God as seen in the books of Genesis and Exodus consummated in the children of Israel as a nation. In the previous chapter we saw how God brought His people, His elect, through the wilderness. God moved with them and brought them to Mount Sinai. Sinai represents God’s presence. God brought His people to Himself at Sinai and stayed with them. The children of Israel remained at Sinai with God for about eleven months (Exo. 19:1; cf. Num. 10:11). God stayed with His people day and night there, so God trained them.
At Mount Sinai God gave them the law and the pattern for the tabernacle. On the one hand, God regulated them by the law, and on the other hand, He encouraged them by the tabernacle. After the decree of the law and the building up of the tabernacle at Sinai, God gave them all the chapters of Leviticus to train them to worship and partake of God and to live a holy, clean, and rejoicing life.
God trains His people to worship Him and also to partake of Him, to participate in Him, for their enjoyment. We need to be trained to worship God in the way of partaking of Him to enjoy Him.
God’s people were instructed to worship Him with the offerings, typifying Christ in all aspects. The aspects of Christ in all His riches are untraceable and unsearchable (Eph. 3:8).
The burnt offering (Lev. 1:3-9) typifies Christ in His absoluteness for God’s satisfaction. The burnt offering was the qualification for the sin offering. The sin offering was to be slaughtered in the place where the burnt offering was slaughtered. This indicates that the sin offering is based upon the burnt offering, and it signifies that Christ is the sin offering for us based upon His being the burnt offering. For Jesus Christ to be the sin offering, He had to be the burnt offering. His being the burnt offering was His qualification for Him to be the sin offering.
The meal offering (2:1-3) typifies Christ in His human living and daily walk. A part of the meal offering was to be burned on the altar to God as an offering by fire for food to God (v. 2; Num. 28:2, 8). The rest of the meal offering was to be food to the priests (Lev. 2:3). Thus, Christ as the meal offering is food to God and food to us, the New Testament priests.
The peace offering (3:1-6) typifies Christ as the peace between God and His people for the enjoyment of God with His people in fellowship.
The sin offering (4:13-21) typifies Christ as the sin offering for the sin of God’s people. Sin here is not the outward sins in our conduct, in our behavior, but the inward sin in our nature. The whole sin offering was to be burned outside the camp (v. 21). Nothing of the sin offering was for God or for God’s serving ones to eat, because it was absolutely for dealing with the sin in the nature of God’s people. Christ as the sin offering suffered reproach outside the Jewish religion — a human organization (Heb. 13:11-13). He was crucified outside Jerusalem, which was considered a camp representing the Jewish religious organization.
The trespass offering (Lev. 5:1-6) is very difficult to study because it is hard to differentiate sin from sins. They are of one family. The sin within is in our nature, and the sins without are in our behavior. Christ is the reality of the trespass offering for the sins, the trespasses, of God’s people.
The trespass offering was also considered as a sin offering (v. 6). This signifies that Christ’s redemption for our sin resolves the problem of sin in its two aspects — sin in our inward nature and sins in our outward conduct. These two aspects of sin make up the totality of sin. John 1:29 says, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” Sin here denotes the totality of sin, comprising both the inward sin and the outward sins.
God’s elect people were trained to worship and partake of God through the priests (Lev. 1:5-8; 2:2; 3:2; 4:5, 10; 5:8). The priests typify Christ as God’s Priest (Heb. 5:5-6) offering Himself to God for us (9:14, 26; 10:10).
To worship God is a matter in Christ and through Christ. Christ is both the offerings and the Priest. It is impossible to render the true worship to God without Christ. Among most Christians there is not the thought of enjoying Christ, partaking of Christ, and participating in the riches of Christ. To enjoy Christ, to partake of Christ, and to participate in all the riches of Christ is new terminology picked up by us over the last forty years. Christ is the way to worship God and the way to partake of God.
If someone asked us how to enjoy Christ, what would we say? We should be able to give a brief, definite, and accurate answer concerning how to enjoy Christ. In order to enjoy Christ, we first have to realize who and what Christ is. Christ today is the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). Then we need to realize where Christ is. He is in our spirit (2 Tim. 4:22). In order to enjoy Christ we have to realize that He is the Spirit dwelling in our spirit, so we have to exercise our spirit to call on Him — “O Lord Jesus!” This is very simple.
If we do not call on the name of the Lord Jesus, we cannot enjoy Him. To the feeling of many Christians, Christ is objective and far away from them. The way to enjoy Christ is to call, “O Lord Jesus!” When we call upon Him, we have the inward sensation that He is present with us. In the New Testament the teaching concerning calling on the Lord is very great (see Acts 2:21 and footnote 1, Recovery Version). Romans 10:12 says that the Lord is “rich to all who call upon Him.” He is rich to us if we call on Him. His riches can be enjoyed by us only by our calling on Him.
The proper worship to God is with Christ as His embodiment for our enjoyment of God in all His riches. Who could invent such a worship, but God? If there were no Christ, there would be no worship to God and no enjoyment of God.
In the book of Leviticus we also see how God trained His people to live a holy, clean, and rejoicing life. A holy life is a life that is like God, a godly life. Here we mention a clean life, not a pure life. To be pure is to not be mixed. To be clean is to not be dirty. We do not realize how dirty we human beings are. Leviticus tells us that even our birth is dirty (ch. 12) and that every little discharge out of us is dirty (ch. 15). We need to live a clean life, a life that is not dirty.
According to the Old Testament type, we have to contact God through the offerings of the bronze altar and through the laver. Paul tells us that we are cleansed by the washing (lit., “laver”) of the water in the word (Eph. 5:26). In the word of Christ there is the water of life to cleanse us. This is typified by the laver situated between the altar and the tabernacle (Exo. 38:8; 40:7). The laver is the place where we wash away our earthly defilement and are made clean.
We also need to live a rejoicing life, a happy life. We all have to be “hallelujah people,” who rejoice in the Lord always (Phil. 4:4). Sometimes the most restful thing is to sing a hymn. Singing a hymn fills us with joy and helps us to enjoy Christ as our rest. The chorus of Hymns, #308 says, “This is my story, this is my song, / Praising my Savior all the day long.” A rejoicing life is a life of enjoying God in Christ as everything; this enjoyment makes us happy and causes us to exult all the day. The Christian life should be a rejoicing life.
In order to live a holy life, Leviticus shows us that we need to put off the old life and put on the new (cf. Eph. 4:17—5:14). The people of Israel were charged to put off the former Egyptian conduct (Lev. 18:3a). God also charged them not to walk in the statutes of the Canaanites (v. 3b) and to have God’s holy living according to His holy nature (19:2; 20:7, 26).
In order to be kept in a clean life, we need to contact the clean people (ch. 11; Acts 10:11-15). Our contact with the wrong people can cause us to become contaminated. Leviticus 12 shows us the cleansing from the human impurity by birth. Even our birth is not clean. The source is dirty.
Leviticus 13 and 14 speak of being cleansed from leprosy. Sins such as fornication, adultery, the worship of idols, stealing, etc., are included in man’s leprous situation. Leprosy always comes from rebellion and signifies the serious sin issuing from within man, such as willful sin, presumptuous sin, and opposing God with determination.
Leviticus 15 shows that we need to be cleansed from all unclean discharges from the human being. Anything discharged out of us, including our words, is unclean. This is why we need the cross of Christ to end our old life, and we need the resurrection of Christ to have a new beginning. Also we need the water of life, which is the washing, cleansing Spirit of life embodied in the word. Whenever we come in our spirit to the word, we touch something within the word that washes us.
Leviticus reveals that we need to live a rejoicing life.
The weekly Sabbath (23:1-3) was the principal denotation of all the annual feasts. All the annual feasts were a Sabbath, which was for God’s redeemed people to rest with God and with one another.
The monthly new moon feast (Num. 10:10; 28:11-15) signifies that we can experience a new beginning in Christ as our joy and enjoyment with light in darkness.
There were not only weekly and monthly feasts but also annual feasts (Lev. 23:2, 4-44). In our Christian life we need a weekly, monthly, and annual enjoyment of Christ.
The Feast of the Passover (vv. 4-5; Exo. 12:2-14) typifies Christ as our Passover (1 Cor. 5:7) for our initial and foundational salvation. This feast signifies the beginning of our regenerated life (Exo. 12:2). Our initial salvation was a time of rejoicing.
After the Passover, we are keeping the Feast of Unleavened Bread without sin (Lev. 23:6-8; Exo. 12:15-20). This feast lasted for seven days, typifying the entire course of our Christian life as a feast without sin. We cannot rejoice with sin. Christ is our strength to live a life without sin in our entire Christian life for our enjoyment and rest.
The Feast of the Firstfruits (Lev. 23:9-14) typifies the resurrected Christ (1 Cor. 15:20) for our enjoyment as a feast in His resurrection. Very few are enjoying Christ in this way because they do not know His resurrection power.
The Feast of Pentecost (Lev. 23:15-21) typifies the enjoyment of the outpouring of the Spirit for the formation of the church in two sections, the Jewish and the Gentile, typified by the two loaves offered to God on that day (v. 17).
The Feast of the Blowing of Trumpets (vv. 23-25) typifies God’s calling together of His scattered people, the dispersed Israelites (Matt. 24:31), to be fulfilled at Christ’s coming back (v. 30).
The Feast of Expiation (Lev. 23:26-32) typifies the enjoyment of God’s propitiation for the whole house of Israel after they will be gathered together by God (Rom. 11:25-27; Zech. 12:10-14). This will be fulfilled at the very time of Christ’s descending from the heavens to the Holy Land in His second coming (Rev. 1:7).
The Feast of Tabernacles (Lev. 23:33-44) typifies the enjoyment of the age of restoration (Matt. 19:28) to be fulfilled in the millennium (Rev. 20:4, 6) on the restored earth, not in the new heaven and new earth yet.
The Sabbath year (Lev. 25:1-7, 18-22), the seventh year, typifies Christ as our rest in full for the land to rest and for the people with their servants, their maids, their hired servants, and their strangers, and with their cattle and the beasts in their land to enjoy food without laboring (vv. 4-7).
The jubilee, the Pentecostal year, the fiftieth year (vv. 8-17), was a time of shouting in rejoicing. The jubilee typifies Christ as our full release, rest, and joy by His redeeming back what we have lost in our rights and what we have sold in ourselves. This is for us to enjoy Christ in His resurrection in the fullest way forever and ever.
Leviticus shows us the weekly enjoyment, monthly enjoyment, and seven annual feasts. Then it speaks of the Sabbath year and the jubilee. All these items typify the New Testament enjoyment. As New Testament believers, we should be a holy people, a clean people, and a happy people who are always rejoicing. In God’s history among His people, He trained them to worship and partake of Him and to live a holy, clean, and rejoicing life.
The rich enjoyment of Him in the weekly Sabbath, in the monthly new moon, in the seven annual feasts, in the Sabbath year, and in the jubilee, the fiftieth year Sabbath, for the greatest, highest, and deepest enjoyment of God to its fullest extent, makes His elect happy all the time so that they may become a rejoicing people on the earth. Who could invent all these most wonderful feasts, but God? Leviticus, as a record of God’s training to His elect, is also a part of God’s history, showing us what kind of God our God is.
In another series of messages entitled The Move of God in Man, we will go on to the New Testament to see God’s move in man as the concluding part of the history of God in His union with man.
