Message 141
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Scripture Reading: Exo. 29:29-46
We have seen a clear picture of the steps by which Aaron and his sons were sanctified to serve God as priests. First they were washed, then they were clothed, and after that they were satisfied by having their emptiness filled. They were washed with water, they were clothed with the priestly garments, and they were satisfied with holy food. These three categories of things — the water, the garments, and the food, the offerings — are all types of Christ. After Aaron and his sons had been washed, clothed, and satisfied, they were ready to serve God. In other words, they were ready to minister food to Him. We may say that the priests were waiters bringing food to God and serving it to Him. They did not serve God anything other than the proper food for Him.
Actually the sanctification described in Exodus 29 includes four steps. The first three steps, being washed, being clothed, and being satisfied, took care of the need of the priests. The fourth step, ministering Christ to God as food for God’s satisfaction, was related to God’s need. To be a priest is to serve God, to minister Christ to Him for His satisfaction. Therefore, being a priest involves three steps related to the priests themselves and another step related to God’s satisfaction. This means that even after Aaron and his sons had been washed, clothed, and satisfied, they were not yet qualified to serve as priests. They still needed the offerings with which to serve God, offerings to be ministered to God as food. Only when this step had been accomplished was their sanctification completed.
As God’s people, we all have been redeemed. However, being redeemed is not sufficient to qualify us to serve God as priests. At most, redemption gives us the right and the position to be sanctified to serve God as priests. Therefore, after redemption, we need sanctification. This sanctification comprises four steps: being washed, being clothed, being satisfied, and serving God with food. In this message we shall consider the fourth and last step.
In chapter twenty-nine of Exodus the most difficult matter to grasp is that of the priests serving God with food for His satisfaction. In contrast, it is rather easy to understand the priests being washed, clothed, and satisfied. As we have pointed out, the left breast and the left shoulder of the second ram were given to the priests as their portion for their enjoyment. Along with these parts of the second ram, the priests were also given bread from the basket which also contained bread for God’s food. Therefore, the priests could enjoy both meat and bread. This can be compared to the Lord Jesus using five loaves and two fishes to feed the multitude. In both cases the people were fed with meat and bread. The priests’ diet, therefore, was quite simple.
When we come to ministering food to God, it is much more complicated. Because God is not simple, serving food to Him is likewise not simple. For example, it is rather easy for a mother to prepare a meal for her child. However, the preparation would be much more complicated if the governor of the state were coming to her home for dinner. She certainly could not feed him in the same way that she would feed a small child. In the same principle, feeding God is much more complicated than feeding the priests.
We need to be impressed with the courses, the “dishes” served to God as His food. The first course was a bull for a sin offering. This was followed by two lambs a year old, fresh, young, vigorous, and full of strength. Then there was a tenth of an ephah of fine flour mingled with oil. The quantity of oil was a fourth of a hin, that is, approximately a quart. The flour and oil were mingled to become the meal offering. Furthermore, there was “a fourth of a hin of wine for a drink offering” (v. 40). The quantity of wine was the same as that of the oil, a fourth of a hin. Here we have three items of the animal life — a bull and two lambs — and three items of the plant life — fine flour, oil, and wine. These six items may be divided into two groups: the first group consisting of the bull and the two lambs, and the second group, of the flour, the oil, and the wine. All these items were the “groceries” used in “cooking” a meal for God. In order to feed Him, we need a bull, two lambs, and flour, oil, and wine.
Years ago, I had difficulty remembering all these items, all these groceries. I could not understand why Moses composed this section of the Word in such a puzzling way. You may need to read this chapter a number of times before all this becomes clear to you. According to this chapter, God’s food included a bull, two lambs, flour, oil, and wine. The amount of fine flour was a tenth of an ephah. An ephah equals ten omers. Therefore, a tenth of an ephah was one omer. According to Exodus 16, the amount of daily manna for each person was an omer. Therefore, in quantity God’s food was one bull, two lambs, a tenth of an ephah of fine flour, and the fourth of a hin each of oil and wine.
The bull was for a sin offering, and the two lambs offered with the flour, the oil, and the wine were for a burnt offering. In typology, the burnt offering is God’s food. This offering is for God’s satisfaction. However, in order for God to eat the burnt offering we present to Him, we must first offer the sin offering. The sin offering is not God’s food, even though the inward parts and the fat were burned for His satisfaction. Therefore, we cannot say definitely that this offering was counted in the sight of God as food, but we do know that parts of the sin offering were for God’s satisfaction.
In a foregoing message we pointed out that, according to Exodus 28 and 29, God wants us to invite Him for dinner. However, we, the hosts, the ones who invite the Lord to dinner, are sinners. Therefore, before God can come to have dinner with us, our sinful nature must be dealt with. This is the reason Exodus 29 speaks not of the trespass offering, but of the sin offering. Are you clear concerning the difference between the sin offering and the trespass offering? It is important to know the difference between them.
In the New Testament the word sin is used in two ways, in the singular (sin) and in the plural (sins). The New Testament tells us that Christ died on the cross both for our sin and for our sins. John 1:29 says, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” In 1 Corinthians 15:3 Paul says, “For I delivered to you, among the first things, that which also I received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.” Peter also tells us that Christ died for our sins: “Who Himself carried up our sins in His body onto the tree, in order that we, having died to sins, might live to righteousness” (1 Pet. 2:24). In 1 Peter 3:18 he goes on to say, “Because Christ also has once died concerning sins, the righteous on behalf of the unrighteous, that He might bring us to God.” Chapter nine of Hebrews speaks of both sin and sins. Referring to Christ, verse 26 says, “He has been manifested for the putting away of sin by His sacrifice.” Verse 28 says, “So Christ also, having been once offered to bear the sins of many, shall appear to those who wait for Him a second time, apart from sin, unto salvation.” Therefore, in the New Testament, there is a distinction between sin and sins.
What is sin? Sin denotes our fallen nature. As fallen ones, our nature is sinful. In the sight of God, our nature is actually sin itself. A table made out of wood is not only wooden; it is also wood. In like manner, we are not only sinful — we are sin. We all need to realize that we are a constitution of sin. According to Paul’s word in Romans 5:19, we have been constituted sinners. Thus, sin is related to our sinful nature, to our natural being.
Sins are a matter of our works, deeds, conduct. An infant has a sinful nature from his birth, and as he grows he will therefore commit sins, deeds of sin. Sin refers to nature, and sins, to deeds. Outwardly we have the acts, the deeds, of sin; inwardly we have the nature of sin. Therefore, we need a Redeemer, a Substitute. The One who is our Redeemer and Substitute is the Lord Jesus. He died on the cross for our sins and also for our sin.
As those who would invite God to dinner, we need to confess that we have sinned and that we are sin. However, most of those who are persuaded in a gospel meeting to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ realize only that they are sinful in their deeds. In my ministry I have never met a person who, at the time of his initial repentance, realized that he was sin, that he was sinful in nature. But we must have this realization if we would invite God for dinner.
Many Chinese, thinking that Confucius was not wrong in any way, honor him, respect him highly, and regard him as a saint. But even if Confucius had done nothing wrong outwardly, his nature was still the same as that of a thief. For example, a peach tree that bears fruit and a peach tree that does not bear fruit are both the same in nature. The tree that does not produce peaches is still a peach tree in nature. Likewise, no matter how good Confucius may have been outwardly, he was still a sinner in nature, just like everyone else.
Thank the Lord that, through His mercy, we love Him and want to invite Him for dinner. But when we invite God to come for dinner, we need to realize who we are. Some may say, “I am a child of God.” Yes, you are a child of God according to your new birth. But according to your fallen nature, you are still sin. Even though today you may not have sinned or done anything wrong, you are still sin. Therefore, you need to take Christ as your sin offering. According to 29:35 and 36, for seven days, every day of the priest’s sanctification, a bull as a sin offering was to be offered for propitiation. This indicates that daily we must offer Christ to God as our sin offering.
Verse 36 says, “And every day you shall offer a bull as a sin offering for propitiation.” Instead of propitiation, some versions use the word atonement. Atonement means at-one-ment. Between us and God there is a problem. This problem is sin, and sin separates us from God. It keeps us away from Him. But a sacrifice — Christ as the sin offering — has been offered to God so that we and God may have at-one-ment. According to the meaning of the Hebrew word, we may have peace with God because He has been appeased. As the sin offering, the Lord Jesus has appeased God on our behalf. He has reconciled us to God. As a result, God and we have been brought together in oneness.
The bull of the sin offering is not for eating. Rather, it is for propitiation. Nevertheless, perhaps the inward parts and the fat, which were burned on the altar, may be regarded as a kind of food offered to God. I do not presume to say definitely whether these parts of the sin offering were God’s food. However, there is no doubt that the inward parts and the fat of the sin offering were burned for God’s satisfaction.
On the one hand, the fat and the inward parts were burned as a sweet savor to God. On the other hand, the blood of the sin offering was poured around the altar. The sweet savor is for God’s satisfaction, and the blood is for our satisfaction. Formerly we had a serious problem with God because of our sin. But a sin offering has been offered to God, and this offering satisfies both God and us. By the sweet savor and by the blood both God and we are satisfied.
God is righteous and holy. He is also a God of glory. We, by contrast, are sinful. In the sight of God we are actually sin. Furthermore, His righteousness, holiness, and glory automatically place demands on us. But we cannot fulfill these demands, these requirements. The Lord Jesus has fulfilled God’s requirements for us. What He did on the cross satisfied the requirements of God’s righteousness, holiness, and glory. The Lord’s death has thus become a sweet savor ascending to God for His satisfaction. Whenever God smells this savor, He can say, “I am satisfied. Now I am at peace with the one who presents this offering to Me.” This is the satisfaction on God’s side.
Christ as our sin offering also makes it possible for us to be satisfied. When we behold the blood of this offering, we are at peace. Before offering Christ as the sin offering, we did not have any peace. Instead, we were under condemnation. But through the shedding of the blood of the sin offering and the pouring out of this blood, we are at peace. Therefore, we can say, “O God, thank You that through the blood of the sin offering I am now at peace with You.” As a result, God and we can have fellowship, can talk with one another. This is at-one-ment.
The sin offering is not food in a direct way. It is not food for us at all, and it does not directly provide food for God’s eating. The sin offering is for cleansing, for solving the problem between us and God. We are the ones inviting God to dinner, and God is the One who is invited. The sin offering solves the problem between the host, the inviter, and God, the invited One.
