Message 2
Scripture Reading: Lev. 1; Lev. 2; Lev. 3; Lev. 4; Lev. 5; Lev. 6; Lev. 7
In this message we shall give a general definition of the offerings.
The books of Exodus and Leviticus are closely related. Exodus ends with the setting up of the tabernacle, and Leviticus begins with the offerings. Both the tabernacle and the offerings are types of Christ. The fact that Exodus ends with the tabernacle and Leviticus begins with the offerings indicates a direct continuation. Although Exodus and Leviticus are different in nature and in their points, there is nevertheless a direct relation between them.
In Exodus the tabernacle was built and set up. The tabernacle was set up not only for God to dwell in but also for us to dwell in. In Leviticus the offerings (chs. 1—7) with the priesthood (chs. 8—10) are ordained.
Because our Christ is wonderful and all-inclusive, plain words are not adequate to reveal Him and describe Him. Types, which are actually pictures, are also necessary. Both the tabernacle and the offerings are types of Christ. Christ as the tabernacle brings God to man, and Christ as the offerings brings man to God. This indicates that there is a two-way traffic, a traffic coming and going. Christ comes to us as the tabernacle and He goes to God as the offerings.
The tabernacle is a sign, a figure, a type, of Christ. It was through incarnation that Christ came as the tabernacle. The Word, which was God, became flesh and tabernacled among us (John 1:1, 14). Christ is the very God incarnated to be a man; hence, He is the God-man, and this God-man is the tabernacle. As the tabernacle, Christ brought God to man. Christ’s being on earth was a matter of God embodied in a tabernacle. Here we have one aspect of the two-way traffic — God coming to us in Christ through incarnation.
John 1:29 tells us that the Christ who is the tabernacle is also the Lamb of God: “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” Christ as the Lamb of God is the totality, the aggregate, of all the offerings.
On the one hand, Christ is the tabernacle; on the other hand, He is the offerings. As the tabernacle, He has brought God to us. As the offerings, He is now bringing us all to God. Christ’s being the tabernacle is a matter of incarnation. Christ’s being the offerings is a matter of crucifixion and resurrection. Christ came in incarnation and He went through crucifixion and resurrection. This is the two-way traffic that brings God to us and brings us to God, making God one with us and us one with God.
The tabernacle is good for us to experience, to join to, God, and the offerings are good for us to enjoy and mingle with God. To experience, to join to, God is to enter into the tabernacle. When the Lord Jesus was on earth, people contacted Him. Eventually, the disciples were brought into Him, into the incarnated God. Thus, the tabernacle brings God to us that we may experience, enter into, join to, God.
Both the tabernacle and the offerings signify Christ. The tabernacle signifies that God is in Christ for us to contact, to touch, to experience, to enter into, to join to, God. The offerings are God in Christ for our enjoyment. By enjoying Christ as the offerings we are mingled with God. God in Christ is the tabernacle, the dwelling place, for us to approach, contact, enter, possess, and experience. God in Christ is also all the offerings for us to enjoy Him, to take Him in, and even to eat, digest, and assimilate Him that He may become our constituent. After enjoying the offerings and eating them, we enter into the tabernacle, and there we enjoy all the contents of what God is in Christ. It is a wonderful revelation that the Lord is the tabernacle and the offerings. We can enter into Him, and we can enjoy Him and be mingled with Him.
Christ as the offerings is for our enjoyment because these offerings are edible. They can be eaten not only by God but also by us. We can enjoy and eat Christ with God. This mutual enjoyment can be compared to the mutual enjoyment we have in a feast where we encourage one another to enjoy all the different dishes. This co-enjoyment in a feast is a picture of our enjoying Christ together with God. As we are enjoying Christ in a certain way, we may say, “Father, I would like You also to enjoy this portion of Christ.” Then the Father may reply, “Child, I would like you to enjoy what I am enjoying.” This is the fellowship of mutual enjoyment, the fellowship of co-enjoyment.
Whatever we eat becomes us. If we realize this, we shall see that it is not wise to oppose the divine revelation concerning the mingling of divinity with humanity. Through Christ’s redemption and by His Spirit, Christ’s divine element becomes our food. After we eat this food, it is digested and assimilated to become our fibers and cells. Surely this is a matter of mingling.
The Bible reveals that the creating God became a man, the God-man, and that this man has become the offerings — the burnt offering, the meal offering, the peace offering, the sin offering, the trespass offering, the wave offering, and the heave offering. These offerings have become food to us. This means that God in Christ is edible. God became edible by becoming the offerings. Through our eating of these offerings, the divine element is mingled with humanity. Thus, Christ is not only our dwelling place; He is also our food to enjoy God and be mingled with Him.
Daily we may enjoy not only God’s presence but also His element, His essence, even His edible substance. Paul’s Epistles indicate that Christ is edible, but they do not give us the details concerning the eating of Christ. For the details, we need to come to the book of Leviticus. The Christ revealed in Leviticus is a Christ who is good for eating. Leviticus gives us not only the “groceries” but also the “recipe” for “cooking” Christ.
All the offerings are not only for us to enjoy God but also to have God assimilated into our being. This assimilation results in mingling. We need to realize that we are being mingled with God and that God is mingling Himself with us. The Lord Jesus as the Spirit is in our spirit, and daily He is mingling Himself with us. But this mingling depends on our eating Christ, digesting Christ, and assimilating Christ. Good food may be set before us, but we may eat the food wrongly and thus get indigestion. Likewise, if we eat Christ wrongly, we shall get spiritual indigestion. In such a case, we shall not assimilate Christ. We need to learn how to eat Christ, digest Christ, and assimilate Christ. Then we shall be nourished, strengthened, and mingled with God.
The tabernacle is for God to dwell in; the offerings are for God to enjoy through our appreciation and presentation. This is wonderful, marvelous, and mysterious.
The tabernacle is not only for us to enter into but also for God to dwell in. The tabernacle is God coming to us in Christ and through Christ. This tabernacle is God’s dwelling place for God to dwell in Christ. This means that God’s embodiment is God’s dwelling. God dwells in Christ as His embodiment.
Christ as the offerings is not only for our enjoyment but also for God’s enjoyment. The burnt offering is altogether for God’s food, for God’s enjoyment. The offerings are not only for us to enjoy God and to be mingled with God; they are also for God’s enjoyment. Therefore, God not only dwells in Christ — He also enjoys Christ.
The tabernacle is for God’s dwelling, and the offerings are for God’s enjoyment. Does this mean that God dwells in Himself and enjoys Himself? The answer to such a question involves the mystery of the Trinity. The Lord Jesus says, “I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me” (John 14:10). The book of Hebrews reveals that Christ has presented Himself to God for God’s satisfaction. Here we see the mystery of God becoming a man to die on the cross and then rising up in resurrection for God and for us.
The offerings are for God to enjoy through our appreciation and presentation. Without our appreciation and presentation of Christ as the offerings, God cannot have any enjoyment of the offerings. God has come to us in Christ, becoming the tabernacle, the dwelling place, for Himself. He has also become all the offerings for us and for Himself. If we do not appreciate these offerings and present them to God, God will not have any enjoyment of the offerings.
Just as the Israelites were to labor on the good land to have the produce to offer to God, so we need to labor on Christ that we may be able to present Him to God. To labor on Christ is to endeavor to enjoy Him and to experience Him. The more we enjoy and experience Christ, the more we shall appreciate Him. Then we should present Christ to God for His enjoyment.
The offerings are not sacrifices but presents to God by the appreciators of Christ. Leviticus 1:2 says, “Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, When anyone of you brings an offering to Jehovah, you shall bring your offering from the cattle, of the herd or of the flock.” The verb “brings” may also be translated “presents” or “offers.” The Hebrew word translated “offering” is corban and means a present, a gift. The Hebrew words for “presents” and “present” here are both from the same root. The offerings, therefore, are presents to God. The children of Israel were to labor on the good land and then offer to God as presents the produce of the good land which they enjoyed and appreciated.
The five main offerings are for us to fellowship with God. Chapters one through seven of Leviticus speak about the fellowship God’s children have with God. For this fellowship there is the need of presents.
When we come to the church meetings, we should come not with sacrifices but with presents to offer to God. Sacrifices are for redemption, for propitiation, whereas presents are gifts for intimate fellowship between us and God. The presents we bring for this fellowship should be the very Christ we have experienced. With much appreciation of this Christ, we should offer Him as a present to God. Even the sin offering and the trespass offering may be presents that we bring to God.
To bring a sacrifice for sin is a matter of seriousness. To bring a present to an intimate friend is a matter not of seriousness but of sweetness. Every time we come to a meeting we should sense the sweetness of coming to present dear and precious presents to God for us to enjoy with Him. We should offer Christ to God not merely as the sacrifices for our problems but also as presents to God for His enjoyment and for our enjoyment with Him.
The ordinances of the offerings are a recipe of the divine cooking. Christ is the groceries, we are the cooks, and God and we are the co-eaters enjoying Christ as the satisfaction. This is the highlight of the book of Leviticus. Spiritually speaking, nothing can be higher than our enjoyment of the Triune God in Christ.
Have you ever realized that the church meeting is a cooking meeting, an eating meeting? We have spoken about coming to the meetings to eat, and in the meetings we have sung the short song “Come and Dine” (Hymns, #1148). However, we may never have had the thought that we need the cooking. The groceries are here, and the eaters are also here, but who are the cooks? I have the assurance to say that God and the Spirit are not the cooks but that we are the cooks. Therefore, we all must learn to cook.
From the types in Leviticus, we can see that God surely desires to enjoy Christ. He wants to enjoy Christ through our appreciation of Christ and through our presentation of Christ. However, even up to now, we are still too, old, traditional, superficial, and religious. May we all see that our God desires to enjoy Christ. Christ should not only be our food but also God’s food through appreciation and presentation, that is, through our cooking. We all need to cook Christ that we may feed God with Christ.
Now we come to the categories of the offerings. According to Leviticus, there are five main kinds of offerings, five main kinds of gifts: the burnt offering, the meal offering, the peace offering, the sin offering, and the trespass offering. We need the pictures of the offerings in Leviticus to revolutionize our concept concerning service, worship, and the experience of Christ.
The burnt offering is Christ for God’s satisfaction (1:1-17; 6:8-13). The burnt offering is for God’s food that God may enjoy it and be satisfied. This offering was to be offered daily, in the morning and in the evening.
The meal offering is Christ for the satisfaction of God’s people enjoyed together with God (2:1-16; 6:14-23). The burnt offering is for God’s eating, and the meal offering is for our eating. Our eating of the meal offering, however, is together with God. Christ should first be absolutely for God’s enjoyment, and then He should be for our enjoyment that we may enjoy Him together with God. As Leviticus 2 shows us, part of the meal offering is for God, but the main part of this offering is for us. This indicates that Christ is for our enjoyment that we may enjoy Him together with God.
The peace offering is Christ as the peace between God and God’s people for their co-enjoyment in fellowship (3:1-17; 7:11-38). The burnt offering is Christ for God’s enjoyment, the meal offering is Christ for our enjoyment together with God, and the peace offering is Christ as the peace between God and God’s people. As such an offering, Christ becomes the co-enjoyment of God and God’s people. In this enjoyment there is fellowship.
The sin offering is Christ for the sin of God’s people (4:1-35; 6:24-30). God’s intention is that there be co-enjoyment, enjoyment for Him and for us. His intention is that we may have peace with Him to enjoy Christ with Him in fellowship. However, we need to remember that we still have sin in our nature and trespasses in our conduct. Both our sin and our trespasses are condemned by God. Therefore, we need the sin offering, which is Christ for the sin in our nature. Concerning this, Christ has made propitiation.
The trespass offering is Christ for the sins of God’s people (5:1—6:7; 7:1-10). Christ has made propitiation for our sins, our trespasses, as well as for our sin. With Christ as the sin offering and as the trespass offering, we no longer have any problems with God. We may now be at peace and in peace enjoy Christ with God.
The types in chapters one through seven of Leviticus show us how much Christ is to us. These chapters show us many fine points concerning Christ. We need to learn to be fine in experiencing Christ in all these fine points.
The burnt offering is the qualification for the sin offering. As the burnt offering, Christ is absolute for God. If Christ had not been absolute for God, He would not have been qualified to be our sin offering. Adam fell because he was not absolute for God. If he had been absolute for God, he would not have been deceived. Adam was deceived because he was not absolute for God. Eventually Christ came, and He was absolute for God and He was never deceived. This absolute One was perfect and was qualified to be our sin offering to deal with the sin in our nature. Christ’s absoluteness for God qualified Him to be the sin offering.
The meal offering is the qualification for the trespass offering. If Christ had not been perfect in His humanity but had had many defects, shortcomings, and wrongdoings, He Himself would have needed a trespass offering and thus would not have been qualified to be our trespass offering. However, in His humanity Christ was perfect, fine, and balanced; He was altogether without defects, mistakes, shortcomings, and wrongdoings. His perfection qualified Him to be our trespass offering.
The burnt offering is for the sin offering. Thus, these two offerings are linked. Likewise, the meal offering is for the trespass offering. Thus, these two offerings are linked. If Christ had not been absolute for God, He could not have been our sin offering to deal with the sin in our nature. If He had not been perfect in His humanity, He could not have been our trespass offering to take away our trespasses. Christ was absolute toward God, and He was perfect in His humanity. Therefore, He was qualified to deal with our sin and to take away our trespasses.
The peace offering is the issue of all the other four offerings. This means that the peace offering is the totality of the other four offerings. Christ’s being these four offerings consummates in peace between God and God’s people, and this peace is simply Christ Himself. As the peace offering, Christ is the food we enjoy with God and the food God enjoys with us. In Christ as our peace offering we have co-enjoyment in fellowship.
We need to bring all these points concerning Christ as the offerings into our church life, and practice cooking Christ and presenting Christ to God in the church meetings. We all need to learn to cook Christ finely, to eat Him finely, and to present Him finely. This is the way we should study the book of Leviticus. We should not only have a doctrinal knowledge of the fine points concerning Christ; we should also learn to cook Christ, to present Christ to God, and to enjoy Christ with God as the burnt offering, the meal offering, the peace offering, the sin offering, and the trespass offering. By doing this we shall be fully constituted into those who desire to enter into the tabernacle and dwell there to enjoy the contents of the Triune God.
