Message 23
Scripture Reading: Lev. 6:8-13
Beginning with this message, we will cover the laws of the offerings. The laws of the offerings are the ordinances and regulations of the offerings. For each offering there is a law, a regulation, an ordinance. The laws of the offerings appear to be quite simple. Actually, as we will see, something of deep and high spiritual significance is hidden in these laws.
Leviticus 6:9a says, “Command Aaron and his sons and say, This is the law of the burnt offering: the burnt offering itself shall be upon the hearth on the altar all night until the morning.” This signifies that anything offered as a burnt offering must be put on the place of offering to be burned. This is something that worldly people cannot understand, for they are raised and educated to become something in the world. Worldly parents certainly do not teach their children to offer themselves to God to be burned.
By the Lord’s mercy and grace, our heart is different from the heart of the unbelievers. We know that the burnt offering indicates that we have a heart that is absolute for God in this age. We are not for anything else, and we have no other interest. Even though we encourage the young people to get the best education, education is not the thing we love. The young people may get the highest education, but they need to realize that on this earth we Christians will eventually be nothing but ashes. This will be the issue of our offering ourselves to God as a burnt offering and of our being burned.
I would like to say a word to the young people who have the heart to serve the Lord full-time. I must tell you that hardships await you and that there is no future for you on earth. You will have nothing earthly on which to rely for your security and for your human living. You may feel that you will be very useful to God, but in the end you will be ashes. Everyone wants to be somebody, but if you would serve the Lord Jesus full-time, you must prepare yourself to be nobody, even to be ashes. Are you willing to be burned? To be burned to ashes is a matter not of enjoyment but of suffering. The destiny of a full-timer is a life of suffering. What is offered to God as a burnt offering must be on the place of burning, not on the place of anything glorious or high. Eventually, the outcome of such a life, a life of suffering, a life without a future and without security, will be a heap of ashes.
Although we have no earthly security, I can testify that we have the Lord Jesus as our security. Christ is my security, even though He sometimes hides Himself from me in order to test me. As a result of my experience and learning, I can tell you that the best time to enjoy the Lord Jesus is when He is hiding from you. After seeming to disappear for a while, He will spontaneously appear to us again. This is often His way with us. Such a Christ is our real security.
The burnt offering’s being upon the hearth (firewood) on the altar all night until the morning also signifies that what is offered should remain at the burning place through the dark night until morning. “All night” means all this dark age. The age we are in is a dark night. The burnt offering should be burning continually through the whole night until the morning.
No matter how long the night may be, eventually there will be a morning, a sun rising. The real sun rising will be the Lord’s coming back, and we are waiting for this. However, we should not expect the Lord Jesus to come back quickly to spare us from the trial of the dark night. The more we ask Him to come quickly for this reason, the more He may delay His coming for our sake and for the sake of our passing through a longer dark night.
Recently I spoke a word to the full-timers in Taipei concerning sufferings and hardships. I told them to be prepared to have a life that will not be easy and to take a way that will not be smooth but rugged. We need to remain on the place of burning and be burned throughout the dark night until morning.
The fire on the altar should be kept burning continually (6:9b, 12a, 13). Verse 12a says, “The fire on the altar shall be kept burning on it; it must not go out.”
The continual burning of the fire on the altar first signifies that God as the holy fire in the universe is ready to receive (burn) what is offered to Him as food. God’s receiving us is His burning us. When we are burned by God, we should be happy because this burning means that God is receiving us.
The continual burning of the fire also signifies that God’s desire to accept what is offered to Him never ceases. God desires to accept us, and He accepts us by burning us. The more He burns us, the more He accepts us.
The priest burned wood on the altar every morning (v. 12b). This signifies the need of the serving one’s cooperation with God’s desire. This cooperation is to add more fuel to the holy fire to strengthen the burning for the receiving of the burnt offering as God’s food. As we are being burned, we need to add more wood to burn ourselves and also to burn our fellow serving ones. Do not quench the fire but add more wood to keep the fire burning.
If there were only one serving one, the burning fuel would be exhausted. Therefore, we need more serving ones, more companions in being burned. The more serving ones there are, the more fuel there will be to burn ourselves and others.
The priest was to burn wood on the altar every morning. The morning signifies having a new start for the burning.
“The priest shall put on his linen garment, putting on linen breeches over his flesh” (v. 10a). Linen is fine, pure, and clean. The priest’s putting on his linen garment and linen breeches thus signifies that fineness, purity, and cleanness are needed in handling the ashes (the result) of the burnt offering. We should not think of the ashes as waste that can be handled in a careless manner. On the contrary, the ashes are the result of the burnt offering, and in handling this result we need to be proper. We need to be fine, pure, and clean.
“Then he shall take off his garments and put on other garments, and carry the ashes outside the camp to a clean place” (v. 11). This signifies the stateliness in handling the ashes (the result) of the burnt offering. In God’s eyes, the result of our burnt offering is highly regarded. It is fine, pure, and clean. Thus, in carrying the ashes outside the camp, the priest wore stately garments and carried the ashes in a stately way. This teaches us to have a high regard for the result of our burnt offering.
To become a full-timer is to offer ourselves to God as a burnt offering. Concerning this, there should be and must be a result. We should regard this result and not despise it or consider it insignificant. The result of our being a burnt offering will be something that carries out God’s New Testament economy. What we do as full-timers is not merely to preach the gospel to save sinners, to establish local churches, to teach the Bible, or to help people to grow in life and in truth. What we do must result in the building up of the Body of Christ, which is a miniature of the coming New Jerusalem.
What we are doing is actually extraordinary, but to the worldly people it is nothing. To them what we are doing is ashes. However, God has a high regard for these ashes. Eventually these ashes will become the New Jerusalem. Have you ever realized that the ashes, the result of the burnt offering, will be the coming New Jerusalem? I realize this, and I believe it. I believe that I will be there and that what I am doing will be part of that city. The New Jerusalem is our destiny and our destination.
How can the ashes of the burnt offering become the New Jerusalem? Ashes indicate the result of Christ’s death, which brings us to an end, that is, to ashes. But Christ’s death brings in resurrection. In resurrection, the ashes become precious materials — gold, pearls, and precious stones — for the building of the New Jerusalem. All three precious materials come from the transformation of the ashes. When we are brought to ashes, we are brought into the transformation of the Triune God.
“The priest shall…arrange the burnt offering on it; and he shall offer up in smoke the fat portions of the peace offerings on it” (6:12b). This indicates that to burn the burnt offering is to lay the foundation for the sweetness of the peace offering. The burnt offering is therefore for the enjoyment of the peace offering. In its spiritual significance, the peace offering implies fellowship with the Triune God and includes the enjoyment of the Triune God. The burnt offering was burned, but it was burned for the peace offering.
The burning of the fat portions of the peace offerings in 6:12 signifies that we should have the burning of our burnt offering laid as a foundation for our sweet fellowship with God. Regardless of how much we feel that we are enjoying Christ, if we do not have the real offering of the burnt offering, our enjoyment is in self-deceit. The real enjoyment of the Lord is based on our offering ourselves to God as a burnt offering. If we mean business with God and offer ourselves to Him and live a life that is absolute for Him, then our enjoyment of Christ will be real and not imaginary.
We should not deceive ourselves but consider whether we have the necessary foundation for us to enjoy the Triune God. This is not a matter of how we feel; it is a matter of actually having a proper foundation for the enjoyment of Christ. We lay this foundation by offering ourselves to the Lord as a burnt offering, and therefore we are willing to be absolute for the Lord, and we actually are absolute for Him. If we have such a foundation, then, whether we feel like we are enjoying the Lord or not, we are enjoying Him in reality. However, if we live a loose life day by day, yet feel that we are enjoying the Lord, we deceive ourselves, because our enjoyment has no foundation. Our need to have a foundation for the enjoyment of Christ is clearly pictured here in the type.
Leviticus 6:12b also signifies that on the foundation of the burnt offering our peace offering should be burned for a fragrance to God. Not only the foundation should be burned, but even the very peace, the very fellowship, we enjoy should also be burned. The burnt offering should be burned, and our peace offering also should be burned. This means that both our absoluteness for God and our enjoyment of the Triune God should be a matter of burning. Thus, there is burning upon burning.
In this message we have seen the regulations concerning the burnt offering. If we desire to offer Christ as our burnt offering, taking Him as our burnt offering and enjoying Him as our absoluteness toward God, we need to follow all these regulations.
