Message 31
Scripture Reading: Lev. 9:1-21
The book of Leviticus shows us a new beginning, in which, for the first time, God’s people offered offerings to God according to God’s regulations. This was the first time God’s people offered Christ to God not merely according to their need but also according to God’s laws, His regulations. Before that time, some, such as Abel, Noah, and Abraham, offered to God, but it was not until the Israelites kept the Passover (Exo. 12:1-28) that offerings were presented to God according to His instructions. Strictly speaking, although the Passover lamb was an offering, it was not called an offering.
In Leviticus, after the erecting of the tabernacle, God had a dwelling place on earth from within which He spoke to His people. The first category of speaking concerned the offerings (Lev. 1—7). The offerings were not only needed by man and requested by God but were also ordained by God in regulations which were absolutely according to God’s mind and desire. Moses should have realized the significance of these offerings in regard to the matter of propitiation (Lev. 9:7), yet in the details of the offerings he may have understood very little.
In Leviticus the Israelites began to practice offering to God in a way which had never been done before. The offerings were now offered to God not by an individual but by a people, a congregation, and not at the place of their choice. God asked the people to come to the entrance of the tent of meeting to contact Him and to offer their offerings by priests, not by themselves. (This is different from the offering of the offerings by Abel, Noah, and Abraham, who were not only offerers but serving priests.) The manner in which the offerings were offered became a ceremony, a form, to be carried out before God at the entrance of His dwelling place according to His regulations, laws, and arrangement. All this was surely something new.
Although Moses did not see that the offerings were Christ, God was actually giving commands to His people about how to apply Christ as all the offerings according to God’s laws. We today need to learn how to apply Christ according to God’s requests. Early in the morning, we need to apply Christ as our burnt offering, sin offering, and meal offering so that we may have something to live by during the day.
Let us now consider the record in Leviticus 9:1-21 regarding the initiation of the priestly service of Aaron and his sons.
The initiation of the priestly service of Aaron and his sons took place on the eighth day (v. 1), which signifies resurrection (Mark 16:9a). This indicates that all the priestly service must be in resurrection (cf. Rev. 20:6).
The eighth day in Leviticus 9:1 refers to the day after the seven days of the consecration of Aaron and his sons. During each of these seven days, Aaron and his sons went through the same procedure. On the eighth day, the day after that course of consecration, they had a new beginning. The eighth day thus implies both a new beginning and the ending of the oldness.
As priests of God, our priesthood, our priestly service, must be altogether in resurrection. The natural life, the old man, and the flesh have no ground here. Unfortunately, however, in our actual church life there are many natural things, and there is much oldness. Such things are not on the eighth day; that is, they are not in the realm of resurrection but in the realm of the natural life.
We condemn evil things, but we may not condemn those good things which are done in the old creation. For example, we condemn hatred, but we may not condemn a love which is natural and not in the Spirit. In the New Testament, on the contrary, there is a concern regarding natural love, which is actually a kind of “honey.” According to Leviticus 2, neither leaven nor honey was allowed to be added to the meal offering. Leaven refers to what is evil, and honey, to what is naturally good. Whereas natural hatred is leaven, natural love is honey. Natural hatred is evil, but natural love is good. However, both good and evil are from the same source — the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Since natural hatred and natural love are natural, both belong to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; and since both belong to this tree, both should be condemned. This is the reason that when, in the Gospel of John, the Lord Jesus was asked questions regarding good and evil, right and wrong, yes and no, He referred the people to life. The Lord’s concern is life, not good and evil.
The priestly service we render to God must be in resurrection. The reality of resurrection is Christ as the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). Anything we do in the Spirit is on the eighth day, in resurrection. Anything we do outside the Spirit, in our natural life, mind, or emotion, is not on the eighth day, not in resurrection.
I hope that all the saints, including the newly saved ones, will receive this word concerning the priestly service on the eighth day. When you intend to show love toward a particular person, you need to consider whether this love arises from your spirit or from your natural emotion. Is this love a matter of your natural likes or dislikes, a matter of liking one person but not another? Further, because of your natural love for a certain one, you may treat that one in a preferential way. This is honey, and honey eventually ferments and becomes the same as leaven. This means that, in the eyes of God, natural love is just as evil as natural hatred.
Quite often the Lord will require us to love someone whom we cannot love in our natural life and with our natural love. The only way we can love that one is with a love which is not natural but is in resurrection. All our service must be in spirit, in resurrection.
Leviticus 9:7 says, “Then Moses said to Aaron, Come near to the altar and prepare your sin offering and your burnt offering, and make propitiation for yourself and for the people; and prepare the offering of the people, and make propitiation for them, as Jehovah has commanded.” In this verse we see that Aaron was to make propitiation for himself and for the people. The term propitiation needs to be distinguished from the terms redemption and atonement, for these words do not have the same meaning; there are important differences. Redemption was completed by the Lord Jesus’ death on the cross and this term should be used only for the New Testament. Before He shed His blood on the cross, there was not such a thing as redemption. What we have in the Old Testament is propitiation. Sometimes the Hebrew word for propitiation is translated “atonement.” Atonement is a matter of at-one-ment; it refers to appeasing the situation between two parties in order to bring them together, to make them one. Propitiation refers to the appeasing of a situation between two parties by doing something for one party to satisfy the demands of the other party.
As sinners, we had a problem with our righteous God. Although He loved us, something unrighteous existed between us and Him. Not until this unrighteous situation was appeased could we be one with God. Therefore, on the cross Christ accomplished redemption for us. Christ not only shed His blood to accomplish redemption, but in His ascension He entered into the heavens and presented His blood before God. Through this presentation of His blood, He acquired, gained, an eternal redemption for us (Heb. 9:12). When we believed into Christ, we entered into Him and received this redemption.
How did God deal with the sins of the Old Testament saints before Christ came? God covered their sins, but He did not remove them. Paul tells us clearly that “it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins” (Heb. 10:4). Rather, with such sacrifices there was “a calling to mind of sins year by year” (v. 3) at the feast of propitiation. The sins of the Old Testament saints remained, but these sins were covered. This covering took place on the propitiation cover (Rom. 3:25), which was the lid of the ark of the testimony. Inside the ark were the two tablets, with five of the Ten Commandments inscribed on each. The Ten Commandments condemned anyone who approached God. But the blood of the sin offering shed on the day of propitiation was sprinkled on the lid of the ark for the making of propitiation. Hence, the cover of the ark was known as the propitiation cover.
In Leviticus 9:7 Aaron was told to make propitiation for himself and for the people. He had a problem with God, and he needed to do something to appease the situation so that he could have peace with God.
Aaron’s preparing his sin offering and burnt offering and making propitiation for himself first signifies that he, as a sinful person, needed to take Christ as his sin offering and burnt offering for him to be a priest to serve God. Before he could serve as a priest, Aaron had to have his situation appeased. He needed the sin offering and also the burnt offering.
Today the sin offering reminds us of many negative things, and the burnt offering reminds us that we should be absolute for God, yet we are not. We need to take Christ as our sin offering to redeem us back to a peaceful situation with God, and we need to take Christ as the burnt offering, as the One who lives in us and for us a life that is absolutely for God.
Aaron’s preparing the sin offering and the burnt offering also signifies that Aaron typifies Christ’s offering Himself as a sin offering for the redemption of God’s people and as a burnt offering for God’s people to be God’s satisfaction. In the sin offering God’s people are one with Christ; hence, we are redeemed in Him. He has acquired, gained, redemption. As long as we are one with Him, we have redemption. In the burnt offering Christ is one with God’s people; hence, He is living in us that we may live Him for God’s satisfaction.
The sin offering is something in death, and the burnt offering is something in resurrection. We are one with Christ in His death, and He is one with us in His resurrection.
Finally, Aaron’s preparing the sin offering and the burnt offering signifies that whatever Christ as our High Priest did, He did for us, that we might be redeemed from sin and made God’s satisfaction. In the living Christ we are made God’s satisfaction by living absolutely for Him.
“Then he brought the offering of the people, and took the goat of the sin offering which was for the people and slaughtered it, and he offered it for sin, like the first. And he brought the burnt offering, and offered it according to the ordinance. He also brought the meal offering and filled his palms with it, and offered it up in smoke on the altar in addition to the burnt offering of the morning” (vv. 15-17). This signifies that Christ offered Himself for us as our sin offering to deal with our sin, as our burnt offering to satisfy God, and as our meal offering to be God’s food and also our food. Every morning we should take Christ as these offerings, praying, “Lord, for this new day I take You as my sin offering, burnt offering, and meal offering, that I may live by You, with You, and in You and even live You for God’s satisfaction.”
In 9:18-21 we see that Aaron offered the peace offering for the people. This signifies that Christ offered Himself as our peace offering for us and God to enjoy Him as peace. We enjoy this peace as we enjoy Christ at the Lord’s table.
The enjoyment of Christ as the peace offering in verses 18 through 21 is based upon Christ as our sin offering, burnt offering, and meal offering, as covered in verses 7 through 17. Perhaps you are wondering why there is no mention of the trespass offering in these verses. Here the trespass offering is included in the sin offering.
This is the first time in human history that Christ is applied in such a way and to such an extent. In this application Christ is our sin offering, our burnt offering, and then our meal offering for our daily living, with the result that we enter into peace, which is Christ Himself. This is the initiation of the offerings, pointing to the living Christ, whom we are enjoying and eating every day as our daily food.
