Message 34
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Scripture Reading: Lev. 10:12-20
In the foregoing message we covered the lesson for the priests. In this message we will consider the regulations for the priests.
Although on a day of glory, a day full of blessing and enjoyment, something severe happened to Aaron (10:1-11), in 10:12 we have a further expression of God’s mercy and grace. “Moses spoke to Aaron, and to Eleazar and to Ithamar, his sons who remained, Take the meal offering that remains of the offerings of Jehovah by fire and eat it unleavened beside the altar, for it is most holy.” This verse speaks not of the burnt offering, the sin offering, or the trespass offering but the meal offering. The meal offering here is a matter of God’s mercy and grace. To our thought, immediately after the correction in 10:1-11, Aaron and his sons needed a sin offering. But Moses told them to eat the meal offering. Something was presented to Aaron and his sons for their eating. To give others something to eat at the time of need is to show them mercy.
The holy fire that consumed Nadab and Abihu was for judgment. This judgment was exercised not on unbelievers but on God’s people. According to 1 Corinthians 11:27-32, this kind of judgment is a disciplinary punishment, a merciful correction, not a judgment for perdition. The judgment of God on Aaron’s two sons did not terminate God’s mercy on His people. As Leviticus 10:12 indicates, here God’s mercy went along with His punishment and correction.
Aaron and his sons ate the remainder of the meal offering, of the offerings of Jehovah by fire, without leaven in a holy place beside the altar, as their portion (vv. 12-13). This signifies that the remaining part of Christ in His humanity as our meal offering is for us, the New Testament priests, to enjoy as our portion. According to Leviticus 2, the top portion of the meal offering, with the frankincense, was to be offered to God by fire. The remainder of the meal offering was for the priests. As the meal offering, Christ is firstly for God’s satisfaction, and then He is for our enjoyment and satisfaction.
Once again I would emphasize the fact that the meal offering in verses 12 and 13 comes immediately after the disciplinary judgment upon Nadab and Abihu and indicates that God is merciful. After this death-judgment Moses did not say, “Aaron, you have made mistakes, and now is the time for you to offer a sin offering to God.” Rather, instead of telling Aaron and his sons to offer a sin offering or a burnt offering, Moses told them to eat the remainder of the meal offering. This indicates that the judging and correcting God continues to be merciful.
The meal offering, which was most holy, was to be eaten in a holy place, that is, in a place where God is. This means that the meal offering was to be eaten in God’s presence. Furthermore, it was to be eaten beside the cross (the altar). Without the cross we have no position to enjoy anything of Christ. Also, the meal offering was to be eaten without sin (unleavened) as an offering that could be accepted by God in the fire of His holiness.
The breast of the people’s peace offerings as the wave offering and the thigh of the heave offering offered to Jehovah with the offerings by fire of the portions of fat were to be eaten by the priests in a clean place (vv. 14-15). This signifies that we, the New Testament priests, share with God some aspects of Christ as the believers’ peace offering.
The breast of the wave offering signifies the loving capacity of Christ in His resurrection. Christ has the particular capacity to love with God’s love. His loving capacity is not in the natural life but in resurrection.
The thigh of the heave offering signifies Christ’s strengthening power in His ascension. The strongest parts of our physical body are the thighs. They have not only the standing power but also the strengthening power. Today Christ is strengthening us in His ascension.
The breast and the thigh were to be eaten in a clean place, signifying a clean condition apart from sin or any negative thing. Furthermore, they were to be eaten as an offering that could be accepted by God in the fire of His holiness.
The sin offering which was most holy and the blood of which was not brought into the Holy of Holies was eaten by the priests in the holy place that they might bear away the iniquity of the congregation to make propitiation for them before Jehovah (vv. 17b-18). This signifies that we, the New Testament priests, partake of Christ as the believers’ sin offering. This partaking is in the sense of participating in Christ’s life, the life that bears others’ sins, as our life supply, that we may be able to bear the problems of God’s people. We partake of this offering in the church life in order to minister Christ’s sin-dealing life to the believers that they may deal with their sins. The goal of such a dealing is to appease the situation of the believers with God and to restore their broken fellowship with God.
Verse 17 speaks of making propitiation for the people. The word propitiation in the Old Testament does not refer to the redemption accomplished and completed by Christ. Rather, propitiation in the Old Testament is a type pointing to the redemption of Christ.
The Hebrew word translated “make propitiation” is kaphar, which means “to cover.” The noun form of this word is rendered “propitiatory cover” in 16:2, 13-15, and refers to the lid of the ark of the testimony. When someone came to contact God, immediately the Ten Commandments within the ark in the Holy of Holies exposed his sinful condition, indicating that there was a problem between this sinful person and the righteous God. Thus, there was no peace between these two parties. However, the blood of the sin offering was sprinkled upon the lid that covered the ark, signifying that the sin of the one coming to contact God had been covered.
In the Old Testament time Christ had not yet come, but there was a type pointing to Christ. That type was the animal sacrifice which was offered to God as a sin offering. On the day of propitiation the animal was slain, and its shed blood was brought into the Holy of Holies and sprinkled on the lid of the ark. In this way the problem between God and man was covered but not settled. This covering temporarily satisfied God’s requirement. This is to propitiate, to appease, to do something for the owing party to satisfy the requiring party, producing peace between the two parties.
Hebrews 9:12 clearly speaks of Christ’s redemption, telling us that “through His own blood” Christ has “entered once for all into the Holy of Holies, having found an eternal redemption.” The accomplished and completed redemption of Christ was obtained when He brought His blood to the heavens and sprinkled it there. In this way Christ found, obtained, procured, redemption. Redemption was accomplished by Christ on the cross, and it was obtained by Christ the Redeemer from the hand of the redeeming God. What we receive today is not merely propitiation or some kind of appeasing but the accomplished and completed redemption. Now we are enjoying such a redemption.
Leviticus 10:17 and 18 indicate that we, the New Testament priests, partake of Christ as the believers’ sin offering in the sense of participating in Christ’s life, the life that bears others’ sins, as our life supply, that we may be able to bear the problems of God’s people. If we would take Christ as the sin offering, we need to realize that after eating such a Christ we should bear the problems of God’s people.
Eating is not only for satisfaction; it is also for working (2 Thes. 3:10). If we eat Christ as our sin offering, the offering that has accomplished redemption for us and has solved our problems with God, we must bear the responsibility to solve the problems of God’s people.
If you become aware that a certain brother has a problem with sin, you should first bear the burden to pray for him. Then according to the Spirit’s leading, you may go to visit him, not to condemn him or to point out his failure but to fellowship with him to bring him into the presence of the Lord and into the sense of the Lord’s mercy and grace. If you can bring him into the light of God, the light will shine upon him and within him, and he will see his sinfulness, mistakes, and shortcomings.
Do not try to help a sinful one by exposing him or by directly pointing out his shortcomings. If you do this, you will insult him. Every sinner holds to his prestige. If you point out a brother’s sin, he will not confess it but will hold to his prestige. Furthermore, instead of bringing the brother into the light, you will provoke him and cause problems.
The best way to help a sinful brother is to be a person who lives in the fellowship of the Lord. Then when you visit such a one, you will bear with you an atmosphere of fellowship, and you will bring that one into fellowship with the enlightening God. In this fellowship he will be enlightened and will touch God’s mercy and grace. The mercy and grace of the divine life will soften his hard heart and warm his cold heart. (Because sinning causes one’s heart to become hard and cold, the heart of a sinful brother needs to be softened and warmed.) In the softening and warming light of God, the brother will see his sinfulness and confess it. There will be no need for you to mention it. This way of helping a sinful brother is the way of love in wisdom.
If we would bear the problems of God’s people, we need to have a rich enjoyment of Christ as our sin offering. Then with much prayer and consideration we should contact others in love and with wisdom, ministering Christ’s sin-dealing life to them that they may deal with their sins. If we contact others in this way, we will not damage them or the church but rather will do something to bear the problems of God’s people.
Due to his weakness concerning God’s death-judgment upon Nadab and Abihu, Aaron and his sons were not fit to eat the sin offering (Lev. 10:16-17a, 19-20). This signifies that if we are weak in accepting God’s judgment upon the serving ones who are intimate and close to us, we will not be able to partake of Christ as our sin offering in the sense of taking His sin-dealing life as our life supply to minister Him to the believers as the sin-dealing life.
“Moses diligently inquired about the goat of the sin offering, and found that it had been burned up! And he was angry with Eleazar and Ithamar, Aaron’s sons who remained, and said, Why have you not eaten the sin offering in the holy place?” (vv. 16-17a). Since the blood of this sin offering had not been brought inside, into the holy place, they should have eaten it as Moses had commanded (v. 18). Moses therefore rebuked them for not doing so. Then Aaron said to Moses, “See, today they have offered their sin offering and their burnt offering before Jehovah, and such things as these have happened to me! If I had eaten the sin offering today, would it be pleasing in the sight of Jehovah?” (v. 19). On the one hand, Aaron and his sons were weak concerning God’s death-judgment; on the other hand, Aaron had a proper consideration, for he and his sons were sorrowful and unhappy, and eating the sin offering under such circumstances would not have been pleasing to the Lord. Aaron told Moses that because of their sorrow, it would not have been fitting for them to eat the sin offering. “When Moses heard that, it was pleasing in his sight” (v. 20). Aaron’s response pleased Moses, who represented God, and thus God also must have been pleased.
This incident indicates that with respect to keeping the regulations made by God, in God’s mercy there is a margin that is out of consideration for our circumstances. Aaron and his sons had not kept God’s regulation in a legal way. They had not followed the divine regulation, not because of disobedience but because of a positive consideration of their circumstances.
These verses also show us that we should not keep God’s regulations in a rushed way. Instead of following the divine regulation in a hurried way, Aaron and his sons considered their situation and circumstances, and thus did not keep the regulation legally. What Aaron and his sons did was seemingly against God’s regulation, but actually it was something done in wisdom.
