The meat of the sacrifice of his peace offering of thanksgiving must be eaten on the day he offers it; none of it may be left until morning. Sermons
I. STRICT OBSERVANCE IS DEMANDED, EVEN THOUGH THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PRECEPT BE NOT PERCEIVED. Little explanation is afforded in the Law of the many ceremonies instituted. The Israelites were treated as children, whose chief virtue is unquestioning obedience. Why should the flesh be so quickly consumed? The devout Israelite might not know, yet must he rigidly conform to the order. He is not to reason, but to do. This course may be recommended to the many who wish a full explanation of the reasons for the institution of the ordinances connected with the Christian Church. Reliance may be placed upon the wisdom of the Divine Legislator, and faith rather than knowledge may glorify God. "The secret things" (the explanations, the reasons) "belong unto the Lord our God; but those things which are revealed" (the facts, the commands) "belong unto us for ever, that we may do all the words of the Law." That Jesus Christ has ordained Baptism and the Lord's Supper is sufficient to lead us to practice them, however confused may be our apprehension of the mysteries and principles involved. And in relation to the counsels addressed to us for the guidance of our lives, and the events that are seen to necessitate certain action upon our parts, it may stall be said, "What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shall know hereafter." II. MORE LIGHT MAY BE EXPECTED TO DAWN UPON US CONTINUALLY AS TO THE MEANING OF DIVINE ORDINANCES. Faith is not intended to exclude or supersede knowledge, but to form a basis for it, an avenue through which it may pass to the mind, an appendix by which its volume may be supplemented. Patient and prayerful study is ever rewarded with keener appreciation of the will of God. If the Israelites reflected for a moment, they would call to mind warnings against desecrating holy things, and against treating what was offered to God as if it were a portion of common food. Surely God would distinguish thus between ordinary slaughter and sacrificial victims, and would guard against that additional risk of putrefaction to which flesh is liable in a hot climate, and which, if it occurred, would be an insult to his majesty. For us at any rate the types and ceremonies of Judaism have been interpreted by Christianity. The Great Prophet has revealed the obscure, and, endowed with his Spirit, apostles have Been inspired to comment authoritatively upon the preceding dispensation. And. we need. not limit our aspirations after an intelligent perception of the meaning of Christian laws. Events as they occur, and reverent, persevering investigation, may unfold to us with increasing clearness the ways of God. But we ought not to delay observance of his precepts until their design is fully manifest. That servant is slothful who refuses to work by candle-light, and waits for the brightness of the sun. III. PARTIAL DISOBEDIENCE NEUTRALIZES THE EFFECT OF A RELIGIOUS OBSERVANCE, AND MAY APPEAR MORE OFFENSIVE THAN TOTAL NEGLECT OF THE DIVINE COMMANDS. Let the worshipper trifle with the Law and venture to eat the flesh on the third day, and he shall find to his cost that the whole of his offering is rejected; it is not pleasing to God, and will not procure him favour. His effort proves useless, it shall not be reckoned to his credit. Worse still, his offering "shall be an abomination" in the eyes of God; there shall be no grateful odour exhaled, but it shall be a stench in his nostrils. Sin has not been obliterated but augmented by the sacrifice. When the Earl of Oxford would honour King Henry VII by the presence of a large body of retainers, the king only saw in the men an infraction of the law, and could not consent to have his laws broken in his sight. Honour and dishonour are an ill-assorted pair. The partially obedient worshipper shows himself as knowing God's will and doing it not. Total abstinence might have proclaimed him sinful through ignorance. Half-heartedness is often as productive of evil effects as fiat rebellion. It is not for us to presume to say what may be disregarded and what not. To follow the Lord fully is the path of duty and of safety. - S.R.A.
The law of the sacrifice of peace-offerings. I. CHARACTERISTICS.1. The animal offered might be a male or a female — differing in this from the burnt-offering. 2. It was not to be wholly consumed as the burnt offerings. 3. If for a thanksgiving offering, unleavened cakes, mingled with oil, as well as leavened, might be offered. 4. If for a vow or a voluntary offering, the parts to be eaten must be eaten on the same or the following day. 5. No ceremonially-unclean person could eat of the peace-offering. II. SIGNIFICANCE. 1. The peace-offering, as the name implies, presents to us our Lord Jesus as our peace (Ephesians 2:14). 2. This is the key to this symbolic offering, by which may be unlocked, with certainty, some, at least, of its rich treasures.(1) The parts consumed — representing the most excellent parts, the inward parts, the hidden energies — were offered on the altar unto God the Father — in which He was "well pleased."(2) The other parts eaten by the priests representing the true believer feeding on Christ as his Peace, having laid his hand of faith on Him; the sprinkled blood being the ground of peace.(3) The wave-breast representing the love of Christ, and the heave-shoulder His all-power, give the two leading elements in Christ on which the believer feeds with joyous delight.(4) The unleavened cakes, representing the new nature of the believer, being mingled with oil, the oil representing the Holy Spirit, show the necessity for even the regenerated to be assisted by the power of the Spirit for profitable communion with God in Christ, and to enter into the fulness of the love and power of Christ.(5) Leavened bread, signifying evil, was to be offered as well as unleavened, to signify that our sinful nature should be recognised in our "sacrifice of thanksgiving" — not for condemnation, but for joy that it is judged. The sin in us should not hinder our communion with God in Christ, if we have no sin upon us.(6) The ceremonially-unclean could not eat of the wave-breast or heave-shoulder, to signify that sin unconfessed, and therefore unpardoned, is an insurmountable hindrance to fellowship with God in Christ. (D. C. Hughes, M. A.) 1. The offering of thanksgiving, i.e., for some special blessing. 2. The vow, the fulfilment of a promise to God. 3. The voluntary offering, made from a principle of gratitude, when, with no special occasion, the worshipper called upon his soul and all within him to praise and bless God's holy name. It was a peace-offering, a national thanksgiving, which Solomon made at the dedication of the Temple. It is this sacrifice which is so frequently referred to in the Psalms. In connection with the celebration of the Passover there were two peace-offerings. The former of these is continued in the Lord's Supper, which is a feast of thanksgiving for God's greatest gift to men. We should thank God at the sacramental table for all special exhibitions of the Divine goodness. II. THE PEACE-OFFERING IS A SACRIFICE OF FELLOWSHIP. This, taken with thanksgiving, is its characteristic idea. The feature peculiar to it was the sacrificial meal; the partaking of that which was offered by the worshipper. The priests shared in what was offered in the meat and sin-offerings. The worshipper also partook of the peace-offering. The sacrifice was an act of holy communion. Also a social meal. III. THE BASIS OF COMMUNION IN THE PEACE-OFFERING IS SACRIFICE; AND IN THE SACRIFICE, THE SHEDDING OF BLOOD. The shedding of the blood in this particular sacrifice does not represent, as in the sin-offering, the act of atoning for sin. The bleeding Christ as our Peace-offering is not our sin-bearer. But His blood in this offering also declares that an atonement has been made, and that the sole ground of fellowship with God is the reconciling blood of the Lamb (Ephesians 2:13, 14). IV. THE PEACE-OFFERING REQUIRES HOLINESS IN THE WORSHIPPER. This fact is expressed in the provision that unleavened bread should be offered as a part of the sacrifice. Yeast, or leaven, was a symbol of corruption. The principle of corruption must be carefully excluded, if our offering is to find acceptance. Is there old leaven of sin in your life? V. IN THE PEACE-OFFERING THE SINFULNESS OF A NATURE PARTIALLY SANCTIFIED IS CONFESSED. The curse of sin is no more on us, but it is in us. (G. R. Leavitt.) I. In the peace-offering there was inculcated A SPIRIT OF TRANQUIL TRUST. When one made the sacrifice, it signified that he was in the state of reconciliation with God. The law had lost its curse; sin was in process of being subdued; the soul of the glad believer simply rested upon the promises of redemption, and waited for its salvation. Among the severe passes of the Scottish highlands, it is memorable always to mention Glencoe; for no one who has ever climbed the fatiguing steeps can forget that, after the weary way had led him up and on, and beneath the shadow of the grotesque Ben Arthur, past many a disappointing elevation which he thought surely would be the last, he finally reached that mossy stone, by the winding wayside, on which are written the welcome words, "Here rest, and be thankful!" There, sitting down in peace, one sees the rare prospect of beautiful hill and vale, rock and loch kindling and shadowing each other, far away towards the blue horizon; and just beside him, at the turn of the road, is also the long path by which he came. Such spots of experience there are on the mountains of life, when the forgiven sinner, now a child, pauses to say to himself, "Return unto thy rest, O my soul, for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee." In the original verse this reads "resting-places." II. In the peace-offering there was inculcated also A SPIRIT OF HEARTFELT GRATITUDE. This service is called "the sacrifice of thanksgiving" (Psalm 116:17). How many mercies have been given us! How many perils have been averted! How many fears have been allayed I How many friendly communions have been granted l How many anticipations have been kindled! How many hopes have been gratified! Per contra, just a serious thought might likewise be bestowed upon the other side of the ledger. Said old Christmas Evans, in an unusually lengthened period of reminiscence, "Thy love has been as a shower; the returns, alas I only a dewdrop now and then, and even that dewdrop stained with sin!" At this point the suggestion which this ceremonial makes concerning permanency of devout acknowledgment is welcome. "Thanksgiving is good," said the venerable Philip Henry to his children, "but thanksgiving is better." We ought not to seek to exhaust our gratitude upon any single day's exercise. It is better to live our thanks through all our lifetime. A happy, grateful spirit is the Christian's best offering to God, morning, noon, and night. III. In the peace-offering there was likewise inculcated A SPIRIT OF FAITHFUL CONSECRATION. There are always two sides to any covenant. When we plead God's promises, we certainly have need to remember our own. God expects a Christian who has been favoured to be un-forgetful. Alexander Severus is reported to have made an edict that no one should salute the emperor on the street who knew himself to be a thief. And it must be unbecoming for any one to praise or pray who remembers that his life contains the record of some vow made once but still unkept. Hence it sometimes happens that one part of our history will give help to another, for it quickens the zeal of our love to call to remembrance a day in which God's love drew forth our engagement. It is related of the famous Thomas Erskine, before he was a Christian man, that once when wandering in a lonely glen among the mountains of his own land, he came across a shepherd pasturing his flock. "Do you know the Father?" asked the plain man, with unmistakable gentleness of devotion. The proud scholar vouchsafed no reply, but the arrow struck. He was never easy again till he found peace with pardon of his sins. He would have been glad to thank his modest unknown benefactor. So he went forth along the same path for many a useless day. Years afterwards, he saw him almost in the identical spot. "I know the Father now," he said, with sweet, grave greeting. IV. In the peace-offering there was inculcated A SPIRIT OF LIVELY JOY. We find this in the very unusual ceremony of waving a portion of the sacrifice in the air. There is no explanation given of this; what could it have meant but the holding up of one's whole heart in the offering in the fall sight of God? It makes us think of the significant gesture of courtesy the world over, the swing of one's hand when his wish is keen and his happy heart longs still to send it aloft, while the distance is too far for speech. A Christian, waving the offering of his gratitude before God, ought to be the happiest being on all the earth. V. In the peace-offering there was inculcated A SPIRIT OF CONFIDENT SUPPLICATION. Near a hundred years after this, it is recorded (Judges 21:4) that the men of Israel, "bewailing the desolation of Benjamin," offered "burnt-offerings and peace-offerings" upon the same altar. That is to say, they mingled their prayers with gifts of appropriate penitence. So again., after a disastrously lost battle (Judges 20:26). And even down in David's time, almost five hundred years later, the same conjunction of the two sacrifices is to be observed. He stayed the plague by his penitence in a burnt-offering, and he received relief in answer to his prayer in a peace-offering (2 Samuel 24:25). Nothing can be more attractive than this artless trust in the Divine mercy. "To give thanks for grace already received is a refined way of begging for more." VI. Finally, in the peace-offering there was inculcated A SPIRIT OF AFFECTIONATE SOLICITUDE. (C. S. Robinson, D. D.) It is easy to connect the special characteristics of these several varieties of the peace-offering with the great Antitype. So may we use Him as our Thank-offering; for what more fitting as an expression of gratitude and love to God for mercies received than renewed and special fellowship with Him through feeding upon Christ as the slain Lamb? So also we may thus use Christ in our vows; as when, supplicating mercy, we promise and engage that if our prayer be heard we will renewedly consecrate our service to the Lord, as in the meal-offering, and anew enter into life-giving fellowship with Him through feeding by faith on the flesh of the Lord. And it is beautifully hinted in the permission of the use of leaven in this feast of the peace-offering, that while the work of the believer, as presented to God in grateful acknowledgment of His mercies, is ever affected with the taint of his native corruption, so that it cannot come upon the altar where satisfaction is made for sin, yet God is graciously pleased, for the sake of the great Sacrifice, to accept such imperfect service offered to Him, and make it in turn a blessing to us, as we offer it in His presence, rejoicing in the work of our hands before Him. But there was one condition without which the Israelite could not have communion with God in the peace-offering. He must be clean; even as the flesh of the peace-offering must be clean also. There must be in him nothing which should interrupt covenant fellowship with God; as nothing in the type which should make it an unfit symbol of the Antitype.(S. H. Kellogg, D. D.) It is interesting, to observe that, although the peace-offering itself stands third in order, yet "the law" thereof is given us last of all. This circumstance is not without its import. There is none of the offerings in which the communion of the worshipper is so fully unfolded as in the peace-offering. In the burnt-offering it is Christ offering Himself to God. In the meat-offering we have Christ's perfect humanity. Then, passing on to the sin-offering, we learn that sin, in its root, is fully met. In the trespass-offering there is a full answer to the actual sins in the life. But in none is the doctrine of the communion and worship unfolded. The latter belongs to "the peace-offering"; and hence, I believe, the position which the law of that offering occupies. It comes in at the close of all, thereby teaching us that, when it becomes a question of the soul's feeding upon Christ, it must be a full Christ, looked at in every possible phase of His life, His character, His Person, His work, His offices. And, furthermore, that, when we shall have done for ever with sin and sins, we shall delight in Christ, and feed upon Him throughout the everlasting ages. It would, I believe, be a serious defect in our study of the offerings were we to pass over a circumstance so worthy of notice as the above. If "the law of the peace-offering" were given in the order in which the offering itself occurs, it would come in immediately after the law of the meat-offering; but, instead of that, "the law of the sin-offering," and "the law of the trespass-offering" are given, and then "the law of the peace-offering" closes the entire.(C. H. Mackintosh.) The priest that sprinkled the blood was to eat the pieces of this peace-offering the same day that it was offered. Some say this rule prevented covetousness arising in the priests; no one had it in his power to hoard up. Others say this rule was fitted to promote brotherly love; for he must call together his friends, in order to have it all finished. But these uses are only incidental. The true uses lie much nearer the surface. Israel might hereby be taught to offer thanksgiving while the benefit was still fresh and recent. Besides this, and most specially, the offerer who saw the priest cut it in pieces and feast thereon, knew thereby that God had accepted his gift, and returned rejoicing to his dwelling, like David and his people, when their peace-offerings were ended, at the bringing up of the ark (2 Samuel 6:17-19). The Lord took special notice of this free, spontaneous thank-offering, inasmuch as He commanded it to be immediately eaten, thus speedily assuring the worshipper of peace and acceptance. The love of our God is too full to be restrained from us one moment longer than is needful for the manifestation of His holiness.(A. A. Bonar.) People Aaron, Israelites, MosesPlaces Sinai, TemanTopics Eaten, Fellowship, Flesh, Kept, Leave, Morning, None, Oblation, Offered, Offering, Offerings, Peace, Peace-offering, Peace-offerings, Praise-offering, Presented, Sacrifice, Thank-offering, Thanksgiving, TillOutline 1. The law of the trespass offering11. and of the peace offering 12. whether it be for a thanksgiving 16. or a vow, or a free will offering 22. the fat and the blood are forbidden 28. The priests' portion in the peace offerings 35. The whole summed up Dictionary of Bible Themes Leviticus 7:9-15 7476 thank-offering Library LeviticusThe emphasis which modern criticism has very properly laid on the prophetic books and the prophetic element generally in the Old Testament, has had the effect of somewhat diverting popular attention from the priestly contributions to the literature and religion of Israel. From this neglect Leviticus has suffered most. Yet for many reasons it is worthy of close attention; it is the deliberate expression of the priestly mind of Israel at its best, and it thus forms a welcome foil to the unattractive … John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament Links Leviticus 7:15 NIVLeviticus 7:15 NLT Leviticus 7:15 ESV Leviticus 7:15 NASB Leviticus 7:15 KJV Leviticus 7:15 Bible Apps Leviticus 7:15 Parallel Leviticus 7:15 Biblia Paralela Leviticus 7:15 Chinese Bible Leviticus 7:15 French Bible Leviticus 7:15 German Bible Leviticus 7:15 Commentaries Bible Hub |
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