Part 14 (1/2)
What, then, did he lose by his physical blemish? He was forbidden to tread some of the higher walks of priestly service and wors.h.i.+p.--”Only he shall not go in unto the vail, nor come nigh unto the altar.” These were very serious privations; and though it may be objected that a man could not help many of these physical defects, that did not alter the matter. Jehovah could not have a blemished priest at His altar, or a blemished sacrifice thereon. Both the priest and the sacrifice should be perfect. ”No man that hath a blemish of the seed of Aaron the priest shall come nigh to offer the offerings of the Lord made by fire.” (Chap. xxi. 22.) ”But whatsoever hath a blemish, that shall ye not offer; for it shall not be acceptable for you.” (Chap. xxii. 20.)
Now, we have both the perfect priest and the perfect sacrifice in the Person of our blessed Lord Jesus Christ. He having ”offered Himself without spot to G.o.d,” pa.s.sed into the heavens as our great High-Priest, where He ever liveth to make intercession for us. The epistle to the Hebrews dwells elaborately upon these two points. It throws into vivid contrast the sacrifice and priesthood of the Mosaic system and the Sacrifice and Priesthood of Christ. In Him we have divine perfectness, whether as the Victim or as the Priest. We have all that G.o.d could require, and all that man could need. His precious blood has put away all our sins, and His all-prevailing intercession ever maintains us in all the perfectness of the place into which His blood has introduced us. ”We are complete in Him” (Col. ii.); and yet, so feeble and so faltering are we in ourselves; so full of failure and infirmity; so p.r.o.ne to err and stumble in our onward way, that we could not stand for a moment were it not that ”He ever liveth to make intercession for us.” These things have been dwelt upon in the earlier chapters of this volume, and it is therefore needless to enter further upon them here. Those who have any thing like correct apprehensions of the grand foundation-truths of Christianity, and any measure of experience in the Christian life, will be able to understand how it is that though ”complete in Him who is the head of all princ.i.p.ality and power,” they nevertheless need, while down here amid the infirmities, conflicts, and buffetings of earth, the powerful advocacy of their adorable and divine High-Priest. The believer is ”washed, sanctified, and justified” (1 Cor. vi.); he is ”accepted in the Beloved” (Eph. i.
6.); he can never come into judgment, as regards his person (See John v. 24, where the word is ???s?? and not ?ata???s??.); death and judgment are behind him, because he is united to Christ, who has pa.s.sed through them both on his behalf and in his stead. All these things are divinely true of the very weakest, most unlettered, and inexperienced member of the family of G.o.d; but yet, inasmuch as he carries about with him a nature so incorrigibly bad and so irremediably ruined that no discipline can correct it and no medicine cure it, inasmuch as he is the tenant of a body of sin and death--as he is surrounded on all sides by hostile influences--as he is called to cope perpetually with the combined forces of the world, the flesh, and the devil, he could never keep his ground, much less make progress, were he not upheld by the all-prevailing intercession of his great High-Priest, who bears the names of His people upon His breast and upon His shoulder.
Some, I am aware, have found great difficulty in reconciling the idea of the believer's perfect standing in Christ with the need of priesthood. ”If,” it is argued, ”he is perfect, what need has he of a priest?” The two things are as distinctly taught in the Word as they are compatible one with another, and understood in the experience of every rightly instructed Christian. It is of the very last importance to apprehend, with clearness and accuracy, the perfect harmony between these two points. The believer is perfect in Christ; but in himself, he is a poor feeble creature, ever liable to fall. Hence the unspeakable blessedness of having One who can manage all his affairs for him, at the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens--One who upholds him continually by the right hand of His righteousness--One who will never let him go--One who is able to save to the uttermost--One who is ”the same yesterday, to-day, and forever”--One who will bear him triumphantly through all the difficulties and dangers which surround him, and finally ”present him faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy.” Blessed forever be the grace that has made such ample provision for all our need in the blood of a Spotless Victim and the intercession of a divine High-Priest!
Dear Christian reader, let it be our care so to walk, so to ”keep ourselves unspotted from the world,” so to stand apart from all unhallowed a.s.sociations, that we may enjoy the highest privileges and discharge the most elevated functions of our position as members of the priestly house of which Christ is the Head. We have ”boldness to enter into the holiest through the blood of Jesus:” ”we have a great High-Priest over the house of G.o.d.” (Heb. x.) Nothing can ever rob us of these privileges. But then our communion may be marred, our wors.h.i.+p may be hindered, our holy functions may remain undischarged. Those ceremonial matters against which the sons of Aaron were warned in the section before us, have their ant.i.types in the Christian economy. Had they to be warned against unholy contact? So have we. Had they to be warned against unholy alliance? So have we. Had they to be warned against all manner of ceremonial uncleanness? So have we to be warned against ”all filthiness of the flesh and spirit.” (1 Cor. vii.) Were they shorn of many of their loftiest priestly privileges by bodily blemish and imperfect natural growth? So are we by moral blemish and imperfect spiritual growth.
Will any one venture to call in question the practical importance of such principles as these? Is it not obvious that the more highly we estimate the blessings which attach to that priestly house of which we have been const.i.tuted members, in virtue of our spiritual birth, the more carefully shall we guard against every thing which might tend in any wise to rob us of their enjoyment? Undoubtedly. And this it is which renders the close study of our section so pre-eminently practical. May we feel its power, through the application of G.o.d the Holy Ghost. Then shall we _enjoy_ our priestly place; then shall we faithfully discharge our priestly functions. We shall be able ”to present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto G.o.d”
(Rom. xii. 1); we shall be able to ”offer the sacrifice of praise to G.o.d continually, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name” (Heb. xiii. 15.); we shall be able, as members of the ”spiritual house” and the ”holy priesthood,” to ”offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to G.o.d by Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. ii. 5.); we shall be able, in some small degree, to antic.i.p.ate that blissful time when, from a redeemed creation, the halleluiahs of intelligent and fervent praise shall ascend to the throne of G.o.d and the Lamb throughout the everlasting ages.
CHAPTER XXIII.
One of the most profound and comprehensive chapters in the inspired volume now lies before us, and claims our prayerful study. It contains the record of the seven great feasts or periodical solemnities into which Israel's year was divided. In other words, it furnishes us with a perfect view of G.o.d's dealings with Israel during the entire period of their most eventful history.
Looking at the feasts separately, we have the Sabbath, the Pa.s.sover, the feast of unleavened bread, the first-fruits, Pentecost, the feast of trumpets, the day of atonement, and the feast of tabernacles. This would make eight, altogether; but it is very obvious that the Sabbath occupies quite a unique and independent place. It is first presented, and its proper characteristics and attendant circ.u.mstances fully set forth; and then we read, ”These are the feasts of the Lord, even holy convocations, which ye shall proclaim in their seasons.” (Ver. 4.)
So that, strictly speaking, as the attentive reader will observe, Israel's _first_ great feast was the Pa.s.sover, and their _seventh_ was the feast of tabernacles. That is to say, divesting them of their typical dress, we have, first, redemption; and last of all, we have the millennial glory. The paschal lamb typified the death of Christ (1 Cor. v. 7.); and the feast of tabernacles typified ”the times of the rest.i.tution of all things, of which G.o.d hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began.” (Acts iii. 21.)
Such was the opening and such the closing feast of the Jewish year.
Atonement is the foundation, glory the top-stone; while between these two points we have the resurrection of Christ (ver. 10-14.), the gathering of the Church (ver. 15-21.), the waking up of Israel to a sense of their long-lost glory (ver. 24-25.), their repentance and hearty reception of their Messiah (ver. 27-32.), and, that not one feature might be lacking in this grand typical representation, we have provision made for the Gentiles to come in at the close of the harvest and glean in Israel's fields (ver. 22.). All this renders the picture divinely perfect, and evokes from the heart of every lover of Scripture the most intense admiration. What could be more complete?
The blood of the Lamb, and practical holiness founded thereon; the resurrection of Christ from the dead, and His ascension into heaven; the descent of the Holy Ghost, in pentecostal power, to form the Church; the awakening of the remnant; their repentance and restoration; the blessing of ”the poor and the stranger;” the manifestation of the glory; the rest and blessedness of the kingdom,--such are the contents of this truly marvelous chapter, which we shall now proceed to examine in detail. May G.o.d the Holy Ghost be our Teacher.
”And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 'Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, Concerning the feasts of the Lord, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are My feasts. Six days shall work be done; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of rest, a holy convocation; ye shall do no work therein: it is the Sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings.'” The place which the Sabbath here gets is full of interest. The Lord is about to furnish a type of all His dealings in grace with His people; and ere He does so, He sets forth the Sabbath as the significant expression of that rest which remaineth for the people of G.o.d. It was an actual solemnity to be observed by Israel, but it was also a type of what is yet to be when all that great and glorious work which this chapter foreshadows shall have been accomplished. It is G.o.d's rest, into which all who believe can enter now in spirit; but which, as to its full and actual accomplishment, yet remains. (Heb. iv.) We work now: we shall rest by and by. In one sense, the believer enters into rest; in another sense, he labors to enter into it. He has found his rest in Christ; he labors to enter into his rest in glory. He has found his full mental repose in what Christ has wrought for him, and his eye rests on that everlasting Sabbath upon which he shall enter when all his desert toils and conflicts are over. He cannot rest in the midst of a scene of sin and wretchedness; ”he rests in Christ, the Son of G.o.d, who took the servant's form;” and while thus resting, he is called to labor as a worker together with G.o.d, in the full a.s.surance that when all his toil is over, he shall enjoy unbroken, eternal repose in those mansions of unfading light and unalloyed blessedness where labor and sorrow can never enter. Blessed prospect! May it brighten more and more each hour in the vision of faith. May we labor all the more earnestly and faithfully, as being sure of this most precious rest at the end. True, there are foretastes of the eternal Sabbath; but these foretastes only cause us to long more ardently for the blessed reality--that Sabbath which shall never be broken--that ”holy convocation” which shall never be dissolved.
We have already remarked that the Sabbath occupies quite a unique and independent place in this chapter. This is evident from the wording of the fourth verse, where the Lord seems to begin afresh with the expression, ”These are the feasts of the Lord,” as if to leave the Sabbath quite distinct from the seven feasts which follow, though it be, in reality, the type of that rest to which those feasts so blessedly introduce the soul.
”These are the feasts of the Lord, even holy convocations, which ye shall proclaim in their seasons. In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the Lord's pa.s.sover.” (Ver. 4, 5.) Here, then, we have the first of the seven periodical solemnities--the offering of that paschal lamb whose blood it was that screened the Israel of G.o.d from the sword of the destroying angel on that terrible night when Egypt's first-born were laid low. This is the acknowledged type of the death of Christ, and hence its place in this chapter is divinely appropriate. It forms the foundation of all. We can know nothing of rest, nothing of holiness, nothing of fellows.h.i.+p, save on the ground of the death of Christ. It is peculiarly striking, significant, and beautiful to observe that, directly G.o.d's rest is spoken of, the next thing introduced is the blood of the paschal lamb. As much as to say, There is the _rest_, but here is your _t.i.tle_. No doubt labor will _capacitate_ us, but it is the blood that _ent.i.tles_ us, to enjoy the rest.
”And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto the Lord: seven days ye must eat unleavened bread. In the first day ye shall have a holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein. But ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord seven days: in the seventh day is a holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein.” (Ver. 6-8.) The people are here a.s.sembled around Jehovah in that practical holiness which is founded upon accomplished redemption; and while thus a.s.sembled, the fragrant odor of the sacrifice ascends from the altar of Israel to the throne of Israel's G.o.d. This gives us a fine view of that holiness which G.o.d looks for in the life of His redeemed. It is based upon the sacrifice, and it ascends in immediate connection with the acceptable fragrance of the Person of Christ. ”Ye shall do no _servile work_ therein; but ye shall offer _an offering made by fire_.” What a contrast!--the servile work of man's hands, and the sweet savor of Christ's sacrifice! The practical holiness of G.o.d's people is not servile labor; it is the living unfolding of Christ through them, by the power of the Holy Ghost. ”To me to live is Christ.” This is the true idea.
Christ is our life; and every exhibition of that life is, in the divine judgment, redolent with all the fragrance of Christ. It may be a very trifling matter in man's judgment, but, in so far as it is the outflow of Christ our life, it is unspeakably precious to G.o.d. It ascends to Him and can never be forgotten. ”The fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ” are produced in the life of the believer, and no power of earth or h.e.l.l can prevent their fragrance ascending to the throne of G.o.d.
It is needful to ponder deeply the contrast between ”servile work” and the outflow of the life of Christ. The type is very vivid. There was a total cessation of manual labor throughout the whole a.s.sembly; but the sweet savor of the burnt-offering ascended to G.o.d. These were to be the two grand characteristics of the feast of unleavened bread. Man's labor ceased, and the odor of the sacrifice ascended; and this was the type of a believer's life of practical holiness. What a triumphant answer is here to the legalist on the one side, and the antinomian on the other! The former is silenced by the words, ”no servile work;” and the latter is confounded by the words, ”Ye shall offer an offering made by fire.” The most elaborate works of man's hands are ”servile;”
but the smallest cl.u.s.ter of ”the fruits of righteousness” is to the glory and praise of G.o.d. Throughout the entire period of the believer's life there must be no servile work--nothing of the hateful and degrading element of legality. There should be only the continual presentation of the life of Christ, wrought out and exhibited by the power of the Holy Ghost. Throughout the ”seven days” of Israel's second great periodical solemnity there was to be ”no leaven;” but instead thereof, the sweet savor of ”an offering made by fire” was to be presented to the Lord. May we fully enter into the practical teaching of this most striking and instructive type.
”And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 'Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye be come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf of the first-fruits of your harvest unto the priest; and ye shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it. And ye shall offer that day when ye wave the sheaf, a he lamb without blemish of the first year, for a burnt-offering unto the Lord. And the meat-offering thereof shall be two tenth deals of fine flour mingled with oil, an offering made by fire unto the Lord for a sweet savor: and the drink-offering thereof shall be of wine, the fourth part of a hin. And ye shall eat neither bread, nor parched corn, nor green ears, until the self-same day that ye have brought an offering unto your G.o.d: it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations, in all your dwellings.” (Ver. 9-14.)
”But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the _first-fruits_ of them that slept.” (1 Cor. xv. 20.) The beautiful ordinance of the presentation of the sheaf of first-fruits typified the resurrection of Christ, who, ”at the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week,” rose triumphant from the tomb, having accomplished the glorious work of redemption. His was a ”resurrection _from among_ the dead;” and in it we have at once the earnest and the type of the resurrection of His people. ”Christ the first-fruits; afterwards they that are Christ's at His coming.” When Christ comes, His people will be raised ”from among the dead [e? ?e????],” that is, those of them that sleep in Jesus; ”but the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished.” (Rev. xx. 5.) When, immediately after the transfiguration, our blessed Lord spoke of His rising ”_from among the dead_,” the disciples questioned among themselves what that could mean. (See Mark ix.) Every orthodox Jew believed in the doctrine of the ”resurrection of the dead [a?astas??
?e????],” but the idea of a ”resurrection from among the dead [a?astas?? e? ?e????]” was what the disciples were unable to grasp; and no doubt many disciples since then have felt considerable difficulty with respect to a mystery so profound.
However, if my reader will prayerfully study and compare 1 Cor. xv.
with 1 Thess. iv. 13-18, he will get much precious instruction upon this most interesting and practical truth. He can also look at Romans viii. 11 in connection.--”But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead [e? ?e????] dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you.” From all these pa.s.sages it will be seen that the resurrection of the Church will be upon precisely the same principle as the resurrection of Christ. Both the Head and the body are shown to be raised ”from among the dead.” The first sheaf and all the sheaves that follow after are morally connected.
It must be evident to any one who carefully ponders the subject in the light of Scripture, that there is a very material difference between the resurrection of the believer and the resurrection of the unbeliever. Both shall be raised; but Revelation xx. 5 proves that there will be a thousand years between the two, so that they differ both as to the principle and as to the time. Some have found difficulty in reference to this subject, from the fact that in John v.
28 our Lord speaks of ”the _hour_ in the which _all_ that are in the graves shall hear His voice.” How, it may be asked, can there be a thousand years between the two resurrections, when both are spoken of as occurring in an ”hour”? The answer is very simple. In verse 28, the quickening of dead souls is spoken of as occurring in an ”hour;” and this work has been going on for over eighteen hundred years. Now, if a period of nearly _two_ thousand years can be represented by the word ”hour,” what objection can there be to the idea of _one_ thousand years being represented in the same way? Surely, none whatever, especially when it is expressly stated that ”the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished.”
But furthermore, when we find mention made of ”a _first_ resurrection,” is it not evident that all are not to be raised together? Why speak of a ”first” if there is but the one? It may be said that ”the first resurrection” refers to the soul; but where is the Scripture warrant for such a statement? The solemn fact is this: when the ”shout of the archangel and the trump of G.o.d” shall be heard, the redeemed who sleep in Jesus will be raised to meet Him in the glory; the wicked dead, whoever they be, from the days of Cain down, will remain in their graves during the thousand years of millennial blessedness, and at the close of that bright and blissful period, they shall come forth and stand before ”the great white throne,” there to be ”judged every man according to his works,” and to pa.s.s from the throne of judgment into the lake of fire. Appalling thought!
Oh, reader, how is it in reference to your precious soul? Have you seen, by the eye of faith, the blood of the paschal Lamb shed to screen you from this terrible hour? Have you seen the precious Sheaf of first-fruits reaped and gathered into the heavenly garner, as the earnest of your being gathered in due time? These are solemn questions--deeply solemn. Do not put them aside. See that you are _now_ under the cover of the blood of Jesus. Remember, you cannot glean so much as a single ear in the fields of redemption until you have seen the true Sheaf waved before the Lord. ”Ye shall eat neither bread, nor parched corn, nor green ears, until _the self-same day_ that ye have brought an offering unto your G.o.d.” The harvest could not be touched until the sheaf of first-fruits had been presented, and, with the sheaf, a burnt-offering and a meat-offering.