CHAPTER 6

(1490 B.C.)

RESTITUTION

¹And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying,

²If a soul sin, and commit a trespass against the LORD, and lie unto his neighbour in that which was delivered him to keep, or in fellowship, or in a thing taken away by violence, or has deceived his neighbour;

³Or have found that which was lost, and lies concerning it, and swears falsely; in any of all these that a man does, sinning therein:

⁴Then it shall be, because he has sinned, and is guilty, that he shall restore that which he took violently away, or the thing which he has deceitfully gotten, or that which was delivered him to keep, or the lost thing which he found, (Concerning this, Mackintosh says: There is a fine principle involved in the expression in Verse 2, against the Lord. Although the matter in question was a wrong done to ones neighbor, yet the Lord looked upon it as a trespass against Himself. Everything must be viewed in reference to the Lord. It matters not who may be affected; Jehovah must get first place. Thus, when Davids conscience was pierced by the arrow of conviction, in reference to his treatment of Uriah, he exclaims, I have sinned against the Lord [II Sam. 12:13]. This principle does not in the least, however, interfere with the injured mans claim.)

⁵Or all that about which he has sworn falsely; he shall even restore it in the principal (restore its full value), and shall add the fifth part more thereto, and give it unto him to whom it appertains, in the day of his Trespass Offering.

⁶And he shall bring his Trespass Offering unto the LORD, a ram without blemish out of the flock, with your estimation, for a Trespass Offering, unto the Priest (not only must the guilty party restore what he has taken from his neighbor, and do so fully, with even adding twenty percent; as well, he must take a ram to the Priest to be offered in Sacrifice, and also it seems that twenty percent in silver must be added; the idea of all of this is to show that sin is a costly business!):

⁷And the Priest shall make an Atonement for him before the LORD: and it shall be forgiven him for any thing of all that he has done in trespassing therein. (So, when a person has trespassed against his neighbor, restitution must be made first before the sacrifice can be offered. Jesus addressed this very thing, when He said, Therefore if you bring your gift to the Altar, and there remember that your brother has ought against you; leave there your gift before the Altar, and go your way; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift [Mat. 5:23-24].)

THE BURNT OFFERING

⁸And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying,

⁹Command Aaron and his sons, saying, This is the Law of the Burnt Offering: It is the Burnt Offering, because of the burning upon the Altar all night unto the morning, and the fire of the Altar shall be burning in it. (Beginning with Verse 8 through the Seventh Chapter, we have the Law of the Burnt Offering, the Meat Offering, the Sin Offering, the Trespass Offering, and the Peace Offering. We also have the Law of the High Priests Consecration Offering.)

¹⁰And the Priest shall put on his linen garment, and his linen breeches shall he put upon his flesh (the linen symbolized the Righteousness of Christ [Rev. 19:8]), and take up the ashes which the fire has consumed with the Burnt Offering on the Altar, and he shall put them beside the Altar (this points to the fact that the Cross has reduced our sins to nothing, typified by the ashes).

¹¹And he shall put off his garments, and put on other garments (garments of glory and beauty), and carry forth the ashes without the camp unto a clean place. (Only the Blood of Christ can make the sinner clean. As well, as the Burnt Offering was to burn all night, this represents the night of mystery of the fragrance of Christs offering up of Himself to God, which ascends continually. In the morning He will appear to His people Israel in His double glory as the White-robed Priest and the Glory-crowned Mediator; and it will then be demonstrated to the world, as foreshadowed here by the honourable treatment of the ashes, that His Person and His Work have been accepted of God.)

¹²And the fire upon the Altar shall be burning in it; it shall not be put out: and the Priest shall burn wood on it every morning, and lay the Burnt Offering in order upon it; and he shall burn thereon the fat of the Peace Offerings. (The fire that burned, and was to never go out, testified on the one hand to the unceasing delight of God in the Sacrifice of Christ and, on the other hand, to His unceasing hatred of sin. False teachers today put this fire out by denying the doctrines of the Atonement and of the wrath to come. The fire addresses both, Atonement and wrath.)

¹³The fire shall ever be burning upon the Altar; it shall never go out (the fire that consumed the Burnt Offering, and was to never go out, originally came from Heaven [9:24]).

MEAT OFFERING

¹⁴And this is the Law of the Meat Offering: the sons of Aaron shall offer it before the LORD; before the Altar. (As we shall see, the Meat Offering, as the other Offerings, was first for God and His glory, and then for man and his need. It being offered before the Altar signifies that God can only receive our thanksgiving which is based upon the Cross, for the Meat Offering was, in essence, a Thank Offering.)

¹⁵And he shall take of it his handful, of the flour of the Meat Offering (the flour typified the Perfection of Christ), and of the oil thereof (typifying the Holy Spirit upon Christ), and all the frankincense which is upon the Meat Offering (typifying the bitterness that Christ would suffer, all on our behalf), and shall burn it upon the Altar (typifying the Cross) for a sweet savour (sweet to God, because it represented our Redemption, and our thankfulness for that Redemption), even the memorial of it, unto the LORD. (As the Meat Offering was to ever be a memorial of what God would do to redeem humanity, likewise, the Lords Supper serves the same purpose [I Cor. 11:24-25]. As the Meat Offering was then to be a memorial of what He would do, now it is a memorial of what He has done.)

¹⁶And the remainder thereof shall Aaron and his sons eat (symbolic of what Christ said concerning His Flesh and His Blood, symbolic of the Cross [Jn. 6:53-54, 63]): with unleavened bread shall it be eaten in the Holy Place (the unleavened bread typifies the Perfection of Christ); in the court of the Tabernacle of the congregation they shall eat it (proclaiming the fact that it must be eaten near the Altar, i.e., the Cross).

¹⁷It shall not be baked with leaven. I have given it unto them for their portion of My Offerings made by fire; it is most holy, as is the Sin Offering, and as the Trespass Offering (as the Sin Offering and the Trespass Offering, so was the Meat Offering most Holy; thus, the Holy Spirit testifies to the sinlessness of Christ as a man, and at the moment in which He was made to be a Sin Offering upon the Cross).

¹⁸All the males among the Children of Aaron shall eat of it (pertained only to the Priests; today, due to the Cross, every Believer can partake of Christ, because all Believers are kings and priests unto God [Rev. 1:6]). It shall be a Statute forever in your generations concerning the Offerings of the LORD made by fire: everyone who touches them shall be holy (because it represents Christ, Who is altogether Holy).

THE PRIESTS

¹⁹And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying,

²⁰This is the Offering of Aaron and of his sons, which they shall offer unto the LORD in the day when he is anointed (which would take place very shortly Chapter 8); the tenth part of an ephah of fine flour for a Meat Offering perpetual, half of it in the morning, and half thereof at night (this proclaims the special relationship of the High Priest to the Meat Offering; his Meat Offering was to be offered morning and evening; it was to be wholly burnt, not eaten [Heb. 7:27]; Aaron, though High Priest, was a sinner, and twice every day had to shelter himself, in type, behind a sinless Saviour).

²¹In a pan it shall be made with oil (typical of the Holy Spirit upon Christ); and when it is baked, you shall bring it in: and the baked pieces of the Meat Offering shall you offer for a sweet savour unto the LORD.

²²And the Priest of his sons that is anointed in his stead shall offer it: it is a Statute for ever unto the LORD; it shall be wholly burnt.

²³For every Meat Offering for the Priest shall be wholly burnt: it shall not be eaten (part of it, in fact, was to be eaten [Vss. 16-18], but this particular part was not to be eaten, but rather burned on the Altar; this signified that one cannot partake of Christ, unless he does so through and by the Cross).

SIN OFFERING

²⁴And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying,

²⁵Speak unto Aaron and to his sons, saying, This is the Law of the Sin Offering (the Personal Holiness of Christ is more strikingly presented in the Sin Offering, than in any of the other Sacrifices): In the place where the Burnt Offering is killed shall the Sin Offering be killed before the LORD: it is most holy. (Concerning this, Mackintosh says: This is most marked and striking. The Holy Spirit did not need to guard with such jealousy the Personal Holiness of Christ in the Burnt Offering; but lest the soul should, by any means, lose sight of that Holiness while contemplating the place which the Blessed One became the Sin Offering, we are again and again reminded of it by the words it is most holy.

The same point is observable in the Law of the Trespass Offering [Lev. 7:1-6]. Never was the Lord Jesus more fully seen to be the Holy One of God than when He was made sin upon the cursed tree. The vileness and blackness of that with which He stood identified on the Cross only served to show out more clearly that He was most holy. Though a sin-bearer, He was sinless; though enduring the Wrath of God, He was the Fathers delight; though deprived of the Light of Gods countenance, He dwelt in the Fathers bosom. As should be obvious, this completely destroys the erroneous doctrine that Jesus died spiritually while on the Cross, thus becoming a sinner, etc.)

²⁶The Priest who offers it for sin shall eat it: in the Holy Place shall it be eaten, in the court of the Tabernacle of the congregation. (God gave the Sin Offering as food for the Priests to bear the iniquity of the congregation, and to make Atonement for them [Lev. 10:17]. Once again, we go back to John, Chapter 6, in the eating of the flesh and the drinking of the blood regarding Christ.

The flesh provided by the Sin Offering constituted a part of the livelihood of the Priests, as it constitutes our spiritual livelihood presently [Ezek. 44:28-29]. It was to be eaten in the Holy Place of the Sanctuary. In fact, eight of the Offerings [there were others besides the blood Sacrifices] had to be eaten in the precincts of the Sanctuary.)

²⁷Whatsoever shall touch the flesh (flesh of the Sin Offering) thereof shall be holy (in a sense, making this the holiest Offering of them all): and when there is sprinkled of the blood thereof upon any garment, you shall wash that whereon it was sprinkled in the Holy Place (this proclaims to us the preciousness of the Blood).

²⁸But the earthen vessel wherein it (the Sin Offering) is sodden shall be broken: and if it be sodden in a brasen pot, it shall be both scoured, and rinsed in water (so desperate a malady is sin, that anything that came in contact with the Sin Offering had to be washed, broken, or scoured).

²⁹All the males among the Priests shall eat thereof: it is most holy.

³⁰And no Sin Offering, whereof any of the blood is brought into the Tabernacle of the congregation to reconcile withal in the Holy Place, shall be eaten: it shall be burnt in the fire. (Concerning this, Williams says: The Sin Offering whose blood was brought into the Sanctuary symbolizes Christ bearing before God the sin of the whole world. The Sin Offering whose blood was not so brought in, but whose flesh was eaten by the Priest, presents Christ as making His Own the sins of the individual sinner who believes upon Him.)