CHAPTER 15

(1490 B.C.)

OFFERINGS

¹And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying,

²Speak unto the Children of Israel, and say unto them, When you be come into the land of your habitations, which I give unto you (meaning that these things would not be carried out until they reached the Promised Land; we have no way of knowing as to exactly when the Lord gave this information to Moses),

³And will make an Offering by fire unto the LORD, a Burnt Offering, or a Sacrifice in performing a vow, or in a Freewill Offering, or in your solemn feasts, to make a sweet savour unto the LORD, of the herd, or of the flock (these Offerings were somewhat different than the ordinary Offerings):

⁴Then shall he who offers his Offering unto the LORD bring a Meat Offering of a tenth deal of flour mingled with the fourth part of an hin of oil.

⁵And the fourth part of an hin of wine for a Drink Offering shall you prepare with the Burnt Offering or Sacrifice, for one lamb (the Drink Offering portrayed the Life of Christ, which would be poured out).

⁶Or for a ram, you shall prepare for a Meat Offering two tenth deals of flour mingled with the third part of an hin of oil.

⁷And for a Drink Offering you shall offer the third part of an hin of wine, for a sweet savour unto the LORD.

⁸And when you prepare a bullock for a Burnt Offering, or for a Sacrifice in performing a vow, or Peace Offerings unto the LORD:

⁹Then shall he bring with a bullock a Meat Offering of three tenth deals of flour mingled with half an hin of oil (the Meat Offerings actually had no flesh, but were altogether grain, made into loaves of bread).

¹⁰And you shall bring for a Drink Offering half an hin of wine, for an Offering made by fire (the Burnt Offerings or the Peace Offerings), of a sweet savour unto the LORD.

¹¹Thus shall it be done for one bullock, or for one ram, or for a lamb, or a kid (a baby lamb).

¹²According to the number that you shall prepare, so shall you do to everyone according to their number (the strict proportion of the Meat and Drink Offering was to be carried out with respect to the number of animals offered, as well as the individual value of the Sacrifices).

¹³All who are born of the country shall do these things after this manner, in offering an Offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the LORD.

¹⁴And if a stranger (Gentile) sojourn with you, or whosoever be among you in your generations, and will offer an Offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the LORD; as you do, so he shall do.

¹⁵One Ordinance shall be both for you of the congregation, and also for the stranger who sojourns with you, an Ordinance forever in your generations: as you are, so shall the stranger (Gentile) be before the LORD (one Sacrifice was to be for the congregation, and also for the stranger; and so Christ offered up Himself, not only to redeem Israel, but also to save the world [Jn. 3:16]).

¹⁶One law and one manner shall be for you, and for the stranger who sojourns with you.

MORE INSTRUCTIONS

¹⁷And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying,

¹⁸Speak unto the Children of Israel, and say unto them, When you come into the land where I bring you,

¹⁹Then it shall be, that, when you eat of the bread of the land, you shall offer up an Heave Offering unto the LORD (was to be heaved up and down, signifying that Christ would come from Heaven to this Earth, in order to redeem fallen humanity).

²⁰You shall offer up a cake of the first of your dough for an Heave Offering: as you do the Heave Offering of the threshingfloor, so shall you heave it.

²¹Of the first of your dough you shall give unto the LORD an Heave Offering in your generations. (Verses 17 through 21 taught the people that the bread that came up out of the ground for their nutriment was as great a miracle as the bread that came down from Heaven. Hence, the perpetual Heave Offering of Verse 21 acknowledged that Jehovah not only gave them the land, but also was the Creator of the bread of the land.)

²²And if you have erred, and not observed all these Commandments, which the LORD has spoken unto Moses (these were sins of ignorance; provision is made here for the forgiveness of such sins a provision which was sorely needed, considering the great complexity of the Law, and the inadequate training they had had for the accurate observance of it),

²³Even all that the LORD has commanded you by the hand of Moses, from the day that the LORD commanded Moses, and henceforward among your generations (future generations must know and understand the Law, and in every respect);

²⁴Then it shall be, if ought be committed by ignorance without the knowledge of the congregation, that all the congregation shall offer one young bullock for a Burnt Offering, for a sweet savour unto the LORD, with his Meat Offering, and his Drink Offering, according to the manner, and one kid of the goats for a Sin Offering. (Verses 22 through 28 provided the sweet-savour offering for the sin of omission, i.e., ignorance, whether committed by all the people, or by an individual. The Burnt Offering, the Sin Offering, the Meat Offering, and the Drink Offering typified the infinite Sacrifice of the Lamb of God as being necessary to cover even so small a sin as the sin of omission. This means that the Cross of Christ is absolutely needed in every aspect of life and living, and we speak of present times.)

²⁵And the Priest shall make an Atonement for all the congregation of the Children of Israel, and it shall be forgiven them; for it is ignorance: and they shall bring their Offering, a Sacrifice made by fire unto the LORD, and their Sin Offering before the LORD, for their ignorance:

²⁶And it shall be forgiven all the congregation of the Children of Israel, and the stranger (Gentile) who sojourns among them; seeing all the people were in ignorance.

²⁷And if any soul sin through ignorance, then he shall bring a she goat of the first year for a Sin Offering.

²⁸And the Priest shall make an Atonement for the soul that sins ignorantly, when he sins by ignorance before the LORD, to make an Atonement for him; and it shall be forgiven him.

²⁹You shall have one law for him who sins though ignorance, both for him who is born among the Children of Israel, and for the stranger (Gentile) who sojourns among them.

³⁰But the soul that does ought presumptuously (defiantly), whether he be born in the land, or a stranger, the same reproaches the LORD; and that soul shall be cut off from among his people.

³¹Because he has despised the Word of the LORD, and has broken His Commandment, that soul shall utterly be cut off; his iniquity shall be upon him (this refers to viciously, with purpose, and openly flouting the Law of God; such a person would be cut off, would face the ultimate penalty death, and the loss of his soul).

THE SABBATH-BREAKER

³²And while the Children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man who gathered sticks upon the Sabbath day.

³³And they who found him gathering sticks brought him unto Moses and Aaron, and unto all the congregation.

³⁴And they put him in ward (in a holding cell), because it was not declared what should be done to him (Moses would seek the Lord).

³⁵And the LORD said unto Moses, The man shall be surely put to death: all the congregation shall stone him with stones without the camp.

³⁶And all the congregation brought him without the camp, and stoned him with stones, and he died; as the LORD commanded Moses. (Provision was made for the sin of ignorance in connection with obedience to the Word of the Lord, but there was no Offering commanded for the sin of indifference. Regrettably, that sin is very visible today in modern Christendom. Human opinion is set above Divine injunction.)

FRINGES ON GARMENTS

³⁷And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying,

³⁸Speak unto the Children of Israel, and bid them that they make them fringes in the borders of their garments throughout their generations, and that they put upon the fringe of the borders a ribband of blue (this was to make it visible to all of Israel that they were a Heavenly people, and that this great fact should especially be present to their hearts when necessarily coming in closest touch with the Earth; it was to be worn on the outer garment, and on each of the four corners as a tassel of blue):

³⁹And it shall be unto you for a fringe, that you may look upon it, and remember all the Commandments of the LORD, and do them; and that you seek not after your own heart and your own eyes, after which you use to go a whoring (the tasseled Hebrew was a marked man in other eyes, and in his own; he could not pass himself off as one of the heathen; he was perpetually reminded of the special relation in which he stood to the Lord; in other words, he wore the colors of the Lord; that color was blue, reminding him that his help came from above):

⁴⁰That you may remember, and do all My Commandments, and be holy unto your God.

⁴¹I am the LORD your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God; I am the LORD your God. (Concerning this, Pulpit says, This intensely solemn formula twice repeated here may serve to show how intimately the smallest observances of the Law were connected with the most profound and most comforting of spiritual truths, if only observed in faith and true obedience. The whole of their experience with the Lord, both theoretical and practical, lay in those words, and was symbolized in the tassel.)