meat-offering was wholly burnt, because it is the meatoffering of the priest, who is the type of Jesus.

REGARDING THE SIN-OFFERING.

Vers. 24, 25. "And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto Aaron and to his sons, saying, This is the law of the sin-offering: In the place where the burnt-offering is killed shall the sin-offering be killed before the Lord; it is most holy."

It must be brought solemnly before the Lord, like the great burnt-offering, and killed on the same spot, on the north side of the altar (i. 11). It is to one and the same atonement that all these sacrifices refer.

It is "most holy." All sacrifices were to be regarded with the deepest awe. For it was as if the worshippers were standing at the cross, where the Marys stood, and saw the Saviour die. Or, like the heavenly host, when they saw the disembodied soul ("the blood was the life") of the Redeemer come in before the Father, at the moment the last mite was paid, and he had cried, "It is finished." Was there ever such an hour in heaven? or shall there ever be such an hour in earth or heaven? Even in the act of accepting the atonement made, how solemnly does the soul feel that receives it! See Isaiah, when the live coal touched his lips. What, then, must have been the hour when atonement itself was spread out complete? The hour when a lost sheep returns is solemn; but what is this to the hour when the shepherd himself returned?

Ver. 26. "The priest that offereth* it for sin shall eat it; in the holy place shall it be eaten, in the court of the tabernacle of the congregation."

ngs sunan jan. May it be, "Who maketh it sin;" i. e., by thus offering it, he makes it a mass of sin? See this use of the word in chap. ix. 15.

He accepts the Hosea iv. 8, this

The Lord who "by himself purged away sin," holds communion with the once sinful man. offerer who presents this sacrifice. In rite is referred to-"They eat up the sin-offering of my people" (n); and then "lift up their hearts to their iniquity." The degenerate priests one moment engaged in duty, and the next ran back to sin.

Vers. 27, 28.

Whatsoever shall touch the flesh thereof shall be holy: and when there is sprinkled of the blood thereof upon any garment, thou shalt wash that whereon it was sprinkled in the holy place. But the earthen vessel wherein it is sodden shall be broken: and if it be sodden in a brazen pot, it shall be both scoured and rinsed in water."

How awful is atoning blood! Even things without life, such as garments, are held in dreadful sacredness if this blood touch them. No wonder, then, that this earth, on which fell the blood of the Son of God, has a sacredness in the eye of God. It must be set apart for holy ends, since the blood of Jesus has wet its soil. And as the earthen vessel, within which the sacrifice was offered, must be broken, and not used for any meaner end again; so must this earth be decomposed and new-moulded, for it must be kept for the use of him whose sacrifice was offered there. And as the brazen vessel must be rinsed and scoured, so must this earth be freed from all that dims its beauty, and be set apart for holy ends. It must be purified and reserved for holy purposes; for the blood of Jesus has dropt upon it, and made it more sacred than any spot, except where he himself dwells. My holy mountain" (Isa. xi. 9), is the name it gets from himself, when he is telling how he means to cleanse it for his own use.

Vers. 29, 30. "All the males among the priests shall eat thereof: it

is most holy. And 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." Again the awful sacredness of it is declared. It seems as if nothing was so fitted to teach us holiness as complete atonement. "He sitteth between the cherubim," says Ps. xcix. 1, looking down on the sprinkled blood; therefore, "Let the earth be moved."

The sin-offerings are the class of sacrifices mentioned as "those whereof any of the blood is brought into the tabernacle to reconcile withal in the holy place." Now, these will be found to be the same sin-offerings that were "burnt without the camp." (Heb. xiii. 11.) All of which specially and peculiarly prefigured the entireness of the Saviour's work. (See chap. iv. 12.) On this account they are never to be eaten, but all consumed; as observed in a similar case, ver. 23. On some occasions the Lord is pleased to exhibit parts of the truth separately, withdrawing our view, for the sake of deeper impressiveness, from all but one point at a time. This seems to be done here. We are here led to notice the entireness and completeness of the offering, apart from the results of restoring fellowship between the sinner and his God, which "eating" would have intimated. transfer of the offerer's guilt to the victim was so complete that the victim is altogether polluted-all “made sin." Hence nothing of it whatsoever must be used; the fire must thoroughly consume it all. Thus we behold the debt, and the gold that pays it all told down on the floor of the holy place! What a debt! What a payment! The last might is there! Behold the demands. of a holy God! And these all met and satisfied! Behold the sacrifice and the fire!-and then the sacrifice

The

"wholly consumed!"

How fierce the heat of the flame! How complete the consumption! Thus terribly pure is the justice of the Lord in vindicating his holy law; and thus, to the fullest measure, did the atonement meet the requirements of that eternal law-that jealous Godwho is "Holy, holy, holy."

CHAPTER VII.

REGARDING THE TRESPASS-OFFERING.

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Vers. 1, 2. 'Likewise this is the law of the trespass-offering: it is

most holy. In the place where they kill the burnt-offering shall they kill the trespass-offering: and the blood thereof shall be sprinkled round about upon the altar."

So much had been said of the blood of the sin-offering, in chap. iv., that there was no need to call attention to that matter in giving directions to the priests regarding it. But there had been little said about the blood of the trespass-offering; and therefore it is specially noticed here. The blood must be "sprinkled round about upon the altar." Surely Israel must have felt that their souls. were reckoned very guilty by their God, since he spoke to them so continually in the language of blood. None but a heavy-laden sinner could relish this never-varying exhibition of blood to the eye of the worshipper. The pilgrims to Zion, in after days, must often, as they journeyed through the vale of Baca, have wondered what was to be seen and heard in the courts of the Lord's house, of which the worshippers sang, "How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts! My soul longeth, yea even fainteth for the courts of the Lord; my heart

and my flesh crieth out for the living God." "Blessed are they that dwell in thy house!" (Ps. lxxxiv. 1, 2, 4.) And when they arrived, and saw in these courts blood on the altar, blood in the bowels of the altar, blood on its four horns, blood on its sides, blood meeting the eye at every turn, none but a deeply convicted soul, none but a soul really alive to the guilt of a broken law, could enter into the song, and cry with the worshippers, "How amiable!" Even so with a preached Saviour at this day, and a sin-convinced soul!

*

Vers. 3, 4, 5, 6. "And he shall offer of it all the fat thereof; the rump, and the fat that covereth the inwards, and the two kidneys, and the fat that is on them, which is by the flanks, and the caul that is above the liver, with the kidneys, it shall he take away: and the priest shall burn them upon the altar for an offering made by fire unto the Lord: it is a trespass-offering. Every male among the priests shall eat thereof: it shall be eaten in the holy place: it is most holy."

These rites had been prescribed, in chaps. iii. and iv., in regard to other offerings, but had not been prescribed as belonging to the trespass-offering. And as the priests are specially instructed here, the specific directions come in appropriately here.

The Lord does not weary of repeating these types, both because of his wondrous love to the sinner, and his still more unfathomable love to him whom he holds out to fallen man in each of these figures, his Well-beloved.

Ver. 7. “As the sin-offering is, so is the trespass-offering: there is one law for them: the priest that maketh atonement therewith shall have it."

"The fat that is on them," and that, too, which is "on the flanks”— a construction similar to Ps. cxxxiii. 3, "The dew of Hermon, and also the dew that descendeth on the mountains of Zion."