CHAPTER II.

PROVISIONS FOR THE PARDON OF SIN, AND RECONCILIATION UNDER THE LAW.

The regularly ordained sacrifices were the following:—

1st. _The daily sacrifices_. Two lambs of the first year—one in the morning and the other in the evening (and on the _Sabbath four lambs_, Num. xxviii 9); with their meat- and drink-offerings of flour, oil, wine “for a sweet savour, an offering made by fire unto the Lord” (Exod. xxix. 38–41). “This shall be _a continual_ burnt-offering throughout your generations at the door of the Tabernacle of the congregation before the Lord, _where I will meet with you_, _to speak there unto thee_” (ver. 42). “And I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will be their God” (ver. 45).

Whatever _other_ sacrifices were commanded for any or every day of the week, they were _additional_ to these daily offerings, with which nothing interfered.

2nd. On the first day of every month (or first appearance of the new moon)—

Two young bullocks, With flour, oil, and wine,

One ram,

Seven lambs of the first year,

a burnt-offering for a sweet savour, made by fire unto the Lord.

_Also one kid_ for a _sin-offering_, and his drink-offering (Num. xxviii. 11, &c.).

3rd. On the 14th of the first month (Abib) the _Feast of the Passover_, also called “the _sacrifice_ of the Lord’s passover” (Exod. xii. 27).

It was a memorial festival throughout the generations of the children of Israel, to mark their deliverance from bondage in Egypt, and the special Providence which protected them from the destroying angel, who procured that deliverance by slaying all the first-born of man and beast in Egypt.

A lamb of the first year, a male from the sheep or goats and without blemish, was killed at even, and the flesh roasted with fire was eaten by every household that night, while the destroying angel was at work around them; but prior to this the blood of the lamb had been sprinkled on the two side posts, and upper door post of the houses, “and the blood shall be to you for a token. . . . And when the Lord seeth the blood, He will pass over you;” so that while every other house had its dead, they ate securely under cover of the sprinkled blood.

This festival was instituted on the departure of the children of Israel from Egypt, and before the giving of the Law, or the appointment of the priesthood of Aaron and his sons. As with the patriarchal sacrifices, it was provided by the head of the household.

In allusion to _subsequent_ times, when their children should inquire the meaning of the service, they were to say “It is the _sacrifice_ of the Lord’s passover” (Exod. xii. 27).

The Passover has a very marked reference to our Lord Jesus Christ. Shortly before His death He said to His disciples, “With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer;” and at that supper He said of the bread, which as the master of the feast He broke, “This is My body which is given for you;” and of the cup, “This is the New Testament in My blood, which is shed for you” (Luke xxii. 15–20).

4th. Immediately upon the Paschal feast followed, during the next seven days, _the Feast of Unleavened Bread_, during which were to be offered, _each day_—

Two young bullocks, For a burnt-offering, with flour and oil, One ram,

Seven lambs,

and _one goat_ daily for a _sin-offering_ (Num. xxviii. 17–25).

5th. On presenting the _sheaf of First-fruits_ to the Lord, of which it is said “Ye shall neither eat _bread_ nor _parched corn_, nor _green ears_, until the selfsame day that ye have brought an offering unto your God” {20} (Lev. xxiii. 14). On that day was to be offered a male lamb, without blemish, of the first year, for a burnt-offering, with flour, oil, and wine,—“an offering made by fire unto the Lord for a sweet savour” (Lev. xxiii. 13).

6th. The _Feast of Pentecost_ (called also feast of weeks, Ex. xxxiv. 22), fifty days later, on presenting to the Lord a _new meat-offering __from their habitations_ (Lev. xxiii. 16). Two wave loaves of fine flour, baken with leaven, “They are the first-fruits unto the Lord” (Lev. xxiii. 17), and the accompanying offerings were—

Seven lambs of first year, For a burnt-offering,

Two {21} young bullocks,

One ram,

and one kid for _a sin-offering_ (to make atonement—Num. xxviii. 30), and two lambs for a peace-offering (Lev. xxiii. 19).

7th. _At the Feast of Trumpets_, the first of the _seventh_ month—

One young bullock, With flour and oil.

One ram,

Seven lambs,

for a burnt-offering for a sweet savour unto the Lord, and one kid for a sin-offering “to make atonement for you” (Num. xxix. 2–5).

8th. _On the annual Day of Atonement_, the tenth of the seventh month: _One young bullock_ for a sin-offering, and _a ram_ for a burnt-offering for the high priest and his house (Lev. xvi. 6), and _two kids of the goats_ from the congregation for a sin-offering (one for the annual sin-offering, and one for the scape-goat) (Lev. xvi. 5). Also—

One bullock, With meat offering of flour and oil, One ram, and

Seven lambs,

for a _burnt-offering_ (Num. xxix. 8). And one kid for a _sin-offering_ of atonement (Num. xxix. 11).

This was a day of great solemnity—“It shall be a holy convocation unto you, and ye shall afflict your souls” (Lev. xxiii. 27), &c, “Ye shall do no work; . . . it is a _day to make atonement for you before the Lord your God_” (Lev. xxiii. 28); and whoever among the congregation did not afflict his soul, or whoever did any work therein, was to be cut off from among his people (Lev. xxiii. 29, 30). “It shall be . . . a sabbath of rest, and ye shall afflict your souls: in the ninth day at even, from even to even, shall ye celebrate your sabbath” (Lev. xxiii. 32).

The high priest was not to enter within the veil to the inner tabernacle, except on this day, “that he die not,” and then only with the blood of the sin-offerings for himself and the congregation, peculiar to this day.

Before doing so he laid aside his ornamental garments and put on a linen dress (Lev. xvi. 2–4). He took in his hands a censer of burning coals from the altar of burnt offerings and put on it a handful of incense, that the cloud of the incense might cover the mercy seat, whereon the Lord appeared in the cloud, “that he die not” (Lev. xvi. 12, 13). He then took the blood of the sin-offerings, both for the priest and people, within the veil, and sprinkled it with his finger upon the mercy seat eastward, and before the mercy seat seven times (Lev. xvi. 15, 16), to make an atonement for the Holy Place, because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel, and because of their transgressions in all their sins (Lev. xvi. 16).

This is the only sacrifice described in the Law, which corresponds with the words in Hebrews xiii. 11:—“The bodies of those beasts whose blood is brought into the sanctuary for sin, are burned without the camp.”

No other blood was annually brought into the sanctuary (or inner temple) by the high priest on behalf of the people, and sprinkled on and before the mercy seat; and the flesh of these, as well as of some other offerings, was burned without the camp.

The service of this day required that in addition to a bullock for a sin-offering, and a ram for a burnt-offering, to make atonement for himself and his house (Lev. xvi. 3–6), the _high priest should take of the congregation_ of Israel two kids of the goats for a sin-offering (Lev. xvi. 5); he was to present the two kids at the door of the tabernacle (ver. 7), and “cast lots,” one for the Lord and one “for the scape-goat” (vers. 8 and 10). He killed the former for a sin-offering for the people, and proceeded as already described (p. 23).

In addition to the blood taken within the veil, the high priest was to put some of it upon the horns of the altar, and sprinkle it seven times upon it to hallow it (vers. 18, 19).

Then, as to the other, or scape-goat, Aaron laid both his hands on the head of the live goat and confessed over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins; putting them on the head of the goat, and sent him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness, and the “goat bore them away to a land not inhabited” (Lev. xvi. 21).

Although every sin-offering had a reference to the Lord Jesus Christ, the kid offered on this day by the masses of the people is treated in Heb. xiii. as having a very special application to Him, from the blood having been carried within the veil and sprinkled on the mercy seat, and from the body having been burned without the camp. So Jesus, having suffered without the gate, and having obtained eternal redemption for us, not by the blood of others, but by His own blood, having “given Himself a ransom for all,” entered not into the holy places made with hands, but into Heaven itself, there to appear in the presence of God for us.

Again, in the scape-goat, which was the complement of the sin-offering, we have a reference to the Lord Jesus bearing away our sins “in His own body on the tree,” so that they should be no more remembered against us (1 Pet. ii. 24).

9th. There remains one more appointed festival, _the Feast of Tabernacles_, or ingathering (Exod. xxiii. 16) on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when the crops of wine and oil had completed the harvest labours. It lasted seven days, during which numerous sacrifices were ordained, viz.,—

The 1st day, 13 bullocks, 2 rams, 14 lambs,

2nd „ 12 „ 2 „ 14 „

3rd „ 11 . „ 2 „ 14 „

4th „ 10 „ 2 „ 14 „

5th „ 9 „ 2 „ 14 „

6th „ 8 „ 2 „ 14 „

7th „ 7 „ 2 „ 14 „

with their meat and drink-offerings. And _each_ of the seven days _one goat for a sin-offering_. And on the eighth day a holy convocation, with offerings of one bullock, one ram and seven lambs, with accompaniments, and _one ram for a sin-offering_. “These things shall ye do unto the Lord in your set feasts, besides your vows, and your freewill offerings, for your burnt-offerings, and for your meat-offerings, and for your drink-offerings, and for your peace-offerings” (Num. xxix. 12–39).

The service of the Tabernacle and its offerings were supplied by contributions of half a shekel per head on all that were numbered, from twenty years old and upwards. The rich were not to give more, nor the poor less. It was offered to the Lord to make an atonement for their souls (Exod. xxx. 14–16).

As indicated in the latter portion of the above quotation (Num. xxix. 39), besides these stated daily, monthly, and annual sacrifices, which were of a public or general character, there were—

1st. _Voluntary offerings_, which do not seem to have been specially enjoined, nor to have had reference to any particular sins, but arose from the voluntary will and devotion of the person offering, and the priest sprinkled the blood round about upon the altar; “and _it was accepted for him to make an atonement for him_” (Lev. i. 2–5); “an offering made by fire of a sweet savour unto the Lord” (ver. 9). It was required to be a male without blemish of the herd or of the flock, two turtle-doves, or two young pigeons (vers. 2 and 10–17).

2nd. _Peace-offerings_, also for the most part voluntarily, in which the offerer shared with the priest the offering—a male or female of the herd without blemish, or a lamb or goat (Lev. iii. 1, &c.).

3rd. _The Sin-offering_ for sins of ignorance afterwards brought to light (Lev. iv. 13, &c.).

4th. _The Trespass-offering_.—If any one sinned in hearing swearing and not uttering it, or in any uncleanness, or swearing, he was to take a lamb or a kid (a female), or two turtle-doves, or two young pigeons, or, if too poor for any of them, the tenth part of an ephah of fine flour, “and the priest shall make an atonement for him for the sin which he hath sinned, and it shall be forgiven him” (Lev. v. 1–13).

In every case the offering was required to be perfect in its kind, and without blemish.

The sin-offering was more especially for atonement; but the voluntary and other offerings are spoken of as contributing thereto (Lev. i. 3): coming from the voluntary will of the people, they expressed the heart’s devotion, and bore a “sweet savour to God.”

But in the days when Isaiah wrote, and when great corruption prevailed, it is said, “Incense is an abomination unto Me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with” (Isa. i. 13). And Amos says, “I will not smell in your solemn assembly” (Amos v. 21). The people drew near with the lip, but the heart was far from God (Isa.