Crystallization-Study of Leviticus (1)
Message Twelve
Enjoying Christ as the Reality of the Peace Offering at the Lord’s Table to Present the Total Picture of God’s Economy
Scripture Reading: Lev. 3:1-17; 7:11-38
I. The peace offering signifies Christ as our peace with God that we may enjoy Him with God and with man in fellowship and joy—Lev. 3:1-17; Num. 10:10; Deut. 27:7:
A. The peace offering is fulfilled primarily in our enjoying Christ at the Lord’s table in the breaking of bread for the remembrance of Him and in the offering of Christ to the Father for the worship of the Father—Matt. 26:26-30.
B. The peace offering is the Old Testament type of the Lord’s table:
1. At the Lord’s table, the believers enjoy Christ as their peace offering for their fellowship with God and with one another; they enjoy Christ before God the Father; without the worship of the Father in the Lord’s table meeting, the presentation of the peace offering to God cannot be completely fulfilled—Lev. 7:14-21, 28-34.
2. We should carry out the Lord’s table meeting in two sections:
a. During the first section of the meeting, all our praises should be addressed to Christ, and we should bless Him with well speaking concerning His person and work—Heb. 13:15; Psa. 8:2; 48:1; 50:23; 116:17; Rev. 5:13.
b. During the second section of the meeting, we should address our praises to God the Father; it is best to leave one-third or two-fifths of the time for the worship of the Father—Matt. 26:26-30; Heb. 2:12.
3. Christ as the reality of the peace offering that we enjoy at the Lord’s table is for our thanksgiving to the Father (Lev. 7:12-15) and also for a vow to Him (vv. 16-18):
a. On the one hand, we may consecrate ourselves to the Lord with thanksgiving by praying, “Lord, I love You, so I consecrate myself to You”; this is good but too general and out of our emotions.
b. On the other hand, we may offer ourselves to God with a voluntary vow by praying, “Lord, I come here to make a vow to You; I give myself to You and marry myself to You; I want to be solely for You always, regardless of what happens or how I feel”; all of us need to be ones who are married to Christ for His recovery; the offering for a vow is something of the will and is stronger and deeper.
4. This enjoyment of the peace offering issues from the burnt offering, the meal offering, the sin offering, and the trespass offering.
5. Our enjoyment of Christ as these four offerings has a result—the enjoyment of Christ as our peace offering for us to have fellowship with God and with our fellow believers.
II. The peace offering could be of different animals from the herd or from the flock, and it could be either male or female—3:1:
A. The different kinds of peace offerings signify the different conditions of the offerers’ enjoyment of Christ.
B. In verse 1 the male signifies that the offerer’s enjoyment of Christ is stronger, whereas the female signifies that the offerer’s enjoyment of Christ is weaker—cf. 1 Pet. 3:7.
III. As our peace offering, Christ is without blemish, without sins and transgressions—Lev. 3:1; Heb. 9:14; 1 Pet. 1:19; 2 Cor. 5:21; Heb. 4:15.
IV. The sprinkling of the blood of the peace offering on and around the altar (Lev. 3:2, 8, 13), where the offerer was standing, indicates that the blood is for peace in the offerer’s conscience, giving him the assurance that his sins have been washed away (Heb. 9:14b).
V. Christ as the peace offering is for the fellowship and enjoyment of five parties: God, the serving priest, all the priests (the priesthood), the offerer, and the congregation of cleansed people:
A. The fat and the inward parts of the offering were God’s portion—Lev. 3:3-5:
1. The fat signifies the inward riches of Christ as the abundance of life for God’s satisfaction according to His glory, and the inward parts signify the tenderness, smallness, and preciousness of what Christ is in His inward being toward God (cf. Phil. 1:8; John 7:3-18) for God’s satisfaction, which can be apprehended and appreciated only by God (Matt. 11:27a).
2. The burning of the fat and the inward parts of the peace offering as an offering by fire to Jehovah (Lev. 3:3-5, 9-11, 14-16) signifies that God should be the first Enjoyer, enjoying the first, the best, part of the peace offering.
B. The four kinds of cakes and the right thigh as a heave offering were the portion of the serving priest—7:14, 32-34.
C. The breast as a wave offering was for all the priests—vv. 30-31, 34.
D. The flesh, the meat, of the offering was the portion of the offerer—vv. 15-18.
E. The remaining flesh of the cattle, under the condition of cleanness, was for all the congregation—vv. 19-21:
1. The enjoyment of Christ as our peace should be kept from all uncleanness, and Christ as the peace offering should be eaten by a clean person—v. 19; 1 Cor. 11:28.
2. The unclean person who partakes of Christ as his peace, as at the Lord’s table, shall be put aside from the fellowship of the enjoyment of Christ—Lev. 7:20-21; 1 Cor. 10:16-17.
3. Such a sinful person should be removed from the fellowship at the Lord’s table—cf. 5:13b.
4. Also, the dirtiness of death spoils the significance of God’s enjoyment of Christ; God hates death and does not want to look upon anything related to it—Lev. 7:24.
F. We who take Christ as our peace offering should offer the excellent part of Christ (the fat) to God for His satisfaction, the loving part of Christ in His resurrection (the breast as a wave offering) and the strong part of Christ in His ascension (the right thigh as a heave offering) being for the serving ones’ enjoyment (vv. 29-34; Exo. 29:26-28); in our enjoyment of Christ as the peace offering, God has allotted the loving capacity and the strengthening power of Christ to us, the New Testament priests (1 Pet. 2:5, 9; Rev. 1:5-6; 5:10), as our eternal portion for our enjoyment in serving God.
G. In the New Testament there are no clergy and no laity (see Rev. 2:6 and footnote 1); thus, all the believers in Christ should be the serving priests, the priestly body, the offerers, and the congregation.
VI. Not eating the fat signifies that the best part of Christ is for God’s satisfaction; not eating the blood signifies that Christ’s blood shed for our redemption fully satisfies the requirements of God’s righteousness, holiness, and glory—Lev. 3:17; cf. Gen. 3:24; Heb. 10:19-20; Rev. 22:14:
A. Thus, in the universe only Jesus’ blood is edible to His believers—John 6:53-56 and footnote 2 on v. 54.
B. To eat any other blood would make Christ’s blood common—Heb. 10:29 and footnote 3.
C. The blood of Christ satisfies God’s righteous requirements, maintains God’s holy position, and keeps God’s glory, His expressed dignity.
VII. A lamb signifies that the offerer enjoys Christ in His perfection and beauty (Lev. 3:7), whereas a goat (v. 12) signifies that the offerer enjoys Christ not much in His perfection and beauty but in His being made sin on our behalf (2 Cor. 5:21).
VIII. The peace offering is a kind of burnt offering (Lev. 3:9-11; 1:9, 13, 17) as food to God for His satisfaction and enjoyment.
IX. The peace offering is based upon God’s satisfaction in the burnt offering (6:12); according to the sequence of the offerings presented in Leviticus 1:1—6:7, it is also the issue of the enjoyment of God and man in the meal offering; if we would enjoy Christ as peace in a practical, daily way, we must first take Him as our burnt offering to satisfy God, and then we must feed on Him as our meal offering, enjoying Him as our food.
X. The sequence of the five offerings in Leviticus 1:1—6:7 is according to our practical experience, whereas the sequence in 6:8—7:38 is according to the total picture of God’s economy:
A. According to the sequence of the offerings in Leviticus 6:8—7:38, the peace offering is also based on the sin offering and the trespass offering; when the problem of our sin and trespasses is solved by Christ as the sin offering and trespass offering and when God and we are satisfied with Christ as the burnt offering and the meal offering, we can offer Christ to God as the peace offering for our mutual enjoyment in peace.
B. In God’s heart and in His desire God would have Christ to be four kinds of offerings to us—the burnt offering, the meal offering, the sin offering, and the trespass offering—that we may enjoy Christ as peace with God in every way; Christ’s being these four offerings consummates in peace between God and God’s people, and this peace is simply Christ Himself—Eph. 2:14.
C. Eventually, the enjoyment of Christ as all the offerings, issuing in the peace offering, will consummate in the New Jerusalem as the ultimate peace offering (Jerusalem means “the foundation of peace”), in which we will enjoy the Triune God as peace (Phil. 4:7, 9) for eternity.
D. Thus, the ordinances, or laws, concerning the offerings are a record of the totality of God’s economy.