The Peace Offering

1. Our Growth in Our Experience of Christ and in Our Knowledge of Who We Are, as Seen in the Offerings

2. The Peace Offering • This is the spontaneous result of the burnt offering and the meal offering • As we experience Christ as our burnt offering (a life absolute for God), and we experience Christ as our meal offering, feeding on Him as our life supply in order to live an absolute life for God, we experience peace • This peace results in fellowship with God and men. • The peace offerings are experienced mainly in the church meetings, expressed through our prayers and testimonies.

3. Two Kinds of Peace Offerings

4. For Thanksgiving • Presented with a meal offering of unleavened cakes mingled with oil, unleavened wafers anointed with oil and saturated cakes of fine flour mingled with oil (Lev. 7:12) • Also presented with cakes of leavened bread (7:13), indicating that the offerer still has sin and is in a weak condition. • The offerer shall offer one cake of each category for a heave offering (v. 14) • The flesh of the peace offering must be eaten on the same day.

5. For a Free Will Offering • Similar requirements for the peace offering of thanksgiving • However, the flesh could be eaten on the second day also. • But not on the third day • This indicates that the peace offering of free will is more solid and lasting. • It is not merely based on inspiration, but indicates a process, which results in a specific vow.

6. Two Results of the Peace Offering • The wave offering • The heave offering

7. The Wave Offering • Out of the peace offering, any Israelite must bring the breast of the animal with its fat • The breast was waved as a wave offering before Jehovah (7:30) • The fat was burned on the altar • The breast was to be eaten by Aaron and his sons • This indicates that the Lord’s love to us is so real that we love Him and we love His church as He loves her in resurrection.

8. The Heave Offering • Out of the peace offering, any Israelite must bring the right thigh of the animal with its fat • The right thigh was heaved up as a heave offering before Jehovah (7:30) • The fat was burned on the altar • The thigh was to be eaten by Aaron and his sons • As serving priests, we not only love the Lord and His church, but we take a stand for His testimony, by offering the strong part, that is, our experience of paying a price for His testimony.

9. The Sin Offering • As we enjoy fellowship with God and with one another in the church life, we are brought into God’s light and realize that there is something wrong with us (the leaven in us that we offer with the peace offering). • This is sin (singular), referring to our nature. • Inward sin causes us to commit sins outwardly. • Sin in Leviticus 4 is expressed in an action of sinning “without intent” • If anyone sins without intent, in any of the things which Jehovah has commanded not to be done, and does any one of them (4:2)

10. Four Categories of Sinners • An anointed priest • The whole congregation • A ruler • Any one of the common people

11. An Anointed Priest • The first category is the serving one • The anointed priest’s sin does not just affect himself, but brings guilt upon the people he serves: If the anointed priest sins so as to bring guilt on the people (4:3) • As a serving one, I must know who I am • Who I am affects others

12. The Blood Sprinkled before the Veil • The anointed priest dips his finger in the blood of the slain bull • He sprinkles it 7 times before Jehovah in front of the veil of the sanctuary (the Holy of Holies) • For a serving one, the first thing to be restored is our intimate fellowship with the Lord

13. The Blood Sprinkled on the Incense Altar • Signifying that our prayer or means to fellowship with God needs to be cleansed

14. The Blood Poured out at the Base of the Altar of Burnt Offering • Signifying that our conscience needs to be appeased by the blood of Christ poured out at the cross.

15. The Whole Congregation • The whole assembly errs, and is not aware of it. • The sin becomes known • The whole congregation presents the bull before the Tent of Meeting • The elders shall lay their hands on the head of the bull • One of the elders shall slaughter the bull • The rest of the process is similar to the previous case

16. A Ruler • He brings a male goat, without blemish • He lays his hand of the goat • He slaughters it on the altar of burnt offering • The priest dips his finger in the blood and sprinkles it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering, and pours the rest out at the base of the altar of burnt offering • However, he does not sprinkle the blood 7 times before the veil, as he does in the case of the sinning priest and congregation

17. One of the Common People • He may bring either a female goat or a female lamb without blemish as his sin offering. • Again, the priest only sprinkles the blood of the horns of the altar of burnt offering, and pours out the rest of the blood at the base of the altar of burnt offering

18. The Stages of Growth in Our Experience of Knowing Ourselves • The order in the Bible, like the order of the offerings, is from God’s perspective. • However, from our perspective, we may begin with our experience of the common man, or one of the common people.

19. The Common Man • The relationship between the common man and Jehovah: Jehovah has commanded, and we have disobeyed. • Not much knowledge of God • As common people, we experience the cleansing of our sin at the altar of burnt offering, in the outer court. • Our conscience is appeased by the blood of Jesus Christ poured out on the cross. • The offering is either a female goat or a female lamb, indicating genuine but weaker appreciation of the death of Christ, and therefore a weaker knowledge of ourselves.

20. The Ruler • In Hebrew, nasi, meaning exalted one, a rising mist – captain, chief, governor, prince, vapour • As a saint, we now have grown to become a ruler, that is, a brother or sister with some responsibility in the church life. • Not just a common saint enjoying the church life. • A ruler knows Jehovah as his God: When a ruler has sinned, and done something unintentionally against any of the commandments of the LORD his God in anything which should not be done, and is guilty (4:22) • The offering is a male goat, indicating that the saint has grown in his appreciation of Christ • He has also grown in knowing who he is. • However, the blood is still only sprinkled on the altar of burnt offering. • The ruler, while taking care of his responsibilities in the church life, is exposed by his sin to know somewhat his person. • However, he is still limited in his realization of his need. He may still be natural in his exercise of his responsibilities in the church life, especially in the matter of exercising his authority. • The danger may be that the saints become a capital for him to advance as a ruler in the church life. Does he really care for the saints, for their growth and welfare, or is he merely using the saints for his advancement?

21. The Whole Assembly • The saint has now grown to identify himself/herself with God’s people, as God’s testimony • He is one with God’s people, not merely a ruler with an assignment. • At this point, there is the need for the restoration of the fellowship with God, signified by the blood being sprinkled seven times before the inner veil. • There is also the need of the prayers to be cleansed, signified by the cleansing of the incense altar. • This means that as a saint growing and being built up with other saints, we may be caught in oldness, routine, or religion, without knowing it. It may even be something quite good, something spiritual, perhaps a practice or an ideology. • All our spiritual exercise and pursuing needs to be examined in the light of the Lord and exposed, even our prayers and our worship of God.

22. The Anointed Priest • Eventually, a saint has grown to become an anointed priest. • Not just one of the common people • Not just a ruler with an assignment • But a serving one with a commission and a sending from God • For such a serving one, the requirements are the strictest. • As serving ones, it is the hardest thing to recognize and acknowledge our sin. • The more we pursue, sometimes the more excuses we make for ourselves. • However, whenever such a one sins, his sin affects others. • Such a serving one realizes that he is altogether sin itself. • Whatever he puts his hand to is sinful and stumbles others. • Such a one needs, more than anyone, Christ as his sin offering. • All his service, his pursuing, and his exercise needs to be touched and exposed.

23. Observations Concerning the Sin Offering • The sin offering is to expose and take care of our person. • However, it is closely linked to the sins that we commit. • In each of the 4 cases, the sin offering is offered to make expiation for a particular sin, in order that that sin may be forgiven: And the priest shall make expiation for him concerning his sin that he has committed, and he will be forgiven (4:35) • This leads us now to the trespass offering

24. The Trespass Offering • The trespass offering takes care of particular offenses or trespasses. • Based on our taking Christ as our sin offering, we can enjoy forgiveness for our trespasses. • It is not just that our trespasses are forgiven so we can enjoy peace in our conscience. • Much more, our trespasses remind us again and again who we are. • How can we practically experience Christ as our sin offering? • It is through the revealing of our specific trespasses • Eventually, the trespass offering becomes the sin offering; the two are intimately related: If he is not able to bring a lamb, then he shall bring to the LORD, for his trespass which he has committed, two turtledoves or two young pigeons: one as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering. 8 And he shall bring them to the priest, who shall offer that which is for the sin offering first, and wring off its head from its neck, but shall not divide it completely (5:7-8).

25. Specific Trespasses • Bearing false witness • Touching uncleanness or death • Swearing rashly to do evil or good, with an oath • Deceiving a brother concerning a deposit • Robbing or extorting • Finding a lost item and lying about it

26. Our Growth in the Church Life • As a saint in the church life, I realize I need Christ as my burnt offering in order to live a crucified life. • To live a crucified life, I need Christ as my meal offering, His fine humanity as my life supply. • This brings me into a sweet fellowship with God and the saints (the peace offering). • As I enjoy this fellowship, I realize who I am, what kind of person I am (the sin offering). • All the trespasses that I commit are not just offenses, but an indicator that I am not a person who is willing to be burnt to ashes. • Neither am I a person with proper humanity. • I see that I am sin itself. Everything I put my hand to is sin. • I realize that I need Christ again as my burnt offering and meal offering to bring me into a higher degree of fellowship with Him. • In His light, I see more of who I am. • This cycle is ongoing and causes us to grow in the church life.