Day: November 21, 2021

In this chapter we want to continue our fellowship concerning God’s working on His elect through Moses. The entire book of Leviticus shows that God trained His elect to worship and partake of God and to live a holy, clean, and rejoicing life.

The history of God as seen in the books of Genesis and Exodus consummated in the children of Israel as a nation. In the previous chapter we saw how God brought His people, His elect, through the wilderness. God moved with them and brought them to Mount Sinai. Sinai represents God’s presence. God brought His people to Himself at Sinai and stayed with them. The children of Israel remained at Sinai with God for about eleven months (Exo. 19:1; cf. Num. 10:11). God stayed with His people day and night there, so God trained them.

At Mount Sinai God gave them the law and the pattern for the tabernacle. On the one hand, God regulated them by the law, and on the other hand, He encouraged them by the tabernacle. After the decree of the law and the building up of the tabernacle at Sinai, God gave them all the chapters of Leviticus to train them to worship and partake of God and to live a holy, clean, and rejoicing life.

TRAINING THEM TO WORSHIP AND PARTAKE OF GOD

God trains His people to worship Him and also to partake of Him, to participate in Him, for their enjoyment. We need to be trained to worship God in the way of partaking of Him to enjoy Him.

With the Offerings—Christ in All Aspects

God’s people were instructed to worship Him with the offerings, typifying Christ in all aspects. The aspects of Christ in all His riches are untraceable and unsearchable (Eph. 3:8).

The Burnt Offering

The burnt offering (Lev. 1:3-9) typifies Christ in His absoluteness for God’s satisfaction. The burnt offering was the qualification for the sin offering. The sin offering was to be slaughtered in the place where the burnt offering was slaughtered. This indicates that the sin offering is based upon the burnt offering, and it signifies that Christ is the sin offering for us based upon His being the burnt offering. For Jesus Christ to be the sin offering, He had to be the burnt offering. His being the burnt offering was His qualification for Him to be the sin offering.

The Meal Offering

The meal offering (2:1-3) typifies Christ in His human living and daily walk. A part of the meal offering was to be burned on the altar to God as an offering by fire for food to God (v. 2; Num. 28:2, 8). The rest of the meal offering was to be food to the priests (Lev. 2:3). Thus, Christ as the meal offering is food to God and food to us, the New Testament priests.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

GOD’S HISTORY IN TIME
(FROM THE CREATION OF THE UNIVERSE
TO THE FINAL JUDGMENT
AT THE GREAT WHITE THRONE—
GENESIS 1:1—REVELATION 20:15)

(12)

WORKING ON HIS ELECT THROUGH MOSES

(3)

TRAINING THEM TO WORSHIP
AND PARTAKE OF GOD AND TO LIVE
A HOLY, CLEAN, AND REJOICING LIFE

Scripture Reading: Lev.

OUTLINE

1. Training them to worship and partake of God:
   1. With the offerings—Christ in all aspects:
      1. The burnt offering—Lev. 1:3-9:
         1. Typifying Christ in His absoluteness for God’s satisfaction.
         2. Being the qualification for the sin offering.
      2. The meal offering—2:1-3:
         1. Typifying Christ in His human living and daily walk.
         2. A part to be burned on the altar to God as an offering by fire for food to God—v. 2; Num. 28:2, 8.
         3. The rest to be food to the priests—Lev. 2:3.
      3. The peace offering—3:1-6:
         1. Typifying Christ as the peace between God and His people.
         2. For the enjoyment of God with His people in fellowship.
      4. The sin offering—4:13-21:
         1. Typifying Christ as the sin offering for the sin of God’s people.
         2. The whole offering to be burned outside the camp—v. 21.
      5. The trespass offering—5:1-6:
         1. Typifying Christ as the trespass offering for the sins, the trespasses, of God’s people.
         2. The trespass offering being also considered as a sin offering—v. 6.
   2. Through the priests—1:5-8; 2:2; 3:2; 4:5, 10; 5:8:
      1. Typifying Christ as God’s Priest—Heb. 5:5-6.
      2. Offering Himself to God for us—9:14, 26; 10:10.
2. Training them to live a holy, clean, and rejoicing life:
   1. Living a holy life—Lev. 18—20:
      1. Putting off the old life and putting on the new—cf. Eph. 4:17—5:14.
      2. Putting off the former Egyptian conduct—Lev. 18:3a.
      3. Not walking in the statutes of the Canaanites—18:3b.
      4. Having God’s holy living according to His holy nature—19:2; 20:7, 26.
   2. Living a clean life:
      1. Kept clean in contacting the clean people—ch. 11; Acts 10:11-15.
      2. Cleansed from the human impurity by birth—Lev. 12.
      3. Cleansed from leprosy—chs. 13—14.
      4. Cleansed from all unclean discharges from the human being—ch. 15.
   3. Living a rejoicing life:
      1. The weekly Sabbath—23:1-3:
         1. Being the principal denotation of all the annual feasts.
         2. For God’s redeemed people to rest with God and with one another.
      2. The monthly new moon feast—Num. 10:10; 28:11-15.
      3. The annual feasts—Lev. 23:2, 4-44:
         1. The Feast of the Passover—vv. 4-5; Exo. 12:2-14:
            1. 1) Typifying Christ as our Passover—1 Cor. 5:7.
            2. 2) For our initial and foundational salvation.
            3. 3) The beginning of our regenerated life—Exo. 12:2.
         2. The Feast of Unleavened Bread—Lev. 23:6-8; Exo. 12:15-20:
            1. 1) For seven days, typifying the entire course of our Christian life as a feast without sin.
            2. 2) Christ being our strength to live a life without sin in our entire Christian life for our enjoyment and rest.
         3. The Feast of the Firstfruits—Lev. 23:9-14:
            1. 1) Typifying the resurrected Christ—1 Cor. 15:20.
            2. 2) For our enjoyment as a feast in His resurrection.
         4. The Feast of Pentecost—of the fiftieth day—Lev. 23:15-21:
            1. 1) Typifying the enjoyment of the outpouring of the Spirit.
            2. 2) For the formation of the church in two sections, the Jewish and Gentile, typified by the two loaves offered to God on that day—v. 17.
         5. The Feast of the Blowing of Trumpets—vv. 23-25:
            1. 1) Typifying God’s calling together of His scattered people, the dispersed Israelites—Matt. 24:31.
            2. 2) To be fulfilled at Christ’s coming back—v. 30.
         6. The Feast of Expiation—Lev. 23:26-32:
            1. 1) Typifying the enjoyment of God’s expiation for the whole house of Israel after they will be gathered together by God—Rom. 11:25-27; Zech. 12:10-14.
            2. 2) To be fulfilled at the very time of Christ’s descending from the heavens to the Holy Land in His second coming—Rev. 1:7.
         7. The Feast of Tabernacles—Lev. 23:33-44:
            1. 1) Typifying the enjoyment of the age of restoration—Matt. 19:28.
            2. 2) To be fulfilled in the millennium (Rev. 20:4, 6) on the restored earth, not in the new heaven and new earth yet.
      4. The Sabbath year—Lev. 25:1-7, 18-22:
         1. Typifying Christ as our rest in full.
         2. For the land to rest and for the people with their servants, their maids, their hired servants, and their strangers, and with their cattle and the beasts in their land to enjoy food without laboring—vv. 4-7.
      5. The jubilee—the Pentecostal year—vv. 8-17:
         1. A time of shouting in rejoicing.
         2. Typifying Christ as our full release, rest, and joy by redeeming back what we have lost in our rights and what we have sold in ourselves.
         3. For us to enjoy in His resurrection in the fullest way forever and ever.