THE BURNT-OFFERING by G. E. Fifield

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Sep 12, 1900

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 26, No. 37.

THE BURNT-OFFERING.

By G. E. Fifield

"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service." Rom. 12: 1.

THE regular morning and evening worship of the Israelites was a burnt-offering.

Of course, in this, the unregenerate sinner had no part; nor could he have part, till he had first brought his sin-offering, or trespass-offering. Then he could bring a personal burnt-offering, and after this he could unite, in his prayers, with the multitude, and participate with them in the morning and evening worship. In other words, he must first come to God as a sinner, confessing his sins, and yielding his carnal nature to be crucified, or burned as unclean without the camp; he must present his life in Christ's merit, to be renewed by His power and then be poured out in His service. Then, and not till then, could he have real participation in the burnt-offering.

If he had already come as a sinner, bringing his sin-offering, but had since become conscious of having trespassed against God's holy law, he must acknowledge and confess that fault by bringing his trespass-offering; then he was free to bring a personal burnt-offering if he chose, or to unite in the congregational worship of the general morning and evening burnt-offering. All this plainly shows that the burnt-offering represented an experience in the Lord beyond that of mere conversion or regeneration, and also beyond that of the constantly backsliding and repenting life so frequent in the beginning Christian. It must, therefore, represent the experience of complete consecration. Let us see how.

Whoever brought a burnt-offering must do so "of his own voluntary will," "and he shall put his hand upon the head of the burnt-offering; and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him." Here it is plainly seen that the offering stands for the offerer. Moreover, God was teaching, even back there, a lesson that many seem not to have learned to-day, and that is, that heart service—heart consecration—can not be forced; it must be voluntary.

The offerer killed the offering, which stood for him, to show that he, of his own free will, was voluntarily shedding his blood,—that is, giving, or consecrating, his life. "And the priests, Aaron's sons, shall bring the blood, and sprinkle the blood round about upon the altar that is by the door of the tabernacle of the congregation." While it is our part, of our own free wills, to consecrate our lives to God, it is the work of our High Priest, Christ, to sprinkle the blood, that is, to direct as to how and where our lives shall be poured out or expended.

Then all the offering was burned upon the altar of burnt-offering, for "a sweet savor unto the Lord." If the animal was not too large to burn whole upon the altar, it must not be divided. The direction was explicit. "It must be a whole burnt-offering." If, however, it was too large to be thus burned, it might be cut up for convenience, but it must all be burned. The fire that ignited this sacrifice, was the sacred fire taken from the altar of incense. It had been first kindled by God Himself upon that altar, and had ever since been carefully and constantly kept burning. Sometimes, on special occasions, as in the case of Elijah upon Mount Carmel, God kindled the sacrifice directly by a flash from on high, but usually the fire was taken from the altar of incense. No other fire than this consecrated fire must be used. Nadab and Abihu, offering "strange fire," were themselves consumed by the Lord's displeasure.

Now what does all this mean?—What but that the sinner, after he has presented himself as a sinner and has been accepted in Christ's merit, after his flesh has been crucified, and his life renewed by the divine power, should next voluntarily present all his renewed being to God, to be consecrated to His service, and used as He alone shall direct, consumed as a sacrifice upon His altar, consumed by the sacred love-fire which He only can kindle in the soul? Thus the burnt-offering is the sacrifice of consecration. Its truest, fullest illustration is the life of Jesus. His whole life was given to be consumed in the daily service under the inspiration of that divine love that constantly burned on the altar of His heart. Dr. Holmes well says, "You tap an artery, and all men see the life current flowing away, but you tap a nerve, and it flows just the same, tho no man marks the sacrifice." It was not simply when the red blood was flowing on Calvary that Jesus was giving His life. It was being consumed constantly, day by day, poured out often to be ignored and despised, or received, if at all, ungratefully,—only one coming back to render thanks where ten were healed,—poured out in the end to be hated and mocked and spit upon and crucified and covered with the dust. Woe to him that brings to such a sacrifice a divided heart! It must be "a whole burnt-offering."

Nor will any motive suffice for this sacrifice save the motive of that divine and yearning love which God alone can kindle in the heart. Sometimes, even to-day, this flame is seemingly kindled by a flash directly from on high. God speaks by His Spirit, as to Paul on the Damascus road, and at once the heart is subdued and inspired for service. But cases like this were ever rare. Usually we catch the sacred fire from some other divinely kindled heart. We take it from the altar of incense, kindled long ago by God Himself in the soul of prophet, priest, or king, inspired singers of the olden days, or writers of the prophetic word, caught by us from their burning utterances and living deeds; or from the written words or recorded acts of Him who spake as never man spake. Or we may first feel the flash from reading of Judson, or Cary, or of other equally consecrated lives. Wherever we get it, it must be that sacred fire of unselfish love which can come from God alone, the source of all pure love. Woe to him who brings to this altar the "profane fire" of worldly ambition, or a selfish desire for popularity or precedence, here or hereafter, or any other motive save that of love alone. He will surely corrupt the sacrifice, and be himself destroyed.

The burnt-offering, when truly made by the voluntary will of the offerer, was "accepted for him to make atonement for him"; i. e., accepted as the outward expression of the inner consecration and sacrifice of the one who brought it,—a consecration and sacrifice, which, if complete in Christ, made him one with God. It was only when the man was crucified with Christ, and his life renewed by Christ living in him, that he could make this sacrifice. It was not he, but Christ in him, that sacrificed and made the atonement. Here again it is seen that all arbitrary conceptions of the atonement, all understanding of it as of a plan arranged between the Father and the Son to take place once for all, for the whole world,—all such views of the atonement are utterly false and unscriptural. It is not too much to say that all such doctrines were invented by the father of lies, and invented for the express purpose of hiding the great central truth of Christianity, a truth so fatal to Satan's plans. That truth which Satan so much desires to hide, is the truth that "God so loved the world" that He not only for a little while, on Calvary, gave His Son, but that He so loved the world that He always and ever gives His own life in Christ for all who will take it by faith and live thereby. It is not simply Christ on Calvary, or Christ in the heavenly temple, but Christ in us, sacrificing and giving Himself there for others, that makes the atonement, and nothing else in earth or heaven can make us one with the God who gives His life for all, and who therefore lives in all who live, and who loves in all who love.

All animals offered in sacrifice, except in the case of the scapegoat, which represented Satan, and not Christ or the Christian, were killed. "Without the shedding of blood [i. e., without the giving of the life] is no remission." Here is complete consecration. The offering, as we have so often said, stood for the one who offered it. If it had been bruised and beaten, and then let go, it might have spoken of a degree of consecration. It might have said, "I will go with Him to Gethsemane, and to Pilate's judgment-hall." It could not have said, "If need be, in His strength, I will go with Him to Calvary." Only the flowing blood, and the consecrated flesh consumed on the altar for a sweet savor, could fitly speak of such consecration as this.

The regular morning and evening worship of the Israelites was the sacrifice of a burnt-offering. The tabernacle was in the center of the camp. Three tribes were camped to the northward, three to the southward, three to the eastward, and three to the westward. In the morning, as the sun rose and the birds began their songs, and again in the evening when the last red rays were kissing the tops of the distant mountains, all the people came to their tent doors and bowed in prayer. Incense was put anew upon the altar of incense, and the sacrifice was burned on the altar of burnt-offering. The smoke from the two altars, ascending, combined and went up, with the prayers of the people, to the God that is over all. Thus anew, morning and evening, was the life consecrated to God, and offered up in the merit of Christ,—the Christ whose life implanted in the soul had made them capable of offering this sacrifice.

Was this not true worship when truly offered? Was not the living, saving Gospel there as well as here? What higher meaning can morning and evening worship have to-day than a constant reconsecration of the life to love's self-forgetful service? Is it not literally true, as Paul says, that our fathers "did all eat the same spiritual meat; and did all drink the same spiritual drink; for they drank of that spiritual Rock that went with them, and that Rock was Christ"? The river of life was flowing from the smitten Rock, Christ, then as now, for He was smitten, or slain, from the foundation of the world.

After Israel ceased to be a number of nomadic tribes, and became, instead, a permanently-settled nation, the tabernacle was, so to speak, merged into the temple at Jerusalem, and its worship was repeated there. Morning

and evening the silver trumpets of the priests called the devout people to prayer on the flat housetops. The sacred and beautiful temple crowned the historic summit of Mount Moriah, and thither all faces were turned, while all hearts were lifted heavenward. While these uplifted hearts poured forth praise and petition, the smoke of the incense and of the burnt-sacrifice combined above the temple and ascended to heaven. No wonder the inspired poet sang so sweetly: "Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of His holiness. Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King. God is known in her palaces for a refuge. . . . Walk about Zion, and go round about her; tell the towers thereof. Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces; that ye may tell it to the generation following. For this God is our God forever and ever; He will be our guide even unto death."

How sad that this spiritual worship was corrupted, its meaning lost and perverted, till even the temple itself became "a den of thieves," and Jerusalem, that might have stood forever, was terribly destroyed! What wonder that Jesus wept, saying, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!" "If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes."

As the Jews lost the spiritual truth out of God's revelation to them, their religion became cold, formal, and ceremonial. Then they boastfully carried the ark of the covenant before them, thinking that if they believed fully in that, it had some magic power to save them. The Lord had to let them be discomfited before their enemies, and even to permit the Philistines to take the ark from them, to show them that, received only in that way, their religion was powerless to help them. Even so to-day, men lose the saving spiritual truth out of Christianity, and then take the name of Jesus as a mascot, or magic pass-word into the Holy City. But this will not avail them. Nothing will avail, only the atonement that comes to our souls when Christ lives His life of self-sacrificing love in us, and thus makes us one with the Father. The living water from the life river must enter the soul, and purify it, and then grow it into the divine image. Thus "He is our peace" and the peace of His church. Let us, like the devout of old, "pray for the peace of Jerusalem."

G. E. FIFIELD.