THE
ATONEMENT
CHAPTER XII.
The
Two Birds (Lev. xiv. 1-7; 49-53)
FOR our purpose, it would be evidently a diversion to take
the various applications of the sacrifices which we find in the book of
Leviticus or elsewhere; but where we find variation in the sacrifice itself, we
may expect a development of new features in that one great offering which all
these foreshadow. Such variation we have in that which is enjoined for the
cleansing of a leprosy which was already healed; and if we passed it over, we
should manifestly miss designed instruction as to the work of atonement.
Here, "two birds, alive and clean" are to be taken, one only of which
is to be killed, and this in a remarkable way, namely, "in an earthen vessel,
over running [literally, living] water." "As for the living bird" it is added
"he [the priest] shall take it and the cedar wood and the scarlet and the
hyssop, and shall dip them and the living bird in the blood of the bird that
was killed over the living water; and he shall sprinkle upon him that is to be
cleansed from the leprosy seven times, and shall pronounce him clean, and shall
let the living bird loose into the open field." In the cleansing of the leprous
house, the same thing precisely is enjoined.
We have already, in the
burnt-offering and sin-offering both, become familiar with the type of the
bird. In the case before us there are, however, some notable differences from
these, which all tend to show that here we have the type in its fullest
character - the most typical of all its forms. Thus it is neither dove nor
pigeon nor any particular species that is prescribed, but simply two "birds."
It is the bird as such, irrespective of specific qualities -"the bird of
heaven" according to the constant phraseology of Scripture,* a being not of
earth. Its dying in a vessel of earth, by its plainly designed contrast, only
brings out the more this character, and is interpreted for us by the
apostles application of the figure (2 Cor. iv. 7) so as to render mistake
impossible.
*1n our common version, most generally given as "the fowl of
the air."
Again, while the bird-type, in the sin-offering plainly, and
in the burnt-offering no less really, is as a misplaced higher thought, in fact
a lower one, here, on the other hand, it is the manifestly divine one,
remarkable as being defined neither as sin-, nor burnt-, nor any other
offering, but standing by itself, (in this first part of cleansing which
restores the leper to the camp,) as if representing all. It is a complementary
thought, if I may so say, which while not entering into the idea of sacrifice
as such, and therefore not found in these distinctive aspects of Christs
blessed work, must yet have its place in order to any just conception of what
has been done.
The bird, then, represents the Lord as a heavenly Being,
acquiring capacity to suffer and die in that manhood which He had taken, and
which is symbolized by the earthen vessel; the living water here as ever type
of that Eternal Spirit through whom He offered Himself without spot to God. It
is striking that the figure does not, as we might at first imagine it would,
represent the breaking of the vessel, while the bird itself escapes unhurt, but
on the contrary the death of the bird itself; and Scripture is always and
divinely perfect: such apparent slips are not in fact blemishes, not even the
necessary failure of all possible figures, but things that call for the deepest
and most reverential observation.
For it is one blessed Person, in whom
Godhead and manhood unite forever, who has been among us, learned obedience in
the path which He has marked out for us through the world, suffered the due of
our sins, and gone out from us by the gate of death, risen and returned to the
Father. We lose ourselves easily in this depth of glory and abasement, where
abasement too is glory; but. no Christian can give up the blessed truth because
of his ignorance of explanation. In ourselves we have such inexplicable
mysteries, not on that account doubted, as where every nerve-pang that thrills
the body is felt really not by the body, but by its (as reason would say)
untouched spiritual inhabitant. Here it is not needful to explain, to accept
the lesson: He who came upon earth to do the Fathers will has taken as
the means of His doing it that "prepared body" which was the instrument by
which He accomplished it. Thus rightly, according to the figure, the bird of
heaven it is that dies in the earthen vessel. This stooping is the unparalleled
marvel and power of the weakness in which He was crucified. We must not take
the glory that was His to deny or lessen that weakness, but accept as adding to
it the wonder of such humiliation. How beautifully is this preserved in that
one hundred and second psalm, in which, if any where, we have just this type!
"Hear My prayer, O Lord, and let My cry come unto Thee. . . . For My
days are consumed as a smoke. . . . I have eaten ashes like bread, and mingled
My drink with weeping; because of Thine indignation and wrath, for Thou hast
lifted Me up and cast Me down. My days are like a shadow that declineth. . .
.He weakened My strength in the way; He shortened My days: I said, O My
God, take Me not away in the midst of My days; Thy years are throughout all
generations!"
Who then is this that speaks: who is this who
suffers under the wrath of God and that to death; whose days cut off contrast
so with the divine eternity? How does this psalm proceed? and what is the
astonishing answer to this lowly prayer?
"Of old hast Thou laid the
foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Thy hands. They shall
perish, but Thou shalt endure: yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment;
as a vesture Thou shalt change them, and they shall be changed: but Thou art
the same, and Thy years shall have no end!"
If He go down into death,
then, He must needs show Himself master of it. Resurrection must vindicate Him
as the Lord of all: "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it
up." Accordingly in the type before us it is of resurrection that the second
bird speaks. Let loose into the open field, he carries back to the heavens to
which he belongs the blood which is the witness of accomplished redemption. The
second bird represents the unextinguished, unextinguishable life of the first
which has come through death, taking it captive, and making it subservient to
the purposes of divine goodness, which, by the blood shed in atonement,
cleanses us from the defilement of spiritual leprosy.
Here, for the
first time, in connection with the Legal sacrifices, we have the type of
resurrection as necessary to the application to us of the great Sacrifice
itself. "He was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our
justification." (Rom. iv. 25.) In Isaac, long since indeed, we saw one received
back in a figure from the dead, but there the results were personal to himself:
there was no application of blood, no announcement of justification by
resurrection. These are important features, which this type of the birds for
the first time adds to the picture of atonement.
And thus it is
throughout Heavens ministry of love: not so much the Son of Man
necessarily lifted up as on the other hand, so far as such types could reach,
that God has given His only begotten Son. It is divine love that has been at
charges to bring such ready and effectual help to human outcasts. It is to the
degraded and polluted leper that the purity of heaven descends. How precious
this contrast! In truth mans case was hopeless to any other than divine
resources. If "it is God that justifieth," who but He could righteously justify
those expressly designated as "ungodly"?
This justification of ungodly
ones who are content to trust themselves as such in the hands of Christ has
been once for all pronounced in the raising from the dead of Him who for our
sins went into death. Abraham needed a special word in his day from God, and
that availed for himself alone. For the rest, the apostle distinguishes between
the "passing over of sins that had been before" the cross, and the
justification at the present time of him that believeth in Jesus.* Under this
public justification by resurrection, announcing the acceptance of that which
actually justifies, - the blood of the cross, - we come individually as soon as
we believe, and need no individual declaration.
*See the Revised Version
of Romans iii. 25, 26.
Go To Chapter
Thirteen
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