PRIESTLY FAILURE
AND PRIESTLY PRIVILEGE
(Lev. 10)
The first part of the book of Leviticus is devoted to
setting before us in an orderly way the various sacrifices of the Lord
exhibiting, as we know, the fullness of the work of Christ in all its aspects.
In the burnt-offering, we see Him as the one offering Himself up in death, as a
sweet savour to God. In the meal-offering, which accompanied that, we have the
Lord's perfect life on earth, which exhibited Him as the one fitted to be the
burnt-offering. In the peace-offering, we have communion and fellowship between
God, His priests and the people. Of the other offerings, which speak not of
sweet savour and fellowship, but of the need of man met, trespass is met in the
trespass-offering and sin in the sin-offering.
Then we have the high
priest brought in, clothed in his robes of glory and beauty, and his sons
clothed in their appropriate garments, placed at the altar, and ministering the
holy things of God. Everything is arranged according to God - sacrifices
offered, censers waved, and God answering by fire from His holy presence
consuming it all. What a lovely sight, everything done according to the mind of
God, everything pleasing to Him, and blessing the result. Now we come to this
chapter (10) - what a solemn and what a sudden contrast! Here the fire seems to
have come out of God's presence to consume the offering on the altar in one
moment, and very shortly after, fire from the same source, shall we not say the
same fire, comes out to consume, not the offering according to God's order, but
those in judgment - in chastening - who would dare ignore that order, or
substitute their own thoughts for His.
The sin of Nadab and Abihu was
not in offering to strange gods. It was not like the golden calf; there was no
idea of substituting any person in the place of the living God. It was not that
there was anything evil in the fire itself - which was doubtless the proper
fire for all their ordinary uses; but it was not the fire which the Lord had
commanded, not the fire which had been kindled upon the altar, the fire that
had already fed upon the sacrifice, and having done that, was now ready to
consume the incense, and carry it up as a sweet savour to God. It was strange
fire which the Lord had not commanded - something added to God's Word, or a
substitute for God's Word. It was their own thought, which outwardly might seem
all right. What was the difference? The difference was obedience to God,
recognition of their dependence on God, and it made all the difference between
acceptable worship before Him, and being cut off under His chastening hand.
How often we see when God has set up something in blessing, that man's
failure quickly comes in. If He has brought an individual like Abraham into the
land of Canaan, how quickly he goes down into Egypt. If He bring a people like
Israel out of Egypt, and they sing their song of deliverance on the shore of
the Red Sea, how quickly does murmuring, unbelief, disobedience, follow.
How soon in the New Testament, we find again sin, failure and
disobedience, coming in amongst God's people. Does not that teach us, beloved
brethren, that we ought to be on our guard against everything of that kind!
Does it not teach us that in every blessing we enjoy, there is the danger that
comes from carelessness, from self-will, from independence. It was the
blessing, perhaps, which they had enjoyed, the sense of God's presence possibly
- alas that such a thing should be possible - but the actual enjoyment of the
things of God might seem to have opened the way for that carelessness and
looseness which succeeded. Not that there is anything in the things of God to
produce such result, but our treacherous hearts seem to pass from the enjoyment
to the memory of the enjoyment; to pass from that upon which we fed to the
recollection of it, in such a way that it becomes a snare to us.
How we
find it in Gideon's day, for instance, where his glorious victory over the
Midianites and all God's enemies that had presented themselves against the
Lord's people is followed by his making the ephod, assuming more than God had
given him. God had given him a victory. He refused the kingship which they
offered him, but he cannot refuse the priesthood. He makes his ephod out of the
gold which he had taken from his enemies, and that becomes a snare to all
Israel - the very blessing succeeded by failure.
Need we not, dear
brethren, again and again to be reminded of what God tells us - to beware lest
we fall through carelessness, through indifference, or self-will into the same
failure, from which it would be necessary to recover us by His chastening hand,
as we see it here? Why not go on with God simply, with His blessed ministry, as
He had ordained? Because it meant absolute obedience, absolute dependence upon
Himself; because it obliterated man, and set him aside. There is the temptation
- the memory of the blessing, and now we will go on in our own strength; we
will devise our own ways, and the result is, God must come in and teach us that
He cannot go on with anything but His ways. If He is to bless us, it must be in
His way; and if our offerings are to be acceptable to Him, they must be the
offerings which He has given us, and it must be in the manner in which He has
directed that we offer them.
But then, incense is worship and praise.
It expresses the highest form of intercourse with God. It is based, if it be
true worship, upon atonement, and is not that one of the great thoughts we have
here - that this worship was not connected with atonement, not the fire from
the altar, but the strange fire of their own kindling which could not be
pleasing to God?
If we say their judgment seems to have been too
severe to be thus cut off, does He not show us in this what His thought of sin
is; how He does not treat lightly things that we treat lightly? Suppose that
one worships or serves in his own strength, how easily we pass it over and say,
it was fleshly energy. The saints did not enjoy it, there was no freshness
about it, there was no vigor, but, after all, that was comparatively a trifle.
Suppose God were dealing now as He dealt in those days, would there not be
again, perhaps, Nadabs and Abihus to be judged? God has given us principles, He
has given His truth. He is not going to cut everyone off, as He has not cut off
those who have sinned like Ananias and Sapphira. God is not dealing in that
way. He gives us His truth, and shows us His judgment of evil, and then leaves
us to act in faith, because He wants us to be guided and controlled by His
precious Word.
Nadab and Abihu offered strange fire to God. How
different the case of Elijah with the prophets of Baal (1 Kings 18:19-39). He
said he would test which was the true God. They built their altar, they put
their sacrifice upon it. He tells them to call upon Baal until the going down
of the sun. They cut themselves, and cry, "Baal, hear us!" They take hold of
every possible means of calling down fire, but it is impossible. Look at Elijah
as he draws near to God. Is there any excitement in what he does? He draws near
about the time of the evening sacrifice. He tells the people the first thing,
"Get water, and pour it out on the sacrifice; drench the altar with water;
drench the wood with water; let the water flow all around the ditch;" until it
is water, water everywhere - the very opposite of fire. Now, then, nature's
fire is quenched, no danger of human energy. Then the answer must come down
from God, and if God does not choose to speak, man cannot. He casts himself
absolutely on God, and God is going to speak for Himself. He simply draws near
and says, "Let God show that He is God - let Him show too that He is drawing
every heart back to Himself." When he speaks, God answers with His fire; no
need for us to stir up excitement and feeling, and talk about having
great energy, and making great displays of power. That is not what we want. Let
us pour the water on everything that is of nature. Let us drench it all, and
then let God's power be manifest. It will be all the more manifest that it is
His power.
Is it not just in that connection that we have this
necessary direction: God says to Aaron, when he and his sons come near to
minister about the holy things, they are not to drink wine or strong drink, not
to have any excitement of mere nature, which will deceive them. There is to be
nothing of that sort at all; they are to be absolutely without stimulants,
absolutely weak, absolutely helpless, so that everything may be manifestly of
God. In the epistle to the Ephesians, we have that: God says, "Be not drunk
with wine, wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit." The opposite of
nature's excitement, of nature's stimulus, is the Holy Spirit. That is what
God's people need, not external excitement, not human strength, not the
creature, but the Holy Spirit who dwells in each one of us, and whose ministry
is unhindered when there is nothing of nature put in His blessed place. So He
tells them here, when they come to minister in His presence, there is to be no
wine or strong drink. It must all be of God.
Those two parts seem to
go together. The sin of Nadab and Abihu, some have thought was caused by their
having been under the influence of strong drink, but it is significant, however
that may be, that these two things are put together. God's priests must worship
by the Spirit of God. The apostle tells us in Phil. 3: "We are the circumcision
that worship God by the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence
in the flesh;" that is, use no wine or strong drink, nothing to stir up the
flesh in its strength, but depend only upon the Spirit of God, and worship in
simple dependence upon Him.
Then we have in the next part of the
chapter, a blessed contrast to all this: He says, "Now you have had judgment
for self-will, for independence of God; I have told you what you cannot drink,
and now I tell you what you can eat." If we do not need stimulus, we need food.
Moses spoke to Aaron and his sons, "Take the meal-offering," that is what they
can have for their food (vers. 12, 13). You cannot have wine and strong drink -
that which will stir you up and make you think you are a wonderful people, but
you can have the meal-offering. And oh, beloved brethren, how blessed it is to
think that if God with one hand takes out of our hands that which would puff us
up, with the other He puts that into our hands which will feed our souls -
Christ. If you cannot have nature, you can have Christ. You can have the
meal-offering, and that is food indeed, not something that is going to change
and pass, and leave you weaker, more helpless than you were before, but
something that is going to nourish your whole man, build you up and keep you in
communion with God. God had said, the meal-offering was the portion of the
priests. We are to feed upon Christ - feed upon the blessed Lord Himself. The
meal-offering, as you know presents to us Christ in His sinless, perfect
humanity, as the Man who walked down here with God - the Bread of God who came
down to give His life for the world, as the One who was the fine flour prepared
by all the circumstances into which He came, to be the Bread of God's beloved
people - Christ our food in His life.
Then there is more food for us
(ver. 14), "and the wave breast and the heave shoulder, etc." These were parts
of the peace-offerings which were left from the sacrifices which had been
consumed on the altar. The rest of it was for the priests. The breast speaks of
the affections of Christ; the shoulder of the strength and the power of Christ;
just as in the high-priest's garments of glory and beauty, you have the jewels,
the onyx stones, etc.: these last upon His shoulders with the names of the
children of Israel engraved upon them; you have these same names engraved on
the jewels, and on the breast plate. They speak of the unchangeable character
of God, the glory of God, and connected with that glory, graven in that glory
as it were, are the names of God's people. Here we have the "shoulder" of the
sacrifice - God says it is food for His people. The everlasting strength that
supports His people is to be their food; that strength is to uphold them with
its almighty power - the strength of the good Shepherd, who went out to seek
and find the sheep that was lost, and when He found it, put it on His shoulders
and carried it home with rejoicing. That shoulder speaks to us of the strength
of the Shepherd, who has us upon His shoulders. We gather our strength simply
from His strength. Our strength - perfect contemptible weakness - nothing in it
that man can glory in; but oh, how blessed, beloved, we have the shoulder of
the sacrifice to feed upon, we have the almighty power of Christ - as our
strength and our support.
More than that, we have the breast. Who can
tell what the love of Christ is? Because, you know, the apostle, in praying for
the saints at Ephesus that they might know the height and depth and length and
breadth of those wondrous blessings which were theirs, also asks that they
might know the love of Christ that passeth knowledge. It is as we feed upon the
affections of Christ that we begin to know something of the affections of God.
The Son who dwelt in the bosom of the Father - the Son who knew the affections
of the Father - the Son who ever had communion with His Father, in all His holy
life the object of His Father's love: it is that Son who gives us His bosom,
His heart, His love to feed upon, to delight in, to rejoice in; and oh, beloved
brethren, as you and I feed upon the love of Christ, as you and I dwell upon
that simple, precious, old, old story, that simple blessed word, "Herein is
love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us" - as we dwell upon that,
nothing but Christ's love to us, utterly undeserving as we are, we are
strengthened to be priests. There is worship now, because there is strength for
it.
That is the food of the priests. Is it not rich fare? The Person of
Christ, the almighty power of Christ, the everlasting love of Christ! God says
that is our fare, brethren. But have you been drinking of the wine and strong
drink, and wondering how it is God could not accept your worship, and wondering
at the cold state of your heart? What have you been feeding upon? Has it been
the choice wheat ground into the fine flour, and made into the bread baked in
the pan with fire - the blessed Lord Jesus Christ the fine wheat, the wheat of
God - has that been your food? Then your heart is fresh in the Lord. But if we
have not been feeding on that, if Christ Himself has not been our food, why,
beloved, no wonder that our worship has been dull, no wonder that we find God
seems not to rejoice in it, or to accept our censers of prayer and praise,
which we think we are offering to Him, but offering in our own energies and in
our own strength. The soul must feed upon the Person of Christ, we must be
acquainted with the Person of the Lord. How can that be? Only as we learn more
and more of His blessed Person through His Word, and have communion with that
Person in His Word and by His Word, can we really feed on the meal-offering and
really enjoy the affections of Christ, that wave-breast, and realize we are
borne along on the shoulder that will never never let us fall. The Lord give us
to feed more and more upon our portion as priests.
If we did this,
there would be less strange fire offered to God, there would be less recourse
to the pleasures of the world. How often God's beloved people turn to the
pleasures of the world, especially young Christians. How often they say, "Well,
we must have some enjoyment," as though the things of Christ did not minister
enjoyment. Life is short; life is fleeting; too short, too fleeting, to enjoy
anything but Christ; too short and fleeting to spend part of it on those things
which not only consume the time which we spend upon them, but wholly unfit us
for the enjoyment of better things. Is this not true if we are wishing for
other things, like the Israelites in the wilderness? How they seemed to dwell
upon everything there was in Egypt - the leeks and garlic and onions and
fleshpots. They lost taste for the manna. They called it, "this light bread."
There was one thing they did not enumerate, that is the bondage of
Egypt. Moses preferred the reproach of Christ to the riches of Egypt. There are
pleasures of the world. There is an exhilaration in the wine and strong drink,
but when people think of the pleasures of the world, they forget they were
snatched from the judgment of the world. They forget the awful groans, the hard
bondage of sin. Satan makes them forget that, and lets them remember only the
pleasures. I will tell you the opposite of that. When we remember the bondage
we were in, the awful fear, the terror, the anxiety we were in, we forget the
pleasures of the world. Ah, let us remember, "He that will be a friend of the
world is the enemy of God." If young Christians just starting out in life want
to make the most of life, want to have the best time, let them remember that
the way to make the most of life, is to make the most of Christ, it is to have
the Lord Himself, His breast and shoulder. While you are enjoying love, you are
happy. Nothing else can satisfy. If our hearts are satisfied with the love of
Christ, we need not fear that our life will be anything but one constant joy,
one constant worship too, as priests, with Christ Himself as the basis of all.
We have been seeing what was the proper food for the priest - the
meal-offering, the wave breast and the heave shoulder, the person of Christ,
His affections and His power; but there is other food for them too, and that is
what we have in this last section. Moses sought the flesh of the sin-offering
and found that instead of its being eaten, it had been burnt. The generic or
chief sin-offering, that whose blood was carried within the veil, was always
burnt without the camp, as you have it in the sixteenth chapter of this book -
on the day of atonement. But when the sin-offering was not burnt without the
camp, the priest was to eat it. That is different, of course, from the
peace-offering. The peace-offering speaks of communion, the sin-offering of the
judgment of sin.
In one way, the believer has nothing to do with sin;
most blessedly the Lamb of God has taken it away; "once in the end of the world
hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself." It is all done
away; our own sin, our brother's sin. We look outside of the camp off in the
distance, where God's fire was burning, and there we see our sins judged in our
blessed Substitute when He bore them on the tree, and we have nothing to do
with them in that way; they are carried away forever. But then, in another and
very real sense, there is occupation with evil, occupation with sin. It is
priestly work. There are two ways of being occupied with sin: the natural way,
and God's way. The natural way is that of feeding on that which is unclean;
and, dear brethren, this is what the flesh likes; like the raven which went out
of the Ark, it could find something to feed upon, the uncleanness floating
around. It is the dove which can find nothing to feed upon in the waste and
must come back to the Ark, to find something. The flesh naturally delights in
any evil. This does not mean merely the flesh of the unsaved; but that which is
in you and me still - it loves to be occupied with sin. What a humiliating
thing, beloved brethren, to know if we are not watchful, if we do not check
ourselves, that we are naturally occupied with evil, something that is not
Christ; something that sets Christ aside. If it is my brother I am occupied
with and my soul is not in communion with God, it is not the good in my brother
which occupies my heart; it is not his faith in Christ that makes me rejoice.
If I am not walking in communion with God, when I think of my brother, I love
to think of his sin, of his inconsistencies, of where he comes short. How we
are warned against that by the Spirit of God.
He needs to warn us
against it. If there is one thing more than another to which the children of
God are exposed in their relations with one another, it is the occupation with
evil in our brethren. It is there, dear brethren; surely it takes no wonderful
discernment to see it. Satan sees it; tells it up there to God, though he does
not get a hearing, thank God; and we can see it, very easily. I can see where
my brother's faith fails, I can see if he stumbles. It is no sign of deep
spiritual discernment, and it is a very easy matter when I see the sin in my
brother to go to my neighbour and tell him. Do you think you are doing some
wonderful thing when you are talking about the sin of your brother? Anybody can
see failure; and it is the easiest, most natural thing in the world if we are
not walking with God and judging ourselves, to be occupied with sin in our
brother in that way. Do you know what the Word tells us that is? That is evil
speaking. "Oh" you say "it is the truth - he really did such and such a thing.
It is absolutely the literal truth I am telling." That may be, but it is evil
speaking if it is speaking of evil out of communion with God. Do you think that
railing means lying; railing against a brother is not necessarily lying against
him; you may say everything that is perfectly true, but it is the object. Is it
mere abuse, to injure his character, or is it the desire to act as a priest, to
act in communion with God, about the failure of my brother and his sin?
O brethren, when we think of it how much of that unclean stuff there is
after all. Take a gathering of God's people - take almost any gathering of His
people - how much whispering there is; how much talking in secret of not the
good, not the things which the apostle speaks of in that fourth chapter of
Philippians. We see a man in the third chapter that forgets the things which
are behind, reaches forward to those things that are before him, pressing
toward the prize which is Christ Himself, and then he comes down in the fourth
chapter (v. 8) to practical exhortation, and there is a sweet word there.
"Finally brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest,
whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are
lovely, whatsoever things are of good report: if there be any virtue, and if
there be any praise, think on these things." That is occupation with the good
that is in one another - what reminds us of Christ in our brethren. But is it
not a common thing, have not you and I often eaten of the sin instead of the
sin-offering? Have we not fed upon some of those unclean birds of prey that God
warns his people against in the next chapter (Lev. 11)? Is it not an easy thing
to feed upon the vultures that love carion? I am sure everybody needs to be
warned against being occupied with failure and sin in our brother in this
merely natural way. It is a thing you have got to fight against, to judge as
sin, to frown upon, and, "as the east-wind drives away rain, so does an angry
countenance a backbiting tongue."
If someone comes to whisper something
in our ear, which is only sin and not the sin-offering, let us turn from it
with rebuke. But then that is one side; the other extreme would be to be
utterly indifferent to the sin and failure in one another. It would be to
merely go on in a careless way and say, "the Lord loves him and the Lord will
deal with him. I know there are many things in him that are not right; but we
will enjoy communion together as far as we can." But we cannot enjoy communion
with Christ when sin is unjudged.
If we are to offer incense to God, if
we are to enjoy worship, if we are to enjoy feeding upon the precious things of
Christ ourselves, and to share them with one another, it is absolutely
necessary for us to be occupied with the evil that presents itself to our
attention, but in a godly way. Now, what is that way? It is eating the
sin-offering. The sin-offering is Christ (not now as a sweet savour to God,
offered up in perfect devotedness all to Him in death), but that same death as
under the judgment of God against sin; expressing God's abhorrence of sin; of
the believer’s sin, of all sin. In this eating of the sin-offering, we
have the sin of the believer connected with Christ. We can eat the
sin-offering, we can be occupied with sin, when we connect it with Christ. You
remember in John 13, the Lord is washing the disciples' feet. He is occupied
with their failure and girds Himself to wash their feet. "If I wash thee not
thou hast no part with Me," He says; without this, none could put their head
upon His bosom - not only John's place, but ours also. His bosom is large
enough for all of us. We cannot enjoy unhindered communion with Him unless He
is occupied as our Advocate, with our failures, when we have failed. He applies
His precious Word to us, to show us our failures. Often, alas, occupation with
sin is in contrast to occupation with Christ. But if I am occupied with my
brother's sin in communion with Christ, I am safe. It may be sad work, bitter
work but, if there is sin, I must be occupied with it, only now with Christ.
But what a difference this makes, beloved. In the first place, if I am
with Christ, I am on my face, I realize my own failure, my own nothingness. It
will not be "God, I thank Thee," etc. It will not be rejoicing we have not
fallen into this or that - we will realize that we are just as capable of it as
our brother. But it is in communion with Christ for the purpose of helping him.
The Lord says, "If I your Lord and Master have washed your feet, ye also ought
to wash one another's feet." He has left us an example that we should walk in
His steps, now to be occupied with sin, in communion with Christ. But,
brethren, what exercise that means, to take sin into the Lord's presence, to
take it there and confess it to Him, to be before Him, about it. It is a very
easy thing to go and pour our tale of scandal in our brother's ear, and find a
ready hearing for it; but to take that sin, and tell the Lord about it, there
is not joy in that, no worship in that; it is a humiliating thing. And as we
tell Him, that blessed Lord reminds us, perhaps, of similar things in
ourselves, and we find it is more self-judgment that is called for, than
judgment of our brother. The first requisite for all priestly dealing with sin
is to take it into the presence of the Lord - it must be in communion with
Himself. If not, it must be in communion with Satan about sin: we are in
communion with the accuser of the brethren, and if we are there, what is the
result? There will be whisperings, then swellings, then tumults. Ah, have there
not been swellings among God's people? have there not been risings up of the
flesh? those things that speak of the evil working - of occupation with sin in
that way. Take all that evil and whisper it in the Lord's ear, and there will
be no swellings.
There is also an added thought to this feeding upon
the sin-offering - it is feeding upon that which has put the sin away. The
sin-offering is the figure of that which has forever blotted out the sin. But,
brethren, think of what power it gives to come before the Lord, not merely to
have communion with Him about sin, but because He has put the sin away, because
it has already been judged in His own blessed Person, and forever put away
before God. That leaves us at leisure - we are dealing with a justified person,
with a person cleansed every whit as to His standing before God. It makes us
realize the solemnity of all our dealings with that person, while we shall be
just as firm, when we have been before the Lord and realized that this is His
beloved one cleansed from all sin. How it will make us long to rid him of that
sin. There will be no fear. How much fear there is in dealing with one another!
Often we feel we are going to injure our brother. How can we injure him if we
have fed upon that which is the witness that sin which, in Christ, has been
judged and put away? You'll have communion with Christ about it, and the
anxiety now will be to get our beloved brother or sister to judge that sin, and
be truly delivered from it.
Brethren, do I not voice all our thoughts
when I say there is nothing more defiling than occupation with sin? How praise
languishes! Instead of sweet worship as incense going up like a sweet savour,
there is barrenness, death, strife, or the wine and strong drink. Oh, does it
not speak of the fact that we have not been eating of the sin-offering, neither
of the peace offering, and that we have had to resort, alas, to wine? Perhaps
strange fire comes in because we have neglected to judge in ourselves or others
the evil which God hates, and with which He cannot go along. Think of having
communion with Him about it - of the evil being the actual means of
communion with the Lord - think of being able to feed upon and get
strength from what otherwise drags down the people of God! What is the secret?
Feeding upon that which has put away the sin, communion with Christ about sin -
getting alone with Him about it; then there is power, the only kind of power
that there can be in dealing with it.
The Lord give His beloved people
to see their place as priests, their liberty as priests in worship; to see that
they can have done with everything that is of nature, and thus enjoy the food
for their own souls. If we feed upon Christ for our own souls, we will also
want to share Him with someone else. It is like the spies who went into the
land and got out great bunches of grapes. And whenever we by the Spirit of God
go into our inheritance, and get out thence precious things of Christ, we
always want to carry it to others also. It is more than enough for one man; it
is our safety for usefulness and service to be always occupied with these
precious things of Christ, and we will always have to share them with someone
else. If evil comes up, I must feed upon it in a sense, but should never do it
apart from that precious work which has put it away forever, and which gives us
power to deal with it in love as well as in holiness, till we see it
practically put away from God's beloved people.
Samuel Ridout
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