NOTES

on the book of

LEVITICUS

by

C. H. MACKINTOSH

"All Scripture is given by inspiration of God."

LOIZEAUX BROTHERS
Neptune, New Jersey

FIRST EDITION 1880
TWENTY-SEVENTH PRINTING 1965


LOIZEAUX BROTHERS, Inc., PUBLISHERS
A Nonprofit Organization, Devoted to the Lord's Work
and to the Spread of His Truth
NEPTUNE, NEW JERSEY


PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

PREFATORY NOTE

TO THE AMERICAN EDITION

As several persons in America have, without any authority whatever from me, undertaken to publish my four[1] volumes of "Notes," I deem it my duty to inform the reader that I have given full permission to Messrs. Loizeaux Brothers to publish an edition of those books in such form as they shall consider most suitable.

C. H. MACKINTOSH.

6 West Park Terrace, Scarborough,
May 1st, 1879.

PREFACE

In the Person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ there is an infinite fullness, which meets every necessity of man, both as a sinner and as a worshiper. The infinite dignity of His Person gives eternal value to His work. In the book of Genesis we have seen "God's remedy for man's ruin" in the promised seed—the Ark of Salvation, and in the rich unfoldings of divine grace to fallen and sinful man. There we have the Bud, the full-blown glories and fragrance of which shall yet fill the heavens and the earth with joy and gladness.

In the book of Exodus we have seen "God's answer to man's question." There, man is not only outside of Eden, but he has fallen into the hands of a cruel and powerful enemy,—he is the bond-slave of the world. How is he to be delivered from Pharaoh's thraldom—from Egypt's furnace? How can he be redeemed, justified, and brought into the promised land? God only could answer such questions, and this He did in the blood of the slain Lamb. In the redemption-power of that blood, every question is settled. It meets Heaven's highest claims, and man's deepest necessities. Through its amazing efficacy, God is glorified, man is redeemed, saved, justified, and brought to God's holy habitation; while the enemy is completely overthrown, and his power destroyed.

And now, in our meditations on the book of Leviticus, we find most fully unfolded what we may call, "God's provision for man's need;" or, a Sacrifice, a Priest, and a Place of Worship. These are essentially necessary in drawing near unto God, as this book most abundantly proves. But every thing therewith connected was appointed by God, and established by His law. Nothing was left to be supplied by man's fertile imagination, or his prudential arrangement.—"So Aaron and his sons did all things which the Lord commanded by the hand of Moses." (Chap. viii. 36; ix. 6, 7.) Without the word of the Lord, neither priest nor people could take a single step in the right direction. It is so still. There is not a single ray of light in this dark world but that which is shed from holy Scripture.—"Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path." (Ps. cxix. 105.) It is truly happy when the children of God so honor His Word as to be guided by it in all things. We need now, as much as the Jew did then, divine direction and divine guidance for acceptable worship. "But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth; for the Father seeketh such to worship Him." (John iv. 23, 24.) More than sincerity or devoutness of feeling is required in the children's worship: it must be in the unction of the Spirit, and according to the truth of God. But we have all (blessed be His name!) in the Person and work of our blessed Lord Jesus. He is both our Sacrifice and Priest, and our right of entrance into the holiest of all. O, to be kept near to His wounded side, and in the abiding sense that He is the ground, the material, and the sweet incense of all our worship!

Let us now briefly notice the three points already mentioned.

I. In the first place, we would observe that sacrifice is the basis of worship. Acceptable worship to God must be based on a sacrifice acceptable to Him. Man being in himself guilty and unclean, he needs a sacrifice to remove his guilt, cleanse him from his defilements, and fit him for the holy presence of God. "Without shedding of blood is no remission;" and without remission, and the knowledge of remission, there can be no happy worship,—no real, hearty praise, adoration, and thanksgiving. Going to what is called "a place of worship," and worshiping God, are widely different things. God is holy, and man must approach Him in His own way, and according to what He is. As Moses said unto Aaron on the solemn occasion of the sin of Nadab and Abihu, "This is it that the Lord spake, saying, 'I will be sanctified in them that come nigh Me, and before all the people I will be glorified.'" The Lord alone could give directions as to how the people were to draw nigh unto Him: this is the great subject of the book of Leviticus. The "Notes" on the first seven and the sixteenth chapters will give the reader a very full and interesting view of the ordinance of sacrifice, and the character of Jewish worship.

It was on the ground of offered and accepted sacrifice that the children of Israel were constituted the worshiping people of God. It is on the same ground, namely, offered and accepted sacrifice, that believers in Jesus are constituted the worshiping people of God now. (Read carefully Lev. xvi; Heb. ix, x.) They have taken Israel's place, but after a much higher order, whether we look at the sacrifice, the priest, or the place of worship. The contrast between them is great, and strongly marked in Scripture, especially in the epistle to the Hebrews. The Jewish sacrifices never reached the conscience of the offerer, and the Jewish priest never could pronounce him "clean every whit." The gifts and sacrifices which were offered under the law, as the apostle tells us, "could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience." The conscience, observe, always being the reflection of the sacrifice, it could not be perfect, seeing the sacrifice was not perfect; "for it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins." Hence, Jewish worship was connected with inefficient sacrifices, a burdensome ritual, and an unpurged conscience, which gendered in the worshiper a spirit of bondage and fear.

But, now, mark the contrast to all this in the once-offered and accepted sacrifice of Christ. He "put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself." All is done. Having "by Himself purged our sins, He sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high." When the worshiper comes before God on the ground of this Sacrifice, he finds that he has nothing to do save, as a priest, to show forth the praises of Him "who hath called us out of darkness into His marvelous light." Even Christ has nothing more to do as regards our justification and acceptance, "for by one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified." The Jew, by his sacrifice, was merely ceremonially clean, and that only for a moment, as it were; but the Christian, through the sacrifice of Christ, is