The garments of “glory and beauty”,
outward symbols of spiritual realities, have been described in the earlier part
of Exodus xxviii. The priests were not to treat these symbolic
garments without due regard, for upon the wearing of them in the course of
their ministry depended the life of the ministers.
“And they shall be upon Aaron, and upon
his sons, when they come in unto the tabernacle of the congregation, or when
they come near unto the altar to minister in the holy place; that they bear not
iniquity, and die” (Exod. xxviii. 43).
Such, however, is the holiness of God, and
such the ministry of the true High Priest, the Lord Jesus Christ, that the
earthly types were caused to pass through a further series of ceremonials of
consecration and cleansing, that internal as well as external fitness might be
stressed.
The whole story of this consecration is
punctuated with sacrifice. There is so
much detail in this ceremonial consecration that it will be of service to set
out the passage in structure form, so that the essential features may be made
more evident. It will be seen that the
passage actually commences at xxviii.
40, where the “consecration and
sanctification” of Aaron and his sons are first introduced.
We are too conscious of our limitations to
pretend to any degree of exactness in such a complicated passage, but we trust
the earnest reader will be helped in the study of this important theme by the
analysis of the chapter here presented.
By comparing the opening and closing members A, we realize the goal and
object of this consecration and sanctification — “I will meet”; “I will dwell”; “They shall know”. Members marked B show the symbolic materials
used, while under C the actual ceremonial is enacted. It will be observed that consecration and
sanctification are kept distinct. Before
proceeding we must understand the word translated “consecration”. “Sanctify” we already know to have as its
basis the idea of “separation” or “setting apart”.
Filled
to the full
in Him.
Male
yad (consecrate) means literally, “to fill the hand”, and is taken from this
ceremony:
“And thou shalt take of the
ram … and put all in the hands of
Aaron … and thou shalt receive them
of their hands, and burn them
upon the altar for a burnt offering, for a sweet savour before the LORD” (Exod.
xxix. 22-25).
Put all in their hands … receive them of
their hands. What room for self does
such “consecration” leave? As surely as
the ram, and the unleavened bread speak of the offering of Christ in all His
spotless acceptableness, so surely this teaches that consecration is not the
development of the flesh or even the growth of the spirit, but it is the taking
of the fulness of Christ, “filling the hand”, and then bringing all that
fulness back in loving service to the Lord.
The Philippians’ ministry to Paul is
spoken of an “an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well pleasing
to God”. This is the “receiving of their
hands”. But this passage from Philippians iv. is immediately followed by the words: “But my God shall supply all your need,
according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Phil. iv. 19). This is the fulness first of all placed in
their hands. Consecration, like service,
is in line with the words of the O.T.:
“of Thine own have we given Thee”.
Here is true consecration:
“Of His fulness have all we received”
(John i. 16).
“Ye are filled to the full in Him” (Col.
ii. 10).
When we ponder that which actually filled
Aaron’s hands we may see all the more clearly what true consecration means.
“Thou shalt take of the ram
the fat and the rump, and the fat that covereth the inwards, and the caul above the liver, and the two kidneys,
and the fat that is upon them,
and the right shoulder; for it is a ram of consecration: and one loaf of bread, and one cake of oiled
bread, and one wafer out of the basket of the unleavened bread that is before the LORD” (Exod. xxix. 22,
23).
The blood of the ram was taken and put
upon the tip of Aaron’s right ear, upon the right hand thumb, and upon the
great toe of the right foot. Oil and
blood were also sprinkled upon Aaron’s garments; all this was to SANCTIFY. Then, when
sanctified, Aaron’s hands are filled that he may be consecrated. This is
important. Only sanctified hands can be
filled with all the fulness of Christ in consecrated service. Sanctification is here seen to be
twofold. First, by the blood on the ear,
hand and foot. Then by oil in a general
sprinkling. Sanctification by the Spirit
follows sanctification by the atonement.
To reverse this order is to court disaster. The undue emphasis upon the work of the Spirit apart from the sanctification
once for all by the blood of Christ is not of God.
The
wave and the
heave offerings.
“Thou shalt sanctify the breast of the
wave offering, and the shoulder of the heave offering, which is waved, and
which is heaved up” (Exod. xxix. 27).
Terumah,
the heave offering, is essentially something lifted up, for rum means to lift up, to exalt:
“Let us exalt His Name together” (Psa. xxxiv. 3).
“Be thou exalted, O Lord, above the heavens” (Psa.lvii.5).
Tenuphah,
the wave offering, is derived from the word nuph,
which means to move in a horizontal rather than in a vertical direction. It is the movement of a sickle
(Deut.xxiii.25) and a sieve (Isa.xxx.28).
The “sending” of rain (Psa.lxviii.9: margin, “shake out”) suggests the
sieve also. The idea of the wave
offering seems, like the four horns of the altar, to include the four corners
of the earth, whereas the heave offering is directed upwards to God. The high priest bore the names of Israel “on
his two shoulders” and “on his heart”;
these two offerings, the one “the breast”, the wave offering, the other
“the shoulder”, the heave offering, appear to have the same lesson to
teach. True consecration will alone
enable any of us to “bear one another’s burdens and so fulfil the law of
Christ”. It is here in this ceremony of
consecration that we read of the “drink offering” (Exod. xxix. 40), and to this
the apostle alludes when he says,
“Yea, and if I be offered (poured out as a drink offering) upon the
sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, and rejoice with you all” (Phil.
ii. 17).
Consecration, then, in the Lord’s service,
has at least two aspects. There is (1)
the complete appropriation of the fulness of Christ, and (2) its rendering back
in acceptable service. The O.T.
ceremonial says, “Fill the hand … put all in the hands … receive them of their
hands”. The N.T. realization says: “It is God Which worketh in you both to will
and to do of His good pleasure” (Phil.ii.13).
Our walk may be a remembrance of the
offering of Christ (Eph. v. 2). Our life
in the flesh may be His life lived in us (Gal. ii. 20). Our whole ministry may be a savour of Christ
(II Cor. ii. 15).
True consecration and true equipment is a
hand, a heart, and a life filled with Christ. All other so called
"consecrations" have about them some element of “strange fire”.
If our service were ever and only the
rendering back to God of the fulness of Christ, originally and graciously
given, what service it would be! May the
contemplation of this chapter be owned and used to that end for writer and
reader.
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