BAMIDBAR

IN THE WILDERNESS

8 And Yahweh spake unto Aaron, Behold, I also have given thee the charge of mine heave offerings of all the hallowed things of the children of Israel; unto thee have I given them by reason of the anointing, and to thy sons, by an ordinance for ever.

Aaron was anointed with the holy oil God had directed Moses to make (Exod. 30:23–33), after he had been washed in the laver, and dressed with the holy garments and mitre described in Exod. 28. This mitre had upon it, fastened with blue lace, a plate of gold, on which was engraved,

"holiness to the lord." 'And it shall be upon Aaron's forehead, that Aaron may bear the iniquity of the holy things which the children of Israel shall hallow in their holy gifts; and it shall be always upon his forehead, that they may be accepted before the Lord."—(verse 38.)

And concerning the garments of both Aaron and his sons, it is said (ver. 43)

"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; it shall be a statute for ever unto him and his seed after him."

These anointed holy garments were, therefore, a sin covering, whereby the priests could bear the iniquities of the nation before the Lord, and live. Were they to appear before the Lord without them, they would "bear iniquity and die." With these on them

"the holy things of Israel would be accepted before the Lord."

From all this it will be seen that for the priest, God required a human sinbearer, who should be clothed with anointed holy garments. He bore the sins in his own body through eating the flesh of the sacrifice, to which sin by a figure had been transferred; and he made atonement for the sinner by presenting the blood of the flesh shed by the sinner at the altar. The law was,

"The priest shall make atonement for him, and his sin shall be forgiven."

The blood being the life, it was offered as an atonement for the sin of the sinner; that is, through the blood and flesh of the offering being made sin for the sinner; by the laying on of his hand, its blood was reckoned as his life's blood; and as "he that is dead is freed from sin" (Rom. 6:7), he thereby became free from the condemnation of the law.

The blood had all to be poured out at the bottom of the altar under the fire; the fat had to be burned by the fire of God upon the altar, and the flesh had to be eaten by the priest that offered it for sin in the holy place.

By eating the flesh, the priest put it under the sin-covering garments. By pouring out the blood under, and burning the fat upon the altar, the sinner became representatively dead to the law, but alive to God through the life of the priest.

His sin was forgiven, therefore, through the atonement made by the priest, so that he might, in his real flesh and blood, live acceptably in the sight of God.

The Christadelphian, Apr 1874

19 All the heave offerings of the holy things, which the children of Israel offer unto Yahweh, have I given thee, and thy sons and thy daughters with thee, by a statute for ever: it is a covenant of salt for ever before Yahweh unto thee and to thy seed with thee.

Jesus says

"Salt is good; but if the salt have lost its saltness, it is thenceforth good for nothing but to be trodden under foot of men."

The connection in which he said this shows his meaning, and his meaning strengthens the idea before us. He was being followed by a large multitude of people (Luke xiv. 25).

"And he turned to them and said, If any man come to me and hate not his father and mother, and wife and children, and brethren and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. . . . Salt is good, but if the salt have lost its savour, wherewith shall it be seasoned? It is neither fit for the land nor fit for the dunghill";

which was as much as to say,

"This coming after me is good, but not if it is disconnected from the state of mind which I require in my disciples."

This state of mind is the savour or saltness of the salt. The appropriateness of the simile must be apparent to all who have any experience of men in spiritual things. The man of spiritual understanding in whom this understanding has developed spiritual affection or a decided, pronounced, and fervent affinity for the things of God, in all their relations and manifestations, is a man of saltness, pleasant to the taste.

But how often it is that with a knowledge of the truth, there has failed to come the loving espousal of Divine views of men and things. The man knows the Gospel intellectually and has a faint desire to be saved but his affections are with the thoughts, ways, aims, movements, men and things of the present evil world.

There is no fervent submission to God; no adequate appreciation of Christ. Dull and irresponsive to spiritual things, he is quick, active, intelligent and enterprising in all directions of self-interest. The salt is there in the profession of discipleship, but it is a mere powder without taste, of no use for the King's table.

The great object of the Gospel is to bring men into the well-salted state in which their relation to God is a very thorough, hearty, pronounced and uncompromising thing. Christ is the illustration of what is wanted.

Bro Roberts - The other sided of God's character