Download 9847 A STUDY OF LEVITICUS Speaker: Bro. John Martin Study #4

9847
A STUDY OF LEVITICUS
Speaker:
Bro. John Martin
Study #4
The Trespass Offering
Now this morning, we want to continue on to the next offering, the trespass offering, and
I'm absolutely certain that you're going to find this intensely interesting, because there
are some wonderful lessons to come out of the details of the trespass offering.
Before we get on the trespass offering, let us just recapitulate on this chart here, the
order in which these offerings would have been made, if they had been offered in
conjunction. Now let me repeat that; if these offerings were made individually, it wouldn't
matter you see, but if they were made together, if for example a man had to make a sin
offering, a burnt offering and a peace offering which sometimes was the case, he would
always offer them in that order, sin offering, burnt offering and peace offering. If
however he had to make a trespass offering instead of the sin offering with the burnt
offering and peace offering, he would offer them in that order, trespass offering, burnt
offering and peace offering. And the Law of Moses, b&s, was beautifully consistent in
this respect, now you read through the Law sometimes, and you'll come across a group
of offerings which don't follow that order, and you'll say, 'bro. Martin told us a fib here,
that's not true, this doesn't work'; but you check carefully, the Law of Moses may give
you a list of offerings and may even put the peace offering first and the trespass offering
last, but you read on until they actually come to be offered upon the altar, and you'll find
the order by rule is like that. And the reason that the Law sometimes mentions this one
first or that one first, is because it mentions the most important offering first, according
to the circumstances of the offerer. But when they come to actually offer them upon the
altar, they will always follow in that order. And the Law of Moses is beautifully consistent
in that respect.
So then, we have a pattern. A pattern of development in our approach to our God. First,
and foremost the sin offering; everybody needs a sin offering, this is man's most
desperate need, atonement from his sins. And this morning, b&s, we want to move on
to the trespass offering. And in the trespass offering I don't think there's any doubt
whatsoever, as to the lesson of the trespass offering. Whereas the sin offering is for the
forgiveness of our sins in a general sense, the trespass offering has the lesson, b&s,
that once having been forgiven, we must do something in our lives, to put the wrong
things right. To put the wrong things right, and let's bear this in mind, that the principle of
the trespass offering is to make an amendment in our lives, and that's the next step. So
we've gone through the sin offering and seen that this is our greatest need, not as
involved; goes from a handful of flour, none is exempt, this is the greatest need of all
Israel, having accepted that principle however, we now move on, having been forgiven
of our sins, what are we going to do with our lives? We've got to go ahead, b&s, in
appreciation of what God had done for us, we must do for our fellow man, and that's
what the trespass offerings all about. Now, let's just bear that in mind as we continue
with the trespass offering this morning.
Now, some of you will wonder what is the difference between a sin and a trespass.
Doubtless, many of us think they're the same thing, no, they're not! They are two
different things, and consequently you have two offerings, the sin and the trespass
offering. In the 7th chapter of Leviticus and verse 7 we read this statement, 'As the sin
offering is, so is the trespass offering: there is one law for them: the priest that maketh
atonement therewith shall have it'. Now if you read that verse and accepted it from the
cursory reading, it would be telling you, wouldn't it, there's one law for the sin offering
and the trespass offering because they're the same. But they're not! you'll see in a
minute when I turn the next chart over, that there is a vast difference between the sin
offering and the trespass offering. What that verse is telling us, however, is that in
principle they are one, but in detail there is a tremendous difference, but in principle
they're one. But there is a difference between a sin and a trespass; now let me just put it
simply. This is the difference between a sin and a trespass, a sin, b&s, is something we
do against the commandments of God, sin is the transgression of the Law. And a sin is
something we do against the commandments of God which only affect ourselves. So I
think an evil thought, you don't know anything about it, it doesn't affect you, but I've
sinned against God. However, a trespass is different; now if I committed a trespass for
example, and I was walking behind Bob Lloyd and I saw his wallet sticking out of the
back of his pocket, ( I wouldn't be foolish enough to touch it because I know he hasn't
any money) but if I was walking behind Bob and saw his wallet and I was tempted to
take it, and took it and shoved it in mine, that's a trespass; because not only have I
broken the Law of God, but I've wronged God. So, a sin is something we do, b&s, which
only affects ourselves, but a trespass is something we do which involves a third party,
now that's the difference between a sin and a trespass.
Now let's give you an example of this in the 6th chapter of Leviticus we have outlined for
us, what constitutes 'trespass'. In the 6th chapter of Leviticus we read in verse 1, 'And
Yahweh spake unto Moses, saying, If a soul sin, and commit a trespass against
Yahweh, and lie unto his neighbour in that which was delivered him to keep, or in
fellowship, or in a thing taken away by violence, or hath deceived his neighbour; Or
have found that which was lost, and lieth concerning it, and sweareth falsely; in any of
all these that a man doeth, sinning therein: Then it shall be, because he hath sinned,
and is guilty, that he shall restore that which he took violently away, or the thing which
he hath deceitfully gotten, or that which was delivered him to keep, or the lost thing
which he found'. Now as we read through that you will notice that these are
transgressions which affect other people, take violently away, we deceive our
neighbour, we swear falsely against him, we find something he's lost and we hide it and
tell him we haven't found it. Everything we're doing in this respect is affecting our
neighbour. These are trespasses and there is a special offering for a trespass, and it's
different than the sin offering. So let's bear that in mind.
Now, a sin is something we do that affects only ourselves, but a trespass is something
we do that a third party is injured. Another person is involved, and of course, this is the
very meaning of the word 'trespass' isn't it? You see a notice up, 'Trespassers will be
prosecuted', now that notice is there because if you trespass on that territory, you're
walking on another man's ground, you're violating his rights, so that is the basic
difference between a sin and a trespass.
Now when we come to look at the trespass offering, we find some very interesting
things; the law of the trespass offering, b&s, is found in Leviticus chapter 5 beginning at
verse 14 through to chapter 6 verse 7. It is clearly defined although many have read this
differently, but when you examine it, it's clearly defined. In that section there are three
distinct sections. But first of all, I'll divide them into two sections, afterwards, when we
come to speak of these in more detail, I'll divide the first one into two making three. But
in those chapters from 5:14 to 6:7, we have the law of the trespass offering. Now in
chapter 5 verses 14 to 19 we have trespasses against God, whereas in chapter 6
verses 1 to 7 we have trespasses against our fellow man. Now this will raise a few
queries in your mind, but don't be too hasty it will all be ironed out.
You'll ask yourself the question, how can we trespass against God? If we sin against
God don't we trespass against Him? Yes, we do but there is a difference and there are
things which we can do against the Law of God, which I'll illustrate in a minute, which
are more a trespass than they are a sin. We violate God's right in certain respects, and
this is what the Law of Moses was all about. I'm going to give you some classic
illustrations of this, if time permits, when we get through the trespass offering I want to
show you, where they made the trespass offering and what they made them for. It's
absolutely beautiful, and you'll see the principle involved. This is when another person's
rights have been violated, so a man can commit trespass against God and can commit
a trespass against his fellow man. So that's the meaning of the trespass offering.
Here's the trespass offering (turns page on chart). Leviticus 7:7 said, 'As for the sin
offering so for the trespass offering, there is one rule for them', but as we examine this,
of course, you'll see the difference between the trespass and sin offerings. Now, b&s, I'll
emphasize this fact as we go along here, under these separate headings we've divided
the sacrifices up, that is, the purpose, the offerings, the disposal of the blood, and the
disposal of the body, (I've omitted one thing in here which will not enter the discussions
in this school, because it will take too long, but I have got another heading in my bible,
the way in which they killed the offering) and each of the offerings has a lesson to teach.
Everyone of them has the principle of atonement in them, no question about that fact,
because the blood touches the altar. But atonement is not the main lesson of every
offering; each offering highlights one feature, and when you look at it in its detail, you
notice that feature, and you can say to yourself, 'that's the peculiar feature of this
offering'.
The peculiar feature of this stands out like a searchlight; the purpose of it, of course, is
to make restitution for wrong done to others. But here's the peculiar feature in this
offering, what was offered? A ram in all cases, and there were no alternatives. You
take the sin offering, a bullock through a handful of flour, a bullock through the goat,
through a female goat to a female lamb, through two turtledoves or two young pigeons,
through to a handful of flour; but here a ram in every case and there is no exception!
That's the peculiar feature of the trespass offering. Now, when we come to the disposal
of the blood it's not important because it's sprinkled on the altar. Doesn't go into the
tabernacle and do you know what? the blood of the sin offering was the only blood that
went into the tabernacle. The blood of the burnt offering, the blood of the peace offering,
the blood of the trespass offering doesn't go in, and do you know something else? this
word for 'sprinkling' in relation to the trespass offering, the burnt offering and the peace
offering, is a totally different word than that for the sin offering. Whereas they just
sprinkled this blood around the altar, with the sin offering they shot the blood, they
spurted it. The most important thing about the sin offering was the way that they shot
that blood around, the way it moved around the tabernacle, so that Israel got the lesson,
'without the shooting of the blood there was no remission of sins'. That's what the priest
was telling them, but that's not the lesson of this one. The blood is just taken to the altar
and sprinkled around the altar, in other words, the principle of atonement is there but it's
hidden; it's not the main lesson, but this is the main lesson here, what was offered. A
ram in all cases, not only was a ram in all cases offered, but they had to make
repayment in full of the loss incurred; so if that wallet that Bob had in his pocket had a
dollar in it (which he'd be very lucky!) I'd have to pay him back that dollar plus the
addition of the fifth part. So I'd owe him $1.20; it wasn't good enough for me to give Bob
back the dollar, I had to give him back the addition of the fifth part of the principle that I'd
stolen. So I'd have to offer a ram, I'd have to make payment in full of what I'd stolen,
plus I had to add to that the fifth part of the principle, to make up my trespass offering.
When they came to the disposal of the blood it wasn't very important, and the disposal
of the body was also not very important, the fat was burnt upon the altar and the body
was eaten by the priest. But there is the mechanics of the trespass offering; that's the
mechanics of it, now we're going to have a look at the significance.
Now remember I said that there were three distinct divisions in the trespass offering.
You have trespasses against God, and there are two divisions to that, and you have
trespasses against man. Now let's have a look at these trespasses against God. In
chapter 5, in verses 14 to 16, we have our first trespass against God. Now, how can we
commit a trespass against God? How can we violate His rights? Well, listen to this!
Verses 14 and 15 we read, 'And Yahweh spake unto Moses saying, If a soul commit a
trespass, and sin through ignorance, in the holy things of Yahweh; then he shall bring
for his trespass unto Yahweh a ram without blemish out of the flocks, with thy estimation
by shekels of silver, after the shekel of the sanctuary, for a trespass offering. And he
shall make amends for the harm that he hath done in the holy thing, and shall add the
fifth part thereto, and give it unto the priest; and the priest shall make an atonement for
him with the ram of the trespass offering, and it shall be forgiven him.' Now notice where
he trespasses, b&s, in my bible I've got one phrase underlined, 'in the holy things of
Yahweh'; now this is how a man can violate the rights of God. What are the holy things
of Yahweh? Well, the holy things of Yahweh was the food of the offering which was
classified as most holy and included a portion of the sin offering, a portion of the
trespass offering, a portion of the meal offering; it included a portion of the peace
offering, it included the firstlings of animals, it included the firstfruits of the harvest; these
were holy things which were devoted to God. Now a man may inadvertently eat a
portion of the things that really belong unto God. What has he done? He's committed a
trespass against God because he's violated the divine right in these things. Now I'm
going to show you instances of this, that he's committed a trespass in the holy things of
Yahweh. Now, note this fact, although he's done this through ignorance, it's evidently
brought to his attention, because in committing the trespass in the holy things of
Yahweh, in other words, a man may have a firstborn animal which God called for as a
devoted sacrifice, he may have inadvertently and in ignorance killed that animal and ate
it with his family, and then suddenly realize that he's committed a trespass in the holy
things of Yahweh. He's robbed God, what is he going to do? He's going to bring a ram
for his trespass offering, he's got to make up the loss he's incurred to God and he's got
to add the fifth part to that.
But when we come to verses 17 to 19, we notice a significant difference. We read there,
'If a soul sin, and commit any of these things which are forbidden to be done by the
commandments of Yahweh; though he wist it not, yet is he guilty, and shall bear his
iniquity. He shall bring a ram without blemish out of the flock, with thy estimation, for a
trespass offering, unto the priest: and the priest shall make an atonement for him
concerning his ignorance wherein he erred and wist it not, and it shall be forgiven him. It
is a trespass offering: he hath certainly trespassed against Yahweh'. Now if you'd read
those three verses, you would think that they are saying the same thing, and so they
are, but they omit something. What do they omit? There's no mention in the second
section of the addition of the fifth part or the repayment in principle. There's no mention
of the repayment in principle or the addition of the fifth part, all he's got to do is make a
trespass offering. So here's a trespass which he commits against Yahweh, where he's
only got to make the trespass offering; he can't repay the loss incurred, and he can't
add the fifth part. Why? because he wist it not, he doesn't know, he's not absolutely
certain as to where he's trespassing. So in the first section, you have a man who
commits a trespass against Yahweh in the holy things of Yahweh, he knows where it
lies, but if he stole a lamb from God that belonged to God, he knows what he's stolen
and he can repay the lamb, he knows the value of the lamb and he can add the fifth part
of the value. But how often, b&s, do we feel an inadequacy in our service to God?
without being able to be absolutely certain what is our best in the truth, and to what we
are actually capable of, and although we feel a basic insufficiency and inadequacy in
the service of God, and we feel we're robbing God of service, we are not absolutely
certain, are we? as to where that inadequacy lies. But the guilt is there, and
consequently a man who was in that position, and troubled in conscience, feeling he
was robbing God of service, but not absolutely certain as to where that lay, all he could
do was offer the ram, he had no basis whereby he could assess the loss incurred. He
couldn't assess that, and if he doesn't know what loss he had incurred, he certainly
couldn't calculate the fifth. So, in the cases of trespasses against Yahweh, sometimes
we're absolutely certain where we're failing and what we're robbing God of, and other
times, b&s, we're burdened in conscience but not absolutely able to put the finger upon
the actual weakness. Now, that does happen, and to me, it's a whole mark of inspiration
in the Word of God, in the case of trespasses against Yahweh, in that they should be
divided into those two categories.
When we come down to chapter 6, and we read trespasses against our fellow man,
you'll notice, b&s, there's only one category. There's only one category because when
we're dealing with each other, when we're dealing with each other, it's very unlikely that
we would ever trespass against our brethren that we don't know about it, because if we
don't know about it, our brother will certainly let us know some time or other. So that
when we come into chapter 6, we find matters listed here whereby we can trespass
against our brethren. Now, we've already read these verses, but when you go into the
original Hebrew, and discover what they actually mean, and you look at the RSV in
particular, which renders these verses, I think, very well, you find that this is how we can
trespass against our brethren. These are only some of the examples which we can do
against our brother.
For example we can sin against them in matters of trust, in things committed unto our
trust. So an Israelite leaves his farm and he puts that farm in trust to a fellow Israelite
who's next door; there's a great temptation for that fellow Israelite to draw a few sheep
across the border. So we can commit sins in things that are committed to our trust, and
we, b&s, some of us put a lot of trust in each other, we put a lot of confidence in each
other; we confide in each other, we've got a lot of trust and we can betray that trust, as a
trespass; you're going to injure a third party when you betray a trust. Another phrase
here, which says 'that which was delivered him to keep or in fellowship' the word
actually means 'to defer the person in respect to bargaining'. The Israelites of course,
being Jews were expert in bargaining and they could commit a trespass by pressing a
bargain too hard and by charging too much, or buying too cheaply, and injuring a third
party. They could 'rob' their brethren and the RSV puts it; they could exercise
oppression on their brethren. They could find an ox wandering away, drive it into their
fields, and when they were asked, 'did you find my ox?' No, I didn't see it! They could
sware falsely and trespass against their brethren. You know, b&s, under the Law of
Moses there was no such thing as the law of rewards; if you found your brother's ox
wandering on the wayside, you were duty bound by Law to go and get that ox, bring it to
your home and to keep him at your own expense and to return him to his proper owner
without accepting a penny. And I think it's wrong for a Christadelphian to accept
rewards, for that was the principle of the Law of Moses, because that belonged to that
man. We have a duty to that man; he's our brother; we go and get his property and look
after it and we restore it to him fullfold and we never look for a reward. That was the
Law of Moses and anything less than that, was a trespass.
And the principle of the trespass offering as outlined here is, that we're all in debt to
God, b&s, we're all in debt to God, we've all robbed God of service; we've robbed Him
of His proper dues and we haven't serviced Him as we should have done, and now
we've got to go amongst our fellow men, and to see that we exercise the same principle
towards them, as God's forbearance is exercise toward us. Now that was the lesson of
the trespass offering!
Now let's come down to this column, what was offered. A ram in all cases; now you
would imagine, wouldn't you, that in the sin offering where you've got a bullock, which
was of course, a very valuable animal and you run right down to the shekel to a handful
of meal, that God was allowing for the poor. You've got for example, the high priest in
the nation-a bullock, you've got the ruler, he could bring a goat which is quite a valuable
animal, the commoner he could bring a female goat or a female lamb which was a little
bit less value; when you get down to a poor person he could bring a couple of pigeons,
a very poor person could bring a handful of meal; but it doesn't matter, b&s, whether the
man is a millionaire or a pauper, in the trespass offering, when he's committed a
trespass, he has no alternative but to bring a ram, and the ram was the second most
valuable animal in the sacrificial schedule. He hadn't no alternative; what if he was
poor? Too bad, it was just too bad! There was no alternative to offer, and something
else too, which we've got to bear in mind. Not only did he have to offer a ram, but the
ram had to be of a certain value; so that if a man committed a trespass and it was a
very grievous crime, he would have to bring a ram of pretty large value. If the crime was
not so bad, it was only a minor thing, he would be allowed to bring a ram which wasn't
so valuable. We'll talk about that later on, but first of all we've got to remember this, that
in the trespass offering there is no alternative; now what does Colossians 3 verse 25
say,? 'to him that worketh, God will reward him according to his works, and there is no
respect of persons with God'. We will be rewarded according to our works, b&s, and
there is no respect of persons with God. Now the fact that the ram could only be offered,
and there was never an alternative, the lesson was this, that if I wrong you then there
isn't anything else I can do, but I've got to put that right. And that's the lesson of the
trespass offering, there's no alternative. I must put that right; and that was the lesson
because of the fact that the ram was the only alternative in the schedule.
Now, as we've said before, the ram, the value of the ram was assessed by the priest, for
example, if you look in chapter 5, verse 15, ' If a soul commit a trespass, and sin
through ignorance, in the holy thing of Yahweh, then he shall bring for his trespass unto
Yahweh a ram without blemish out of the flocks, with thy estimation by shekels of silver,
after the shekel of the sanctuary, for a trespass offering'. With or according to thy
estimation, the priest would estimate the value of that ram; what a marvellous lesson,
b&s, you know, we've committed many wrongs against each other in our ecclesial
association, I've got no doubt about that, I haven't committed anything wrong against
you, I don't think, because I haven't been here long enough to commit that; but I know
this, in everyone of our experiences, we have committed wrong one way or another;
we've offended them somehow, we've done things which aren't to their profit, we
haven't been constructive in all that we do in the ecclesia; sometimes we're destructive,
and we've injured many people. Brethren and sisters, put it right as fast as you can,
because the law of the trespass offering was that there was no alternative. And when
you went to that priest and confessed to him what you'd done, (and I'm going to give
you a classic example of this later on) when you went and confessed to him what you've
done, then he would have set according to his estimation, the value of your ram. And
we're going to the judgment seat of Christ, b&s, we're going to face the great High
Priest of our profession, and what does Isaiah 11 say? He's not going to judge after
the hearing of His ear, He's not going to judge after the seeing of His eyes, (it won't be
any good shedding tears in front of Him; He won't be impressed, no good imploring Him
to listen to the circumstances (bro. so-and-so did this and after all said and done, I was
justified) HE WON'T LISTEN TO A WORD! all He'll be concerned with is this, have you
put it right? And that's how the priest would assess that situation, he'll not go just by the
seeing of his eyes or the hearing of his ears, all he'll be concerned with, not the other
brother or sister, they'll stand on their own terms, all he'll be concerned with, b&s, is
have you put it right? And you'll say, 'no, because....never mind; I don't want to hear it'.
A ram in every case, and wrong done to others must be put right.
But wait, it goes further than that, not only do we put it right, we make our trespass
offering according to the estimation of the priest, so we bring the ram according to his
estimation of value, but we've got to give back what we've taken. So we think to
ourselves, don't we, that if we go to a brother and we say to this brother, 'now, look
we've wronged you here, so we'll admit our wrong, if you'll admit your wrong'. Now how
often does this happen, we go to a brother and say, 'look, I said so-in-so today and we
had a few hasty words; I feel terrible about it; I'd like to tell you I'm very sorry and I feel
that I was wrong in this particular instance, but I do feel you provoked me'. And the
brother will say, ah, yes, I suppose I provoked you', and we make it up and we stick out
our hands, and shake on it, and we think that's square! But the Law of Moses didn't talk
that way, this is the principle, b&s, the Law of Moses never talked that way.
Because when you've made it up square with your brother, you had to go and hand him
the fifth part of the principle. Ahhh, this is going a little bit further than making things
square; because what is the fifth under the Law of Moses? You look at the Law of
Moses and see what the fifth is symbolic of; first of all, it's a double tithe, it's 2/10ths, so
it's a double tithe you're giving. So you're acknowledging your part of the wrong, not
concerned about him, you give a double tithe. You're making a double
acknowledgement; never mind what he's done, he's got to make his own
acknowledgement. You don't concern yourself with him, you make it right as far as
you're concerned, but having made a double acknowledgement, b&s, look again at the
fifth part. What was the symbol of the fifth under the Law of Moses? I'll tell you what it
was, it was the principle of grace; how do I know that? I know it by this fact, that when
the children of Israel came out of Egypt, they had to devote unto God, the firstborn of
clean beasts and the firstborn of unclean beasts; perhaps you didn't realize that! A
firstborn of the clean beasts had to be sacrificed, they couldn't redeem it; there was no
redemption of the firstborn of clean beasts, but there was the redemption of the firstborn
of unclean beasts because God doesn't accept them in sacrifice, they either redeemed
it or it was given to the priest for his own use. And how would an Israelite redeem an
unclean animal? By paying the price of it plus a fifth. What's God teaching him? God
had given His own firstborn lamb for the redemption of the children of Israel out of
Egypt; the firstborn lamb that God had given was a clean animal. What were the
animals that they brought out of Egypt? the two lead animals, everyone of them was
unclean, and an Israelite who had a spiritual mind, would have quickly redeemed his
unclean animal and would have been glad to pay the fifth, because he would have
realized, b&s, that in the sight of God we're all unclean animals. And God had given His
firstborn and gave His life, killed Him, to redeem us who are unclean animals, and we're
redeemed by the addition of the fifth part, 'by grace are ye saved, and not of yourselves
but it's a gift of God. But where sin hath abounded even doth grace much more abound',
is Paul's point in Romans 3 verse 20. Where sin abounds grace much more abounds,
so that when you learn this lesson, this is what we're learning in the offering.
I wrong you so I go to the priest and tell him, he tells me, 'Listen, fellow, you've got no
alternative here, you've got to put this right. You bring me a ram of a certain value, it's a
pretty bad thing you've done and it's going to cost you a lot of money. I haven't got it;
never mind, you find it! You find it! Can I bring a handful of meal; NO! a ram. So I've got
to make it good; now I'm told you go back to your brother. What did you rob him of ?
such and such; give it back to him. Ok. Wait a minute! add the fifth part to it. Boy,
wouldn't that hurt, so you go over the story again, b&s, it's not good enough to give it to
a brother and make it square, it's got to be more than square; so when you turn your
back on the brother and you walk away, you've got to forgive him in your heart; it's
terribly hard, but the fifth part, now you know, the Lord Jesus Christ put His hand right
on the point of the trespass offering when He said, 'forgive men your trespasses even
as your heavenly Father forgives you your trespasses. If you do not forgive men their
trespasses against you, never expect that your heavenly Father will forgive your
trespasses against Him'. That's the law of the trespass offering; there's no alternative!
It's a remarkable offering, b&s, there's no alternative.
Now here's another fact; when the priest estimated the value of your ram, notice what it
said in verse 15 of chapter 5. We'll read it again, 'If a soul commit a trespass, and sin
through ignorance, in the holy things of Yahweh; then he shall bring for his trespass
unto Yahweh a ram without blemish out of the flocks, with thy estimation by shekels of
silver, after the shekel of the sanctuary, for a trespass offering'. So the priest would
assess the value of whatever you had done wrong; and he would assess that by weight
of silver. Now, it talks about shekels of silver, now they didn't have coins, a shekel is not
a coin, it is a weight and the Israelites didn't pay the price by coinage, they didn't have
coinage in those days. They paid it by silver by weight; so the priest would assess the
value of the gravity of their trespass according to what they'd done, he'd assess it at a
certain value and they'd pay it by silver by weight to be so much. So the man would go
away thinking to himself, 'I'll be able to get out of this pretty well', and he'd go home and
get his own scales which were heavily unbalanced, and it wouldn't seem to be very
much. And he'd bring that along to the priest; do you know what the priest did? He
weighed that according to the shekel of the sanctuary. What was the shekel of the
sanctuary? It's the weight of the sanctuary and he'd weigh it in his own way, but the
priest wouldn't accept it because you see, b&s, the priest's scale was perfectly
balanced, and when he put the man's silver on there, the man was trying to cheap him;
wouldn't do! That was the weight, it was in the sanctuary. So the measure in that
judgment was divine, the measure of our judgment is divine, b&s, and we've plenty of
incidents in the scriptures of where silver was paid by weight, and because it was paid
by weight, Amos the prophet said that the children of Israel were falsifying the balances
of deceit; they were falsifying the balances of deceit, but there's no deceit here. Now
look at the lesson that's being enforced, 1. there's no alternative but to make the wrong
right 2. you've got to make it square and more than square and 3. the judgments divine.
And there's nobody who can get around that because the shekel of the sanctuary is
there for the priest to use, and he weighs it himself.
Now, b&s, I want now to speak about Christ as an anti-type of the trespass offering.
Now there's a remarkable, a remarkable point concerning Christ as our trespass
offering. We can understand Christ as our sin offering, can't we? But how is He our
trespass offering? because remember this, a trespass offering was made when we had
violated the rights of another person, and yet we're told in the prophets, in explicit terms,
that Christ was our trespass offering. Now, I want you to keep Leviticus 6 with one
hand, and turn to Isaiah 53 with the other, and notice the reference I'm turning to the
53rd chapter of Isaiah, this wonderful chapter, and here we have Christ spoken of as a
trespass offering. Verse 10, 'Yet it pleased Yahweh to bruise Him; He hath put Him to
grief: when thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall
prolong His days, and the pleasure of Yahweh shall prosper in His hand', now that word
'offering', 'thou shalt make his soul an offering, the Hebrew word is 'asah' a trespass
offering for sin. He makes his soul a 'trespass offering' for sin. The word is only used for
the 'trespass offering' so here we have in the 53rd chapter of Isaiah, Christ as a
trespass offering. Now, don't loss Isaiah 53, because I want you now to compare
Leviticus 6 and Isaiah 53, and I'm going to read it for you and I'm going to emphasize a
couple of words and you'll see a comparison between those two references that's really
remarkable. Let's come back to Leviticus chapter 6 and see what they made a trespass
offering for; Verse 1, 'And Yahweh spake unto Moses, saying, If a soul sin, and commit
a trespass against Yahweh, and lie unto his neighbour in that which was delivered him
to keep, or in fellowship, or in a thing taken away by violence, or hath deceived his
neighbour; Verse 4, 'Then it shall be, because he hath sinned, and is guilty, that he shall
restore that which he took violently away, or the thing which he hath deceitfully gotten,
or that which was delivered him to keep, or the lost thing which he found'. Now come
back to Isaiah 53 verse 8, 'He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall
declare His generation? for He was cut off out of the land of the living: for the
transgression of my people was He stricken. And He made His grave with the wicked,
and with the rich in His death; because He had done no violence, neither was any
deceit in His mouth. Yet it pleased Yahweh to make Him the trespass offering'. Now
what a remarkable thing, b&s, the account of those two words 'violence and deceit',
there's One who was smitten for the transgression of His people, and here's the prophet
saying that He hadn't done any violence or deceit, 'yet it pleased Yahweh to make Him
the trespass offering'. And what were the two things that the Lord suffered in the last
days of His trial, b&s? wasn't it violence and deceit? There He was amongst the elders
of Israel, in front of Annas and Caiaphas, there He was among the people, they
knocked Him around, hit Him over the head with pieces of wood; jammed a crown of
thorns over His eyes, buffed Him from right to left, spat on Him, kicked Him, slugged
Him, and the whole trial was a travesty of justice. It was a lie, after lie, after lie, and if
ever the children of Israel were guilty of a trespass in this occasion, they were guilty
now! And they absolutely ground that man into the dust with violence and deceit, and it
pleased God to put Him on the cross as their trespass offering. Now what a tremendous
lesson that is, He was bruised for our iniquity; the chastisement of our peace was upon
Him, and Yahweh has laid on Him the iniquity of us all, and Israel are going to come to
realize that; and what a tremendous thing it will be at the manifestation of the Lord
Jesus Christ, that He will go over the circumstances of His trial and betrayal, His
enemies will be raised from the dead, b&s, to answer to this; and they're going to come
before the greatest High Priest of all time, and they're going to be told that there was a
neighbour, a brother, the greatest of all neighbours and brothers, was in their midst and
they had committed the grievous crime of all history against Him and they were guilty of
violence and deceit. Violence and deceit, yet it pleased Yahweh to make the very One
that they had wronged their own trespass offering and you can imagine their judgment,
can't you? They were given the opportunity to repent and they would have none of it,
and there are no alternatives, but to make that which is wrong, right. But they'd had their
opportunity, b&s, and the great shekel of the sanctuary will come out, and the judgment
will be divine. And these people, His murderers and those who perpetrated that crime,
will be lost; this is the awful implication of Isaiah 53, but what wonder there is for those
people who turn to God and repent. But of all the things which we've done against God
and against Him, that it pleased God to make Him our trespass offering, although He
had done no violence nor deceit. I think that's the wonderful point of Isaiah 53, b&s, I
think it's absolutely beautiful when you see the proper setting in force, not as a sin
offering, but as the trespass offering, that He was offered for those things which
mankind do against God.
Now, I want you to come and see the usage of the trespass offering. I told you I'd give
you a few illustrations and I've left myself about a quarter of an hour to do this, and this
is very interesting. Now knowing the principle of the trespass offering, let us find out
where they used it. I'll just give you a few illustrations. The first problem is in the 14th
chapter of Leviticus and verse 12; look at the way they used the trespass offering. Now
the 13th and 14th chapters of Leviticus deal with the matter of leprosy; now you'll have
to concentrate on this for a while, because you won't see the point unless the
background is heard. When a person contracted leprosy, b&s, he was put outside the
camp, and he was outside the camp as long as his leprosy remained, so he lost his
status in Israel; he became an non entity, to use terminology that we're familiar with, in a
type, he was out of fellowship. He was out of fellowship outside the camp, because you
see, not that God put a man out of fellowship just because he had a disease, this is not
the point, of course; God does not operate like that, but that God used this disease as a
typical thing. What is leprosy but the corruption of the flesh, it's living corruption, and if
we're the servants of corruption, b&s, then we're not in fellowship with God. But we're
not the servants of corruption, we're the servants of righteousness, and in this case a
man has contracted leprosy and he's shut outside the camp, and he remains there
outside the fellowship as it were, out of touch with the people of God. Now if he
happened to be clean, he was brought back into the camp; and he had to go through a
certain ritual, and I'll tell you, it's absolutely remarkable, that the ritual he had to go
through was the identical ritual of the consecration of the high priest. Now you listen to
this, he's the only man, the cleansed leper is the only man that was ever put through a
ritual identical with the High Priest, whereas the High Priest had the blood of the offering
put on his ear, upon his right thumb and upon his right big toe; that's what happened to
the leper and it happened to no one else. What was God indicating? That the leper
was an Israelite, he was in a kingdom of priests, that because of his contracting living
corruption he was put outside the camp and lost his status, when he was clean he came
back under the Law of Moses again to continue his office as a member of the priestly
nation. But he had lost service, he'd robbed God of service as the priest, so that you
find, when he came back in the camp, the 12th verse tells us, 'And the priest shall take
one he lamb, and offer him for a trespass offering, and the log of oil, and wave them for
a wave offering before Yahweh'. And verse 14, 'And the priest shall take some of the
blood of the trespass offering, and the priest shall put it upon the top of the right ear of
him that is to be cleansed, and upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the great toe
of his right foot?
Now when you go to the priest, the blood that touched the priest's ear, thumb and foot,
was the peace offering. So the blood that the priest was consecrated with was the
peace offering, but the animal that brought the leper back into the camp, on his ear,
hand and foot, was the blood of the trespass offering. Why the difference? Because
when Aaron was consecrated as High Priest, b&s, it was through the blood of the
animal that brought Aaron into fellowship with God, so that he could make fellowship
with God with the children of Israel; but this fellow had lost that fellowship and was
outside the camp, and while he was outside the camp, he wasn't serving God. He'd
robbed God of service, so that when God brought him back into service again, he
comes back with a trespass offering, because he had to make up for the time that he
had lost!
Now you take the 5th chapter of Numbers, here's a beautiful illustration of this. Numbers
5 verse 12 we read, 'Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, If any man's
wife go aside, and commit a trespass against him', (now in that verse there's just a little
statement, there we are told, b&s, that adultery is a trespass). Of course it is, one of the
worst forms of trespass because you couldn't get more to the point, as far as the
trespass offering is concerned, to illustrate its purpose than adultery. Now when a man
or woman commits adultery, what are they doing? Not only are they sinning against
God, that's bad enough, but they are deeply injuring a third party. Now the Law of
Moses specified that adultery was a trespass because a third party was deeply
wounded and injured; now here's a remarkable lesson. David committed adultery, didn't
he? Now you listen to this, it's absolutely remarkable, David committed adultery against
Uriah the Hittite. He deeply wounded that man, he murdered him later on, but he deeply
wounded him, this was a trespass. Now when a man committed a trespass, he had the
alternatives to confess his sin or hide it. If he confessed his sin, then he'd take a ram,
he'd make restoration in full for the loss incurred and he'd add a fifth part to the
principle. How a man would do that when a man committed adultery, don't ask me, but
in someway or other he'd have to follow that through in principle and make it as good as
he possibly could, if he confessed. But in Exodus 22, b&s, we're told what would
happen if he didn't confess. In Exodus 22 we are told what happened if a man is
convicted in a judicial court of law. 'If a man shall steal an ox, or a sheep, and kill it, or
sell it; he shall restore five oxen for an ox, and four sheep for a sheep'. It's a simple
verse but it's telling us this, that if a man stole and ox or a sheep and killed it or sold it,
he should restore five oxen for an ox and four sheep for a sheep. Now you see, under
the law of the trespass offering, if a man had confessed that sin, he wouldn't have paid
four sheep for a sheep; he'd have paid one sheep back plus the fifth part, that's if he
confessed it. But this man is convicted in a judicial court of law, because Exodus 22 is
dealing with the duty of the judges. Now, b&s, David did not confess his sin; you know,
many people think that David confessed his sin. HE DID NOT CONFESS HIS SIN;
David hid it; he had committed the worst form of trespassing against his fellow man and
he hid it. If you remember correctly he was indited by Nathan when the boy was born,
and the laws of biology will tell you that was at least nine months, in all likelihood it
would have been 12 months later. And Nathan came with a story about a man that had
a little ewe lamb and his neighbour who had a large flock of sheep went and stole the
little ewe lamb; and David leapt to his feet in blazing anger and said he should be put to
death. Nathan said, 'thou art that man'. It was then that David confessed, but you see,
b&s, if he had confessed in the beginning things wouldn't have been so bad, but he hid
it, and do you know what? that David lost by violence 4 sons; he lost 4 sons by violence,
he paid fourfold for that crime, and I believe he's got more to pay yet, and it just goes to
show, b&s, the principle involved in the trespass offering. Now adultery is a trespass
and it would have paid David to confess his sins but he didn't, he hid it; and it wasn't
until he was convicted in an judicial court of law, that the man did ultimately confess his
sin, and in such a manner of course, that brought about the divine approval of his
attitude, and David will be in the kingdom; but he paid bitterly for it, b&s.
And there's another illustration of the use of the law of the trespass offering, in Numbers
chapter 6. In Numbers chapter 6 we're dealing with the law of the Nazarite; alright, what
does a Nazarite do? The Nazarite law, b&s, was given to a man or a woman, we notice
that in verse 2, 'when a man or woman shall separate themselves, so a sister or brother
in Israel could dedicate themselves to the service of God in a very special way through
the vow of the Nazarite (this is another story of course, but a Nazarite vow was a vow
that God gave the children of Israel which gave them the opportunity to imitate the high
priest for any period of their own designation). So I say, Ok, I'm going to take a Nazarite
vow; the priest says to me, 'for how long?' I say, well 6 months. So for 6 months of my
life I'm going to be a Nazarite, I'm going to be separate from my brethren, I'm going to
be separate from the world, I'm going to imitate the high priest, because I'm looking
forward to the time when I'm going to be a king-priest and reign upon the earth. Here's
my opportunity during my mortal probation to act like one'. So I say to God through the
priest, 'I'm going to do this for 6 months.' What about after three months when I break
that vow? What would happen? I'd rob God of service, so what am I going to do? Verse
12, 'He shall consecrate unto Yahweh the days of his separation, and shall bring a lamb
of the first year for a trespass offering: but the days that were before shall be lost,
because his separation was defiled'. So for a broken vow, I've got to make possible the
trespass offering, but if you fulfilled your vow, if you read the 6th chapter of Numbers,
you'll find a different schedule of sacrifices. So the schedule of sacrifices for a broken
vow and the schedule for a fulfilled vow differed, but if I broke my vow I paid a fifth of
everything, why? because I've robbed God of three months of service.
Now, you take another example in 1 Samuel chapter 6, even the heathen understood
this; you remember the ark of God that was carried into captivity wasn't it by the
Philistines, and in 1 Samuel 6 we have the story of when they returned that ark? Verse
1, 'And the ark of Yahweh was in the country of the Philistines seven months. And the
Philistines called for the priests and the diviners, saying, What shall we do to the ark of
Yahweh? tell us wherewith we shall send it to his place. And they said, If ye send away
the ark of Yahweh of Israel, send it not empty; but in any wise return Him a trespass
offering: then ye shall be healed, and it shall be known to you why His hand is not
removed from you', so here the Philistines called in their priests and diviners and said,
'Look, we're suffering shockingly because of the ark of Yahweh, we want to send it
back; what do you think we should do; Send Him a trespass offering. Why? because the
ark belonged to God, and they'd robbed Him, and they'd robbed God of that ark for
seven months, so they had to send a trespass offering. And that's another illustration of
its usage.
Look at this one in Ezra chapter 10, this is really terrific! Here is another usage of the
trespass offering. Marrying outside the truth is wrong; just how wrong it is, we've never
really appreciated. You know, we condemn marriage outside the truth, we will not
tolerate it under any circumstances; marriage outside the truth is wrong, and it's not only
wrong because a young person, a young girl or boy marries outside the truth and ruins
half of their own life as it were, because if they serve God their partner may not, it's not
only wrong because they ruin their own lives but sometimes we forget to put the
emphasis where it should lie. It is not only wrong from that viewpoint, it's wrong, b&s,
because what we've forgotten is, that when we were baptised we were married to
Yahweh. That's why it's wrong and in the book of Ezra we have a case of marrying
outside the truth, in the 10th verse of the 10th chapter, ' And Ezra the priest stood up
and said unto them, Ye have transgressed, and have taken strange wives, to increase
the trespass of Israel'. Then in verse 19 we read, 'And they gave their hands that they
would put away their wives: and being guilty, they offered a ram of the flock for their
trespass'. Now there was a clear recognition, b&s, that as far as they were concerned,
as far as Ezra was concerned, marriage outside of the truth is not only wrong, because
a young person or an older person for that matter, links himself up with an unbeliever,
this is only half the story. And I think we've got to appreciate this b&s, this is something
we fail to appreciate; it's not only wrong because we link ourselves with an unbeliever, it
is wrong because we're married to God and because He wants our service, He wants
our dedication, He wants our undivided loyalty and allegiance, and He wants because
He's got works to do on this earth and He can hardly find enough workers to do it, and
when we link ourselves with an outsider, look what you're doing! Not only are you
ruining your own life, but you're making it almost impossible to give to God the service
He demands of you, and you can do nothing about it; you can do nothing about it
because you're bound to that person, and you've got to live with that grievous thing
throughout your life, that you're not serving God the way you should. How on earth
could I come here to America, and do the things that I do, how could we all do these
things, how could we mark up our bibles, read the readings together, bring up our
children in the truth, how could we give our life, b&s, to the ecclesia, driving ourselves to
the bible schools, to preaching the truth, if our partner is forever dragging us in the other
direction? And we think it's wrong because we've married outside the truth; it's wrong,
b&s, because we've left our Husband. And Ezra brought that home to the people,
you've committed a trespass, you bring a trespass offering, because what they'd done
was to rob God of service.
Jeremiah chapter 3 verse 20 says, 'That Israel has treacherously departed from Me as a
wife has treacherously departed from her husband'; this is where the wrong lies, and
this is why Ezra called for the trespass offering. He says, 'Surely as a wife treacherously
departeth from her husband, so have ye dealt treacherously with me, O house of Israel,
saith Yahweh.' And that was the gravity, b&s, of the trespass that was committed in the
days of Ezra. You'll forgive me if I speak strongly on this issue, I'm liable to get carried
away with these things, but I have seen, b&s, the grievous harm that can come to the
brotherhood of Christ by this act. And it really grieves me, not only that the young
people marry outside the truth, but to see how we live with these things; we fail to see
sometimes, b&s, the enormity of what we're doing. It's not so much the effect upon us,
that's secondary; I think we ought to give this due consideration. .................... (The talk
continues, but the tape ended here).