Notes on the Book of Leviticus

by Charles Henry Mackintosh

"Grateful incense this, ascending
Ever to the Father's throne;
Every knee to Jesus bending,
All the mind in heaven is one.

All the Father's counsels claiming
Equal honors to the Son,
All the Son's effulgence beaming
Makes the Father's glory known.

By the Spirit all pervading,
Hosts unnumbered round the Lamb,
Crowned with light and joy unfading,
Hail Him as the great 'I AM.'"

For this the redeemed are waiting; and, blessed be God, it is but a little while when all their longing desires shall be fully met, and met forever—yea, met after such a fashion as to elicit from each and all the touching confession of Sheba's queen that "the half was not told me." May the Lord hasten the happy time!

We must now return to our solemn chapter, and, lingering a little longer over it, endeavor to gather up and bear away with us some of its salutary teaching; for truly salutary it is, in an age like the present, when there is so much "strange fire" abroad.

There is something unusually arresting and impressive in the way in which Aaron received the heavy stroke of divine judgment.—"Aaron held his peace." It was a solemn scene. His two sons struck dead at his side—smitten down by the fire of divine judgment.[20] He had but just seen them clothed in their garments of glory and beauty—washed, robed, and anointed. They had stood with him before the Lord to be inaugurated into the priestly office; they had offered, in company with him, the appointed sacrifices; they had seen the beams of the divine glory darting from the shekinah; they had seen the fire of Jehovah fall upon the sacrifice and consume it; they had heard the shout of triumph issuing from an assembly of adoring worshipers;—all this had but recently passed before him; and now, alas! his two sons lie at his side in the grasp of death. The fire of the Lord, which so recently fed upon an acceptable sacrifice, had now fallen in judgment upon them, and what could he say? Nothing. "Aaron held his peace." "I was dumb and opened not my mouth, because Thou didst it." It was the hand of God; and although it might, in the judgment of flesh and blood, seem to be a very heavy hand, yet he had only to bow his head in silent awe and reverent acquiescence. "I was dumb ... because Thou didst it." This was the suited attitude in the presence of the divine visitation. Aaron doubtless felt that the very pillars of his house were shaken by the thunder of divine judgment, and he could only stand in silent amazement in the midst of the soul-subduing scene. A father bereaved of his two sons, and in such a manner, and under such circumstances, was no ordinary case. It furnished a deeply impressive commentary upon the words of the Psalmist, "God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about Him." (Psalm lxxxix.) "Who would not fear Thee, O Lord, and glorify Thy name?" May we learn to walk softly in the divine presence—to tread Jehovah's courts with unshod foot and reverent spirit. May our priestly censer ever bear upon it the one material—the beaten incense of Christ's manifold perfections, and may the power of the Spirit kindle up the hallowed flame. All else is not only worthless, but vile. Every thing that springs from nature's energy, every thing produced by the actings of the human will—the most fragrant incense of man's devising—the most intense ardor of natural devotion, will all issue in "strange fire," and evoke the solemn judgment of the Lord God Almighty. Oh for a thoroughly truthful heart and worshiping spirit, in the presence of our God and Father, continually!

But let not any upright, though timid, heart be discouraged or alarmed. It is too often the case that those who really ought to be alarmed take no heed, while those for whom the Spirit of grace would only design a word of comfort and encouragement apply to themselves in a wrong way the startling warnings of holy Scripture. No doubt, the meek and contrite heart that trembles at the word of the Lord is in a safe condition; but then we should remember that a father warns his child, not because he does not regard him as his child, but because he does, and one of the happiest proofs of the relationship is the disposition to receive and profit by the warning. The parental voice, even though its tone be that of solemn admonition, will reach the child's heart, but certainly not to raise in that heart a question as to its relationship with the one who speaks. If a son were to question his sonship whenever his father warns, it would be a poor affair indeed. The judgment which had just fallen upon Aaron's house did not make him doubt that he was really a priest; it merely had the effect of teaching him how to conduct himself in that high and holy position.

"And Moses said unto Aaron, and unto Eleazar and unto Ithamar, his sons, 'Uncover not your heads, neither rend your clothes; lest ye die, and lest wrath come upon all the people: but let your brethren, the whole house of Israel, bewail the burning which the Lord hath kindled. And ye shall not go out from the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die; for the anointing oil of the Lord is upon you.' And they did according to the word of Moses."

Aaron, Eleazar, and Ithamar were to remain unmoved in their elevated place—their holy dignity—their position of priestly sanctity. Neither the failure nor yet the judgment consequent thereon was to be allowed to interfere with those who wore the priestly robes and were anointed with "the oil of the Lord." That holy oil had placed them in a sacred inclosure, where the influences of sin, of death, and of judgment could not reach them. Those who were outside, who were at a distance from the sanctuary, who were not in the position of priests, they might "bewail the burning;" but as for Aaron and his sons, they were to go on in the discharge of their hallowed functions as though nothing had happened. Priests in the sanctuary were not to bewail, but to worship—they were not to weep, as in the presence of death, but to bow their anointed heads in the presence of the divine visitation. "The fire of the Lord" might act, and do its solemn work of judgment; but to a priest it mattered not what that "fire" had come to do—whether to express the divine approval by consuming a sacrifice, or the divine displeasure by consuming the offerers of "strange fire"—he had but to worship. That "fire" was a well-known manifestation of the divine presence in Israel of old, and whether it acted in "mercy or in judgment," the business of all true priests was to worship. "I will sing of mercy and of judgment; unto Thee, O Lord, will I sing."

There is a deep and holy lesson for the soul in all this. Those who are brought nigh to God, in the power of the blood, and by the anointing of the Holy Ghost, must move in a sphere beyond the range of nature's influences. Priestly nearness to God gives the soul such an insight into all His ways, such a sense of the rightness of all His dispensations, that one is enabled to worship in His presence, even though the stroke of His hand has removed from us the object of tender affection. It may be asked, Are we to be Stoics? I ask, Were Aaron and his sons Stoics? Nay, they were priests. Did they not feel as men? Yes; but they worshiped as priests. This is profound. It opens up a region of thought, feeling, and experience in which nature can never move—a region of which, with all its boasted refinement and sentimentality, nature knows absolutely nothing. We must tread the sanctuary of God in true priestly energy, in order to enter into the depth, meaning, and power of such holy mysteries.