We shall here close our meditations upon this most profound and precious book. If the foregoing pages should be used of God to awaken an interest in a section of inspiration which has been so much neglected by the Church in all ages, they shall not have been written in vain.
C. H. M.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Now six.
[2] It may be well, at this point, to inform the reader that the Hebrew word which is rendered "burn" in the case of the burnt-offering is wholly different from that which is used in the sin-offering. I shall, because of the peculiar interest of the subject, refer to a few of the passages in which each word occurs. The word used in the burnt-offering signifies "incense," or to "burn incense," and occurs in the following passages, in some one or other of its various inflections: Lev. vi. 15—"And all the frankincense, ... and shall burn it upon the altar;" Deut. xxxiii. 10—"They shall put incense before Thee, and whole burnt-sacrifice upon Thine altar;" Exod. xxx. 1—"And thou shalt make an altar to burn incense upon;" Ps. lxvi. 15—"With the incense of rams;" Jer. xliv. 21—"The incense that ye burned in the cities of Judah;" Cant. iii. 16—"Perfumed with myrrh and frankincense." Passages might be multiplied, but the above will suffice to show the use of the word which occurs in the burnt-offering.
The Hebrew word which is rendered "burn" in connection with the sin-offering, signifies to burn in general, and occurs in the following passages: Gen. xl. 3—"Let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly." Lev. x. 16—"And Moses diligently sought the goat of the sin-offering, and, behold, it was burnt." 2 Chron. xvi. 14—"And they made a very great burning for him."
Thus, not only was the sin-offering burnt in a different place, but a different word is adopted by the Holy Ghost to express the burning of it. Now, we cannot imagine, for a moment, that this distinction is a mere interchange of words, the use of which is indifferent. I believe the wisdom of the Holy Ghost is as manifest in the use of the two words as it is in any other point of difference in the two offerings. The spiritual reader will attach the proper value to the above most interesting distinction.
[3] That is to say, sin-bearing is not prominent. Of course, where there is atonement, sin must be in question.
[4] "But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law." (γενομενον εκ γυναικος, γενομενον υπο νομον.) This is a most important passage, inasmuch as it sets forth our blessed Lord as Son of God and Son of Man.—"God sent forth His Son, made of a woman." Precious testimony!
[5] How important to see, in the above beautiful passage, that doing God's will brings the soul into a relationship with Christ of which His brethren according to the flesh knew nothing, on merely natural grounds! It was as true with respect to those brethren as any one else that "except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." Mary would not have been saved by the mere fact of her being the mother of Jesus. She needed personal faith in Christ as much as any other member of Adam's fallen family: she needed to pass, by being born again, out of the old creation into the new. It was by treasuring up Christ's words in her heart that this blessed woman was saved. No doubt she was "highly favored" in being chosen as a vessel to such a holy office; but then, as a lost sinner, she needed to "rejoice in God her Saviour," like any one else. She stands on the same platform, is washed in the same blood, clothed in the same righteousness, and will sing the same song as all the rest of God's redeemed.