If a man were rich and could afford it, it is supposed that he would
bring his burnt-sacrifice, with which he designed to honour God, out of
his herd of larger cattle. He that considers that God is the best that
is will resolve to give him the best he has, else he gives him not the
glory due unto his name. Now if a man determined to kill a bullock, not
for an entertainment for his family and friends, but for a sacrifice to
his God, these rules must be religiously observed:--1. The beast to be
offered must be a male, and without blemish, and the best he had in his
pasture. Being designed purely for the honour of him that is infinitely
perfect, it ought to be the most perfect in its kind. This signified
the complete strength and purity that were in Christ the dying
sacrifice, and the sincerity of heart and unblamableness of life that
should be in Christians, who are presented to God as living sacrifices.
But, literally, in Christ Jesus there is neither male nor female; nor
is any natural blemish in the body a bar to our acceptance with God,
but only the moral defects and deformities introduced by sin into the
soul. 2. The owner must offer it voluntarily. What is done in religion,
so as to please God, must be done by no other constraint than that of
love. God accepts the willing people and the cheerful giver. Ainsworth
and others read it, not as the principle, but as the end of offering:
"Let him offer it for his favourable acceptation before the Lord. Let
him propose this to himself as his end in bringing his sacrifice, and
let his eye be fixed steadily upon that end--that he may be accepted of
the Lord." Those only shall find acceptance who sincerely desire and
design it in all their religious services, 2 Cor. v. 9. 3. It must be
offered at the door of the tabernacle, where the brazen altar of
burnt-offerings stood, which sanctified the gift, and not elsewhere. He
must offer it at the door, as one unworthy to enter, and acknowledging
that there is no admission for a sinner into covenant and communion
with God, but by sacrifice; but he must offer it at the tabernacle of
the congregation, in token of his communion with the whole church of
Israel even in this personal service. 4. The offerer must put his hand
upon the head of his offering, v. 4. "He must put both his hands," say
the Jewish doctors, "with all his might, between the horns of the
beast," signifying thereby, (1.) The transfer of all his right to, and
interest in, the beast, to God, actually, and by a manual delivery,
resigning it to his service. (2.) An acknowledgment that he deserved to
die, and would have been willing to die if God had required it, for the
serving of his honour, and the obtaining of his favour. (3.) A
dependence upon the sacrifice, as an instituted type of the great
sacrifice on which the iniquity of us all was to be laid. The mystical
signification of the sacrifices, and especially this rite, some think
the apostle means by the doctrine of laying on of hands (Heb. vi. 2),
which typified evangelical faith. The offerer's putting his hand on the
head of the offering was to signify his desire and hope that it might
be accepted from him to make atonement for him. Though the
burnt-offerings had not respect to any particular sin, as the
sin-offering had, yet they were to make atonement for sin in general;
and he that laid his hand on the head of a burnt-offering was to
confess that he had left undone what he ought to have done and had done
that which he ought not to have done, and to pray that, though he
deserved to die himself, the death of his sacrifice might be accepted
for the expiating of his guilt. 5. The sacrifice was to be killed by
the priests of Levites, before the Lord, that is, in a devout religious
manner, and with an eye to God and his honour. This signified that our
Lord Jesus was to make his soul, or life, an offering for sin. Messiah
the prince must be cut off as a sacrifice, but not for himself, Dan.
ix. 26. It signified also that in Christians, who are living
sacrifices, the brutal part must be mortified or killed, the flesh
crucified with its corrupt affections and lusts and all the appetites
of the mere animal life. 6. The priests were to sprinkle the blood upon
the altar (v. 5); for, the blood being the life, it was this that made
atonement for the soul. This signified the direct and actual regard
which our Lord Jesus had to the satisfaction of his Father's justice,
and the securing of his injured honour, in the shedding of his blood;
he offered himself without spot to God. It also signified the pacifying
and purifying of our consciences by the sprinkling of the blood of
Jesus Christ upon them by faith, 1 Pet. i. 2; Heb. x. 22. 7. The beast
was to be flayed and decently cut up, and divided into its several
joints or pieces, according to the art of the butcher; and then all the
pieces, with the head and the fat (the legs and inwards being first
washed), were to be burnt together upon the altar, v. 6-9. "But to what
purpose," would some say, "was this waste? Why should all this good
meat, which might have been given to the poor, and have served their
hungry families for food a great while, be burnt together to ashes?" So
was the will of God; and it is not for us to object or to find fault
with it. When it was burnt for the honour of God, in obedience to his
command, and to signify spiritual blessings, it was really better
bestowed, and better answered the end of its creation, than when it was
used as food for man. We must never reckon that lost which is laid out
for God. The burning of the sacrifice signified the sharp sufferings of
Christ, and the devout affections with which, as a holy fire,
Christians must offer up themselves their whole spirit, soul, and body,
unto God. 8. This is said to be an offering of a sweet savour, or
savour of rest, unto the Lord. The burning of flesh is unsavoury in
itself; but this, as an act of obedience to a divine command, and a
type of Christ, was well pleasing to God: he was reconciled to the
offerer, and did himself take a complacency in that reconciliation. He
rested, and was refreshed with these institutions of his grace, as, at
first, with his works of creation (Exod. xxxi. 17), rejoicing therein,
Ps. civ. 31. Christ's offering of himself to God is said to be of a
sweet-smelling savour (Eph. v. 2), and the spiritual sacrifices of
Christians are said to be acceptable to God, through Christ, 1 Pet. ii.
5.