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The Tabernacle
The Tabernacle Now different animals could be used as a sacrifice for the peace offering. If taken from the herd, whether male or female, the victim symbolized Christ, the devoted Ser- vant. The male suggests to us that He was the indepen- dent One; the female, the subject One, submissive to His Father's will. As in the burnt offering, the lamb portrayed the meek and unresisting Lamb of God; the goat, the sin- ner's Substitute. We may not all understand in like mea- sure the marvels of the Person and work of our Lord. Again, as in the other offerings, the laying of the hands upon the victim's head suggests identification of the sinner with the Sin-Bearer; and substitution, in that Another was to die in his place. Only a small portion was given to Jehovah, to be burned upon the altar; and this portion was taken from the inward parts which could be reached only by the death of the victim. Likewise, only God, the Father and the Holy Spirit, could fully appreciate the hidden, secret emo- tions of the holy Son as He "poured out his soul unto death" (Isaiah 5 3: 12). "No man knoweth the Son, but the Father" (Matt. 11:27). Jehovah's offering was burned upon the brazen altar; then the priest, the offerer, his family and friends partook of their portion. Here we are made to think of the Lord's Table, where the redeemed child of God communes with his Heavenly Father by faith in the shed blood and broken body of the Lord Jesus. God and His people meet for sacred fellowship at that hallowed table. There "Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other" (Psalm 8 5: 10). The "heave offering," presented with a vertical motion,
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was offered to God; the "wave offering," presented with a horizontal motion, was eaten by His redeemed children. The "heave offering" was the shoulder, which speaks to us of the omnipotent strength of Christ; the "wave offering" was the breast, suggestive of the love of Christ, realized by His children when, like John, they lean upon His breast. As someone has expressed it, in Christ there is "rest for the weary," and there is "strength for the weak." Ceremonial cleansing was required by God before the Israelite could partake of the peace offering. Nor can the believer on the Lord Jesus Christ worship God at the Lord's Table while unconfessed sin lies upon his heart. The eating of the peace offering by the Israelite had to be not later than the second day after the victim was slain at the altar; likewise, we dare not attempt to separate the Lord's Table from the altar which was Calvary's cross. To do so is but empty mockery! No one who denies the efficacy of His atoning blood should presume to partake of the Lord's Supper. These are some of the spiritual lessons God would teach us through the peace offering. His Word is filled with messages which speak peace to the believer's heart. We quote only a few of these, which remind us yet further of Christ, our Peace-Offering: "You, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he recon- ciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameablc and unreproveable in his sight.... Now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off arc made nigh by the blood of Christ." He hath "made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself" (Col. 1:21, 22; Eph. 2 :13, 14; Col. 1:20). "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you:
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