The peace offering typifies to us the communion of saints, with God, with the priest who has offered it on our behalf, with one another, and with the whole body of the saints as priests to God. It comes after those which present to us the Lord Jesus Himself in His devoting Himself to death (the burnt offering) and His devotedness and grace in His life, with the testing of fire (the meal offering), that we may understand that all communion is based on the acceptability and sweet odor of this sacrifice.
The Fat
The animal was killed at the door of the tabernacle, and all the fat burned on the altar of burnt offering to the Lord. The use of this symbol, fat, is familiar in the Word of God, as, for example, in Psalm 17:1010They are inclosed in their own fat: with their mouth they speak proudly. (Psalm 17:10): “They are enclosed in their own fat: with their mouth they speak proudly.” It is the energy and force of the inward will, the inwards of a man’s heart. Hence, where Christ expresses His entire mortification, He declares they could tell all His bones (Psa. 2210I was cast upon thee from the womb: thou art my God from my mother's belly. (Psalm 22:10)), and in Psalm 10210Because of thine indignation and thy wrath: for thou hast lifted me up, and cast me down. (Psalm 102:10), “By reason of the voice of my groaning my bones cleave to my skin.”
But in Jesus, all that was of energy and force was offered to Him for a sweet savor — God’s food of the offering. In this Jehovah Himself found His delight, for it was very good — good in perfect obedience.
The Excellency of Christ
If the eye of God passed over this earth, not until Jesus was seen in it could His eye rest in complacency and peace. The moment He presented Himself in public service, heaven opened, the Holy Spirit descended to dwell in this His one resting place here, and the Father’s voice declares from heaven, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matt. 3:1717And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. (Matthew 3:17)). Was this Object to lose its excellence in the midst of a world of sin? No, it was there its excellency was proved.
He learned obedience by the things which He suffered, for every spring of His heart was consecrated to God. Jehovah found continued delight in Him, and above all in His death: The food of the offering was there. The fat being burned as a burnt offering, the consecration to God is pursued to its full point of acceptance and grace.
The Law of the Offerings
Turning to the law of the offerings (Lev. 7:28-3428And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 29Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, He that offereth the sacrifice of his peace offerings unto the Lord shall bring his oblation unto the Lord of the sacrifice of his peace offerings. 30His own hands shall bring the offerings of the Lord made by fire, the fat with the breast, it shall he bring, that the breast may be waved for a wave offering before the Lord. 31And the priest shall burn the fat upon the altar: but the breast shall be Aaron's and his sons'. 32And the right shoulder shall ye give unto the priest for an heave offering of the sacrifices of your peace offerings. 33He among the sons of Aaron, that offereth the blood of the peace offerings, and the fat, shall have the right shoulder for his part. 34For the wave breast and the heave shoulder have I taken of the children of Israel from off the sacrifices of their peace offerings, and have given them unto Aaron the priest and unto his sons by a statute for ever from among the children of Israel. (Leviticus 7:28‑34)), we find that the rest was eaten. The breast was for Aaron and his sons, type of the whole church; the right shoulder was for the priest that sprinkled the blood, more especially a type of Christ, as the offering priest. The rest of the animal was eaten by him who presented it and those invited by him. Thus there was identity and communion with the delight of Him to whom it was offered, with the priesthood and the altar, which were the instruments and means of the offering. We indeed should eat in the name of the Lord Jesus, offering our sacrifices of thanksgiving, and so consecrate all we partake of, and ourselves in it, in communion with the Giver.
Thus the offering of Christ as a burnt offering is God’s delight: It is of sweet savor with Him. Before the Lord, at His table, so to speak, the worshipers, also coming by this perfect sacrifice, feed on it also and have perfect communion with God in the same delight in the perfect sacrifice of Jesus. As parents have a common joy in their offspring, the worshipers have one mind with the Father in their delight in the excellency of an offered Christ. And the Priest who has ministered all this has His share also. Further, the whole church of God must be embraced in it.
Such then is all true worship of the saints. In heaven He shall gird Himself, make them sit down to meat, and come forth and serve them (Luke 12).
The Joy of Worship
The joy of worship necessarily associates itself also with the whole body of the redeemed, viewed as in the heavenly places. Aaron and his sons, type of the church, have title to enter into the heavenly places and offer incense, having been made priests to God. Hence true worship cannot separate itself from the whole body of true believers. I cannot come with my sacrifice to the tabernacle of God without finding there the priests of the tabernacle. Without the one Priest all is vain, but I cannot find Him without His whole body of manifested people. I cannot approach Him but in association with the whole body of those who are sanctified in Christ. He who walks not in this spirit is in conflict with the ordinance of God and has no true peace offering according to God’s institution.
But there were other circumstances we must notice. First, only those that were clean could partake among the guests. Israelites then partook of the peace offerings, and if an Israelite was unclean, he could not eat while his defilement continued. Only Christians whose hearts are purified by faith can worship before God, and if the heart is defiled, communion is interrupted. No person apparently defiled has title to share in the worship and communion of the church of God. True worshipers must worship the Father in Spirit and in truth, for the Father seeks such to worship Him (John 4:23-2423But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. 24God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. (John 4:23‑24)). If worship and communion are by the Spirit, only those who have the Spirit of Christ and also have not grieved the Spirit can participate.
Yet there was another part of this type which seemed to contradict this, but which indeed throws additional light on it. With the offerings which accompanied this sacrifice, it was ordered (Lev. 7:1313Besides the cakes, he shall offer for his offering leavened bread with the sacrifice of thanksgiving of his peace offerings. (Leviticus 7:13)) that leavened cakes should be offered. Though that which is unclean is to be excluded, there is always a mixture of evil in us and in our worship itself. The leaven is there; it may not come into the mind when the Spirit is not grieved, but it is there where man is. Unleavened bread was there also, for Christ is there.
The Vow and the Thanksgiving
There was another very important direction in this worship. In the case of a vow, it might be eaten the second day after the burning of the fat; in the case of thanksgiving, it was to be eaten the same day. This identified the purity of the service of the worshipers with the offering of the fat to God. It is impossible to separate true spiritual worship and communion from the perfect offering of Christ to God. The moment our worship separates itself from this, it becomes carnal, and either a form or the delight of the flesh. If the peace offering was eaten separately from this offering of the fat, it was a mere carnal festivity and was really iniquity. When the Holy Spirit leads us into real spiritual worship, it leads us into all the infinite acceptability to God of the offering of Christ. Apart from this, then, our worship falls back into the flesh; our prayers become a fluent rehearsal of known truths and principles, instead of the expression of praise and thanksgiving in the joy of communion. Our singing is pleasure of the ear, taste in music, and expressions in which we sympathize — all a form in the flesh and not communion in the Spirit.
It is well to note that we may begin in the Spirit and pass into the flesh in worship. The spiritual mind will discover this at once when it happens. The Lord keep us nigh to Himself to judge all things in His presence, for out of it we can judge nothing!
For the Lord
It is good to bear strongly in mind this expression: “That pertain unto the Lord” (Lev. 7:2020But the soul that eateth of the flesh of the sacrifice of peace offerings, that pertain unto the Lord, having his uncleanness upon him, even that soul shall be cut off from his people. (Leviticus 7:20)). The worship is not ours; it is the Lord’s. The Lord has put it there for our joy, that we may participate in His joy in Christ, but the moment we make it ours, we desecrate it. Hence what remained was burnt in the fire; hence what was unclean must have nothing to do with it. Hence the necessity of associating it with the fat burned to the Lord, that it may be really Christ in us, and so true communion.
Let us remember that all our worship pertains to God—that it is the expression of the excellency of Christ in us, and so it is our joy, as by one Spirit, with God. He in the Father, we in Him, and He in us is the marvelous chain of union which exists in grace as well as in glory: Our worship is the outgoing and joy of heart founded on this, towards God, by Christ. So, as He Himself is ministering in this, the Lord says, “I will declare Thy name unto My brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto Thee” (Heb. 2:1212Saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee. (Hebrews 2:12)). What perfect experience of what is acceptable before God must He have, who, in redemption, has presented all according to God’s mind! His mind is the expression of all that is agreeable to the Father and leads us, taught by Himself, though imperfect and feeble in it, in the same acceptability. “We have the mind of Christ” (1 Cor. 2:1616For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. (1 Corinthians 2:16)).
J. N. Darby (adapted)