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6 lines
9.2 KiB
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<p>Here are four laws concerning sacrifices:—</p>
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<p class="tab-1">I. Whatever was offered in sacrifice to God should be without blemish, otherwise it should not be accepted. This had often been mentioned in the particular institutions of the several sorts of offerings. Now here they are told what was to be accounted a blemish which rendered a beast unfit for sacrifice: if it was blind, or lame, had a wen, or the mange (<a class="bibleref" title="Lev.22.22" href="/passage/?search=Lev.22.22">Lev. 22:22</a>),—if it was bruised, or crushed, or broken, or cut (<a class="bibleref" title="Lev.22.24" href="/passage/?search=Lev.22.24">Lev. 22:24</a>), that is, as the Jewish writers understand it, if it was, in any of these ways, castrated, if bulls and rams were made into oxen and weathers, they might not be offered. Moreover a difference is made between what was brought as a free-will offering and what was brought as a vow, <a class="bibleref" title="Lev.22.23" href="/passage/?search=Lev.22.23">Lev. 22:23</a>. And, though none that had any of the forementioned blemishes might be brought for either, yet if a beast had any thing superfluous or lacking (that is, as the Jews understand it, if there was a disproportion or inequality between those parts that are pairs, when one eye, or ear, or leg, was bigger than it should be, or less than it should be)--if there was no other blemish than this, it might be accepted for a free-will offering, to which a man had not before laid himself, nor had the divine law laid him, under any particular obligation; but for a vow it might not be accepted. Thus God would teach us to make conscience of performing our promises to him very exactly, and not afterwards to abate in quantity or value of what we had solemnly engaged to devote to him. What was, before the vow, in our own power, as in the case of a free-will offering, afterwards is not, <a class="bibleref" title="Acts.5.4" href="/passage/?search=Acts.5.4">Acts 5:4</a>. It is again and again declared that no sacrifice should be accepted if it was thus blemished, <a class="bibleref" title="Lev.22.20,Lev.22.21" href="/passage/?search=Lev.22.20,Lev.22.21"><span class="bibleref" title="Lev.22.20">Lev. 22:20</span>, <span class="bibleref" title="Lev.22.21">21</span></a>. According to this law great care was taken to search all the beasts that were brought to be sacrificed, that there might, to a certainty, be no blemish in them. A blemished sacrifice might not be accepted even <i>from the hand of a stranger</i>, though to such all possible encouragement should be given to do honour to the God of Israel, <a class="bibleref" title="Lev.22.25" href="/passage/?search=Lev.22.25">Lev. 22:25</a>. By this it appears that strangers were expected to come to the house of God from a <i>far country</i> (<a class="bibleref" title="1Kgs.8.41,1Kgs.8.42" href="/passage/?search=1Kgs.8.41,1Kgs.8.42"><span class="bibleref" title="1Kgs.8.41">1 Kgs. 8:41</span>, <span class="bibleref" title="1Kgs.8.42">42</span></a>), and that they should be welcome, and their offerings accepted, as those of Darius, <a class="bibleref" title="Ezra.6.9,Ezra.6.10,Isa.56.6,Isa.56.7" href="/passage/?search=Ezra.6.9,Ezra.6.10,Isa.56.6,Isa.56.7"><span class="bibleref" title="Ezra.6.9">Ezra 6:9</span>, <span class="bibleref" title="Ezra.6.10">10</span>; <span class="bibleref" title="Isa.56.6">Isa. 56:6</span>, <span class="bibleref" title="Isa.56.7">7</span></a>. The heathen priests were many of them not so strict in this matter, but would receive sacrifices for their gods that were ever so scandalous; but let strangers know that the God of Israel would not be so served. Now, 1. This law was then necessary for the preserving of the honour of the sanctuary, and of the God that was there worshipped. It was fit that every thing that was employed for his honour should be the best of the kind; for, as he is the greatest and brightest, so he is the best of beings; and he that is the best must have the best. See how greatly and justly displeasing the breach of this law was to the holy God, <a class="bibleref" title="Mal.1.8,Mal.1.13,Mal.1.14" href=
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<p class="tab-1">II. That no beast should be offered in sacrifice before it was eight days old, <a class="bibleref" title="Lev.22.26,Lev.22.27" href="/passage/?search=Lev.22.26,Lev.22.27"><span class="bibleref" title="Lev.22.26">Lev. 22:26</span>, <span class="bibleref" title="Lev.22.27">27</span></a>. It was provided before that the firstlings of their cattle, which were to be dedicated to God, should not be brought to him till after the eighth day, <a class="bibleref" title="Exod.22.30" href="/passage/?search=Exod.22.30">Exod. 22:30</a>. Here it is provided that no creature should be offered in sacrifice till it was eight days old complete. Sooner than that it was not fit to be used at men’s tables, and therefore not a God’s altar. The Jews say, “It was because the sabbath sanctifies all things, and nothing should be offered to God till at least one sabbath had passed over it.” It was in conformity to the law of circumcision, which children were to receive on the eighth day. Christ was sacrificed for us, not in his infancy, though then Herod sought to slay him, but in the prime of his time.</p>
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<p class="tab-1">III. That the dam and her young should not both be killed in one day, whether in sacrifice or for common use, <a class="bibleref" title="Lev.22.28" href="/passage/?search=Lev.22.28">Lev. 22:28</a>. There is such a law as this concerning birds, <a class="bibleref" title="Deut.22.6" href="/passage/?search=Deut.22.6">Deut. 22:6</a>. This was forbidden, not as evil in itself, but because it looked barbarous and cruel to the brute creatures; like the tyranny of the king of Babylon, that slew Zedekiah’s sons before his eyes, and then put out his eyes. It looked ill-natured towards the species to kill two generations at once, as if one designed the ruin of the kind.</p>
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<p class="tab-1">IV. That the flesh of their thank-offerings should be eaten on the same day that they were sacrificed, <a class="bibleref" title="Lev.22.29,Lev.22.30" href="/passage/?search=Lev.22.29,Lev.22.30"><span class="bibleref" title="Lev.22.29">Lev. 22:29</span>, <span class="bibleref" title="Lev.22.30">30</span></a>. This is a repetition of what we had before, <a class="bibleref" title="Lev.7.15,Lev.19.6,Lev.19.7" href="/passage/?search=Lev.7.15,Lev.19.6,Lev.19.7"><span class="bibleref" title="Lev.7.15">Lev. 7:15</span>; <span class="bibleref" title="Lev.19.6">19:6</span>, <span class="bibleref" title="Lev.19.7">7</span></a>. The chapter concludes with such a general charge as we have often met with, to <i>keep God’s commandments</i>, and not to <i>profane his holy name</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="Lev.22.31,Lev.22.32" href="/passage/?search=Lev.22.31,Lev.22.32"><span class="bibleref" title="Lev.22.31">Lev. 22:31</span>, <span class="bibleref" title="Lev.22.32">32</span></a>. Those that profess God’s name, if they do not make conscience of keeping his commandments, do but profane his name. The general reasons are added: God’s authority over them—<i>I am the Lord</i>; his interest in them—I am <i>your God</i>; the title he had to them by redemption—“I <i>brought you out of the land of Egypt</i>, on purpose that I might be your God;” the designs of his grace concerning them—<i>I am the Lord that hallow you</i>; and the resolutions of his justice, if he had not honour from them, to <i>get himself honour</i> upon them—I will be <i>hallowed among the children of Israel</i>. God will be a loser in his glory by no man at last; but sooner or later will recover his right, either in the repentance of sinners or in their ruin.</p>
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