Leviticus; The Law of Holiness and Grace

Sacrifice and Conspicuous Waste

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Pentateuch

Genre: Lessons with Q&A

Lesson: 3

Track: 03

Dictation Name: RR172B3

Date: Early 70s

Let us worship God. Our help is in the name of the Lord who made Heaven and Earth. The hour cometh and now is when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father seeketh such to worship Him. God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. Let us pray.

Oh Lord our God, maker of Heaven and Earth, we thank Thee that Thou art on the throne and that the foolishness and evil of men Thou shalt in Thy good time confound and destroy. Therefore give us grace that we may so work in that confidence, that we may know there is more in every event, more than we can ever imagine, all that we do and say, and that greater is He that is with us and in us than he that is in the World. We thank Thee for Thy power and presence. For Thy Holy Spirit, for They everlasting arms which under gird all that we are and all that we do. Our God, we praise Thee. In Christ's name, amen.

Our scripture this morning is from Leviticus 2. The second chapter. Our subject, sacrifice and conspicuous waste. Sacrifice and conspicuous waste. Leviticus 2:

"1And when any will offer a meat offering unto the Lord, his offering shall be of fine flour, and he shall pour oil upon it, and put frankincense thereon;

"2And he shall bring it to Aaron's sons, the priests; and he shall take thereout his handful of the flour thereof, and of the oil thereof, with all the frankincense thereof: and the priest shall burn the memorial of it upon the altar, to be an offering made by fire, of a sweet savor unto the Lord.

"3And the remnant of the meat offering shall be Aaron's and his son's: it is a thing most holy of the offerings of the Lord made by fire.

"4And if thou bring an oblation of a meat offering baked in the oven, it shall be unleavened cakes of fine flour mingled with oil, or unleavened wafers anointed with oil.

"5And if thy oblation be a meat offering baked in a pan, it shall be of fine flour unleavened, mingled with oil.

"6Thou shalt part it in pieces, and pour oil thereon: it is a meat offering.

"7And if thy oblation be a meat offering baked in the frying pan, it shall be made of fine flour with oil.

"8And thou shalt bring the meat offering that is made of these things unto the Lord: and when it is presented unto the priest, he shall bring it unto the altar.

"9And the priest shall take from the meat offering a memorial thereof, and shall burn it upon the altar: it is an offering made by fire, of a sweet savor unto the Lord.

"10And that which is left of the meat offering shall be Aaron's and his sons: it is a thing most holy of the offerings of the Lord made by fire.

"11No meat offering, which ye shall bring unto the Lord, shall be made with leaven; for ye shall burn no leaven, nor any honey, in any offering of the Lord made by fire.

"12As for the oblation of the first fruits, ye shall offer them unto the Lord; but they shall not be burned on the altar for a sweet savor.

"13And every oblation of thy meat offering shalt thou season with salt neither shalt thou suffer the salt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking from thy meat offering: with all thine offerings thou shalt offer salt.

"14And if thou offer a meat offering of thy first fruits unto the Lord, thou shalt offer for the meat offering of thy first fruits green ears of corn dried by the fire, even corn beaten out of full ears.

"15And thou shalt put oil upon it, and lay frankincense thereon: it is a meat offering.

"16And the priest shall burn the memorial of it, part of the beaten corn thereof, and part of the oil thereof, with all the frankincense thereof: it is an offering made by fire unto the Lord."

To understand this chapter we must understand the term 'meat offering' which is now for us a deceptive term since the word 'meat' has in the modern vocabulary a restrictive meaning. As originally used in the King James Version it meant something broader. In this context, grain. The same is true of the word 'corn' in verses 14 and 16. It does not mean the indian corn that we know, but grains.

Oblation means anything offered in worship which is rightfully offered and is acceptable to God. The smallest meal offering, one tenth of an ephah, was more than three quarts. The Hebrew text, however, does not read 'meal offering,' but {?} a gift or offering. This was an offering therefore of grains, grains which are the product of a man's work. Either the grain or the flour or cakes or wafers made from the flour could be offered.

Their preparation was strictly specified. It had to be the best flour with good cooking oil, prepared in any one of three utensils: an oven, a pan, or a frying pan. The oil is commonly olive oil and it had an extensive symbolism throughout the Biblical world. As Samuel Clark noted, "There were three principle uses of oil familiar to the Hebrews. First it was employed to anoint the surface of the body in order to mollify the skin, to heal injuries and to strengthen muscles. Second, it was largely used as an ingredient of food. And third, it was commonly burned in lamps. In each of these uses, it may be taken as a fit symbol of divine grace. It might figure as conferring on each believer the strength and faculties required to carry on his work as supporting and renewing him day by day with fresh supplies of life, and as giving light, comfort, and guidance into all truth." All of these meanings are very extensively supported in the Bible.

There was however a more basic meaning to all Hebrew worshipers. Grain as bread, meaning thick, heavy black bread--whole grain--together with oil (olive oil), was the bread and butter of everyday life. So that the prayer "Give us this day our daily bread," has reference precisely to that. It was for most people the mainstay of their diet. The meaning of the sacrifice was, first, our daily bread, the symbol of our daily life, was laid out on the altar in a surrender to the Lord. This means that we are ready to surrender our sustenance because we know that all things come from Him and we are totally dependent on Him. Second, nothing in this offering was retained by the worshiper. The totality of life is surrendered to the Lord. Third, giving all to God means giving in and through the atonement having access thereby to the Father, having received life in and through Him, we in return surrender it to Him. And then fourth, we are acceptable not of ourselves, but because of the atonement. Because of Christ who renews the covenant. Salt therefore can never be lacking in this offering, according to verse 13. Salt is a preserving agent. It was the refrigeration of antiquity. It stands for incorruption, that the covenant as made by the grace of God in Christ cannot be broken.

Now the grain offered as such was in three ways, verses 1-3, the uncooked flour. Verses 4-11 meal and oil cooked in various ways. And then, in the latter verses, the best of the new ears parched in fire. The grain offered had to be the first fruits. As Porter notes, "The Hebrew word for 'first fruits' here means literally 'beginning' and this indicates their significance. In Hebrew thought the first member of a series contained all that followed. So that when the first produce of herds or crops was offered to God, He in fact received the whole, His rightful due as the giver of all increase, and the remainder was then available for His use. It is the same idea as that lying behind 'token' in verse 2."

Christ, we are told, is the first fruits of them that are asleep. This means that every one of us share in the resurrection because He is resurrected. That every one of us share in a resurrection body because He has such a body. It means here, then that because we offer the first fruits we offer ourselves and we say that everything we are and everything we gain is going to be used to the glory of God, so that apart from the tithe or the first fruits that we give Him, everything else as we use it is going to be for His glory and we ourselves will serve Him.

The priests received much of this offering, as verses 3 and 10 makes clear. A fundamental premise of scripture is, as our Lord says, "The laborer is worthy of his hire." Paul cites our Lord and also the Old Testament, "thou shalt not muzzle the ox which treadeth out the corn," which means that the laborer is worthy of his hire. Again and again. Thus it is applicable to all men. To those who minister in the Lord's work and to all others. As we saw in studying Paul and Galatians, wages are a form of communication. God judges all men for their evil communications or bad pay, as Galatians 6:6-10 clearly make out.

We cannot divorce morality from economics. When we do, we bring on judgment. This applies to all workers in every field. As George Bush, a century and half ago, commented with regard to this text, "The remnant of the meat offering shall be Aaron's. In every dispensation God has evinced a kind concern for the maintenance of those who are devoted to the ministry in sacred things. Those who labor in the Word are to be competently supported. 'Do you not know that they which minister about holy things live of the things of the temple? And they which wait at the altar are partakers of the altar? Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the Gospel shall live of the Gospel.’?” And he and others go on to make clear that this is the premise of all scripture from the ox on up. All are worthy of their hire and are to be compensated accordingly.

We come now to a fact very often noted by critics of the Old Testament sacrifices. They show a tremendous horror for all the animals daily killed and burned on the altar, for all the first fruits of grain, of fruits, of—everything—brought and given to the priest and also burned upon the altar. This has been seen as wasteful and as an outrage. And remarks have been made, ‘think how many poor people could have been fed with this food, with this meat, with these steers, sheep, goats, and other animals.’ Well, well before our time and the liberal critics, the disciples had voiced like thinking. We read in Mark14:3-9:

“3And being in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at meat, there came a woman, having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard, very precious; and she broke the box, and poured it on his head.

“4And there were some that had indignation within themselves, and said, why was the waste of the ointment made?

“5For it might have been sold for more than three hundred pence, and have been given to the poor. And they murmured against her.

“6And Jesus said, Let her alone. Why trouble ye her? She hath wrought a good work on me.

“7For ye have the poor with you always, and, whensoever ye will, ye may do them good; but me ye have not always.

“8She hath done what she could; she is come beforehand to anoint my body to the burying.

“9Verily I say unto you, wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be spoken of her, for a memorial.”

Given the foods required by the sacrificial system: grains, meats and wine, and given the number of Israelites who had to offer up sacrifices, we would have to describe the sacrificial system as, humanly speaking, an example of conspicuous waste. But this waste of food, however, was not the only form of required waste. In the Bible, the waste of time is equally notable. The required abstention from work one day in seven, and then one year in seven, plus all the Holy Days as well means that no small amount of time was removed from productivity.

Now in the one sense, we can say it was justified. We know that land that is allowed to rest one year in seven greatly increases its fertility. The microorganisms in the soil proliferate. The soil becomes greatly more fertile. But there is a much more important factor.

To regard the sacrifices of food and time as conspicuous waste is to think Humanistically, to think without God. The French Revolution and then the Bolshevik Revolution moved strongly and viciously against all such waste; the waste of food, of money given to the church, of time one day in seven. And they tried to re-order the week and the calendar. And of men, they said, all these people wasting their time on religion when they could be socially productive. Isn’t it curious that with both productive declined dramatically? And in all cultures as men depart from faith and from resting in God, productivity declines.

Such conspicuous waste from the Humanistic point of view is, from a Biblical perspective, a recognition that it is not our doing and planning that prospers us, but God’s government. Whatever we give to God in time, money, or goods is a recognition that we prosper most when we take hands off our lives and commit them into God’s care. Mrs. Howard Taylor, in a book written a generation or more ago, described the life of William Whiting Borden who died in 1913 in Egypt as a missionary, still a young man. And she cited the words written by young Borden in a notebook in his freshman year shortly after his conversion. These were the words, “Lord Jesus, I take hands off as far as my life is concerned. I put Thee on the throne in my heart. Change, cleanse, use me as Thou shalt choose. I take the full power of Thy Holy Spirit. I thank Thee. May never know a tithe of the result until morning.” By viewing life in the world as though man were an economic animal, we have warped ourselves. And our politics today is warped--dramatically warped--because it views man as an economic animal.

Thus we have a paradox. The laborer, we are told, is worthy of his hire. And we are not to think of, in terms of the marketplace, but rather in terms of communication and community, that every man is worthy of his hire. Rewards are given attention. But at the same time, material wealth is discarded by sacrifices. And time as a form of wealth is wasted in God’s Sabbaths. Some would regard both the Biblical requirement concerning pay as well as the sacrifice of time and goods and of people as instances of prodigal and conspicuous waste. But man is not a creature of the free market or any kind of market. He is neither a political animal nor an economic animal. He cannot live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Man is a religious creature, created in the image of God and he cannot have life on his terms without disaster. Only as man gives himself to the author of life, Jesus Christ, who is the Way the Truth and the Life can man thrive and grow. What appears to others, to outsiders, to be conspicuous waste is in reality evidence of life and freedom. It means giving ourselves to life rather than to death. Where men withhold themselves from giving their time, money, goods, and selves to God in Christ, there we have the clearest instances of conspicuous waste.

Let us pray.

Oh, Lord our God, keep us from wastefulness of our lives and of our substance. Teach us to give ourselves unto Thee, to take hands off our lives and rest in Thee, work in Thee, rejoice in Thee, knowing that this is our calling and this is our life. Bless us to this purpose we beseech Thee in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Are there any questions now on our lesson?

Yes.

[Audience] I’ve two comments. One is that somebody said the average American doesn’t like to waste his time but doesn’t mind wasting his life.

[Rushdoony] Yes, good…

[Audience] And the other is that is somewhat ironic that the only people that get a sabbatical at the end of every seven years are, are sectarian protractors.

[Rushdoony] Yes. The universities were originally Christian institutions, all of them, and they observed the Sabbath. But, ah, it’s the only area where the Sabbath now prevails. Although, a few years back, I heard talk about granting it to Federal employees. I think it probably was nothing more than an expressed wish because I think even Congress would hesitate at passing such a measure, because Congress wouldn’t want to vote itself out of meeting every seventh year. We could do with a Sabbath from Congress and from state legislatures.

Any other questions or comments?

You can see why the book of Leviticus has, ah, created such a sense of outrage in a great many Humanists. The sacrificial system, the sexual regulations, the dietary laws, the liberal scholars can work up quite a bit of emotional heat over this book.

Yes.

[Audience] I was always under the impression that it was Judas that objected to the ointment and wanted to sell it to the poor.

[Rushdoony] Who?

[Audience] Judas.

[Rushdoony] Ah, Judas did also on another, on an occasion, yes. It may have been this time also, in one of the other gospels.

[Audience] And, it comes up so often. It’s the {?} now for the welfare estate…

[Rushdoony] Yes

[Audience] …that if they don’t take the money from us, that nobody will help the poor.

[Rushdoony] Yes… Well, of course, one of the classic stories about that, which you don’t hear nowadays, but, uh, when I was young, we were told this story; it was common then. But I don’t imagine it’s in any textbook nowadays or in a teacher’s repertoire. There was, ah, a flood in Davey Crockett’s day, and he was partly responsible for voting some emergency money to the flood victims. And when he returned home, one of the first men he met, a friend, said he had no intention of voting for him again, because he was a thief. And Crockett was quite shocked at that, and riled, and the man said, ‘Yes. You voted my money, you robbed me to help those flood victims. It would have been one thing for you to give money out of your pocket and ask me to give money out of my pocket, and I would’ve done it. But you stole it!’ and, ah, Crockett apologized, and made public note of the fact that he had been wrong, and put it in his autobiography. That’s not a story that you’re likely to hear nowadays.

Any other questions or comments? Well if not, let us bow our heads in prayer.

Oh, Lord our God, great and marvelous are thy ways. And we know that in all the events of our time, Thou hast a glorious purpose. That Thou, in Thy wisdom hast ordained that the evil shall prosper, and shall see their folly realized to their own damnation, and Thou in Thy wisdom will destroy them. Give us grace to work, that Thy will may be done in our lives and in all the earth. That our responsibilities under Thee be discharged in season and out of season. Teach us to rest in Thee, to do our work, and to rest knowing that it is Thy work which alone shall prevail. Bless us ever in this service. And now go in peace. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost bless you and keep you, guide and protect you this day and always. Amen.