Leviticus; The Law of Holiness and Grace

The Glory of the Lord

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Pentateuch

Genre: Lessons with Q & A

Lesson: 16

Track: 16

Dictation Name: RR172H16

Date: Early 70s

Let us worship God. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come before His presence with singing. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise. Be thankful unto Him and bless His name, for the Lord is good, His mercy is everlasting and His truth endureth to all generations. Let us pray.

Oh Lord our God, we thank Thee that in this world of sin, we have the light of grace through Jesus Christ. That in this world of turmoil, we have the peace that passeth understanding, the assurance that Thou art on the throne and all things are in Thine omnipotent hands. Guide and bless us in Thy service, that in Christ’s name and in Thy spirit, we may exercise dominion in every sphere of life and thought, and be more than conquerors through Him that loved us, even Jesus Christ our Lord. In His name we pray. Amen.

Our scripture this morning is Leviticus 9 and our subject, “The Glory of the Lord.” Leviticus 9. Since the first part of the chapter gives us the various offerings, which we’ve already considered in some detail, we will read beginning with the 22nd verse; the 22nd verse of Leviticus 9 “The Glory of the Lord.”

“22 And Aaron lifted up his hand toward the people, and blessed them, and came down from offering of the sin offering, and the burnt offering, and peace offerings.

23 And Moses and Aaron went into the tabernacle of the congregation, and came out, and blessed the people: and the glory of the Lord appeared unto all the people.

24 And there came a fire out from before the Lord, and consumed upon the altar the burnt offering and the fat: which when all the people saw, they shouted, and fell on their faces.”

This chapter gives us the installation of the priests, the atonement of the congregation, and the blessing of God. In verse 1, we have a reference to the elders of Israel, and in verse 3 to the children of Israel. But apart from these two verses, every reference in this chapter is not to Israel or to the Hebrews, but to the people. This is very significant, because here we have the congregation of the covenanted people gathered together for the installation of the priests, and for the beginning of the religious life of Israel in the tabernacle. And yet, there is no reference to the Hebrew people.

The reason is a very, very important one. They are not called Hebrews because, as Exodus 12:38 tells us, they left Israel a mixed multitude. They were sufficiently a mixed multitude that is, racially mixed, that this reference is given to us. They could not be called simply ‘Hebrews.’ We know that there were Egyptians and we know that there were Ethiopians, a variety of peoples brought together by the fact of the plagues upon Egypt; people who turned to the Lord. People who celebrated the Passover, and therefore as they are gathered together, they are not identified racially or nationally, but in terms of the covenant. They are God’s congregation, God’s people; not a race.

Now, what percentage of these were of Hebrew blood? Abrahamic Blood? We know from Genesis that at one point when Abraham went to rescue his nephew, he took 318 fighting men from his own household. This means that there were a comparable number who were elderly, who stayed to look after the flock and the women and children, and a comparable number probably who were quite young, who were children. This would give us close to a thousand males in Abraham’s household, and a comparable number of women. Now, in that number, 2,000, there was one person with the blood of Abraham: Isaac. Not yet born at the time, but subsequently, when probably the number 2,000 was much greater. Those who went into Egypt who were of Abraham’s blood, the whole group went down. That’s why—because they were so numerous—they were given the land of Goshen. But those who were of Abrahamic blood at the time were less than 100. This tells us then, that a people large enough numerically to occupy a whole section of Egypt had a very scant amount of Abrahamic blood. And now as they leave Egypt, they’ve picked up even more.

Thus, we have to recognize that Israel represents a religious nation—not a people who are nationally akin. They are religiously akin. We would have to add that this is true of Israel to this day, and this is why the courts in Israel consistently avoid coming to grips with the issue of what is a Jew? Over the centuries a great number of Jews became Christians and a great number of people throughout Europe, pagans in most cases, became Jews. Thus, these people are a religious congregation.

Then we have the successive offerings as the priests are installed. First, in verses 1-3, and 8 and 11, the sin offering, part of it burned on the altar, and the flesh and the hide outside the camp. As Thomas Scott noted almost two centuries ago concerning this, “The priests ate the sin offerings of the people as typically bearing their iniquity, but they could not bear their own sin and therefore they ate no part of any sin offerings sacrificed for themselves. But the whole was carried forth out of the camp, was taken away by Christ the great antitype. There is no approach to God without the atonement and as a result, the necessity of the priesthood; the priesthood as a stand-in for the priest who was to come, Jesus Christ. There was therefore a need until Christ came for sacrifices, for a priesthood, an altar, the tabernacle as the meeting place between God and Man. Now Christ is that meeting place, and as members of Jesus Christ, of His body, we meet God in Him. The price of sin is spelled out: the bloody sacrifices.

Now when you think of the tremendous amount of sacrifice necessitated, it’s obvious there was a lot of blood shed. It was, in some sense, however carefully organized and orchestrated by the priesthood over the centuries a major shedding of blood. In fact, we could call it a messy business perhaps. I say that deliberately, because I recall a good many years ago on (I think) my first trip into the South. I met with this doctor in the Deep South who told me of his initiation into medical practice. He worked as an intern in a hospital where they had a clinic and most of the patients at the clinic came either with V.D. or they were cut up from violence. And he said it was a very interesting indoctrination into medical practice. And he said the thing it did for him was this: he had lived a protected life, but it de-glamorized sin for him. He saw day by day in that free clinic the consequences of sin and it was, he said, a dirty, filthy, ugly, messy business. That’s what sin always is. Sin always has a price; a bloody price. It has no pretty end or conclusion, left to itself.

Then after the sin offerings to make atonement, we have in verses 12 and 14, the burnt offering, all of which was consumed on the altar. This was to signify the total dedication of the believer and of the priest to God. At this point, we have a grim historical fact. This event comes after Exodus 32. In Exodus 32 we have the incident of the golden calf. When Moses went up to the mount to receive the commandments from God, he tarried for some time and the people became impatient, and they weren’t sure they liked the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And so they asked for a god they recognized, a god of Egypt—the cult of the bull calf, a fertility cult. And Aaron complied. He did not initiate it, initiate this move, but he was a willing accomplice. He was not a strong man. So that he was involved in this most flagrant sin. Now, he must sacrifice a bull calf in atonement for his sin. a grim and ironic fact. It also shows the forgiveness of God.

The people’s offering, in verse 15 is cited, a goat.

Then third, we have the meal offering in verse 17 which signified the dedication of one’s work and production to God. In the burnt offering which preceded it, the priest and the believers dedicated their persons, their lives. But in the meal offering they had to dedicate their work, the production of the field, the work of their hands. This is an important point, because too often in pietistic teaching we hear a great deal about surrendering all to Jesus. But it certainly doesn’t include their pocketbook! Or their time! It doesn’t include dominion activity; it just includes pious gush. Now that’s not what these offerings signify. The burnt offering signified the total dedication of our person; the meal offering, the dedication of our work. There has to be a unity. And if our person is dedicated, then our works, our production, will inevitably be dedicated.

Then fourth came the peace offering, in verses 18 through 21 signifying communion between God and Man, between God and His covenant people. And it was concluded, we are told, by a blessing; probably the blessing given in Numbers 6:24-26 for Aaron to pronounce, a familiar one: the Lord bless thee and keep thee, the Lord make His face to shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee. The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace.

Now came fire from Heaven as well as the glory of the Lord, which appeared, we are told, to all the people. This same fire from Heaven later came down to burn up the sacrifices of Gideon to indicate God’s miraculous presence would be with him. It came down when Elijah at Mount Carmel offered up the sacrifice, and again when Solomon dedicated the temple. The rabbis declared that the fire from Heaven was kept alive on the altar until the building of Solomon’s Temple when it fell afresh. Its history thereafter is less certain, given the periods of faithlessness.

Then, the glory of the Lord. According to Porter, “In the Old Testament the word ‘glory’ almost always means the visible appearance of wealth and splendor which indicates a man’s importance.” We know from Exodus 16:10 and 24:15-17 that God’s glory had already been seen as a fiery cloud. But we have to recognize that the glory of the Lord which signifies somehow His presence, and we’re not told in what form—or how! The fiery cloud and the pillar, but beyond that, no specifics. Whenever God approaches this world, it has consequences. We have to see the plagues on Egypt as the glory of the Lord being manifest, and when the glory of the Lord appears, when God draws near, it means judgment upon history as well as redemption. We cannot separate God’s glory from His nature and being. As a result, when He manifests His glory we see deliverance and blessing on the one hand, and judgment and death on the other. Here as soon as the people are reconciled to God, God’s blessings are poured out on them.

But the greatest appearance of God’s glory is to come with our Lord’s return. It follows that Christ’s second coming is also the last judgment. It is the full expression of both His covenant Law and judgment, and also this grace and deliverance. One of the tragic and ugly facts is that pre-millennialism with its many raptures on some hands, has partially separated the return of Christ from the last judgment, but the two are inseparable. You cannot have a secret return of Christ and no judgment striking the World. When the glory of the Lord is manifest, when it appears, there is judgment upon all sinners—again and again as we read the Old Testament. When God reveals Himself, the presence of the Angel of the Lord, to various people, as to the parents of Samson to tell them of the forthcoming birth of their child, and to many others, there immediate reaction is, “We shall surely die!” Being sinners, having seen the glory of the Lord, they felt it was certainly death for them. But because of God’s grace, they did not die; it was instead, their redemption.

The glory of the Lord cannot be a secret event, nor a harmless one. Over and over again in the Old Testament, we are told of the Day of the Lord, days of judgment, many of them occurring over the centuries. And every time, we are told, that it will be a fearful thing for the people. In fact, the prophets tell the people, “You ask for the Day of the Lord? It’s going to be judgment; it’s going to be death for you!” For example, Amos says in Amos 5:18-20, “Woe unto you who desire the Day of the Lord to what end is it for you? The Day of the Lord is darkness and not light. As if a man did flee from a lion and a bear met him or went into his house and leaned his hand on the wall and a serpent bit him. Shall not the Day of the Lord be darkness and not light, even very dark with no brightness in it?” That’s a grim account of the Day of the Lord, and not the fullness of the day at the end of the world. Revelation tells us that then the ungodly will say to the rocks and the mountains, “Fall on us! Hide us from the face of the Lamb!” Gideon had better sense. When he saw on a limited basis the glory of the Lord and the appearance of the Angel of the Lord, he, knowing himself to be a sinner, feared that he would die. Jerusalem saw God the Son in His incarnation, rejected Him, and perished. Those who look for the any-moment return of Christ in order to be raptured out of the world’s sin and grief are asking for their damnation. Christ’s great commission is a mandate for work, not for escape.

Here the glory of the Lord is manifested, but manifested after atonement had been made for them; after they had dedicated themselves, after they had dedicated their work. And we are told which one all the people saw. They shouted, and the word here means shouted with joy! And fell on their faces. Only when men who profess to believe in Christ dedicate the whole of their lives and work to exercising dominion unto God in Christ can they shout with joy when the Day of the Lord comes. Let us pray.

Our Lord and our God, we thank Thee for this, Thy Word. And we thank Thee that Jesus Christ has made atonement for us. That He summons us now to dedicate our life and our work totally, and without reservation, unto Thee. Bless us to this purpose and grant that all the days of our life we may with joy and thanksgiving serve Thee and know the joy of victory in Christ, may see one sphere of life brought into captivity to Him. Bless us we beseech Thee in Thy service. In His name we pray. Amen.

Are there any questions now about our lesson?

Yes.

[Audience] Uh, these raptures—the impression I get from each and every one of them is he’s absolutely assured that he or she is saved and therefore they have no judgment to fear. You’re suggesting that some of them are self-deceived and even those that are saved haven’t faithfully carried out the works of service that they are required to under the Great Commission {?}

[Rushdoony] Yes, I do believe that some of these people are saved; they are simply going along with the only kind of eschatology they know. But I’m afraid there are too many of them who are radically unsanctified in their life, they believe that having been saved, they can do as they please, go their own way, they “bought fire and life insurance,” as I’ve so often said, and they have no accepted Christ as Lord.

In fact, we have the sad fact that a sizeable percentage of these people deny that Jesus is Lord until the millennium. I’m glad to say that kind of opinion is waning. However, wherever it exists, you have to raise serious questions because we are emphatically told, “Jesus is Lord.” Not “going to be.” And that the Lord, we are told by Paul in Ephesians, has now put all things under His feet. If that isn’t Lordship, I don’t know what the term means! So if God says, “Not in the future but now all things have been put under His feet.” And we now have the requirement to amplify that dominion, to make sure that we recognize it and all men recognize it—His Lordship—His sovereignty. The word ‘lord’ and the word ‘sovereign’ are really the same thing, just different terms coming out of a different context, but meaning exactly the same thing. If we say that Jesus Christ is not sovereign now, or not Lord now, we’re saying history is not in God’s hands, it’s in the devil’s hands. And some are saying that.

Any other questions?

Yes.

[Audience] That, ah, I think you make an excellent point, because if … I’ve met a number of people and read a number of commentaries which either overtly or otherwise seem to suggest, or do suggest that when Jesus said, “Repent! The kingdom of God is at hand.” it didn’t mean during His lifetime, or at the time of His death or His resurrection or His ascension, or any time since, it’s still somehow somewhere out in the far, far future, which of course is ridiculous.

[Rushdoony] Because He was there, the kingdom was right there.

Any other questions or comments? Well if not, let us conclude with prayer.

May Thy grace, mercy and peace be with us, oh Lord as we serve Thee. Grant that the work of our hands be always Thy work, the meditation of our heart and the word in our mouth for Thy sake and for Thy glory. Direct our days and our steps. Grant us Thy peace, in terms of Thy service and victory. 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.