GOD’S ECONOMY
SERIES THIRTEEN
GOD’S ECONOMY IN ALL THE BOOKS OF THE BIBLE
God’s Economy as Revealed in the Old Testament
Message Four
God’s Economy as Revealed in Leviticus
Scripture Reading: John 1:14; 14:2; 1 Tim. 3:15; Lev. 1:1-6:7; 11:44-45; 19:2; 20:7, 26; Exo. 19:6; 22:31; Deut. 14:2; 26:19; 28:9
I. The divine revelation in the Bible is progressive; Genesis reveals God’s creation and man’s fall, and Exodus reveals God’s salvation and the building of God’s habitation; as a further advancement of the divine revelation, Leviticus unveils the worship and living of God’s redeemed people—Gen. 1:1, 2:6, Exo. 14:30, Lev. 11:45: (Holy Bible Recovery Version, Lev. 1:1, footnote 1)
A. While Israel remained with God at Sinai for approximately eleven months, God trained them to worship and partake of Him for their enjoyment and to live a holy, clean, and rejoicing life—Exo. 19:1, cf. Num. 10:11. (Holy Bible Recovery Version, Lev. 1:1, footnote 1)
B. This book shows that through the tabernacle, with the offerings, and by the priests, God’s redeemed are able to fellowship with God, serve God, and be God’s holy people living a holy life, which expresses God—Lev. 20:7, 16:3. (Holy Bible Recovery Version, Lev. 1:1, footnote 1)
C. Christ is everything in the fellowship, service, and life of the people; the worship portrayed in Leviticus is a matter of contacting God by enjoying Christ as the common portion with God and with one another; the issue of enjoying Christ with God is the holy living of God’s people—cf. John 4:24 and notes. (Holy Bible Recovery Version, Lev. 1:1, footnote 1)
II. The first and last verses of Leviticus indicate that the entire book is a record of God’s speaking; the speaking that began here took place in the tabernacle; in type this signifies that God speaks in the church as His tabernacle—John 1:14, 14:2, 1 Tim. 3:15: (Holy Bible Recovery Version, Lev. 1:1, footnote 2)
A. According to the principle of the typology, God speaks in the church as His tabernacle; this Tent of Meeting is the oracle, the place of God’s speaking—Lev. 1:1, 27:34. (2017 WT, msg. 1)
B. The preciousness of the tabernacle was God’s speaking; today the preciousness of the church is the speaking god and God’s speaking—v. 24, 1:1. (2017 WT, msg. 1)
III. God trained His people to worship and partake of Him through the offerings and the priesthood; Christ is the reality of the offerings—John 1:29; 14:6: (2017 WT, msg. 1)
A. The burnt offering, which was wholly for God’s satisfaction, typifies Christ as God’s pleasure and satisfaction, the One whose living on earth was absolutely for God—Lev. 1:3, Num. 28:2-3, John 7:16-18. (2017 WT, msg. 1)
B. The meal offering typifies Christ in His perfect humanity as food for God and for those who have fellowship with God and serve Him—Lev. 2:1, 4; John 7:46; 18:38; 19:4, 6. (2017 WT, msg. 1)
C. The peace offering typifies Christ as the Peacemaker, the One who became the peace and the fellowship between us and God by dying for us, enabling us to enjoy Christ with God and to have fellowship with God in Christ for our mutual satisfaction with God—Lev. 3:1, Eph, 2:14-15, John 12:1-3, 20:21. (2017 WT, msg. 1)
D. The sin offering typifies Christ as the One who was made sin for us and who died on the cross to deal with the sinful nature of our fallen being—Lev. 4:3, 2 Cor. 5:21, Rom. 8:3, John 1:29, 3:14. (2017 WT, msg. 1)
E. The trespass offering typifies Christ as the One who bore our sins in His own body and was judged by God on the cross to deal with our sinful deeds that we might be forgiven in our sinful conduct—Lev. 5:6, 1 Pet. 2:24, 3:18, Isa. 53:5-6, 10-11, John 4:15-18. (2017 WT, msg. 1)
F. The wave offering typifies Christ as the resurrected One in love—Lev. 7:30, 10:15. (2017 WT, msg. 1)
G. The heave offering typifies the powerful Christ in ascension and exaltation—7:32, Exo. 29:27, Eph. 1:21. (2017 WT, msg. 1)
H. The drinking offering typifies Christ, the One poured out as wine before God for His satisfaction and also the One who saturates us with Himself as heavenly wine to be poured out for God’s enjoyment and satisfaction—Lev. 23:13,Exo. 29:40, Num. 28:7-10, Isa. 53:12, Phil. 2:17, 2 Tim. 4:6, Judg. 9:13. (2017 WT, msg. 1)
IV. The ordinances concerning the offerings are a record of the totality of God’s economy—Lev. 1:1-6:7: (Holy Bible Recovery Version, Lev. 7:37, footnote 2)
A. The sequence of the five offerings in 1:1—6:7is according to our practical experience, whereas the sequence in 6:8—7:38 is according to the total picture of God’s economy—cf. 3:1 note 1 and v. 5 note 1, par. 3, in 4:3 note 4. (Holy Bible Recovery Version, Lev. 7:37, footnote 2)
1. In God’s heart and in His desire God would have Christ to be four kinds of offerings to us—the burnt offering, the meal offering, the sin offering, and the trespass offering—that we may enjoy Christ as peace with God in every way—1:3, 2:1, 4, 4:3, 5:6. (Holy Bible Recovery Version, Lev. 7:37, footnote 2)
2. Christ’s being these four offerings consummates in peace between God and God’s people, and this peace is simply Christ Himself—Eph. 2:14. (2017 WT, msg. 1)
3. Eventually, the enjoyment of Christ as all the offerings, issuing in the peace offering, will consummate in the New Jerusalem as the ultimate peace offering, (Jerusalem means the foundation of peace), in which we will enjoy the Triune God as peace for eternity—Phil. 4:7, 9. (2017 WT, msg. 1)
B. We need to experience Christ as the reality of the offerings—John 1:29, 16:13, 1 John 5:6: (2017 WT, msg. 1)
C. According to the record in the holy Word, the reality of the universe is Christ as the tabernacle and the offerings—John 1:14, 29, 14:6: (2017 WT, msg. 1)
1. As the God-man, Christ is the tabernacle to be the dwelling place for God and man, and He is the offerings for man to enter into God—1:14, 14:20, 23, 1:29. (2017 WT, msg. 1)
2. Christ as the tabernacle brings God to man, and Christ as the offerings brings man to God so that man may be united, mingled, and incorporated with God—1:14, 29. (2017 WT, msg. 1)
V. God trained His people to live a holy, clean and rejoicing life—Lev. 11:44-45, 23:1-3: (2017 WT, msg. 1)
A. God charged His people to have a holy living according to His holy nature—Lev. 11:44-45, 19:2, 20:7, 26, Exo. 19:6, 22:31, Deut. 14:2, 26:19, 28:9: (2017 WT, msg. 1)
1. Being holy because God is holy signifies walking according to God’s holiness, living a holy life—Lev. 19:2, 20:7, 1 Pet. 1:15, 2 Pet. 3:11. (2017 WT, msg. 1)
2. Leviticus reveals that in order to live a holy life, we must put off the old life and put on the new (cf. Eph. 4:17-5:21); God charged the people of Israel to put off the former Egyptian conduct (Lev. 18:3a) and not to walk in the statues of the Canaanites (v. 3b). (2017 WT, msg. 1)
3. The mutual enjoyment between God and His people separates His people unto Himself from everything other than Him, making them a holy nation—Exo. 19:6.
4. Before the foundation of the world, God chose us to be holy—Eph. 1:4: (2017 WT, msg. 1)
a. Holy means not only sanctified, separated unto God, but also different, distinct, from everything that is common—note 6. (2017 WT, msg. 1)
b. He makes us holy by imparting Himself, the Holy One, into our being so that our whole being is permeated and saturated with His holy nature—1 Thes. 5:23. (2017 WT, msg. 1)
B. In Leviticus 12—15 God trained His people to live a clean life: (2017 WT, msg. 1)
1. Chapter 12 shows us the cleansing from the human impurity by birth, and chapters 13 and 14 speak of being cleansed from leprosy. (2017 WT, msg. 1)
2. Chapter 15 reveals that we need to be cleansed from all unclean discharges from the human being; anything discharged from our being, including our words, is unclean. (2017 WT, msg. 1)
3. We need the cross of Christ to end our old life and the resurrection of Christ to give us a new beginning—Rom. 6:6, Gal. 2:29, 1 Co. 15:3, 2 Cor. 5:17. (2017 WT, msg. 1)
4. We also need the water of life, which is the washing, cleansing Spirit of life embodied in the word—Eph. 5:26. (2017 WT, msg. 1)
C. God trained the people of Israel to live a rejoicing life, a happy life—Phil. 4:4, 2:18: (2017 WT, msg. 1)
1. The weekly Sabbath was the principal denotation of all the annual feasts; these feasts were a Sabbath, which was for God’s redeemed people to rest with god and with one another—Lev. 23:1-3. (2017 WT, msg. 1)
2. The monthly new moon feast signifies that we can experience a new beginning in Christ as our joy and enjoyment with light in darkness—Num. 10:10, 28:11-15. (2017 WT, msg. 1)
3. The Feast of the Passover typifies Christ as our Passover for our initial and foundational salvation—a time of rejoicing—Lev. 23:4-5, Exo. 12:2-14, 1 Cor. 5:7. (2017 WT, msg. 1)
4. The Feast of Unleavened Bread typifies the entire course of our Christian life without sin—Lev. 23:6-8, Exo. 12:15-20. (2017 WT, msg. 1)
5. The Feast of Firstfruits typifies the resurrected Christ for our enjoyment as a feast in His resurrection—Lev. 23:6-8, 1 Cor. 12:15-20. (2017 WT, msg. 1)
6. The Feast of Pentecost typifies the enjoyment of the outpouring of the Spirit for the formation of the church—Lev. 23:15-22. (2017 WT, msg. 1)
7. The Feast of the Blowing of Trumpets typifies God’s calling together of His scattered people—vv. 23-25, Matt. 24:30-31. (2017 WT, msg. 1)
8. The Feast of Expiation typifies the enjoyment for the whole house of Israel after they will be gathered together by God—Lev. 23:26-32, Rom. 11:25-27, Zech. 12:10-14. (2017 WT, msg. 1)
9. The Feast of Tabernacles typifies the enjoyment of the age of restoration to be fulfilled in the millennium—Lev. 23:33-44, Matt. 19:28, Rev. 20:4, 6. (2017 WT, msg. 1)
10. According to their dispensational fulfillment, the seven annual feasts are related to the enjoyment of Christ by God’s people for the fulfillment of God’s eternal economy—cf. Lev. 23:44 note 1: (Holy Bible Recovery Version, Num. 29:39, footnote 1)
a. The more God’s people enjoy Christ and experience Christ, the more they fulfill God’s economy, and the more they are able to offer Christ to God as food; thus, Christ is God’s food in the way of fulfilling God’s eternal economy—Num. 29:39 note 1. (Holy Bible Recovery Version, Num. 29:39, footnote 1)
b. Because Christ is everything for the fulfillment of God’s economy; He is served to God by His people and enjoyed with God by them; for eternity Christ will be God’s satisfaction, and for eternity we will enjoy the Christ who satisfies God—note 1. (Holy Bible Recovery Version, Num. 29:39, footnote 1)
11. The Sabbath year typifies Christ as our rest in full—Lev. 25:1-7, 18-22. (2017 WT, msg. 1)
12. The jubilee, the Pentecostal year, typifies Christ as our full release, rest, and joy by His redeeming back what we have lost in our rights and have sold in ourselves—vv. 8-17. (2017 WT, msg. 1)