OFFERINGS Or SIN-OFFERINGS ; and /ast/y, the TIME, PLACE, and MANNER in which they should be made.
Then follows a description of the manner in which Aaron and his sons were consecrated as priests, and how, by the manifestation of the divine glory, they were ordained to be mediators between God and his people (ch. viii., ix.) As formerly the ingratitude of the people had been severely punished (Exod. xxxii. seq.) so now the disobedience of the priests was visited with signal marks of the divine displeasure (Lev. x.) On this occasion were given several laws concerning the requisites of the sacerdotal office.
The theocratical sanctity of the nation was inti mately connected with the existence of the sanc tuary. Every subject, indeed, connected with the sanctuary was intended to uphold a strict separa tion between HOLY and UNHOLY things. The whole theocratical life was based on a strict sepa ration of things UNCLEAN from things CLEAN, which alone were offered to God and might ap proach the sanctuary. The whole creation, and especially all animal life, should, like man himself, bear testimony to the defilement resulting from sin, and to its opposite, viz., the holiness of the Lord (ch. xi.-xv.) The great feast of atonement formed, as it were, the central point of the national sanctity, this feast being appointed to reconcile the whole people to God, and to purify the sanctuary itself. All pre ceding institutions, all sacrifices and purifications, receive their completion in the great feast of Israel's atonement (ch. xvi.) Thus we have seen that the sanctuary was made the POSITIVE central point of the whole nation, or of national holiness ; but it was to be inculcated NEGATIVELY also, that all worship should be con nected with the sanctuary, and that no sacrifices should be offered elsewhere, lest any pagan abuses should thereby strike root again (ch. xvii.) The danger of deserting Jehovah and his wor ship would be increased after the conquest of Canaan, when the Israelites should inhabit a country surrounded by pagans. The following chapters (xviii.-xx.) refer to the very important relation in which Israel stood to the surrounding tribes, and the positive motive for separating them from all other nations ; to the necessity of extir pating the Canaanites ; and to the whole position which the people of the Lord should occupy with reference to paganism. Chapter xviii. begins with
the description of those crimes into which the people might easily be misled by the influence of their pagan neighbours, viz., fornication, contempt of parents, idolatry, etc.
The priests were specially appointed to lead the nation by their good example scrupulously to avoid everything pagan and unclean, and thus to tes tify their faithful allegiance to Jehovah (ch. xxi. xxii. 16). It is particularly inculcated that the sacrifices should be without blemish - and this is made a means of separating the Israelites from all pagan associations and. customs (ch. xxii. 17-33). But the strongest bulwark erected against pagan encroachments was the appointment of solemn religious meetings, in which the attention of the people was directed to the central point of national religion, and which theocratically consecrated their whole proceedings to the worship of God. This was the object of the laws relating to fasts (ch. xxiii.) These laws divided the year into sacred sections, and gave to agricultural life its bearing upon the history of the works of God, and its peculiarly theocratic character, in contradistinction to all pagan worship, which is merely bent upon the symbolisation of the vital powers of nature.
In ch. xxiv. 1-9 follows the law concerning tbe preparation of the sacred oil, and the due setting forth of the shew-bread. Although this is in con nection with ch. xxii. 17, say., it is nevertheless judiciously placed after ch. xxiii., because it refers to the agricultural relation of the Israelites to Jehovah stated in that chapter. The Mosaical legislation is throughout illustrated by facts, and its power and significance are exhibited in the manner in which it subdues all subjective arbitrary opposition. So the opposition of the la.w to paganism, and the evil consequences of every approach to pagans, are illustrated by the history of a man who sprang from a mixed marriage, who cursed Jehovah, and was stoned as Jehovah directed (ch. xxiv. 10-23).