for some mercy received. We must offer to God the sacrifice of praise continually, by Christ our
Peace; and then this shall please the Lord better than an ox or bullock.
Verses 6–17
Here is a law that they should eat neither fat nor blood. As for the fat, it means the fat of the
inwards, the suet. The blood was forbidden for the same reason; because it was God's part of every
sacrifice. God would not permit the blood that made atonement to be used as a common thing, Heb
10:29; nor will he allow us, though we have the comfort of the atonement made, to claim for
ourselves any share in the honour of making it. This taught the Jews to observe distinction between
common and sacred things; it kept them separate from idolaters. It would impress them more deeply
with the belief of some important mystery in the shedding of the blood and the burning the fat of
their solemn sacrifices. Christ, as the Prince of peace, “made peace with the blood of his cross.”
Through him the believer is reconciled to God; and having the peace of God in his heart, he is
disposed to follow peace with all men. May the Lord multiply grace, mercy, and peace, to all who
desire to bear the Christian character.
Chapter 4
Chapter Outline
The sin-offering of ignorance for the priest. (1–12)
For the whole congregation. (13–21)
For a ruler. (22–26)
For any of the people. (27–35)Verses 1–12
Burnt-offerings, meat-offerings, and peace-offerings, had been offered before the giving of the
law upon mount Sinai; and in these the patriarchs had respect to sin, to make atonement for it. But
the Jews were now put into a way of making atonement for sin, more particularly by sacrifice, as
a shadow of good things to come; yet the substance is Christ, and that one offering of himself, by
which he put away sin. The sins for which the sin-offerings were appointed are supposed to be
open acts. They are supposed to be sins of commission, things which ought not to have been done.
Omissions are sins, and must come into judgment: yet what had been omitted at one time, might
be done at another; but a sin committed was past recall. They are supposed to be sins committed
through ignorance. The law begins with the case of the anointed priest. It is evident that God never
had any infallible priest in his church upon earth, when even the high priest was liable to fall into
sins of ignorance. All pretensions to act without error are sure marks of Antichrist. The beast was
to be carried without the camp, and there burned to ashes. This was a sign of the duty of repentance,
which is the putting away sin as a detestable thing, which our soul hates. The sin-offering is called