(Lev. 1:16; 6:10; 10:12)
The Altar
The features connected with the place mentioned in these passages merit consideration. They afford us spiritual instruction. The altar itself, with the offerings identified with it, we well know is typical of Christ and His sacrifice. Its materials, dimensions, and details of construction all contribute to the lesson, while the burnt offering from which it derives its name-"the altar of burnt offering"-presents our blessed Lord as the perfectly obedient Son and Servant in His absolute devotion to the will of God the Father, a sacrifice of sweet-smelling savor in which we are accepted. Then, too, memorials from all the other classes of sacrifices-meal, peace, sin, trespass-were placed on this altar and consumed with the whole burnt offering. How strikingly this links them all together, setting forth by their varied instruction the fulness of the work of Christ by which God is glorified and we are eternally blessed.
The Ashes
We learn from the first two passages that the ashes were gathered and laid up beside the altar, on the east side, and then later removed to a clean place. They present a witness to the full action of the fire, a testimony to the completed sacrifice. God has acted in holy judgment, all has been endured and the work perfectly finished, the ashes are the memorial of its accomplishment. The word for ashes is not the usual one, it is only used in relation to sacrifice, and literally means "fat"-that which God claimed as His special portion out of the offerings. This surely indicates that the ashes are of value in His sight, and as a memorial signify that in which He has pleasure, for they constitute a witness to the completed and accepted sacrifice which has so fully glorified Him.
The location in which these ashes are placed, that is, on the east side where they would appear in the light of the rising sun, is suggestive of association with the glory of God. Fitting indeed that such a memorial should appear in that light-the night gone, the day come. And such is the place of our blessed Saviour. He, having completed the great work of eternal redemption, is con- , sequently seen in God's glory. In it He appears having once suffered for sins. How blessed for us to take our place beside the altar, and consider the place of the ashes! It not only brings before us the finished character of the work, but also the truth of resurrection, and the glory into which He has entered who by one sacrifice for sins perfects forever all who trust in Him.
The holy character which God attaches to these ashes is intimated in the requirement that the priest who takes them up must wear his linen garments. May we not link with this the thought of Christ's priestly place? What that place really means in relation to us is connected with the accomplished and accepted sacrifice in virtue of which He appears for us in the presence of God. Then, in a secondary way, may we not also think of our own place in holy priesthood? Believers are such, and serve as priests because identified with Him whose once-for-all sacrifice is memorialized in the glory of God by the very place He fills in it. It is thus indeed that we are seen as robed in righteousness (linen), made fit as to standing for the service of the sanctuary; and on the other hand, to take up the ashes and place them on the east side, viewed as our priestly appropriation of the truth they convey, we for this need to be invested in practical righteousness (Compare 1 Peter 2).
Communion
Our third scripture suggests that the place beside the altar is one of priestly feasting. This comes out after the sin and judgment of Nadab and Abihu. The priests are warned against what would intoxicate and excite to fleshly activity. They are to avoid such things that they may be able to rightly discern and teach (vers. 9-11). Then follows the instruction to eat the meal offering, without leaven, beside the altar. How significant that the meal offering should be particularly mentioned! It is typical of the holy and perfect humanity of our blessed Lord, seen under various forms of trial and suffering, but ever full of the Holy Spirit (Lev. 2). Truly with Him as Man there was the utter absence of any mere exhilaration by things of nature, as also of any evil in His nature which would respond to such fleshly influences, so that with Him there was the perfection of discernment and teaching. Christ indeed is our true meal offering, and it is only as we assimilate Him, enter into the blessedness of His mind and manner of life, that we properly occupy our priestly place.
But the priests must eat beside the altar. There too we must feast upon Christ as presented in the meal offering, ever thus reminded of both the altar and the sacrifice on the one hand, and also as viewing the place of the ashes on the east side, the double witness to our acceptance in the value of the perfectly accomplished and accepted sacrifice, and our new place based upon this which is in the light of the glory of God.
An Application
May we not think of our Lord's Day morning meeting as a priestly gathering together beside the altar? There we are called to remember Him who is both our altar and sacrifice, the memorials of which are before us in the bread and wine. May we not say that there in spirit we look upon the "fat-ashes" in the light of the glory of God? We recall where He was, and rejoice to know where He is. We worship as looking back, and looking up. The sufferings and the following glories are now before us to deeply move our hearts and stir our spirits. We also, to speak in the language of the types, feast upon the meal offering, look upon the blood-sprinkled altar (Lev. 1:5), and consider the continual sacrifice and the continual fire (Num. 28:3; Lev. 6:12,13)-symbols of the ever-abiding and unchangeable redemption we have in Him to whom all these things bear witness. Again, it is in the light of resurrection we are thus gathered together, as in our midst He greets us as His brethren in relationship with His God and Father, now ours also, and He shows us His hands and His side- the memorial of His accomplished sacrifice.
Finally, holiness is emphasized as to the sacrifice, the eating of it (without leaven), and the place in which to eat it ("in a holy place," R.V.). "Let us keep the feast …with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth;" in separation from iniquity, and in a manner worthy of the Lord whose death we announce (1 Cor. 5:10,11). The same lesson appears in the requirement that the priests be clothed in linen "when they come near to the altar." Called to this by Him who is holy, let us be found holy in all manner of life. John Bloore