Same Subject Continued
Ver. 1. “And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying.”
There was silence again in the holy place, until Moses had recorded the above precepts bearing oa Jehovah’s own special worship.’ And when these trespasses against the first table of the law had been declared and marked, the voice of the Lord was again heard. We may recognize the same voice that spoke on the mountain of Galilee; for here is the same principle of broad, holy exactness in applying the law as in Matt. v. The mind of the Father and of his Son is one and the same as to the extent of the law, even as it is alike in love to the transgressor.
Vers. 2, 3. “If a soul sin and commit a trespass against the Lord, and lie unto his neighbor in that which was delivered him to keep, or in fellowship, or in a thing taken away by violence, or hath deceived his neighbor; or hath found that which was lost, and lieth concerning it, and sweareth falsely; in any of all these that a man doetl), sinning therein.”
110 TrtE TRESPASS-OFFERING.
Here is a specimen selected of the common forms in which defrauding others may occuc There is first a temptation mentioned, to which friends are exposed with one another in private intercourse. A man asks his friend to keep something for him; or in the wider acceptation of the original term, *(‘i“‘i?B gives a neighbor a trust to manage for him of any kind, or commits to his care for the time, any article. The Sept. have used the word “nopaiyxi;^” which, in 2 Tim. i. 12, is rendered, “what I have covimitted to him.” Anything lent to another is included; a tool, like the Prophet’s borrowed axe (2 Kings vi. 5), or a sum of money left in a neighbor’s keeping (Exod. xxii. 7); in short, any “stuff” (Exod. xxii. 7), or articles ( Q“‘b3 ). A lent book, or borrowed umbrella, would come under this law; and how few have the sincere honesty of that son of the prophets, in 2 Kings vi. 5, vexed because the thing injured in their hands was a borrowed thing! — “Alas! my master, for it was borrowed!” The Lord expects, in such case, complete disinterestedness; the man is to do to others as he would have others do to him. Any denial of having received the thing, any appropriation of it to himself, any carelessness in the keeping of it, is a trespass in the eye of God, You have wronged God in wronging your neighbor.
The case of “fellowship” or partnership, refers to the transactions of public life; not, however, to openly unlawful acts, but to acts lawful in appearance, while selfish in reality. This points specially to business-transactions, where there ought to be the utmost disinterestedness, one partner giving more scrupulous attention to the interests of the other than to his own, mortifying his jealous self-love by his regard to his partner’s concerns
This is the generous morality of the God of Israel. The same head would include the conscientious observances of government regulations or commercial laws, as to taxes on goods. These regulations being understood principles on which trade is carried on, are really of the nature of “fellowship.” So, also, bargains in trade. But, alas! not many are so jealous as Abraham in Gren. xxiii., to avoid even the appearance of wronging others. Most are as Prov. xx. 14.
“A thing’ taken by violence,’’^ includes cases of oppression or hardship, where mere power deals with weakness. Such was Naboth’s case, 1 Kings xxi. 2; such was Isaac’s, Gen. xxvi. 4.
“Or hath deceived his neighbor.’’^ The word pjs is rightly rendered, in the Septuagint, ridixras. It speaks of another form of oppression — “hath deceitfully oppressed.” There are cases of strong, but secret terror, as when a landlord uses his pecuniary superiority to constrain a tenant’s vote, or force a dependent to attend a particular place of worship. It exists, too, where a mistress thoughtlessly gives too much work to her servants, or where a farmer exacts unceasing labor, from morning to night, at the hands of his ploughmen, or where a shopkeeper’s business is carried on at such a rate that his apprentices have no calm rest of body or soul. In another shape, a Jew was guilty of this trespass if, in using the permission (Deut. xxiii. 24, 25) to pluck grapes, or ears of corn, as he passed his neighbor’s grounds, he took more than he would have done had he been in his own vineyard or corn-fields.
“Or hath found that which was lost, and lieth concerning it.” Unconcerned at the anxiety it may have given to the loser, the man refuses to part with what he has found. This is surely selfishness in the extreme. But it is so, also, if the finder is not willing to hear of an owner, glad only at his own advantage, and saying, “The owner may never miss it — Grod has thrown it into my hands.” The Lord teaches us not to build up our joy on the loss or sorrow of others.
Such is the kind care of the Grod of Israel. Is he not still “the eagle” over them, stirring up her nest and fluttering over her young? He teaches his family to be full of love — superiors, inferiors, equals. He would infuse the holy feelings of heaven into the camp of Israel. Truly, society regulated by the Lord is blessed society, for his own love flows through it all, and is the very joints and bands. Hence it is that a sin against a neighbor, in one of tkese points, is a “trespass against the Lord.” (ver. 1.) The selfish man is an unholy man, altogether unlike God. Yet earth is full of such. When men are happy themselves they take no thought of others’ misery. When at ease, they disregard the pain of others. Some even relieve distress out of subtle selfishness, seeking thereby to be free to indulge themselves with less compunction. Not so the Lord. The Eternal Son comes forth from the bosom of the blessed, and for the sake of the vilest dives into the depths of misery. “He restored what he took not away,” and “delivered him that without cause was his enemy.” And in proportion as we feel much of this love of God to us, we shall feel much love to him, and to our brother also. (1 John iv. 20.)
Vera. 4, 6. “Then it shall be, because be bath sinned, and is guilty, that be shall restore thatwhicb be took violently away, or the thing which he bath deceitfully gotten, or that which was delivered him to keep, or the lost thing which he found, or all that about which he hath sworn falsely; he shall even restore it in the principal, and shall add the fifth part more thereto, and give it unto him to whom it appertaineth, in the day of his trespass-offering.”
Patrick renders ver. 4, “If he sin and acknowledge his guilt;” for if his case were one where witnesses convicted him, then Exod. xxii. 7 — 9, held good. The case of Zaccheus, on the day of his coming to Jesus (” the day of his trespass-offering” surely), illustrates this restitution as an attendant upon forgiveness. “When the Lord forgave him, the same Lord also inclined him to restore what he had unjustly taken, and to give back far more than he had taken.
The fifth part is given, in addition to the principal, just as in the case of holy things being fraudulently withheld. It is a double tithe (two tenths) and so is equivalent to a double acknowledgment of the person’s right to the thing, of which he had been, for a time, unjustly deprived, See chap. v. 15, 16.
No doubt this exceeding jealousy on the part of Grod in maintaining the. rights of men, and exhibiting such strict equity, was intended to display to the world what his own holy character is. The most impartial and extensive justice is here exhibited. And his demand for restitution shows that the Lord will maintain his violated rights to the uttermost. It further proves, that while he requires (as John did, Luke iii. 8, 10-14) repentance and amendment, still it is not these that in any degree satisfy the Lord; for there is, in addition to the restoring of the principal, a new demand by the law, for the very act of attempting to defraud it — one fifth part beyond the former demand! Thus was Israel prepared for an awful enforcement of Divine claims in the person of Immanuel; and thus were they shown what
.’A must be the infinite merit of him who should be able to restore all that had been taken away from his Grod!
Vers. 6, 7. “And he shall bring his trespass-offering unto the Lord, a ram without blemish out of the flock, with thy estimation, for a trespass-offering, unto the priest: and the priest shall make an atonement fur him before the Lord: and it shall be forgiven him for anything of all that he hath done in trespassing therein.”
“For any of all the thing’s” — thus proclaiming that “the blood of Jesus cleanseth from all sin.” The case of presumptuous sins is not referred to here, for these involved a disregard, in the offender, to the very offericgs that could exhibit pardon to his conscience. But this section ends with the proclamation of free forgiveness from all manner of sin. The Lord would thus at once allure the sinner from his transgression, and lead him to the immediate joy of reconciliation. It is the surest and speediest way to lead him out of his former path of guilt. “There is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared.”
With Israel, as with us, there were many who saw no meaning or reason in God’s appointments. “Want of true conviction of sin made them despise these types, while the godly, who felt their loins filled with a grievous disease, found therein their daily refreshment. This is the true sense of Prov. xiv. 9, when properly rendered, “Fools make a mock of the trespass-offering, but with the righteous it is in esteem.” The Soptuagint seems to have had a glance at this meaning, for they use “xudaqiofios” for Dix, and they render ■j’ix’^, “^«xrof.” The godly cherished these typical delineations of atonement, while the careless, earthly-minded Israelite saw nothing in them to desire. None go to the hiding-place who fear no storm. The stream flows by un-J heeded when the traveller on its banks is not thirsty The whole will not use the physician. Sense of sin renders Jesus precious to the soul. How Peter loved the risen Saviour who relieved him of the load of his denial! A sight of wrath to come gives a new aspect to every spiritual thing. In Egypt, a sight of tho destroying-angel’s sword would make Israel prize the blood. Ishmael might have mocked at the ram caught in the thicket; but not so Isaac, who had been bound with the cords of death. It is only “fools” that will “mock at the trespass-offering;” with the righteous it is held in unspeakable esteem. Their song is, “Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift!”