The past fourteen chapters have been on the meal offering, and I do believe that by them the Lord has shown us something of the humanity of Jesus. Now we come to the peace offering. From the above verses, it is clear that the presenter has to lay his hands upon the peace offering. “And if his present be a sacrifice of peace offering, if he present it of the herd, whether it be a male or female, he shall present it without blemish before the Lord. And he shall lay his hand upon the head of his offering, and kill it at the door of the tent of meeting: and Aaron’s sons the priests shall sprinkle the blood upon the altar round about” (Lev. 3:1-2, lit.). To lay your hands upon the offering means that you identify yourself with what you offer. This means that you are declaring your oneness with the offering which you are presenting to God. And this present which you offer is the Lord Jesus Christ.
How can we be one with the Lord? Is this just a positional matter, or is it possible to be one with Him in reality? If so, how can we be one with Him? How can we lay our hands on Christ as a present to God? The way is to exercise our spirit. To lay our hands on the offering, which is Christ, is a picture. And to exercise our spirit is the fulfillment today. To exercise our spirit really makes us one with Christ. When we come to present Christ to God as the peace offering, we need to exercise our spirit to declare that we are one with Christ. Thus, it is not just a positional matter; it is also a practical matter. We are practically one with Christ in our spirit. “He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit” (1 Cor. 6:17). Hence, when we come to the tent of meeting to present Christ to God as a kind of present, we need to exercise our spirit that we might be one with Him. This is the first point concerning the peace offering.
The second point is that the peace offering can be presented and enjoyed only in the tent of meeting. It is not to be enjoyed at home, but it must be brought to the door of the tent of meeting. We know that today the tent of meeting is the meetings of the local church. It is rather difficult for any one of us to enjoy Christ as the peace offering in our own home. We must be in the church meeting in order to have the position to enjoy Christ as the peace offering.
Of course, I realize that some will say that the Lord is omnipresent; He is everywhere. Therefore, He can be enjoyed everywhere. I will not say that you cannot enjoy the Lord everywhere, but I am sure you cannot enjoy the Lord as the peace offering everywhere. You may enjoy the Lord in other aspects, but you cannot enjoy the Lord as the peace offering in any place but in the tent of meeting. This is exceedingly vital. To enjoy the peace offering is not to be done at home, but absolutely in the tent of meeting.
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