In relation to the sin offering and the trespass offering, I would like to say a word concerning propitiation. Leviticus 14:18 speaks of the priest making propitiation for a leper before Jehovah. It is difficult to translate the Hebrew word for propitiation. The King James Version renders this Hebrew word as “atonement.” Atonement is a matter of at-one-ment. Two parties have a problem, perhaps a quarrel, that needs to be settled. Because of the problem, these parties are not at one. They need something that will appease their situation, solve their problem, and make them one.

Propitiation is a matter of appeasing a problem or a situation in which one party has offended another party or owes something to another party. Unless the problem is settled, there cannot be peace between the two parties. A third party comes in to act on behalf of the first party to remove the offense so that the second party can be one with the first party. This is to appease, to propitiate.

In Leviticus 14 the leper is one party, the offending party, and God is the other party, the offended party. The problem, of course, is leprosy. We have pointed out that leprosy signifies sin, that sin is rebellion, and that rebellion is Satan. These four things-leprosy, sin, rebellion, and Satan-are synonyms. This means that they are one. Because between God and man there is the problem of leprosy, there is the need of an appeasing to get rid of the leprosy, which is sin, rebellion, and Satan himself. For this appeasing the two birds are not adequate. The two birds can accomplish the cleansing but not the propitiating. Propitiation requires the sin offering, the trespass offering, the burnt offering, and the meal offering. Only when we have these four offerings can we have propitiation as well as cleansing.

A leper, a sinner who is under God’s condemnation and who has a problem with God, needs three things: healing, cleansing, and propitiating. For a leper to need propitiation means that he needs to be brought back into fellowship with God. Propitiation removes the obstacle between the leper and God. Christ has come not only to cleanse us but also to make propitiation for us. In order to make propitiation He had to be our sin offering, trespass offering, burnt offering, and meal offering.

We have seen the significance of the sin offering and the trespass offering. Now we need to see the significance of the burnt offering and the meal offering.

Christ is the burnt offering to make us absolute for God. For this purpose He is also the meal offering to feed us, to supply us with food. In order to do anything we need food, which gives us the strength to live. If we would be absolute for God, we need something to supply us, something to support, sustain, and feed us. What we need is Christ as our meal offering, as our food. Christ is the meal offering for us to eat. The more we enjoy Christ as the meal offering, the more we shall live a life that is a burnt offering absolute for God.

After the problems of our sin and our sins have been solved, we need to enjoy Christ as the meal offering. The meal offering is a composition of fine flour and oil. The fine flour typifies the fineness of Christ in His humanity, and the oil typifies the Spirit. These two things, the fine flour and the oil, combined and mingled, become our food. In the morning especially, we may enjoy Christ as the fine flour mingled with oil, the Spirit. This is Christ as our meal offering to support and sustain us that we may live a life that is absolutely for God as a burnt offering.

Through these four kinds of offerings the problem between us and God is fully solved, and the situation between us and God is appeased. Now we have not only been healed and cleansed, but also propitiation has been made for us.

In the matter of the cleansing of the leper in Leviticus 14, we can see Christ in many aspects. We see Christ as the cedar wood and as the hyssop in His incarnation. We see Christ shedding His blood to produce the scarlet thread. We see Christ as the two birds: the one bird killed over an earthenware vessel (His humanity) filled with living water (the eternal Spirit), and the other bird released to fly over the open field. Now we also see Christ as the sin offering, the trespass offering, the burnt offering, and the meal offering. How wonderful is this picture of Christ!
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