CHAPTER XVII. JEWISH SYMBOLS. THE PHYSICAL PERFECTION OF THE PRIESTS. AMONGST the laws concerning the Jewish priesthood, none are more important in their symbolic relations than that requiring physical perfection. There can be no doubt that physical perfection-freedom from all deformity or mutilation was required merely on account of its appropriately symbolising that higher and better perfection demanded in the worshippers of God. The law is very express and clear: "Speak unto Aaron, saying, whosoever he be of thy seed in their generations that hath any blemish, let him not approach to offer the bread of his God: For whatsoever man he be that hath a blemish, he shall not approach; a blind man, or a lame, or he that hath a flat nose, or anything superfluous, or a man that is broken-footed, or broken-handed, or crook-backt, or dwarf, or that hath a blemish in his eye, or be scurvy, or scabbed, or hath his stones broken: No man that hath a blemish of the seed of Aaron the priest shall come nigh to offer the offerings of the Lord made by fire; he hath a blemish, he shall not come nigh to offer the bread of his God; he shall eat of the bread of his God, both of the most holy and of the holy; only he shall not go in unto the vail, nor come nigh unto the altar, because he hath a blemish; that he profane not My sanctuaries for I the Lord do sanctify them" (Lev. xxi.17-23). In considering this law, it is impossible not to be struck with the tender regard shown to the wants of the maimed or deformed man; he is to partake with the rest of the seed of Aaron, eating of the bread of his God, : both of the most holy and holy; but his physical imperfection or deformity is not to mar the glory and beauty of the service of the sanctuary. No words are needed to set forth the significancy of the symbol-one which subsists amongst Freemasons to the present day, and has been enjoined by the laws of the Masonic order throughout all ages. This, however, will be a subject of consideration in a future part of the present work. Meanwhile, it is to be observed that along with the law of physical perfection, there was delivered to the Jews one concerning the domestic relations, requiring in them a special purity on the part of the priests. "They shall be holy unto their God," the law says, "and not profane the name of their God for the offerings of the Lord made by fire, and the bread of their God, they do offer : therefore they shall be holy. They shall not take a wife that is a whore or profane neither shall they take a woman put away from her husband; for he is holy unto his God" (Lev. xxi. 6, 7). Again it is specially enjoined as to the High Priest that he shall take a wife in her virginity. "A widow, or a divorced woman, or profane, or an harlot, these shall he not take; but he shall take a virgin of his own people to wife. Neither shall he profane his seed among his people; for I the Lord do sanctify him" (Lev. xxi. 13, 14). Purity in the domestic relations as well as physical perfection was to be the expressive symbol, throughout all ages of the Jewish dispensation, of that holiness which becomes the sanctuary and the people of God. The physical perfection required in the ministering priests was also symbolical or typical of the perfection of that Great High Priest who was the antitype of them all, and to whose advent, ministry, and sacrifice of Himself the whole Jewish dispensation had reference. CHAPTER XVIII. JEWISH SYMBOLS. THE FEAST OF WEEKS. Of the three great annual Jewish feasts, the Passover has been already sufficiently noticed. It was kept in the first month of the Jewish year. The second great feast was the Feast of Weeks, for which no exact date was fixed by the law, but it was appointed to be kept seven weeks after the beginning of the harvest. "Seven weeks shalt thou number unto thee: begin to number the seven weeks from such time as thou beginnest to put the sickle to the corn (Deut. xvi. 9). At the beginning of harvest, a sheaf of the first-fruits was brought to the tabernacle or the temple, and there waved before the Lord, in grateful acknowledgment of His bounty, and as an expression of dependence upon him. The law is as follows:-"When ye be come into the land that I shall give unto you, and shall reap the harvests thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf of the first-fruits of your harvest unto the priest: And he shall wave the sheaf before the you on the morrow after the wave it" (Lev. xxiii. 10, 11). a burnt-offering, and a meat-offering, and a drink-offering should be offered, and it is added:-" And ye shall eat neither bread, nor parched corn, nor green ears, until the self-same day that ye have brought an offering unto your God it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations in all your dwellings" (Lev. xxiii. 14). The offering of the sheaf of first-fruits was a beautiful ordinance, eminently calculated to keep alive in the minds of the people the sense of dependence and gratitude which it was intended to express. It was entirely symbolical, and Lord, to be accepted for its meaning is evidently that just indicated.-From that morning after the Sabbath, on which the offering of the first-fruits took place, seven weeks were to be counted, when the Feast of Weeks, so called from this circumstance, was appointed to begin. "Even unto the morrow after the seventh Sabbath shall ye number fifty days, and ye shall offer a new meat-offering unto the Lord. The Feast of Weeks is called in the New Testament the Feast of Pentecost, from the Greek word signifying fifty. Sacrifices were appointed to be then offered, of which, however, it seems unnecessary to take any special notice here, as they were of the same nature with those ordinarily offered upon solemn occasions by the Jews, the symbolic significancy of which has been pointed out already. There is only one peculiarity which demands attention. With the other wave-offerings, bread of the first-fruits was waved before the Lord (Lev. xxiii. 20), in token evidently of the connection of this feast with the harvest, and of thankfulness for the plenty with which the Lord had crowned the year. It is a symbolic rite, exactly corresponding in its signification with the waving of the sheaf of first-fruits fifty days before. The Feast of Weeks was one of holy joy, and so it is said in the Book of Deuteronomy :-" And thou shalt keep the Feast of Weeks unto the Lord thy God with a tribute of a free-will-offering of thine hand, which thou shalt give unto the Lord thy God, according as the Lord thy God hath blessed thee: And thou shalt rejoice before the Lord thy God, according as the Lord thy God hath blessed thee: And thou shalt rejoice before the Lord thy God, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy man-servant, and thy maid-servant, and the Levite that is within thy gates, and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow that are among you, in the place which the Lord thy God hath chosen to place His name there: And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in Egypt, and thou shalt observe and do these statutes" (Deut. xvi. 10-12). Thus it appears that the grateful acknowledgment of the Lord's goodness was not to be limited to the harvest just concluded, but to extend back over the whole past, to the deliverance from Egypt, and the bestowal upon Israel of the fruitful promised land and that this day of gratitude and rejoicing was to be one also of charity, that the poor might partake of the abundance which the land had yielded, and share in the common joy. |