Lev. chap. 3 compared with chap. 7:11-18.  In the case of monarchs, like David and Solomon, the whole nation was feasted. 2 Sam. 6:17-19; 1 Kings 8:62-66.  Hence the Messiah, as the great King of all nations, is beautifully represented as paying his peace-offerings to God for the deliverance granted him from his foes, and as summoning all nations to the sacrificial feast:  “My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation; I will pay my vows [vows in the form of peace-offerings] before them that fear him.  The meek shall eat and be satisfied:  they shall praise the Lord that seek him:  your heart shall live for ever.  All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord,” etc.  Psa. 22:25-31.  The peace-offering naturally followed the burnt-offering, as that did the sin-offering in the sanctification of the Israelitish congregation.  Lev. 9:15-18.  It signified joyful communion with God in thanksgiving and praise; but this, too, only through the blood of the victim sprinkled upon the altar as a sign of expiation.  Lev. chap. 3.  In these three classes of offerings, then, we have typically set forth, first, expiation restoring man to God’s favor, then self-consecration, then holy communion in thanksgiving and praise—­ALL THREE ONLY THROUGH THE SPRINKLING OF THE BLOOD OF CHRIST, the great Antitype of the Levitical priests and sacrifices.

The sacrificial nature of the passover appears in the direction given at its institution that the blood of the paschal lamb should be sprinkled on the lintel and two side-posts of the house where it was eaten as a protection against the destroyer of the first-born (Exod. 12:22, 23); and in the ordinance afterwards established, requiring that it should be slain at the sanctuary (Deut. 16:1-8), and its blood sprinkled upon the altar. 2 Chron. 30:16; 35:11.  Its character approached very near to that of the peace-offerings.  It was a joyous festival, commemorative of the deliverance of Israel from Egyptian bondage; and thus typically shadowing forth the higher redemption of God’s people from the bondage of sin.  As the blood of the paschal lamb sprinkled on the doors of the houses protected the inmates from the destroyer of the first-born, so does the blood of Christ protect all who through faith receive its expiatory power from the wrath to come.  As the Israelites feasted joyfully on the flesh of the paschal lamb, so does the church feed by faith on the great antitypal Lamb of God, who is the true Passover sacrificed for us. 1 Cor. 5:7.

There were some other sacrifices of a special character, such as those by which the covenant between God and the people was ratified (Exod. 24:3-8); the ram of consecration, when Aaron and his sons were inducted into the priesthood (Lev. 8:22-30); the sacrifice and other rites connected with the cleansing of the leper (Lev. 14:1-32); the sacrifice of the red heifer from which were prepared the ashes of purification (Numb. chap. 19); the sacrifice of the heifer in the case of an uncertain murder (Deut. 21:1-9).  Respecting these, it is only necessary to remark generally that, whatever other ideas were typified by them, that of expiation through blood was not wanting.