The priests' ritual.
Hitherto the command had been, "Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them" (Leviticus 1:2; Leviticus 4:2); Command Aaron and his sons;" the reason being that the injunctions which follow are specially addressed to the future priesthood.
I. PRECISION OF THE POSITIVE RULES AND REGULATIONS GIVEN TO THE AARONIC PRIESTHOOD. Nothing is left to the individual's origination, all is ruled for him—every act that he performs, and each word that he speaks; and any failure in the ritual vitiates the whole ceremony.
II. CONTRAST IN THIS RESPECT WITH THE RITUAL OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. In the New Testament there are no such minute ritual regulations as in the Book of Leviticus. Search through the Gospels, and we find the principles of worship established. Search the Epistles, and we find order and uniformity in religious ministrations commanded, but no such specifications of manual acts as those given in the earlier dispensation.
III. THE REASON OF THE DIFFERENCE. It is a higher and a nobler state to be allowed freely to apply a principle than to be bound down to a certain course by a definite and unchanging rule. The former is the conditions of sons, the latter of servants. "The servant knoweth not what his lord doeth." The Jew was in this position. He did not know what it was that he was representing and rehearsing in type. He must, therefore, be hedged about with rules, lest, in his darkness and ignorance, he should go astray and mar the lesson that he had unwittingly to teach. But "henceforth," says our Lord, "I call you not servants, for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth, but I have called you friends." Accordingly, just as in matters of morals the principles contained in the Sermon on the Mount are given to Christians instead of bare negative or positive rules of conduct; so in matters of worship, certain principles are laid down as to the nature of true worship and how it is to be offered (John 4:21-24), and a few general rules commending uniformity and order in public worship (1 Corinthians 4:17; 1 Corinthians 11:16; 1 Corinthians 14:33, 1 Corinthians 14:40), and declaring its ends to be the edification of the people (1 Corinthians 14:26); and then the work of composing its Liturgy and common prayers is delivered to the Church without any other restraint than that of embodying in them settled forms of administration of the two sacraments of Baptism (Matthew 28:19) and of the Lord's Supper, using the Lord's Prayer (Luke 11:2), and of" asking" in the name of Jesus Christ (John 16:24). Therefore, "it is not necessary "in the Christian Church, as it was in the Jewish Church, that "ceremonies be in all places one, and utterly like: for at all times they have been divers, and may be changed according to the diversities of countries, times, and men's manners, so that nothing be ordained against God's Word Every particular or national Church hath authority to ordain, change, and abolish, ceremonies or rites of the Church ordained only by man's authority, so that all things be done to edifying" (Art. 34).
IV. A PRECOMPOSED LITURGY IS NOT DISPLEASING TO GOD. However much the liberty of the Christian Church may in this respect be superior to Jewish bondage, yet it is evident from the Levitical laws and regulations that a prearranged and formal method of approaching God is in accordance with his will, as recorded in his holy Word.
HOMILIES BY R.M. EDGAR