Leviticus 2:1-10
It’s About Us (2)
It has been several weeks now since we broke ground on this the Meat
Offering so let’s review.
I. The Meat Offering Grains Spoke of Us:
A. Although it is called a Meat Offering, no meat is involved at
all. It was a grain or a meal offering, an offering of
the grains either ground up and mixed with oil, ground up and
cooked in one fashion or another, or just parched as kernels.
B. We (the believers) are the Meat Offering.
1. That is why there is no sacrifice. This offering does not
picture sin, salvation, or the Savior.
2. It pictures what God desires the believers, both Old and
New Testament believers to be.
a. We are the bread that is cooked.
1Cor 10:17 For we being many are ONE BREAD, and
one body: for we are all partakers of that one
bread.
b. Or we are the kernels still on the stock.
James 1:18 Of his own will begat he us with the
word of truth, that we should be a kind of
firstfruits of his creatures.
c. But no matter how the offering was prepared, it is
always telling a story about us.
II. The Meat Offering Being Prepared Spoke of the Believers:
A. The Meat Offering consisted of stock of grain, a lump of dough,
or a loaf of bread, but it was always presented as one.
1. That speaks of the believers’ unity.
2. We know that the New Testament emphasizes oneness and unity
throughout.
3. Even more, God commands us repeatedly to be of one mind to
one God and one Lord, filled with one Spirit so that we
might accomplish the many goals that He has for us.
a. One mind
b. One
4. But since this is an Old Testament offering, it appears
that it was just as much God’s desire for the Jews in the
Old Testament as well!
5. How the split of a northern and southern kingdom, not to
mention the pettiness and squabbling between all 12 of the
tribes must have grieved God!
6. But I am certain it is no less than the many denominations
and fractions we have created within Christendom and the
many clicks and divisions we have even among and within
individual churches.
7. What is unity?
a. People with one way of thinking. Like Jesus thought.
b. People with one way of caring. Like Jesus cared.
c. People with one way of doing. Like Jesus did.
B. The Meat Offering was always to be anointed with oil.
Lev 2:1 And when any will offer a meat offering
unto the LORD, his offering shall be of fine
flour; and he shall pour oil upon it, and put
frankincense thereon.
1. That speaks of the believers’ anointing of the Holy Ghost.
2. Without the Holy Spirit, the church is a gathering of
inferior people.
a. Inferior people?
b. Yes. In any business, trade, or craft, the people that
gather to do it do so because they have a skill in
that field. If not, the business, trade, or craft
would go out of business.
c. Paul said in 1Corinthians that God had chosen the
weak, the base, and the despised. We are an inferior
people!
d. But then comes the Holy Ghost and an inferior people
are made not only into a capable people but much,
much more!
3. As useless as flour is without oil so is a believer
without the anointing of the Holy Spirit.
4. The oil was to be poured upon the sacrifice and then mixed
into it.
a. I do not know if the volume of oil poured meant
anything to the Old Testament Jews or not, but it
should.
b. \\#2Kings 13:18-19\\ The old and about to die Elisha
told King Joash (northern kingdom) to take a bow and
arrow and stomp on it. It took a bow and arrow and
stomped it three good times, but Elisha rebuked him,
telling him afterwards that each time he stomped on
the bow and arrow was to mark a defeat of Syria and
that if he had stomped it six or so times, they would
have consumed their enemy, but by stomping it only
three times, they would continue to be a throne to
Israel.
c. If the volume of oil poured over that sacrifice was
any indication of how much the Holy Spirit would rest
upon Israel, they should have poured to their cruses
ran dry.
5. Again, it is the sinner’s hand who pours the oil on the
offering—not the priest.
a. Why?
b. Because we decide how much the Holy Ghost will control
our lives.
c. The command is to be filled with the Holy Ghost
Ephesians 5:18 And be not drunk with wine,
wherein is excess; but be filled with the
Spirit;
C. The Meat Offering was always to be partially covered with
frankincense.
1. That speaks of our sanctification or ownership by God.
2. No matter how the Meat Offering was prepared, it had to be
partially covered with frankincense.
a. Frankincense was not to be used in the cooking process.
(1) Frankincense was not cooked into the Meat
Offering but was to be poured over it.
(2) Frankincense is a sticky resin not really intended
for eating.
b. Frankincense was one of the three gifts given to the
Baby Jesus. Each gift spoke of Jesus’ life.
(1) Gold spoke of royalty and of Jesus as the King.
(The wise men were only thinking of Jesus as the
King of the Jews, but Jesus is King of kings and
the Lord of lords.)
(2) Myrrh is a healing oil and also a death balm.
Myrrh spoke of the suffering and death of Jesus.
(3) Frankincense is a healing oil, very expensive and
rare. Frankincense spoke of Jesus’ divinity.
3. You don’t have to guess at what frankincense meant because
every bit of the Meat Offering that was covered with
frankincense had to be offered to God in the fire, no
matter how the Meat Offering was prepared.
Leviticus 2:2 And he shall bring it to Aaron’s
sons the priests: and he shall take thereout his
handful of the flour thereof, and of the oil
thereof, with all the frankincense thereof; and
the priest shall burn the memorial of it upon the
altar, to be an offering made by fire, of a sweet
savour unto the LORD:
Lev 2:16 And the priest shall burn the memorial
of it (the Meat Offering)… with ALL of the
frankincense thereof….
Lev 6:15 …and all of the frankincense which is
upon the meat offering, and shall burn it upon
the altar for a sweet savour… unto the Lord.
a. Here fire is not a picture of judgment as much the
means of making an un-reclaimable gift to God.
b. The fire was a picture of sending this sacrifice to
God and the statement from Scripture that it was "a
sweet savour" to God was God’s acknowledgement that
it was received. \\#Lev 3:5, 16\\
c. Much like the offering that the parents of Samson
unintentionally made when they offered a meal to an
angel. \\#Judges 13:15-20\\
(1) Manoah and his wife were told by one they thought
to be a prophet that they would have a child.
(2) They wanted to prepare a meal for the man, but
the angel said if they were going to do
anything, they should offer the kid as a Meat
Offering to God.
(3) This was no mere man, even the text calls him an
angel.
(4) As the sacrifice was burning, there was a very
high flame up and when the flame calmed down,
both the sacrifice and the angel had been
caught up to God in heaven.
(5) Manoah immediately thought they would die as they
has seen an angel, but his wife told me that
did not make any sense since God had promised
they were to have a child.
(6) The flame did not represent judgment. It
represented God receiving a gift that could not
be taken back.
4. What does the frankincense mean to us in the Meat
Offering?
a. It means we are God’s.
b. We have been sanctified: that is set apart, dedicated
to God and separated from the world.
c. And we cannot take ourselves back. We are offered up
to God.
d. The only difference in us and the Meat Offering is that
the Meat Offering served more than one picture so the
frankincense was not poured over the entire offering.
(1) It was kept off some of the Meat Offering so that
the remainder of the picture might be
demonstrated.
(2) However, I believe you might agree with me when
you understand what was done with the remainder
of the Meat Offering, that the priests probably
poured frankincense on as much of the Meat
Offering as they could.
D. The Meat Offering was always to have salt.
Lev 2:13 And every oblation of thy meat offering
shalt thou season with salt; neither shalt thou
suffer the salt of the covenant of thy God to be
lacking from thy meat offering: with all thine
offerings thou shalt offer salt.
1. That spoke of both our and God’s eternal commitment to one
another.
2. The Old Testament people had some strange ways to make
contracts.
a. In Ruth, we learn of the Shoe Contract. When two
parities agreed on an action, they would exchange
shoes before witnesses. Possessing another’s shoe
was proof the two had made an agreement, but the
witnesses would have to keep the details straight.
b. And there was the Salt Covenant.
3. Salt in the Old Testament was most often associated with
keeping your word.
a. When a promise was made, it was often sealed by
exchanging (I suppose) salt.
b. This was called the Covenant of Salt.
c. Even God accepts and gives the Salt Covenant.
Numbers 18:19 All the heave offerings of the
holy things, which the children of Israel offer
unto the LORD, have I given thee, and thy sons
and thy daughters with thee, by a statute for
ever: it is a covenant of salt for ever before
the LORD unto thee and to thy seed with thee.
2Chronicles 13:5 Ought ye not to know that the
LORD God of Israel gave the kingdom over Israel
to David for ever, even to him and to his sons
by a covenant of salt?
d. When God commanded the salt to be part of the Meat
Offering, He was giving His word and demanding it of
the offeror.
e. Both were pledging themselves to the other.
(1) By giving the Meat Offering as a gift, the
offeror was promising that HE was God’s and
would give to God not just this small offering
but all that he had. (Remember, we are the
Meat Offering!)
(2) By receiving the Meat Offering as a gift, God was
saying that He accepted the giver and would be
His God, giving to the giver Himself and all
that God had.
(3) So the salt represented a solemn promise and a
total commitment of the one to the other.
f. Does this apply to New Testament saints? Yes.
(1) Christians have made a promise to God that we
and all we have are God’s.
Matt 22:37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love
the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all
thy soul, and with all thy mind.
38 This is the first and great commandment.
(2) God has made a promise to us that He and all He
has is ours.
Romans 8:32 He that spared not his own Son, but
delivered him up for us all, how shall he not
with him also freely give us all things?
We must remember that we are the Meat Offering. In this offering,
God was showing the believers, both Old and New Testaments, what He
desired in the believers. While the Old Testament believers may not
have understood all that was involved, we do. We are plainly
commanded in these things. Is it not time that God received a living
Meat Offering as He has long desired? Is it not time that He
received us?
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