The Book of Leviticus

Hebrew Study

Explanation

The meat offering was a bloodless gift. A worshiper took fine flour, the fruit of ground and grain and his own labor, poured oil upon it, and laid frankincense on top. The priest took "his handful" and burned it as "the memorial" on the altar, "a sweet savour unto the LORD," and the rest of the flour became food for the priests, "a thing most holy." Unlike the burnt offering, no life was taken here; this was not for atonement but for devotion. Having been accepted through sacrifice, the worshiper now brought the produce of his labor and dedicated it, and himself, to God, and God shared it out to feed those who served Him.

Gospel Focus

Where the burnt offering pictured the death of Christ, the grain offering pictures His life, the perfect, sinless humanity He presented to God. He is the fine flour: a life so evenly ground that no coarse grain of sin or imbalance was ever found in Him. The oil poured upon it is the Holy Spirit, for He was "anointed... with the Holy Ghost and with power" (Acts 10:38). The frankincense is the fragrance of a life lived wholly for the Father, a sweetness that rose most beautifully through the fire of His sufferings. And the grain offering was the fruit of labor, which is why the Lord could say, "My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work" (John 4:34). In Him, our lives and our labor, offered up to God, become a sweet savour too; the flour we bring is accepted because it is mingled with His perfection.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

God allowed the grain offering to be prepared several ways: baked in the oven out of sight, cooked openly on a flat pan, or made in the frying pan. Whatever the method, the essentials never changed: it was always "fine flour," always "unleavened," and always "with oil." And each way brought the offering into contact with fire. The oven hid it; the pan showed it; but in every case the meal passed through heat and rose as a memorial "of a sweet savour unto the LORD." The same pure ingredients, prepared in different ways, produced the same result: a fragrant gift acceptable to God.

Gospel Focus

The different ways of baking speak of the different ways the perfect life of Christ was tested. Sometimes His trials were hidden, in the private oven of temptation where no one watched; sometimes they were open, on the flat pan before the eyes of all; but the fire always came, and only fragrance ever rose. He was "in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin" (Hebrews 4:15). Notice too the oil worked all through the flour and poured over it, for He was conceived of the Spirit and anointed by the Spirit, filled within and empowered without. And here is a comfort for us: the fire is not our enemy. The same trials that would expose corruption in a leavened heart only released the fragrance of Christ's perfect life, and as we are found in Him, our fires do their work too, drawing out not the stench of the flesh but the sweetness of the Spirit.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

God drew a sharp line around what could touch the altar. Leaven was banned, for it works by corruption and swelling. Honey was banned too, for its natural sweetness turns sour and ferments in the heat. Neither had any place in an offering made by fire. But salt was commanded in every offering: "with all thine offerings thou shalt offer salt." Salt does the opposite of leaven and honey; it resists decay, preserves, and never corrupts. God called it "the salt of the covenant of thy God," binding every gift to His unbreakable faithfulness. What corrupts is shut out; what preserves is required in all.

Gospel Focus

Leaven and honey both had to be kept from the offering, and both teach us. Leaven is sin, "the leaven of malice and wickedness," which Paul says must be purged so we may keep the feast "with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth" (1 Corinthians 5:8). Christ's life had not a trace of it. Honey is the merely natural sweetness of the flesh, pleasant but perishable, the fleshly charm that cannot stand the fire; it too was excluded, for God is not honored by natural sweetness that sours under trial. But salt was required in all. Salt is purity, faithfulness, and preservation, the very opposite of corruption. So the Lord tells His people, "Ye are the salt of the earth" (Matthew 5:13), and, "Have salt in yourselves, and have peace one with another" (Mark 9:50). Let your words and your walk be "seasoned with salt" (Colossians 4:6), free from the leaven of sin, not resting on the honey of the flesh, but preserved and made faithful by the covenant of God.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

The last form of the grain offering was the firstfruits: "green ears of corn dried by the fire, even corn beaten out of full ears," with oil and frankincense laid on. This was the very first of the ripening harvest, the choicest and earliest, brought to God before the rest was gathered in. The ears were beaten to free the grain and dried by fire to make them fit to offer. To give the firstfruits was an act of faith and honor: it put God first, surrendering the best portion before the barns were full, and trusting Him to bring the whole harvest home.

Gospel Focus

The firstfruits point us to the risen Christ. He is "the firstfruits of them that slept" (1 Corinthians 15:20), the first to rise in a body that death could not hold, the pledge and guarantee of the full harvest of resurrection still to come. As the beaten and fire-dried ears were offered, so He was bruised and tried before He was raised and presented to God as the first of a great harvest. The firstfruits also teach us how to give: God is honored when He is put first, when we bring Him the best and the earliest, not the leftovers. "Honour the LORD with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase" (Proverbs 3:9). Give God the first of your time, your strength, and your increase, in the faith that the One who owns the firstfruits will surely bring in the full harvest.