Leviticus 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: 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: 3 And the remnant of the meat offering shall be Aaron’s and his sons’: it is a thing most holy of the offerings of the LORD made by fire. 4 And if thou bring an oblation of a meat offering baken in the oven, it shall be unleavened cakes of fine flour mingled with oil, or unleavened wafers anointed with oil. 5 And if thy oblation be a meat offering baken in a pan, it shall be of fine flour unleavened, mingled with oil. 6 Thou shalt part it in pieces, and pour oil thereon: it is a meat offering. 7 And if thy oblation be a meat offering baken in the fryingpan, it shall be made of fine flour with oil. 8 And thou shalt bring the meat offering that is made of these things unto the LORD: and when it is presented unto the priest, he shall bring it unto the altar. 9 And the priest shall take from the meat offering a memorial thereof, and shall burn it upon the altar: it is an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the LORD. 10 And that which is left of the meat offering shall be Aaron’s and his sons’: it is a thing most holy of the offerings of the LORD made by fire.
First, we will need to learn the Bible’s definition of the word meat in context. It is first, a word for
food.
Genesis 1:29 And God said,
Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed;
to you it shall be for meat.
This
will include things other than the flesh of beasts.
Genesis 1:30 And to every
beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that
creepeth upon the earth, wherein there
is life, I have given
every green herb for meat: and
it was so.
And
then, after the Flood.
Genesis 9:3 Every moving
thing that liveth shall be meat
for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.
While
meat can obviously be a reference to animal flesh in context;
1Corinthians 8:13
Wherefore, if meat make
my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make
my brother to offend.
Here, it is made of fine flour and is also a sweet savour unto the LORD. No matter what a person’s social
status or wealth there was an offering they could make. It would be accepted.
These
are not the meat offerings that were a part of the burnt offering given daily.
Exodus 29:38 ¶ Now this is that which thou shalt offer upon
the altar; two lambs of the first year day by day continually. 39 The one lamb thou shalt offer in the morning;
and the other
lamb thou shalt offer at even: 40
And with the one lamb a tenth deal of flour mingled with the fourth part
of an hin of beaten oil; and the fourth part of an hin of wine for a drink offering. 41 And the other lamb thou shalt offer at even,
and shalt do thereto according to the meat offering of the morning, and
according to the drink offering thereof, for a sweet savour, an offering made
by fire unto the LORD. 42 This shall be a continual burnt
offering throughout your generations at
the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the LORD: where I will
meet you, to speak there unto thee.
These had
drink offerings with them.
Numbers 15:4 Then shall he
that offereth his offering unto the LORD bring a meat offering of a tenth deal
of flour mingled with the fourth part
of an hin of oil. 5 And the fourth part of an hin of wine for a drink
offering shalt thou prepare with the burnt offering or sacrifice, for one lamb.
6 Or for a ram, thou shalt prepare for a meat offering two tenth deals
of flour mingled with the third part
of an hin of oil. 7 And for a drink
offering thou shalt offer the third part
of an hin of wine, for a sweet
savour unto the LORD. 8 And when thou
preparest a bullock for a burnt
offering, or for a sacrifice in
performing a vow, or peace offerings unto the LORD: 9 Then shall he bring with a bullock a meat
offering of three tenth deals of flour mingled with half an hin of oil. 10 And thou shalt bring for a drink offering
half an hin of wine, for an
offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the LORD.
But these offerings in Leviticus 2 are by themselves as every man
felt devotion as Matthew Henry noted. The poor also have an opportunity to
praise God in thankfulness and worship Him out of their poverty. God accepted
the heartfelt sacrifice of the poor. Remember what Jesus noted about the poor
widow’s two mites in Mark 12.
That which is left will be for Aaron and his sons and this is one
of the ways the priests are provided for.
An oblation, as we will see by the Bible’s definition in the next
chapter, is a sacrifice, an offering.
Leviticus 3:1 And if his oblation be a sacrifice of peace offering, if he offer it of the herd; whether it be a male or female, he shall
offer it without blemish before the LORD.
Isaiah 19:21 And the LORD
shall be known to Egypt, and the Egyptians shall know the LORD in that day, and
shall do sacrifice and oblation;
yea, they shall vow a vow unto the LORD, and perform it.
Why is God so specific in defining how these sacrifices are to be
performed? What could possibly be the reason for such detail? My first thought
is that these regulations help make the Hebrews distinct from the pagan world
around them in which worshipping devils is common. Later, in regard to sexual
sins God must warn the Hebrews about, He notes through Moses;
Leviticus 18:24 Defile not
ye yourselves in any of these things: for in all these the nations are defiled
which I cast out before you: 25 And the
land is defiled: therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the
land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants. 26
Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments, and shall not
commit any of these
abominations; neither any of
your own nation, nor any stranger that sojourneth among you: 27 (For all these abominations have
the men of the land done, which were before you, and the land is defiled;) 28 That the land spue not you out also, when ye
defile it, as it spued out the nations that were before you. 29 For
whosoever shall commit any of these abominations, even the souls that commit them shall be cut off from among
their people. 30 Therefore shall ye keep
mine ordinance, that ye commit
not any one of these abominable
customs, which were committed before you, and that ye defile not yourselves
therein: I am the LORD your
God.
God is a divider, dividing light from darkness, and good from
evil. Earlier in Leviticus 18 Moses will report what God said;
Leviticus 18:1 ¶ And the
LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 2 Speak
unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, I am the LORD your God. 3 After the doings of the land of Egypt,
wherein
ye dwelt, shall ye not do: and after the doings of the land of
Canaan, whither I bring you, shall ye not do: neither shall ye walk in their
ordinances. 4 Ye shall do my judgments,
and keep mine ordinances, to walk therein: I am the LORD your God. 5
Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and my judgments: which if a man
do, he shall live in them: I am
the LORD.
The Greeks are often said to have had a religion that was heavily
influenced by the Ancient Near East so close by. The Greek historian,
Herodotus, confirmed this. Just as the Roman poet, Virgil, claimed the
Etruscans were colonists of Lydians from Asia Minor, explaining their gods and
religious practices, so do some writers and even the Greeks themselves give
much of their culture a Near Eastern origin or influence. In Homer’s Illiad
there are depictions of sacrifices and drink offerings. Sacrifices and
offerings were common in the ancient world and my point is that there would
need to be a distinction between what God had probably ordered from the beginning
and the counterfeits of Satan. See the sacrifices of Cain and Abel. So, there
are very understandable reasons for God being so specific about HIS sacrifices.
We see here in this passage a spice that played a significant
meaning in the life of Christ. Frankincense was a gift to Christ in Matthew
2:11. Here we see its significance in a sacrifice to God.
Matthew 2:11 And when they
were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and
fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they
presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense,
and myrrh.
Perhaps
foretold in part by Isaiah 60:6;
6 The multitude of camels
shall cover thee, the dromedaries of Midian and Ephah; all they from Sheba
shall come: they shall bring gold and incense; and they shall shew forth the
praises of the LORD.
We see the sacrifice here anointed with oil as the myrrh offering
to the child Christ represented His death.
John 19:39 And there came
also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a
mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight. 40 Then took they
the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner
of the Jews is to bury.
Oil
also represents the Holy Spirit’s anointing…
1Samuel 16:13 Then Samuel
took the horn of oil, and
anointed him in the midst of his brethren: and the Spirit of the LORD came upon David from that day forward. So
Samuel rose up, and went to Ramah.
Isaiah 61:1 ¶ The Spirit of
the Lord GOD is upon me;
because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath
sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and
the opening of the prison to them that
are bound;
Acts 10:38 How God anointed
Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing
good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.
See
the parable of the ten virgins in Matthew 25:1;
With regard to flour I have read several commentators with
contrasting opinions. I thought, myself, of the wheat that Jesus referred to as
a type of those who did not know the truth and needed to be harvested for God
in places like John 4 and Matthew 9. Flour is refined wheat so could there be a
thought of flour representing the saved with fine flour not having leaven which
Jesus also likened to false doctrine.
Matthew 16:6 Then Jesus
said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees
and of the Sadducees…11 How is it that
ye do not understand that I spake it
not to you concerning bread, that ye should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees?
12 Then understood they
how that he bade them not
beware of the leaven of bread,
but of the doctrine of the Pharisees
and of the Sadducees.
So could there not be some relationship here, some statement about
new believers offered to God without corruption of false belief? For those who
simply want to know the truth without the gloss of state-churches and
denominations and celebrity preachers but as simple faith in Christ, as unleavened
flour, fine flour cooked with oil offered to God? Is that a reasonable
typology? Just some thoughts when reading these verses.
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