[Leviticus 2] Visiting God’s Bakery. In Leviticus 2, instructions are given concerning grain offerings are found. Often these were cakes mingled with oil seasoned in various ways. These offerings represent Jesus as the bread from heaven and tell us much about who he is to us and how He sustains the believer day by day as we sojourn through our personal wilderness.
[Lev 2:1-16 KJV] 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. 11 No meat offering, which ye shall bring unto the LORD, shall be made with leaven: for ye shall burn no leaven, nor any honey, in any offering of the LORD made by fire. 12 As for the oblation of the firstfruits, ye shall offer them unto the LORD: but they shall not be burnt on the altar for a sweet savour. 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. 14 And if thou offer a meat offering of thy firstfruits unto the LORD, thou shalt offer for the meat offering of thy firstfruits green ears of corn dried by the fire, [even] corn beaten out of full ears. 15 And thou shalt put oil upon it, and lay frankincense thereon: it [is] a meat offering. 16 And the priest shall burn the memorial of it, [part] of the beaten corn thereof, and [part] of the oil thereof, with all the frankincense thereof: [it is] an offering made by fire unto the LORD.
In Leviticus two, we find instruction regarding the grain offering. The grain offering is the only offering that was seen as an “offering of the soul.” In giving the grain offering, God regards it as literally giving your soul to God. It is also a type of Jesus offering Himself for the world as the Bread from Heaven (see John 6:51). The grain offering was required to be offered with salt, oil, and frankincense. This speaks to us of the wholesome restoration and balance God wants to bring into your life as you offer yourself to him.
At the beginning of this chapter and throughout, we see reference to a “meat offering” (vs. 1-5). The “meat offering” was not an animal sacrifice but consisted of meal or grain. At the time the King James Bible was written, the term meat referred to food in general and not just food derived from animals. The typical meal or grain offering of different types always included meal, cooked or uncooked, frankincense, and oil. The Hebrew word here for “meat” is “minkha,” and it derives from an Arabic word meaning “to give.” The meat or meal offering is somewhat controversial because the very first meal-offering mentioned in the bible is the rejected offering of Cain. Cain brought of the works of his hands (crops he had grown) and was rejected. Abel, on the other hand, brought of the flocks (sacrificial blood) and was received. Be that as it may, we do find throughout the Old Testament meal (meat) offerings were otherwise just as acceptable as animal sacrifice and usually accompanied them.
In the original language, an alternate translation of verse one implies the meaning “if any soul will offer an offering to God…” This is the only time the Hebrew word for soul is used (in reference to the meal-offering). The meal offering was provided in order to make available an acceptable offering from a poor person who perhaps couldn’t afford a sacrificial animal. The meal offering was not considered a lesser or insubstantial offering. The giving of this offering was viewed as though the person was giving his very soul to God.
What are the ingredients of the meal-offering?
Fine Flour: Jesus is the Bread of Heaven (John 6:51). This was not bare grain but had been crushed and ground into flour just as Jesus was broken and bruised on Calvary in order for us to have the opportunity to accept Him for our redemption.
Oil: The Holy Spirit is the Oil of God. This oil included ingredients that speak to us of the various aspects of redemption in Christ. Myrrh, Cinnamon, Calamus, and Cassia. We’ve dealt with these ingredients and their meaning in our study of Exodus 40:
Myrrh: (Meaning to flow. There is nothing static about our relationship with God. We are to be malleable and ever yielded to the leading of His Spirit in our hearts).
Cinnamon: (Meaning to burn with zeal. God is not interested in tepid acquiescence to His place in our lives. He desires to experience our passionate devotion to Him not just in worship services but in everything we do.)
Calamus: (The original word means “Power to Recover.” God doesn’t want us to be eternal victims, languishing in emotional woundedness. He wants us to be quick to forgive, putting the past behind us as we move forward in faith.)
Cassia: (Meaning “To Bow Down – Humility.” Pride is an offense to God’s nature. He wants us to live with shamefacedness before Him in all sobriety.)
Frankincense: The Hebrew word for Frankincense means, simply “white” and refers to the smoke it generates when burned. This smoke was representative of the Cloud of Witness that God surrounded Himself with when He appeared to the people. Thus when ingesting the meal with frankincense, it was a literal picture of taking the glory of God, the cloud of witness into yourself as a picture of the believer who is indwelled by the glory of God as Paul taught in Col. 1:26,27 concerning Christ in you the hope of glory.
Frankincense comes from a tree in the Boswellia genus. Boswellia trees are considered unusual because they are known at times to grow out of a solid rock. This tree, therefore, speaks to us of Jesus, who is the “root out of dry ground.”
[Isa 53:2 KJV] 2 For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, [there is] no beauty that we should desire him.
Frankincense is extracted from resin obtained by slashing the bark of the Boswellia tree. Jesus’ back was slashed for our healing, and frankincense is held to have medicinal properties for healing. Always remember in reading these verses that they are intended to tell us something about who Jesus is to us. The resins that are extracted from these trees are called tears.
[Isa 53:3 KJV] 3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were [our] faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Remember the word for meal offering is “minkhah,” which also means tribute. In the giving of this offering, we are paying tribute to what Jesus has done for us. This meal offering is reflected in the New Testament in the ordinance of communion.
In vs. 6-11, we find instructions for how the meal offering was to be handled once it was given over to the priest. It was to be parted in pieces, and then oil was to be poured upon it. The oil represents the anointing. The anointing oil, as with the frankincense, had to likewise be prepared by a specific recipe. We cry out to God for anointing, but anointing doesn’t come upon an unprepared vessel. The gifts and callings of God are without repentance, but anointing is another matter. Many believers are miserable because they have an un-withdrawn calling but are unbroken and without the anointing.
Notice that these offerings were offered to God by fire, but a portion always went to Aaron and his sons. Aaron is a type of Jesus himself. Aaron’s name means “light-bringer,” and Jesus is the “Daystar arising in our hearts.” Aaron was to receive his portion of the offering and also those assisting him in the work of the service of the tabernacle. This speaks to us of the ministry. This supports the idea of ministers of the gospel receiving their portion of the giving of the people to maintain them in their work.
There were times recorded in scripture that Aaron and his sons failed to eat their portion and were heavily chastised and rebuked for doing so. Likewise, today we have so-called ministers who boast that they don’t take any income for their ministry. They are in violation of the types and shadows of ministry service found in scripture that God’s delegated servants are required and in fact, commanded to partake of the portion that God sets aside for them.
In vs. 12-16, there are instructions concerning the offering of First Fruits. The oblation of first-fruits was handled differently as is the case with almost every mention of firstfruits of differing kinds in the bible. Jesus is the first fruits from the dead and the firstborn of many brethren (Col. 1:18; Romans 8:29). The people came out of Egypt after the plague on the first born in which those who sprinkled the blood on their door post were spared. Because of this, God always claims the first of anything to be His peculiar possession.
The chapter concludes with reference to salt being used in the offering. Every meat offering was to include salt. Numbers 18:19 speaks of the covenant of salt. Matt. 5:13 says that WE are the salt of the earth, and if we are not included, the earth “loses is taste or savor”. What do we know about salt? When an acid and a base are combined together, they form a salt. An engineer trained in chemistry heard the Father say, “this is how I want my people to be – perfectly balanced.” The salt molecule is made of sodium and chlorine. If you put metallic sodium in water, it reacts violently and produces fire. Water represents the word. When we mix the word with imbalance, we want to call down fire from heaven and find ourselves describing revival in terms of Ananias and Sapphira. The sodium has one outer electron, and chloride has seven. Both are unstable because atoms in this size seek a stable configuration of eight electrons otherwise, it is incomplete. There must be a balance between judgment and mercy, priest and king, male and female. In that way, the explosive properties of imbalance are addressed, and the preservative, beneficial properties of salt are available to us.
God told Abraham in Gen. 15:1, “I am your exceeding great reward …” the word reward here is the Hebrew word for salt. My grandmother mentored my father and often said “prayer without the word leads to fanaticism… the word without prayer leads to legalism…” We need balance. This can be difficult in a world where the most shrill voice is the one that attracts the most people. We have an appetite for extremes. But God desires to bring us into divine balance.
