Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

The Meat (meal) Offering - Leviticus 2:
Apr 3rd, 2020
Looking into the WordArt Sadlier
Categories: Exhortation

The meal offering pictures “the man Christ Jesus.” The burnt offering typifies Christ in His death and the meal offering pictures Christ in His life.

I do not want to distract you or draw away attention from the subject of this chapter, but I will just say in passing that neither of these offerings deals with the matter of sin-bearing. In the burnt offering we see atonement but not sin-bearing, there is no outpouring of wrath against sin. If it were intended to deal with sin-bearing it would have taken place outside the camp. “And the skin of the bullock, and all his flesh, with his head, and with his legs, and his inwards, and his dung, Even the whole bullock shall he carry forth without the camp unto a clean place, where the ashes are poured out, and burn him on the wood with fire: where the ashes are poured out shall he be burnt.” (Leviticus 4:11-12) Hebrews 13:11, “For the bodies of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned without the camp.” We will deal more thoroughly with this matter later in our study.

In the meal offering there is no bloodshed. We have instead a beautiful picture of Christ as He lived and walked and served here in this world. That is what makes this offering so important to us. The perfect, pure manhood of Christ is a vitally important theme which needs to have our undivided attention.

Today there is much teaching and proclamation of false Christ’s, Christ’s who do not represent the true Christ of God. The character and personhood of Christ is misrepresented by these false Christ’s. These Christ’s are a figment of men’s imagination and cannot save men no matter how much faith they place in them.

Today, nearly two billion people claim to be followers of Jesus Christ. The question is, which Christ are they following? Are following the true Christ of God or one of their own imaginations? Has Satan deceived them into the worship of a caricature of the real Christ? In order to know the true Christ we must understand the truths revealed in the scriptures concerning Him. There are two basic truths about Christ we must know, the truth about His divinity and the truth about His humanity. If the Christ you follow is not truly man and also the creator and sustainer of the universe, you are following a false Christ.

The doctrine of Christ’s humanity lies at the very heart of Christianity. If we do not get it right, we end up with a counterfeit Christianity. This issue is one of the key issues of the hour in which we now live. One of Satan’s greatest purposes is to undermine the truth as to the person of Christ. Satan seeks to introduce false Christ’s and in so doing he destroys the gospel.

In the past, bank tellers have been trained to recognize the counterfeit dollar, not by studying it but by getting to know the real dollar. Our calling, as followers of Christ, is to get to know Him.

John 10: 3-5, “To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice. And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers.” We do not need to be acquainted with the voice of a stranger in order to turn away from him. We are required to know the voice of the good shepherd. We need to know Christ in the fullness of all that means. In knowing Him we will be enabled to turn away from the false Christ’s being propagated today.

There is today a man seated on the right hand of the throne of God in heaven. In order for us to enter into fuller communion with Him, we need to understand the perfect manhood of Christ.

We need to know Christ by our understanding and by our experience; we need to know the man whose sympathy is perfect, whose love is fathomless, whose power is omnipotent, whose wisdom is infinite, whose resources are limitless, whose riches are unsearchable, whose ear is always open even to our breathing, whose hand is open to our every need, whose heart is full of unspeakable love and tenderness toward us. If we come to know Christ in all these wonderful realities, how much more independent we would be of what this world offers. How much less we would look to the flesh for our resources.

There is nothing our hearts can crave that that we cannot find in Christ. Mary and Martha came to know Christ in His great sympathy for them. John came to know Christ as the one who loved him so greatly. Paul said, “That I may know Him,” Paul did know Him but his desire was to know him more. All that we need is found in Christ Jesus and He will satisfy us in proportion to the way walk with Him and in proportion to how much we trust Him and obey Him.

Jesus Christ is God of very God. He also was and is, the only perfect man. He was perfect in thought, word, wisdom and actions. Every moral quality met in divine and perfect proportions. For example; He fed the 5,000, demonstrating His benevolence and generosity. He gathered up the fragments demonstrating His economy, both in perfect balance.

The woman at the well, who was a sinner, found Him gracious and was attracted to him. To the scribes and Pharisees he gave a withering rebuke. No feature displaced another, each in proper order and perfection. What a contrast with our lives at times!

We need to carefully study the life of the man Christ Jesus who is perfect in all His ways, and in whom all things must have the pre-eminence. We see Him in Humility in Gethsemane, prostate before God. We see Him before His accusers in unbending dignity as they fall backwards from Him. We see His self emptiness and we see His self possession. It says He was subject to His parents and yet He said to them, “wist ye not that I must be about my fathers business.” “Woman what have I to do with you,” yet on the cross He commits her to John’s care. Each quality shone forth in its’ proper place. Our example is a perfect man, as God He is not our example but our sovereign master. Our saviour is a perfect man, as anything less; He could not be our Saviour.

[1] The ingredients of the meal-offering.

We see the materials of the meal-offering, they are four in number and in them we see the foreshadowing of Christ the man.

In the first of these materials is the Fine Flour, in it we see the shadow of Christ. Christ the perfect man shines forth in the flour of the meal offering. He was and is perfect God, but here we see Him revealed as the perfect man.   The fine flour was the basis of the offering. There was nothing uneven or course in the flour. In Christ there was nothing uneven, there was always an even surface, He was perfect in every circumstance, never ruffled by any situation. His life radiated perfection.

What a contrast with the best of the sons of Adam? We try at times to do our best and be our best, how often it all comes crashing down upon our heads as we say and do and think things of which we are later ashamed. We have an example in Moses, He was the meekest man in all the earth and yet he struck the rock in anger and disobedience. John exemplified much of the Spirit of Christ and yet e see him as seeks to call down fire on those whom Christ is trying to reach.

It is the purpose of God to make our lives like the life of Christ, and the fine flour represents that perfect life which is a sweet savour in the nostrils of God. The life of Christ is reflected in Galatians 5:22-24, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.”

It is the purpose of God to reproduce the life of Christ in the believer. We tend to excuse ourselves from this purpose of God by saying, “Oh well no one is perfect,” but that is not true, Christ was perfect and we are to be conformed to the image of Christ. Our standing before God is one of perfection and we are to become in our practice what we are in our position. When that happens our lives are, “a sweet smelling savour” in the nostrils of God. What a high calling we have, that our lives might bring pleasure to God.

How are you making out in being conformed to the image of Christ?

The second ingredient in meal-offering is the Oil. The oil in the meal offering foreshadows the Holy Spirit. We see the fine flour mixed with the oil. “Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost.”  (Matthew 1:18)

Verse 20b “....fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.” In Leviticus we have the type; in the gospels we have the reality. God and man bound up in the person of Christ. It is the Spirit that breathes through the Word of God, that leads us to believe the truth about the incarnation, though we may not fully understand all of its implications. Luke 1:35, “And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.” Hebrews 10:5, “Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me:”

The same Spirit that breathes through pages of the Old Testament breathes through the pages of the New Testament and gives us a perfect revelation of humanity and divinity of Christ. There is no need for doubt or mysticism or unbelief about the incarnation, the scripture is clear.

In Genesis we have the promise, “The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpents head.” That promise tells us that Christ would not be the son of Joseph, or the son of Adam, but rather the first man of a new race of men. He is sometimes referred to as the second Adam, or the last Adam. 1 Corinthians 15:45, “And so it is written, the first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.”

The oil represents the divine presence in the person of Christ. The more fully we understand the person of Christ, the more we can appreciate His sacrifice on the cross. If the Christ you follow and worship is not God and man in human flesh, then you are worshipping a false Christ along with multiplied millions of others.

In Luke 13:32 we have an interesting statement about the body of Christ, “And he said unto them, Go ye, and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures to day and to morrow, and the third day I shall be perfected.” How could the Body of Christ, possibly perfected if it were already perfect? We are declared to be a part of the Body of Christ. We know that we are born in sin; as such we could never be a part of the Body of Christ. The word perfection has the connotation of being complete. When was the body of Christ completed? Our verse tells us, “and the third day I shall be perfected.” The third day was the resurrection day. It was through the resurrection of Christ that we were added to the Body of Christ. It was not through His birth that we were added to the body of Christ. It was not through the death of Christ that we were added to His body. It was through His resurrection that we were added to His Body, thus He said, “the third I shall be perfected.”

Christ did not come to add sinful men to His Body. He did not come to improve upon the natural man. He came make us new creatures; He came to make us partakers of the divine nature. For that to happen the old man has to die, it can never be improved upon.

In all of this we have the unfolding of the mystery of Christ’s pure and perfect humanity. It is all typified in the fine flour mingled with the oil.

Again I repeat that in the meal-offering we see nothing of the sin-bearing of Christ, we see the living sacrifice of Christ. This sacrifice is not for sin, but rather for the purpose pleasing God as a sweet smell in His nostrils. His perfect life proves He is qualified to bear our sins away.

The third ingredient is the Frankincense.  The basis of the offering is the fine flour, which represents the man Christ Jesus. The oil and the frankincense were added to the fine four. The oil signifies the presence of God in His person.  It also represents the presence of God upon His humanity. It also represents the presence of God on ministry and life, as pictured in His anointing in Matthew 3:16.

The frankincense reveals the object of Christ’s ministry, the glory of God. The oil teaches us that He did everything by the power of the Spirit. The frankincense shows us that He did everything for the glory of God.  Verse 1b, “....his offering shall be of fine flour; and he shall pour oil upon it, and put frankincense thereon.”  Verse 2b, “....a sweet savor unto the LORD.” The frankincense represents the life of Christ as a sweet savour unto the Lord. Jesus said, “I do always those things that please Him.” The life of Christ was lived solely to do the will of God. He said, “Not my will but thine be done.” The meal-offering burning in the fire represents the life of Christ, consumed in the single purpose of pleasing God as a sweet smelling savour. The portion of the meal-offering that was burned on the altar; was totally consumed, burned until there was nothing left. That pictures the life of Christ, totally consumed in doing the Fathers will with nothing left for Christ. Verse 9:b, “....it is an offering made by fire, of a sweet savor unto the LORD.”

The fourth ingredient was the Salt. Verse 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.”

The expression, “The salt of the covenant,” sets forth the enduring aspect of the covenants. God has ordained that nothing can enter in to corrupt or altar the covenant.

“Let your conversation (life and words) be always with grace, seasoned with salt.” That represents the life of the perfect man Christ Jesus. His life and words were never tainted with corruption, His word and life were powerful, never harming but always with intent to purify and bless. The frankincense was acceptable to God; the salt was profitable for man. But unfortunately, His words were not always accepted by men.

We have an example of this in Luke 4:22, “And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph's son?” Contrast this with verse 29, “And rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong.” The words of Jesus were gracious and men loved them, at least until the salt was applied. The salt was intended to purify, but sinful men do not want to be purified.

We see the same thing in the words of Jesus when he said, “Come for all things are now ready,” here is the grace of Christ. He also said, “Whosoever forsaketh not all that he hath, cannot be My disciple,” and here is the salt. The salt will separate the true from the counterfeit.

There were two things that were excluded from the meal-offering. Leaven and honey were not to be included in the meal-offering.  Leviticus 2: 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.”

The first element excluded was leaven. Leaven is a symbol of evil in the scripture, whether it be false teaching or sinful living. (1 Cor. 5:1-8)  “A little leaven, leaveneth the whole lump,” a little evil or a little false teaching in the body of Christ will corrupt the whole body.

The meal-offering typifies the sinless life of Christ. I Christ there is nothing tainted by sin, nothing that is sour, nothing puffed up, no breath of evil. His life was pure and sweet. What a contrast with what the church sometimes is. Sometimes, evil finds its way into the fellowship of the Church. Sometimes it is found in the meetings of the church and sometimes in the members of the church.

Leviticus 23:17, “Ye shall bring out of your habitations two wave loaves of two tenth deals; they shall be of fine flour; they shall be baked with leaven; they are the firstfruits unto the LORD.” There is a reason for the leaven being added to this feast.

Understand that this is the feast of Pentecost, and the feast of Pentecost symbolic of Church. The leaven here speaks of the sin found in the Church. The Church is made up of men and women who still have a fallen nature. It is required that members of the body of Christ live pure and holy lives. Provision has been made for them to do so, and power is available to them to do so. The fact is that we as believers do sin, some more hurtful and more vexing than others. Local churches do wrong things and sin is found in the body of Christ. False doctrine comes into the body of Christ and destroys local churches. Often to the point where Christ comes and removes their candlestick, and the Holy Spirit is withdrawn from them.

These things ought not to be, but sin is found in the churches. Much of our life long occupation, both as individual Christians, and as local churches, is spent in dealing with preventing and removing sin from our lives and our churches. That is why leaven is found in the feast of Pentecost.

It ought to be in our midst, but it is. Christ has a purpose for His church concerning the leaven that is found in it, “That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.” (Ephesians 5:26-27)

Today, to the degree in which our lives and our Church are found without leaven in it, to that degree we have the blessing of Christ upon us. We read in 1 Corinthians 5:4-8 “In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?
Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”

Unlike the Church in this present world, Christ is entirely without leaven. He is pure and holy. That is the symbolism of the meal-offering without leaven in it.

The second element that was excluded was honey. Verse 11 says, “....nor any honey, in any offering of the LORD made by fire.” Honey speaks of that which is sweet and attractive and it was excluded from the meal-offering. There is a lesson here about the quality found in the life of life of Christ. We read in Proverbs, “Hast thou found honey? Eat so much as is sufficient for thee, lest thou be filled therewith, and vomit it.” Honey needs to eaten in the right proportion. Christ’s life was sweet in the places that brought blessing to others, and yet in those areas where salt was needed the sweetness of Christ was set aside. His love and gentleness and sweetness did not prevent the salt from doing what was needful.

There is a danger that our lives might be sweet in the sense that we live to please people, instead of living for the glory of God. Verse 27, “It is not good to eat much honey: so for men to search their own glory is not glory.” Christ did not live to please men, He lived to please God. He said to His parents, “Wist ye not that I must be about My Father’s business.” He did not let being sweet to His parents get in the way of the will of God. This same Jesus exhorted John from the cross to care for His mother. Honey and salt each had their proper place in His life. That which is good, in and of itself, must never in our worship and service too God. The absence of honey in the sacrifice is a warning to us, there is no place in our worship and service for self and wrong motives to lift its’ ugly head. The claims of our natural relationships must never usurp our calling as servants or worshippers.

We see this in words of Christ, Mark 3:31-35. “There came then his brethren and his mother, and, standing without, sent unto him, calling him. And the multitude sat about him, and they said unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren without seek for thee. And he answered them, saying, Who is my mother, or my brethren? And he looked round about on them which sat about him, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren! For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and my sister, and mother.”

Clarification; If? the Lord puts a responsibility on your life you must fulfil that duty and then serve Him. Notice, I said; if the Lord puts responsibility on you, not something you have chosen. The will of God is the issue. The two never need come into conflict. “Not my will but thine.” We are to fulfil our calling, even if it is to be done at great personal cost.

[2] The method by which the meal-offering was prepared. We have seen the ingredients of the offering, now we will look at the way in which the offering was prepared. It was prepared by fire. “Baken in the oven,” verse 4. “Baken in a pan,” verse 5. “baken in a frying pan,” verse 7.

The process of fire and of baking suggests the idea of suffering. The meal-offering is called a sweet savour which is a term never applied to the sin-offering or the trespass offering. Therefore, there is no thought of suffering for sin in the meal-offering. There is no thought of suffering justice at the hand of an offended holy God. There is here no thought of suffering as the sinners substitute.

Our Lord suffered in His death for sin. Our Lord also suffered in during His life. Suffering as a righteous man among men is one thing. Suffering instead of men, for their sin, at the hand of God, is totally different.

1 – Our Lord suffered for His righteousness. Our Lord came into the world a perfect, righteous man. His life was totally contradictory to the world, for that He suffered. Suffering for righteousness is totally opposite to suffering for sin. To confuse the two will lead to serious error. Our Lord suffered during His life for His righteousness, He suffered for our sin in His death. During His life Satan and men did everything they possibly could to destroy and defeat Him. Even on the cross that continued. When men and Satan had done everything they could, out of hatred, to hurt Him. There remained far beyond all of that a place of horror and suffering and darkness into which the sin-bearer had to go in order to accomplish His purpose of bearing the sins of others. He had to suffer at the hand of God.

In His life He always had the smile of the divine presence upon Him. On the cross our sin cast a shadow upon Him that shut out the divine presence. He cried, “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?” This was the darkest moment in all of eternity. During His life, the voice of God from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son,” but on the cross the same God turned His face away from Him. God was making His soul an offering for sin.

If Christ had been a sin-bearer all of His life, what was the difference between the cross and any other point in His life? And why would He have to go to the cross? There is a difference between Christ on the mount of transfiguration and Christ on the cross. The truth is that there was nothing in the perfect life of Christ or in His perfect humanity that could connect Him with sin or wrath or death. He was made to be sin on the cross. There He suffered the wrath of God, there He gave up His life, and there on the cross He made atonement for sin.

 None of this has any place in the meal-offering. Therefore in the meal-offering, the baking in the fire does not picture the wrath of God. It is rather the sweet savour of a life lived for the glory of God. It is a sweet savour of a life that suffered in righteousness for the glory of God. He suffered in His humanity as a man who was absolutely holy, and righteous and perfect.

To make His life a place of sin-bearing is to place Him under the curse of God, and to contradict the truth of God’s word concerning the incarnation. It destroys the purpose and character of His life.

2 – Our Lord suffered in sympathy. Our Lord suffered in sympathy for the sons of Adam. Human sorrow and sin and man’s lost condition caused Christ to suffer in sympathy. All of agony and misery and consequences of man’s lost condition broke the His heart. Because of His perfect manhood and His perfect nature and His perfect life He was free effects and consequences of sin. Yet in His heart and soul He entered into the depths of the misery and sorrow of those around Him in a way that that sinful men never could. Because He Was morally perfect He had a capacity to enter into the sufferings of men in a way other men could not. We see Him, at times groaning in His spirit at the unbelief and blindness of those around Him.

He saw men around Him under the guilt and condemnation of sin and it broke His heart.

He saw the Cry of the leper – The plight of the lost Lamb – The frustration of the blind man – The grief of the parents of the dead child – The sufferings of the sick – The guilt of the sinner. His sympathetic sufferings are beyond our understanding.

Matthew 8:16-17, “When the even was come, they brought unto him many that were possessed with devils: and he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick: That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses.”

During His lifetime on earth He took out infirmities and bore our sicknesses. He bore them on His heart in sympathy with us. No one but a perfect sinless man could have done that. Only Jesus could make human suffering His own suffering. He could do that because He was born a perfect man, free of the consequences of sin. His suffering in sympathy for us was a voluntary thing, the man Christ was born with a voluntary free will as we have been.

There is a great difference between His voluntary suffering in sympathy for human sorrow misery and His suffering as a sinners substitute. He one was revealed throughout His entire life and the other revealed in His death.

3 – Our Lord suffered in anticipation. There is a difference between His atoning suffering and either His suffering for righteousness or His suffering in sympathy.

“And he came out, and went, as he was wont, to the Mount of Olives; and his disciples also followed him. And when he was at the place, he said unto them, Pray that ye enter not into temptation.
And he was withdrawn from them about a stone's cast, and kneeled down, and prayed,
Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.
And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him.
And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.” (Luke 22:39-44)  If Christ had been a sin-bearer, all of His life, then why do we this intense agony at the thought of His being made to be sin? Why this anguish at the thought of the wrath of God poured upon Him for our sin? There is a difference between the Christ of Gethsemane and the Christ of Calvary.

He was not a sin-bearer all His life. In Gethsemane He was anticipating the cross at Calvary He was experiencing the cross. In Gethsemane He strengthened by an angel on the cross He was forsaken. In Gethsemane He speaks to God as His father on Calvary He says,” My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me.” In Gethsemane God is His loving heavenly Father, at Calvary God is pouring out His wrath against sin.

[3] The persons who took part in the meal-offering.

Verse 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.” Aaron’s sons are introduced to us as priests who are functioning in the service of the Lord. They are intended to be seen as types of all true believers. They are seen not as sinners but as worshipping priests. So in the meal-offering we find them at the table of the Lord, feeding on the remnant of the meal-offering. It was the remnant set aside for the priests to eat. It was the table set by the Lord for them to enjoy. Only those who are functioning as priests could eat at that table.

Leviticus 6:14-18, “And this is the law of the meat offering: the sons of Aaron shall offer it before the LORD, before the altar. And he shall take of it his handful, of the flour of the meat offering, and of the oil thereof, and all the frankincense which is upon the meat offering, and shall burn it upon the altar for a sweet savor, even the memorial of it, unto the LORD. And the remainder thereof shall Aaron and his sons eat: with unleavened bread shall it be eaten in the holy place; in the court of the tabernacle of the congregation they shall eat it. It shall not be baked with leaven. I have given it unto them for their portion of my offerings made by fire; it is most holy, as is the sin offering, and as the trespass offering.
All the males among the children of Aaron shall eat of it. It shall be a statute forever in your generations concerning the offerings of the LORD made by fire: every one that toucheth them shall be holy.”

We have a beautiful type of the church feeding upon Christ in the holy place. We see the church in the state of practical holiness, feeding upon the perfect man Christ. This is our portion as believer-priests.

A – It is to be eaten, “without leavened bread.” We cannot feed upon Christ if our hearts and lives are tainted with sin of any kind. The exhortation was, “Everyone that toucheth them shall be holy.”

B- It must be, “In the holy place.” Our positions, our practice, our persons and our associations, must be holy before we can feed upon the meal-offering, upon Christ.

C – Only males may eat of it, “All males of the children of Aaron shall eat of it.” Only those who are functioning as priests can partake of it. Here were some things which both sons and daughters could eat of but not the meal-offering. They must be functioning as priests. As priests, they would be sanctified or set apart, they would be serving God, and they would be functioning as intercessors on behalf of others. Only as we believers function as believer-priests can we participate in the feeding upon Christ, which is portion and privilege. Note; believer priests today are both male and female; the example in the meal-offering is a type.

Conclusion we are made, “partakers of the Divine nature.” If we are living in the energy of that nature, we can walk in the footsteps of the one who foreshadows the meal-offering. If we are self empty our lives can be a sweet odour to God, and all our service may be by the power of the Holy Spirit be a sweet savour to God. To do that our flesh nature must be kept in the place of death. We are told not to allow the leaven to come in.

We are prone to self-seeking and we are prone to be men-pleasing. Our lives are deficient and we need oil and we need frankincense and we need salt.

There is but one perfect meal-offering, it is Christ and we are accepted in Him. We are the true sons of Aaron and our place is at the table of God to feed on Christ. Thanks be to the Lord, we have found Him who is our portion forever.

Moses, Because of the Hardness of Your Hearts, Suffered You.... - Matthew 19:8
Apr 3rd, 2020
Morning MeditationF.B. Meyer
Categories: Commentary;Inspirational;Book Study

This is a very profound principle, which is of immense value in dealing with Scripture. There were certain precepts and commands given to Israel, which are not of lasting obligation, because they were stages in their moral discipline and education. It would have been impossible to lift them suddenly from the degradation into which they had sunk in Egypt, to the glorious levels of Isaiah or the Sermon on the Mount: so God's dealings with them were graduated and progressive.

Such were the regulations about a plurality of wives, the keeping of bond-slaves, the treatment of captives, the destruction of their foes. With respect to these, our Lord says, Moses interposed a parenthesis of legislation, which was a stage higher than anything known among the surrounding nations, though it was not God's normal or original code.

What was true of Israel is true of us. We do not realize, in the first stage of our redemption, all that is included in the word "Sin." We are like men enveloped in morning mist, which permits them to descry only the bolder outlines of the cliffs around them, but as yet veils the minuter eminences or depressions. As the mist clears, surrounding objects become ever more distinctly defined: so that we know more of God, we know ourselves better, and realize what sin is, and come to see it where we had never guessed its presence. Thus we condemn to-day what we permitted five years ago. It is interesting to find in these words of Christ the germ of an argument which His apostle used afterward in the Epistle to the Galatians with such marvellous force. He said the Mosaic dispensation was a parenthesis; but it cannot disannul God's primal institution (Gal 3:15-17).