| From the Church on the Hill by D. Eric Williams Pastor, Cottonwood Community Church pastor@CottCommChurch.com The self-appointed ruling elite tell us the abolition of private property brings true happiness. They want us to believe happiness is a world without participation in God’s grand adventure of taking dominion. Yet it is the responsibility of private ownership and the work to maintain itthat godly stewardship is realized. The Bible teaches us this in a variety of ways. For instance; the meal, or cereal, offering is a bloodless sacrifice not connected to the forgiveness of sin (Leviticus Chapter 2). Instead, it was a gift brought by the worshiper in recognition of God’s sovereignty and a request for favor and blessing from the Lord.According to Leviticus Two, there are three categories of meal offerings; the flour offering, baked or cooked goods and parched or roasted grain.This section of Leviticus also mentions the first fruits and equates the parched grain type of meal offering with the offering of first fruits. However, this meal offering as presented to us in Leviticus chapter 2 is not the same thing as the first fruits (Leviticus 23:10). Each meal offering is a sweet aroma to God whether or not it is sprinkledwith frankincense. None can have leaven or honey (as could the actual first fruits offerings - Leviticus 23:17, 20, 2 Chronicles 31:5). The reason the first fruits offerings could include leavened bread and honey is because they were not burnt. The burnt offerings are free of the old doctrine; they are not tainted by the leaven of Egypt. On the other hand, first fruits are products of the new creation and are "fruitful" and growing. They represent the living, expanding kingdom of God. They represent the new age of the Son of Man and as such are not burnt sacrifices because Christ who sums up all bloody and burnt sacrifice was offered only once. We also see all of the meal offerings are salted (Leviticus 2:13). Salt points to the everlasting character of the covenant (Numbers 18:19, 2 Chronicles 13:5). The meal or grain offering represents the most basic aspects of life and work. It exemplifies the staff of life produced by the work of a man and symbolizes the elemental dimensions of humanity. Every kind of work is represented by the meal offering; farmers who grow the grain along with merchants who buy that grain with the income produced by the sweat of their brow. Again, the offering consecrated a man’s life and work to God; it was a gift typifying the most fundamental elements of life. We might wonder why frankincense is part of the sacrifice and then only in two types of meal offerings. We see incense added to the flour or to the parched grain but not to the offerings which are cooked. In both cases where the frankincense is part of the offering it appears it is placed on a portion of the flour or parched grain so it is easily grasped when the memorial portion is taken to be burned. Again, in the baked or fried meal offering incense is not present at all. Perhaps the reason that the baked offering is given without frankincense is because it's better represents a life complete and in order in all its basic elements. What better represents an orderly and stable household then the aroma of baking bread? Hence, there is no need for the sweet aroma of frankincense when there is already the pleasing and rich aroma of the baked meal. More along these lines next week. |
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