LEVITICUS 2
This chapter brings before us the saints’ apprehension of Christ in His personal perfection. It is not a question of atonement or acceptance, but the heart delighting in a perfect Object, and engaging itself with that Object in its movements Godward. Presenting an “oblation” or “gift” supposes that one is consciously in the acceptance of the burnt-offering as seen in chapter 1. There is entire freedom from every question that might arise as to one’s own acceptance. We are not now thinking of sin, nor of how it has been dealt with, nor even of the way in which God has been glorified as to it. We are occupied with what is perfect under the eye of God, and under our eye, in a Man here on earth.
We may notice as to the “oblation” that it suggests preparation at home. It was there the Israelite had his flour and oil and frankincense; it was there the cakes were baked; all was prepared before it was brought to the tent of meeting. If we are not engaging ourselves with Christ at home, or in private, there will be no gift to bring to the tent of meeting, and no sweet odour for God. How blessed to be engaged with Christ in secret!
“Fine flour” is the basis of the oblation in each case, save that of the first-fruits, which stands by [p. 17] itself. Then what marks the oblation generally is that, while there was a memorial burned as sweet savour to Jehovah, it was given as food to the priests. It speaks of Christ in an aspect in which He can be the food of saints, and particularly of saints viewed as spiritual persons in charge of the testimony and service of God.
There is a difference between Christ viewed as the “manna” and Christ as typified in the “oblation”. The manna was given from heaven to sustain men in wilderness conditions. But in the oblation we see rather what there was in Man viewed as “the fruit of the earth” — this expression is applied to Christ in Isaiah 4: 2 — for the delight of God, and to engage the affections of all who are divinely taught to appreciate it. It is what can be offered as a sweet odour for the pleasure of God, and what becomes, as such, the food of the holy priesthood.
When at the baptism of Jesus the voice came out of heaven, “Thou art my beloved Son, in thee I have found my delight”, the fine flour of the oblation was there with the oil poured on it, and the frankincense was there also, for He was praying (Luke 3: 22). But when, tempted of the devil, He answered, “It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God”, we see Him true to the wilderness place into which He had come, and sustained there “by every word of God”. Probably each saint has known what it is to be sustained by some word of God, but with Him it was “every word”. He lived by it; every minute detail in His life was formed by the word of God. If He had not a word from God He did nothing. “Every word of God” found its perfect answer in Him, and came into expression in His life. That is the “fine” grain of the manna. (Compare Deuteronomy 8: 3.) It suggests perfection in minute detail “on the face of the wilderness”. In the pathway of Jesus we see a life sustained from above, and which was in every way the perfect expression of that which sustained it. Now He is in heaven to minister from thence to His saints here so that they may live in the wilderness in the strength of that grace which was so perfectly expressed in Him.
But the “fine flour” of the oblation speaks of what has sprung up here and come to maturity, in the Person of Jesus, for the delight of God. It is viewed in this type as apprehended in the minute detail of its perfection and evenness. This is the fruit of a precious occupation of heart and spiritual intelligence. What a study of the perfections of Jesus does it necessitate! What more delightful engagement of affectionate meditation could there be?
We may trace it in numberless features in the Gospels; the law of Moses, the prophets, and the Psalms are full of presentations in detail of that which is for God’s delight in man; and every exhortation which the Epistles contain as to the spirit and walk which are comely in saints is an unfolding of the perfections of Jesus. I am not speaking, for the moment, of His official dignity or royal glory, but of His moral perfection. Everything which Scripture presents from Genesis to Revelation as being morally excellent in man, and for God’s pleasure, had its place in that unique Manhood of which the “fine flour” is typical. It can only be brought as an offering by the saint who has apprehended it, and in the measure of his apprehension. But this should surely be, with each one of us, continually increasing.
[p. 19] We lose a great deal by not paying more attention to the perfection of Christ in detail. We should make it the study of our hearts. For example, take the First Book of the Psalms (Psalm 1 - Psalm 41) and ponder every separate quality of Christ that you find. There will expand in your soul the apprehension of a Blessed Man who always lived in relation to God — a Man marked by separation, meditation, obedience, dependence, delighting in good; and ever finding His place with those who feared and loved God. The following scriptures in that book may be considered amongst others: Psalm 1:1-3; Psalm 3:4-6; Psalm 4:3; Psalm 4:7,8; Psalm 5:1-3; Psalm 5:7,8; Psalm 5:11; Psalm 6:8,9; Psalm 7:1; Psalm 7:4; Psalm 7:8; Psalm 9:1,2; Psalm 9:13; Psalm 9:18; Psalm 11:1,2; Psalm 13:5; Psalm 16:1-11; Psalm 17:3-6; Psalm 17:8; Psalm 17:15; Psalm 18:1-6; Psalm 18:18-24; Psalm 18:30-36; Psalm 19:7-11; Psalm 19:14; Psalm 20:1-6; Psalm 21:1-7; Psalm 23:1-6; Psalm 25:1-5; Psalm 25:9,10; Psalm 25:12; Psalm 25:14; Psalm 25:16,17; Psalm 26:1-8; Psalm 26:11,12; Psalm 27:1-8; Psalm 28:6-8; Psalm 31:1; Psalm 31:5-7; Psalm 34:1-3; Psalm 38:13-15; Psalm 40:4; Psalm 40:9,10; Psalm 41:12.
As born into this world He was “the holy thing” (Luke 1: 35), and could truly be presented as holy to Jehovah (Luke 2: 22, 23). Excellence was found here as “the fruit of the earth” in Him. Even as a child He was filled with wisdom, and God’s grace was upon Him (Luke 2: 40). At the age of twelve we find Him occupied in His Father’s business, sitting in the temple in the midst of the teachers, hearing them and asking them questions, and astonishing all who heard Him by His understanding and answers. Yet would He keep the place suited to One of such an age: “He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and he was in subjection to them” (Luke 2: 51).
Then, at the age of thirty, we see Him going along with those in whom grace had wrought repentance, and being baptized. Not, surely, that He had personally [p. 20] anything to repent of, but the movement in their souls was of God; it was for them the path of righteousness, and He would walk with them in it. Not patronizing them, as some great one of the earth might condescend to consort for a season with those far beneath him, but going along with them because they were to Him the saints on the earth, the excellent and all His delight was in them (Psalm 16: 3).
Then it was characteristic of Him that He should be seen as praying at the time of His baptism. It was no new attitude of spirit for Him, for His language, as given prophetically, was, “Thou didst make me trust, upon my mother’s breasts. I was cast upon thee from the womb; thou art my God from my mother’s belly” (Psalm 22: 9, 10). From His mother’s breasts to the last cry upon the cross, “Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit”, He was never for one moment removed from the spirit of dependence. There was not only perfection in every detail of the life of the Holy Child and Youth and Man, but it was perfection that had all its spring and strength in God. God was a necessity to Him at every moment; His object, His delight, the One whose will was His only guide and rule, His resource for all things and at all times.
How fragrant to God was this entire dependence of One who took up every detail of His path and every exercise in the affections proper to a Son! I think the apprehension of this is typified by the frankincense put upon the fine flour, all of which was burnt as sweet odour on the altar. There was not a movement of the spirit of Christ inwardly or outwardly — whether the thoughts of His heart or their expression in word or deed — that did not first breathe itself out to God in prayer, and find its strength in so doing.
[p. 21] So that every movement of His heart and spirit was not only perfect in itself, but perfect in its reference to God, and in the dependent affections which characterized it. We may see this in the frequent mention of His praying in Luke’s gospel, and we see it brought out with peculiar fragrance in John 11: 41, 42, and 12: 27, 28.
“And he shall pour oil on it”. God would have us to recognize the perfect suitability of that blessed Man to be anointed by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit could come into contact with every grain of that “fine flour”; all was suitable. There was no necessity in His case for “the Holy Spirit and fire” to set aside in consuming power through self-judgment a mass of unsuitability such as we find in ourselves. “The Holy Spirit descended in a bodily form as a dove upon him” (Luke 3: 22); He could come into sympathetic contact with every exercise in the heart of that blessed One. Love made Him a mourner in a world of woe, and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in a form sympathetic with His sorrow, but as power that God might be made known in a world of human woe in the way of gentleness and grace and healing and deliverance. In the Person of Jesus the Holy Spirit came upon a Man who felt according to God everything that was in a world of sin. A Man in perfect sympathy with God as to everything here, was the suited Vessel in whom all the grace of heaven could come near to men in dove-like gentleness.
The offerer pouring oil on the fine flour is typical of the saint coming, as divinely taught, into the apprehension and appreciation of Christ as the blessed Man marked by perfection in every minute detail, and thus suitable to be anointed by the Holy Spirit. A [p. 22] Man who is the contrast in every way to the man after the flesh. It is the work and delight of God to bring us to appreciate Him — to bring us, in measure, to His own appreciation of Him — so that He may become the Substance of affectionate movements on our part Godward. Then, in result, all this becomes “most holy” food for the priesthood. The heart that assimilates it, and is nourished by it, acquires capability for sanctuary service. It is strengthened to understand spiritually God’s pleasure in Christ, and to serve Him in a priestly way with reference to it. Probably the lack of vigour for priestly service amongst christians generally is largely due to the absence or feebleness of those apprehensions and appreciations of Christ which would manifest themselves in movements answering to the offering of an oblation.
Then in verses 4 - 10 we get a further aspect of the oblation as baken or prepared in different ways under the action of fire “in the oven”, “on the pan”, or “in the cauldron”. This would seem to indicate the desire of God that His saints should apprehend the perfection of Christ as it came out under different kinds and degrees of testing. “Unleavened cakes” set forth the entire absence of any element of inflation or corruption. But “mingled with oil” suggests the positive energy of the Spirit as giving character to His Manhood. “Mingled” is more than “anointed”. It is the same word in Psalm 92: 10, where it suggests that “the whole system is invigorated and strengthened by it: it formed his strength”, see note to Leviticus 2: 4, in the New Translation. That which was begotten in the virgin was of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 1: 20). The angel Gabriel said to her, “The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and power of the Highest overshadow [p. 23] thee, wherefore the holy thing also which shall be born shall be called Son of God” (Luke 1: 35). The true and holy humanity of the Lord Jesus is to be cherished and sacredly guarded by the faithful affections of His saints in face of the infidelity which abounds. It is as essential to Christianity as His deity. Both, alas! are called in question in religious high places. But it is in the spiritual apprehension of a Manhood that derived its character and energy from the Holy Spirit that we can understand the delight of God in Him, and bring our oblation as “a sweet odour”.
One would suggest that the most complete apprehension of Christ in oblation character is set forth in that which is “baken in the oven”. This would be according to the analogy of the other offerings, where in each case the greatest apprehension is the one first presented. There is also a definiteness of form in “cakes” and “wafers” which is lacking in the succeeding offerings. The offerer has typically a very definite apprehension of Christ as imbued with the Holy Spirit or as anointed, and subjected to the most intense testing. The “oven” being an enclosed chamber would suggest what was hidden from public view — the secret testings through which He passed, which were the most intense of His personal sufferings, with the exception of His atoning sufferings, which are not presented in this type. Those secret testings require the deepest spirituality for their apprehension and for the discernment of how the Lord’s perfection came to light in them. His feelings and sensibilities were as perfect as His works and words. What must it have been to God to have One here in Manhood who felt about everything just as it ought to be felt about.
[p. 24] The feeding on Christ as thus known would give us priestly sensibilities. Natural feelings, with reference to what is trying, lead to impatience and irritability. They lack reference to God, and the sobriety which His presence gives. But the offerer who brings “an oblation baken in the oven” has apprehended spiritually emotions and feelings brought out in Christ under testing which were in perfect contrast to all that is natural in man, and which were wholly delightful to God. And the priest who burns the memorial of it has presented it to God with holy and reverent appreciation, and is to feed on it for his own inward nourishment and formation. But spirituality in both offerer and priest is needed for this, for it is “most holy of Jehovah’s offerings”.
For example, to enter into how He “suffered, being tempted” (Hebrews 2: 18) requires great spirituality. The positive suffering that it was to Him to be tempted could only be understood by one who was, at least in measure, a partaker of God’s holiness. Then how He felt the rejection of Israel, not merely because they rejected Him — though surely He felt this deeply — but because His heart entered into all that His rejection means for them. Then the unbelief and lack of understanding in His own, so often manifested; the inability of those He loved to watch with Him one hour; the treachery of Judas. Then the bearing in His own spirit the weight of every infirmity and disease which He removed by His power — that found expression in His groan over the deaf man (Mark 7: 34), and His groan over the unbelief of that generation (Mark 8: 12), and His being “deeply moved in spirit” in presence of the desolation and power of death (John 11: 33, 38). All these things show how [p. 25] deeply He was tried in His own spirit by that which He passed through, but they are to be apprehended as bringing out nothing but unalloyed perfection for the delight of God in that blessed One. A deeper testing still remained for Gethsemane, where all the terribleness of death, and of what was involved in drinking the cup, was known by Him in anticipation with unutterable agony. But what did the testing bring out? “Not my will, but thine be done”.
These things would all belong, as it seems to me, to the “oven” character of the oblation. The thinness of the “cakes” and “wafers” would perhaps suggest how completely every part of the humanity of our blessed Lord was brought under the action of intense trial.
Then the “oblation on the pan” would have reference to such testings as were more public, requiring less spirituality for their apprehension. Such would be the daily contact with the contradiction of sinners, the varied forms of open or concealed enmity by which He was confronted, His being reviled, etc., the demands of many kinds from many quarters. Each separate part is seen in this type as distinguished, and as apprehended to be in the power of the holy anointing.
And, finally, the offering prepared “in the cauldron” lacks the definiteness and discrimination of the two previous forms of the oblation. It corresponds thus with the burnt-offering of fowls as compared with the sheep or bullock of chapter 1. It suggests an apprehension of Christ as characterized by the Spirit which is true as far as it goes, and therefore acceptable, but which lacks maturity in development, and in power of spiritual discrimination. Nevertheless it is the [p. 26] perfection of Christ that is apprehended, and the Holy Spirit in relation to Him, however feebly estimated by the offerer, and this constitutes it an offering “of a sweet odour”. How precious the grace that gives to one a more mature appreciation of Christ! And how precious, too, the grace that accepts the feebler apprehension of another because it is the perfection of Christ that is apprehended and not that of self. Every apprehension of Christ that is brought to the tent of meeting contributes “sweet odour” to God, and food for the priesthood. But we must not forget that an apprehension of Christ, which might be delightful and acceptable in a newly converted soul, might be the sad evidence in an older saint of spiritual indolence and of the allowance of things that have hindered divine growth.
Then no oblation was to be made with leaven; “for no leaven and no honey shall ye burn in any fire-offering to Jehovah” (verses 11, 12). “Leaven” is the corrupting and inflating principle of self-importance which is never absent from man in the flesh. It could not possibly have place in a “most holy” offering. It was entirely absent from Christ, and it must be entirely absent from those movements of heart Godward which have Christ only as their Theme and Substance. I think leaven might come into our oblation if we say more than is really true. There might be an attempt to make our apprehension of Christ appear to be greater than it really is. This would be a puffing up of the flesh in a very sorrowful way. It is possible to say wonderful things of Christ which we have heard other persons say, or which we have read in books, but if they are beyond our own apprehension they are not a true “gift”. There [p. 27] would be danger of it becoming like Psalm 78: 36. “But they flattered (the word means”make pretence,”elsewhere”entice,””deceive”) him with their mouth, and lied unto him with their tongue; for their heart was not firm toward him, neither were they steadfast in his covenant”. How blessed that we can read on, “But he was merciful; he forgave the iniquity and destroyed them not”! “Honey” represents the sweetness of nature as found in amiability and natural affections. It may be agreeable, and even refreshing, in its own sphere, and given of God in mercy; but it enters not into the oblation. When it is a question of what God delights in, the line is sharply drawn between the natural and the spiritual, and the former is excluded. “Honey” would be the intrusion of natural sentiment, which I am afraid often comes into hymns and prayers. It may be sweet, but it is the sweetness of nature. When Peter said, “God be favourable to thee, Lord; this shall in no wise be unto thee” (Matthew 16: 22), it was a sweet sentiment, but it was nature. There was no savour of the salt of the covenant about it, and it was an offence to the Lord.
“The offering of the first-fruits” refers to the two wave-loaves of Pentecost (Leviticus 23: 15 - 17) which were baken with leaven. That was “a new oblation to Jehovah”, representing the assembly as composed of those in whom leaven had once been active, though now rendered inactive by self-judgment in the power of the Spirit. But leaven being recognized they cannot be “offered upon the altar for a sweet savour”, though presented to Jehovah as first-fruits. The Spirit of God would thus lead us to distinguish between Christ Himself, who can alone be “offered upon the altar for a sweet savour”, and the assembly which is of Him, and in which He is reproduced as “a new oblation”, but which cannot be a “fire-offering”.
“And every offering of thine oblation shalt thou season with salt; neither shalt thou suffer the salt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking from thine oblation; with all thine offerings thou shalt offer salt”. “The salt of the covenant of thy God” is an expression which arrests attention. It suggests that an offering can only be acceptable as being offered in true faithfulness of heart to the covenant relations in which divine grace has set us, and to which we have committed ourselves. I think “salt” is the preservative power of fidelity and purpose of heart to be true to the covenant. It includes self-judgment, but it involves also a faithful purpose to accept and adopt in our own hearts and lives that which is in accord with what we offer. It is that principle of faithfulness which shuts out the activities of the flesh, and brings in Christ in a practical way. For example, if I offer to God in praise an apprehension and appreciation of Christ as the One who was ever about His Father’s business, the “salt” that must be with it to make it acceptable is the faithful purpose to be on the same line — to maintain dedication to the interests and pleasure of God. If my oblation is to praise God for the meekness and gentleness of Christ the “salt” would be that I am fully set to cultivate and exhibit a like spirit. This is the test of the reality of the offering, and it indicates whether one is faithfully committed to the covenant. In a word, it tests whether we really appreciate the Christ that we offer, and whether we prefer Him to ourselves. In many things we may come infinitely short of what we appreciate in Christ,
but the “salt” is that we are set in purpose of heart to pursue moral conformity to Him.
The “oblation of thy first-fruits” seems to come in as a kind of appendix, and I think it presents Christ as apprehended by Israel as their First-fruits. God had looked for His pleasure in a peculiar way in Israel; as regards the earth Israel was to be, and will yet be, “the first-fruits of his increase” (Jeremiah 2: 3). But Israel will become this as they learn, under divine teaching, to regard Christ as their First-fruits. What a day it will be for them when they see that all in which they have so miserably failed to answer to God’s pleasure has been secured for Him in Christ! All that should mark the “Israel of God” has appeared in this world in the Christ of God. No trace of it could be seen in Israel after the flesh. But Israel viewed as “the children of the promise” are entitled to regard Christ as their First-fruits, and in a coming day they will do so. As they learn to give Christ this place, they will, through Him, become fruitful for God. The after-fruits will follow, and take character from the First-fruits.
The “green ears of corn” would suggest the freshness and vigour of life in which everything wherein Israel had failed to answer to the pleasure of God was found here in Christ. But “roasted in fire” would indicate how the nation after the flesh had treated Him. Instead of the First-fruits being appreciated, and ripening amidst a responsive people into the fruition of the kingdom, they were “roasted in fire”. I take it that this corresponds with the action of fire as seen in the oven, the pan, and the cauldron, only now it is in an intensified degree; it is subjected to the direct action of fire.
[p. 30] We may repeat, What a day it will be for Israel when they see that the very intensity of their hatred and rejection has brought out the holy perfection of Him whom they will then gladly recognize as their First-fruits! “Corn beaten out of full ears” speaks of the maturity and fulness in which God’s delight was found in Him. Israel will learn, too, to give the oil and the frankincense their place in relation to Him. There will be affectionate movements of approach to God in reference to all this when Israel presents the oblation of his first-fruits. But before that day it is the privilege of saints of the assembly to present an oblation, and as priests to bring it to the altar and offer it as “a sweet odour”, and to make it their “most holy” food. May we have grace to take up this hallowed service!