FOOD AS PRESENTED TO GOD
[p. 73] FOOD AS PRESENTED TO GOD
JT It seemed to me that in considering this great subject of food, we should bring in God’s part. These chapters treat of food, not for the saints but for God. “Command the children of Israel, and say unto them, my offering, my bread for my offerings by fire of sweet odour to me, shall ye take heed to present to me at their set time”. It is imperative.
AFM It is readily understood that we require food but in what sense does God require it?
JT That He should regard the offerings of His people as food for Himself is very touching. The manna was said to be angels’ food; God, we know, is a Spirit, and the angels are spirits, so we have to understand that what is alluded to must be spiritual.
HSD It would not be a question of support, but rather of what ministers to the pleasure of God.
JT It is noticeable throughout Numbers that the oblation has particular prominence; much is said of fine flour mingled with oil, and of wine. Attention is thus called to the joy God has in Christ as Man serving Him here in the power of the Spirit.
BTF Would you say that the expressions “my offering” and “my bread” suggest the saints ministering to God’s delight and pleasure?
JT That is evidently what is in view. Throughout the two chapters it is the bearing of the offerings as food for God that is in view.
WB-w In Malachi 3:8 it says, “Will a man rob God?” We must consider for Him.
JT How much have we thought of God’s part? The Spirit is given, typically, according to chapter 21, which implies that the saints have ability to meet divine requirements. So that God is not taxing us [p. 74] beyond our means in asking for the bread of His offerings. In chapter 26 we have the inheritance, and in chapter 27 the daughters of Zelophehad are introduced as those who valued the inheritance. It is in that light that God looks for something from us — from us as having the spiritual means to furnish it.
AFM In verse 2 of our chapter Jehovah says, “My offering, my bread for my offerings ... shall ye take heed to present to me at their set time”. There is a large number of offerings before us in these chapters, but offerings to be presented at their “set time”. Would you say a little as to how these chapters open out?
JT Well, we have the whole year covered, from the first of the year to the fifteenth of the seventh month. It is not what we call the solar year, but rather the spiritual year; or we might call it the agricultural year. Now, the farmer does not reckon the year as the merchant does: the farmer reckons it from the time he sows his seed until he reaps his crop and gathers it in. The feast of tabernacles corresponds to this ingathering. The agricultural year is really what counts, because it is a question of what comes from the land; every kind of life, excepting aquatic life, depends upon that: it says, “Moreover the earth is every way profitable: the king himself is dependent upon the field”, (Ecclesiastes 5:9).
ANW The seventh month is the greatest of all.
JT Amongst other things introduced therein, it is the time of ingathering which takes place at the end of that month.
JS The farmer reckons by seasons.
JT That was how God ordered things after the flood: “Henceforth, all the days of the earth seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night, shall not cease”, (Genesis 8:22). It is, substantially, how we would reckon [p. 75] if we were tilling the soil; and after all, from it most of the wealth comes.
AP Is there the suggestion then that the greater part of the solar year is held for God?
JT Well, the point is what you get out of the ground, and what God gets through that increase from us.
AP Scripture speaks of “redeeming the time”, (Ephesians 5:16). The solar year represents the time.
JT It would be a question of actual time, of making the most of every moment that we have. I think the distinction as to the year is important, because that is how Scripture deals with it. The agricultural year is a question of sowing and reaping.
JS How do you apply that spiritually?
JT Simply speaking, it is a matter of God getting something out of us. We get in Luke’s gospel that the fig tree rendered the ground useless. The ground, figuratively, is the source of supply for God.
CAM How much of what is done in our bodies is going to be shown as “good” at the judgment seat of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:10)?
JT The sheaf of the first fruits presented to Jehovah is Christ (1 Corinthians 15:23); one sheaf was offered (Leviticus 23:9 - 14), but as having a great harvest in view. The extended thought of this embraces the fifteenth day of the seventh month.
WB-w The man in Deuteronomy 26 had the first fruit in his basket. Is he representative of one who labours and brings in a good crop?
JT Yes; it says, “That thou shalt take of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which thou shalt bring of thy land which Jehovah thy God giveth thee”, (Deuteronomy 26:2). He brought the first of all the fruit of the ground and presented it to Jehovah.
BTF Would you say that Paul brings in the thought of the crop? “I have planted; Apollos watered; but God has given the increase”, (1 Corinthians [p. 76] 3:6).
So I suppose God looks for increase from the saints.
JT That is what is before us. What are the crops going to yield this year? Is the reaping to be in proportion to the sowing?
ARS Is the idea of fruit the same as food, in connection with God? We are to bring forth fruit unto God.
JT Fruit is, of course, a more general thought, but it includes what we are speaking of. God looks for a crop. The Lord said, “Except the grain of wheat falling into the ground die, it abides alone; but if it die, it bears much fruit”, (John 12:24). The “much fruit” refers to the seventh month, the end of the agricultural year, and implies all that the Lord is and has in resurrection; but these two chapters show what is directly for God in the way of food. The farmer does not use all his harvest for himself; he disposes of it commercially, and uses it as food for his cattle; but God is not occupied with that here, but rather with what is for Himself. He says, “My offering, my bread for my offerings by fire”; and then He goes on to specify the daily, weekly, and monthly offerings. We should also note the stress laid on the meat offering and the drink offering — all for a sweet odour, an offering by fire to Jehovah.
JEH Has every believer a field?
JT Yes, and so the word is: “Prepare thy work without, and put thy field in order, and afterwards build thy house”, (Proverbs 24:27). The offerings required in our chapters contemplate a source of supply divinely given.
ANW In Deuteronomy 23 there is the vineyard and the standing corn which are available to my neighbour, but God only takes what is offered Him.
JT That is the idea in verse 1 of our chapter; the word rendered “offering” is derived from the verb to present. It is ‘corban’ (see footnote to [p. 77] Leviticus 1:2). Not only is it in the field — for according to Genesis 1 the food supply comes out of the earth — but it is there as a provision of the Creator, and in marvellous volume. In Genesis 41 it is gathered under the hand of a man, having administration in view, but when you come to the passover it is a specific creature — a lamb. So God specifies what He requires, but it is presented to Him. Not only is it there for Him to receive, but as expressing love in His people it is presented as their gift.
AP What is the difference between this and the tithes?
JT The tithes went mainly to Levi (see Deuteronomy 26:12) and through the Levites to God; it was the same in principle, only the gift as rendered to the Levites was offered by them to God. These chapters contemplate the wealth of the saints, and that God is before them throughout the whole year, and that their giving to Him is direct.
AFM The daily offering of verse 3 is called “a continual burnt-offering”, and forms a basis for the other offerings that follow; so that, whatever may be offered on the sabbath or the beginning of the month, etc., this offering is always maintained. This is very suggestive. Will you say a little about it?
JT It is evidently to maintain the saints on a high spiritual level. Their “days” are thus filled out by suitable response to God. The believer is to have the same measure of response in the evening as in the morning. The daily offerings would thus preserve us from spiritual diminution. In the feast of tabernacles you get provision made for diminution in the sacrifices, but you do not want that. It refers to the millennium, for which God is obliged to provide. There is a gradual decline from thirteen bullocks on the first of the seven days to seven bullocks on the seventh day. This provision is mentioned here only. If we are to prevent this [p. 78] lessening of what is offered, we must maintain the daily morning and evening sacrifices.
JEH Why is there provision made for that diminution?
JT It refers to the reduction of spiritual power in the millennium, but if applied to ourselves, it would be to God in grace making allowance, so that a saint should not drop out even if diminishing in spiritual power.
AJD Does it go below the seventh bullock?
JT No; thus what is due to God is maintained, only in a reduced measure. A state that He can own is maintained, as prefigured in the seven bullocks. It is only in the bullocks that the diminution is seen. The other offerings are the same on each day.
ANW Would it not show that the millennium, wonderful and great as it is, is not the best?
JT It is not on the same level as the church in which there is no provision made for spiritual decline.
AFM Does the number of bullocks refer to spiritual wealth, and the lessening of it to loss of energy in devotedness?
JT The thirteen bullocks contemplate a very large affair. The millennium will begin with great spiritual power, but it will be susceptible to depreciation, and steadily so; God takes account of this and intimates that it will not go below seven which is perfection in itself; all above that number is excess.
AP Is your thought that there is increase in chapter 28:14, as seen in the larger measure of wine?
JT The wine is in proportion to the offering, whatever the offering may be. What you get in chapter 28 is perfect proportion. But there is increase in the offerings required in this chapter; the worship of the church is in view, typically.
JS As sustained by the Spirit?
JT Quite. You could not get wine, in a spiritual [p. 79] sense, apart from the Spirit; accompanying these offerings, the drink offerings are to gladden the heart of God.
CAM In Philippians 2:17 there is a reference to the drink offering. In Paul’s service and their faith God would have joy.
JT There the apostle contemplated being “poured out as a libation on the sacrifice and ministration of your faith”.
CAM So that while they gained by the sacrifice, I suppose the drink offering was for God.
JT The drink offering is always for God. And it is not grape juice, but fermented wine, being that “which cheers God and man”, (Judges 9:13).
AFM Why do you say it is not grape juice?
JT Because the idea is of stimulation — causing joy. God graciously uses such a figure to denote what the spiritual sacrifices and worship of the saints are to Him..
ANW I suppose the cup of the Lord’s supper is intended to stimulate spiritually.
JT I think it is — not that the ingredient is prominent in the Lord’s supper. There is no doubt that it was wine that was used, but the emphasis in the Lord’s supper is not on the ingredient but on the one vessel; the cup is what our attention is called to.
AP Is it your thought that the cup is greater than millennial joy?
JT Yes. The love of God is expressed in it, and unity in the enjoyment of the love. Then in the bread we have the one body. In the millennium it is a nation in Israel, and wine in the passover would convey the idea of earthly joy in this connection. In the celebration of the passover at the time of our Lord there were several cups drunk, according to the records we have. The idea would be that it was an earthly joy in which God had part, and in which [p. 80] Christ had part also. So He will drink it in a new way in the kingdom of God.
AR In chapter 28 the feast of weeks contemplates excess, does it not? There is increase in relation to the assembly. Is that the idea?
JT Yes, the feast of weeks ends chapter 28. It is the highest level reached; it is the assembly, as I understand. It is “on the day of the firstfruits, when ye present a new oblation”.
ANW Does the proportion of the wine indicate that the greater the spiritual capacity to offer, the greater the joy?
JT That is what I thought. God looks for balance in His people, especially in their worship.
ANW Sometimes the youngest and smallest appear to be bubbling over with joy, but this may be out of accord with their stature.
JT God is “the God of measure” (2 Corinthians 10:13) and that particularly enters into His worship. With regard to this daily offering, the saints should be preserved on a normal spiritual level; the wear and tear of the day should not rob you of your spiritual power. The evening is to correspond with the morning. That is a sort of basis of the whole instruction here. What may be observed with many is that if there be an extra meeting during the week, the prayer meeting before and the reading meeting after, are apt to suffer. That is out of keeping with the teaching of this chapter. No sacrifice is to be withheld because of another.
AFM It is noticeable in these instructions that the wine is in proportion to the oil, and the measure of fine flour is also prescribed which is mingled with the oil.
JT Quite. The mingling of the fine flour with oil is very instructive here: it is not an anointing with oil, but is typical of the beautiful humanity of Christ as before God. It is not dough or a cake as elsewhere, but “fine flour”, prefiguring the pure, holy humanity of Christ, apprehended in the saints in their worship before God.
AFM Is that kind of humanity true of us as in Christ, or only of the Lord Himself?
JT Primarily it is Christ Himself, but as offering we are in accord with it.
WB-w But I must first bring what I have grown in the field.
JT Yes. What you bring you have first to acquire. It is a question of your spiritual stature, the apprehension you have of Christ by the Spirit.
HSD Why is it beaten oil?
JT I suppose it would mean the Holy Spirit in the sense in which He was here in Christ; He is, of course, a divine Person, and operates in that character. He came on Christ as Man who carried on His service in His power, offering Himself, as it is said, “by the eternal Spirit ... to God”, (Hebrews 9:14). It is the Spirit who was on Christ that believers receive. Romans develops the truth of the Spirit as in Christians.
CAM Daniel would be a striking example for us, that we should all pray morning and evening. God answered Daniel’s prayer “about the time of the evening oblation”, (Daniel 9:21).
JT In chapter 2 of Daniel, when under great pressure, Daniel and his companions had recourse to prayer and Daniel got the needed answer. But think of the exercise they went through — death staring them in the face and the only escape was to get the secret! You get, in their exercise, the idea of beaten oil. Think, too, of the Lord Jesus in the agonies of Gethsemane and the cross! The word ‘Gethsemane’ signifies the oil press. The pressure our Lord endured is beyond all telling. It is the Spirit who was upon Christ here, “sent from heaven” (1 Peter 1:12), that we [p. 82] have received.
APT Paul and Silas in the prison at Philippi, “in praying, were praising God with singing” (Acts 16:25) at midnight. Is that like the evening oblation?
JT What power was there! You get the idea of the beaten oil in that remarkable circumstance also.
AAT Are we conscious of making this offering to God or does it appear in one’s daily life?
JT I think it is formal service to God. God looks upon us as “intelligent persons”, (1 Corinthians 10:15). The truth as in Romans 12:1 makes us intelligent; the exhortation is: “Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your intelligent service”. There is a link here with our chapter in the word ‘present’. Your intelligence is called into action with regard to your service Godward, so that you know what you are doing. Priesthood is marked by this, and Romans lays the basis for it.
AAT The Samaritan woman gratified the heart of Christ in a certain way, for when the disciples came on the scene, He said to them, “I have food to eat which ye do not know”, (John 4:32).
JT He found food in the service rendered, for it involved doing the will of Him who sent Him. And He also had food in the manifest result of this service in the woman. In that same scripture you have the agricultural year brought in: “Lift up your eyes and behold the fields for they are already white to harvest”, (John 4:35). It was now a question of reapers.
AR What is the thought of the burnt offering throughout the whole chapter — that thought seems to lead?
JT The burnt offering was wholly for God. It went up to Him as a sweet savour. We can understand, therefore, its prominence in these chapters.
JEH Say a word about it being called “burnt offering”.
JT It is the first offering mentioned in Leviticus, and shows what Christ was as entirely for God in His death. This is the greatest aspect of His self-sacrificing love. The antitype of this is John’s gospel.
AJD “Who by the eternal Spirit offered himself spotless to God”, (Hebrews 9:14). Is that the burnt offering?
JT Yes.
JEH Could the burnt offering be viewed apart from sin-bearing?
JT Yes, but they are linked together; the fat of the sin offering was always burnt on the altar of the burnt offering. The burnt offering is one side of the offering of Christ, as entirely for God. “On this account the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it again”, (John 10:17).
AR Is that the idea of this chapter — taking account of the saints as entirely for God?
JT That side is prominent throughout these chapters. Of course, you have the sin offering also, but the great thought throughout these chapters is what is for God. Numbers 15:2 has the land in view: “When ye come into the land”. We have means whereby to offer to God in this way for Numbers opens up the truth of the Spirit to us.
GMcP Simeon speaks by the Spirit; (Luke 2).
JT Just so. Simeon had means. I think he represents the believer as in the very centre of divine things; he is introduced to us as “a man in Jerusalem”, (Luke 2:25). It is a question of where he lived. It was revealed to him that he should not see death until he had seen the Lord’s Christ; he went by the Spirit into the temple, and presented, as it were, the child Jesus.
WB-w Is that the meat offering, or burnt offering?
JT It was what Christ was for God. He had the Child in his arms and spoke of Him as God’s Salvation.
AJD [p. 84] He went a long way in his apprehension.
AR It says, “He received him into his arms, and blessed God”, (Luke 2:28). That is, apparently, the first thing he did.
JT Yes, he was a worshipper with the Child in his arms.
AFM What distinctions have these daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly presentations?
JT The daily offerings are fundamental, in view of our practical state, and keep us regularly in spiritual exercise; so that there is no undulating history in our souls. Young believers are apt to be up and down — bright in the morning, when they leave for business, and jaded spiritually when they come home in the evening, with very little wealth left. The daily offering here is to prevent that, and to maintain the steady spiritual experience, so that there is ability to offer to God.
AP The daily exercises cannot be neglected if there is to be the weekly and the monthly.
JT They must be maintained, otherwise, when you come to the sabbath, you are in a low state.
ANW Would you say a word about these lambs, as typical of Christ, having a place in our hearts?
JT They are yearlings, so that spiritual maturity and freshness are in view.
ANW Possibly this depression with young believers, to which you refer, is self-occupation. These lambs suggest that I have an object worthy of my interest and my affections.
JTJr That which Abraham provided “in the heat of the day” for the “three men” (Genesis 18), might fit in with what we have here; he was a man of substance, and ministered refreshment.
JT Yes; that would be a taxing time of day. We all know how heat, in this sense, affects us, as tending to rob us of energy. Abraham was awake [p. 85] and energetic, but Sarah did not fully render her part, as far as Scripture goes: she was told to make cakes but it does not say she brought them. The passage shows that Abraham was marked by spiritual power, in the heat of the day he entertained and served God.
APT Does not Paul’s ministry tax us, as illustrated in Eutychus? He fell from the third story to the bottom. In this case it was at midnight.
JT Yes; there are many such. I believe quite a number of our brethren who are here tonight do not thoroughly understand what we are speaking about. There may be some present who have never read Numbers 28. I remember being at a reading in Ezekiel, and a brother present said he had never read that book at all! How could he intelligently follow that reading?
AP Your thought is that the daily experience underlies the weekly and monthly offerings.
JT You cannot have the sabbath offerings; or those that follow, otherwise.
CAM I think the simplest believer would understand what a great thing it is to start and close the day with God; and so, while learning what the character of the world is, go through it with God.
JT As to the occasion with Paul at Troas: there were many visiting brothers there who were spiritual men, and, I have no doubt, that is what the reference to “many lights in the upper room” (Acts 20:8) means. We may assume that the apostle was not ministering milk in that address but strong meat It was a question of what Paul had to say. Peter, later in speaking of Paul’s writings, says, “Some things are hard to be understood”, (2 Peter 3:16). I speak of this to urge the saints to go in for the things that belong to full growth.
EVC Do you mean that many who attend [p. 86] meetings for ministry are not in the spirit of what is being advanced?
JT Yes. I believe the apostle at Troas was presenting the truth according to his administration in its full bearing, but Eutychus was not equal to it.
JEH Would Eutychus be illustrative of a believer who was not able to follow the presentation of the truth?
JT That is what I was thinking. One may go to sleep even in the presence of such ministry as Paul’s!
ANW Though Eutychus did not get much of the discourse, he would never forget the reviving effect of the apostle’s embrace.
JT Well, that is a question of grace overcoming, but that does not excuse or forgive his fall. Paul had to descend from his elevated position to resuscitate the young man, instead of continuing in such ministry to the brethren.
AR There is great concern as to getting suitable ministry for young people, even in a meeting like this.
JT I think the young people ought to read their bibles so as to know the scriptures. The main difficulty with all of us is want of exercise; we ought to read our bibles more prayerfully.
WGT Is the passover to bring the whole position before us?
JT Yes; it begins the year. The Pentecost following completes the first part of the instruction. The fifteenth day of the seventh mouth is the feast of tabernacles. That is the feast of ingathering, after the harvest is gathered in, so that you have the whole of God’s ways before you in these two chapters; not what accrues to us from His ways, but what accrues to Him, which is a greater thing. That is what these chapters teach, and they come in after the truth of the Holy Spirit, as set forth in chapter 21, with Balaam’s prophecies following, and then the inheritance given.
JS In Revelation 22 which speaks of the tree of life, is the thought of the agricultural year dropped?
JT Yes; it is the solar year there, one month being equal to another. There is no idea of seed-sowing there; Genesis 1 provides for that kind of year, for the sun determines it. In these types God is dealing with the agricultural year; that is, He is concerned about what results for Himself from His sowing.
AP Does the thought of seven refer more to the church than the number twelve?
JT Both are found in the church. Seven is spiritual completeness; twelve is administrative completeness.
AR In connection with the feast of weeks, it says, “On the day of the firstfruits, when ye present a new oblation to Jehovah”. What is this “new oblation”?
JT It refers to the two wave loaves, which Leviticus 23 enlarges upon. The day of the firstfruits includes Christ’s resurrection, but the first oblation was the sheaf cut down and waved before Jehovah. The new oblation is the two wave loaves. They are not dwelt upon here, but simply referred to. It is the wealth for God that attended them that is alluded to.
WB-w It is noticeable that “the drink offering of strong drink” is to be poured out in the sanctuary. Would that refer to spiritual strength?
JT It refers to spiritual energy before God. It conveys the idea of stimulation; God graciously uses the type of strong drink to show what the worship of His people is to Him, and that it is in a holy setting as offered in [p. 88] the sanctuary.
JS Is there more entering into the seventh month than any other?
JT It is the most important of months, because it yields the most; the first, tenth, and fifteenth days of it are very prominent.
CAM John’s gospel seems to deal with the agricultural or spiritual year; and the Revelation corresponds with Genesis, as you were saying — the full year. When it comes to the gospel of John, it would be a spiritual condition, applying now.
JT Yes. We have the feast of tabernacles in John 7, but it is superseded by the Spirit here, given to believers by Jesus glorified.
ANW The Lord has the harvest in mind in John 4:35 — He says, “Lift up your eyes and behold the fields, for they are already white to harvest”.
JT That links on with the seventh month. “Others have laboured, and ye have entered into their labours”, (John 4:38). The Lord contemplated the result for God of previous sowing.
ANW He had His own death in mind.
JT There is no fruit from men without that, as we learn in John 12:24.
JS Would the woman in John 4 suggest the thought of the barley harvest? “Do not ye say, that there are yet four months and the harvest comes? Behold, I say to you, Lift up your eyes and behold the fields, for they are already white to harvest”, (verse 35).
JT I think the barley harvest, being the first harvest, is Christ; the wheat harvest is always the saints. You have it here in Numbers 28:26, “And on the day of the firstfruits”. That would include the resurrection of Christ, and then the “new oblation” came fifty days after that, which would be the church. The “four months”, probably [p. 89] allude to the harvest in Israel, but there was an earlier one suggested in the Samaritan woman.
JS In John 6 we have the five barley loaves, do we not?
JT That is right. It is in John you get the specific cereal mentioned. The book of Ruth explains the barley harvest; we begin with that.
WB-w “He that reaps ... gathers fruit unto life eternal”, (John 4:36).
JT The early result for God seen in John’s gospel involving the agricultural or spiritual year is very interesting. The solar year refers to what is in the heavens. The heavenly bodies were set for times and seasons. The Revelation deals with the times and seasons. It is God bringing in the end of things, and that must include the movements of Christ, as there in heaven.
WB-w The solar year would be more the ways of God.
JT Yes; God’s ways in government, I think. The sun in the heavens was to rule and regulate, and that would refer to Christ. His movements determine everything with regard to the government of the world and the universe. The moon is the church as set in relation to Christ in this connection. The stars refer to individuals.
JS The seasons, therefore, would be a means to an end.
JT Yes; and inclusive of God’s judgment of the wicked, so that the Revelation is not only the ingathering, but the wine press (i.e., the judgment of God). The Revelation goes beyond the seventh month; it includes the whole year. We see all judgment is in the hands of the Son of man. The Father has given Him authority to execute judgment because He is the Son of Man.