Signs must communicate accurately or they’ll communicate erroneously. When we use a sign to express an important truth, but do so carelessly, the problems can be disastrous. Here are some signs which illustrate the problem of inarticulate communication. At a Santa Fe gas station: "We will sell gasoline to anyone in a glass container." In a NY restaurant: "Customers who consider our waitresses uncivil ought to see the manager." At the Sisters of Mercy in Baltimore: "Trespassers will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law." In a Florida maternity ward: "No children allowed." On a New York convalescent home: "For the sick and tired of the Episcopal Church." On a Maine shop: "Our motto is to give our customers the lowest possible prices and workmanship." At a number of military bases: "Restricted to unauthorized personnel." In a clothing store: "Wonderful bargains for men with 16 and 17 necks." In a Tacoma, Washington men's clothing store: "15 men's wool suits, $10. They won't last an hour!" On a shopping mall marquee: "Archery Tournament -- Ears pierced" In the window of an Oregon store: "Why go elsewhere and be cheated when you can come here?" In a PA cemetery: "Persons are prohibited from picking flowers from any but their own graves." On the grounds of a public school: "No trespassing without permission." On a Tennessee highway: "When this sign is under water, this road is impassable." As we’ve begun our study of Leviticus last week we enter a section of Scripture that is often so misunderstood. The misunderstanding is due to the presence of signs which, when not read properly, will create great confusion. The purpose of a sign is to point to what is important. If we do not understand the object, then their meaning will be confusing. Often we read Leviticus and come away with a confused feeling, often wondering to ourselves that if Scripture is inspired of God and suitable for teaching, reproof and correction so that we might we more adequately equipped to serve God - then why would he ever give us a book like Leviticus. The sacrifices here need to be understood in light of the person and work of Christ, otherwise, they appear to us as silly signs not clearly communicating essential truths. We saw this last week. The sacrificed animal was a sign post, pointing to Christ. He was the perfect, sinless one who obediently took on our sins and died in our place. Unfortunately if we approach this sacrifice not as what God graciously does for us, but what we do to please and placate him, then we horribly distort the message and meaning of the Christian life. In a similar fashion, it is important to properly understand how this next sacrifice points to our response to God’s grace. Immediately following the burnt offering, the grain offering was to be given. This offering was a bloodless one, one which points to our response of gratitude to God’s mercifully dealing with our sin and granting us forgiveness because of Christ’s death for us. 1. "`When someone brings a grain offering to the LORD, his offering is to be of fine flour. He is to pour oil on it, put incense on it 2. and take it to Aaron's sons the priests. The priest shall take a handful of the fine flour and oil, together with all the incense, and burn this as a memorial portion on the altar, an offering made by fire, an aroma pleasing to the LORD. 3. The rest of the grain offering belongs to Aaron and his sons; it is a most holy part of the offerings made to the LORD by fire. 4. "`If you bring a grain offering baked in an oven, it is to consist of fine flour: cakes made without yeast and mixed with oil, or wafers made without yeast and spread with oil. 5. If your grain offering is prepared on a griddle, it is to be made of fine flour mixed with oil, and without yeast. 6. Crumble it and pour oil on it; it is a grain
offering. 8. Bring the grain offering made of these things to the
LORD; present it to the priest, who shall take it to the altar. 10. The rest of the grain offering belongs to Aaron and his sons; it is a most holy part of the offerings made to the LORD by fire. 11. "`Every grain offering you bring to the LORD must be made without yeast, for you are not to burn any yeast or honey in an offering made to the LORD by fire. 12. You may bring them to the LORD as an offering of the firstfruits, but they are not to be offered on the altar as a pleasing aroma. 13. Season all your grain offerings with salt. Do not leave the salt of the covenant of your God out of your grain offerings; add salt to all your offerings. 14. "`If you bring a grain offering of firstfruits to the LORD, offer crushed heads of new grain roasted in the fire. 15. Put oil and incense on it; it is a grain offering. 16. The priest shall burn the memorial portion of the crushed grain and the oil, together with all the incense, as an offering made to the LORD by fire. What is to be our response to God’s grace? How should I view my life, my job, my family in light of Christ’s death and resurrection? This next sacrifice helps the answer the “now what” of Christian faith. This sacrifice is a sign that is not meant to confuse like the signs I read, but to help us. We see first that we are to respond to Christ’s sacrifice in that: WE ARE TO GIVE OF OUR SUBSTANCE What we give responds to Christ’s death. The grain offering took for granted and was based on the offering for sin. It followed the sacrifice of blood. It was presented every day with the burnt-offering in order to show the connection between pardon of sin and devotion to the Lord. The burnt offering pointed to God's forgiving of sins and then the worshipper responded by giving to God some of the produce of his hands in grain offering. It was an act of dedication and consecration to God as savior and covenant king. It expressed not only his thankfulness but obedience and a willingness to keep the law. This offering goes by several names in our various versions. The KJV calls it a meat offering when meat meant not beef, but anything eaten. Some versions call it a cereal offering but that conjures in some minds a bowl of Rice Krispies. For that reason calling it a grain offering is to be preferred. In non-religious usage minhah or grain offering often means tribute, the money paid by a vassal king to his overlord as a mark of his continuing good will and faithfulness. It was a present, with the suggestion that the giver seeks to ingratiate himself by means of the gift. Jacob sent a minhah to his brother Esau. It was a tribute from the faithful servant to his overlord. When a treaty was made, the conquered nations were expected to bring their tribute to the great King. Israel too was bound by a covenant with God, and therefore had a responsibility to express her fidelity by bringing her cereal offerings. Here the idea of fear is gone, but the dedication of oneself and substance remains. In the story of Cain and Abel, this is the sacrifice which God did not accept from Cain in Genesis 4. There it is a grain offering which he brings while Abel has a blood sacrifice. God rejects Cain’s bloodless sacrifice for he refused to recognize the basis on which he could approach God - by the substitutionary death of another. Cain’s attempt was this - to present himself and his property to God, as if they had been under no curse and needed no blood first of all to wash them. He sought to be accepted by his holiness and so overthrew salvation by Christ. Acts of charity, substituted for Christ’s work as a means of pacifying the conscience, make up precisely this sin of Cain. We are always mistaken to think that by self-denial and by doing good to others in our life and conduct, we may obtain favor and be accepted with God. To offer the grain before one accepts the cleansing signified by the burnt-offering is like putting sanctification before justification. It is putting proper conduct before placing faith in Christ’s work; it is a concern with correct behavior, but not correct thought. The order is important - the grain is one that comes from the hands of the worshipper. It is not substitutionary, it is not picturing Christ’s death for us, but our devotion to God. Yet that response must be made in light of Christ's death. Otherwise it is at best meaningless and at worst blasphemous. Our motives or intentions are worthless unless they are mediated by Christ’s death in our place. "For all of us have become like one who is unclean, And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; And all of us wither like a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, take us away." Isaiah 64:6 It thus formed a type, beautiful and pleasant to the eye, of the man’s self and substance dedicated to God, when now made pure by the blood of sacrifice that had removed his sin. The ingredients here are simple: flour, oil and incense. Unlike an animal sacrifice, the grain offering represented a product of the worshiper’s endeavor, While God is the source of the grain, it is the worshipper who plants, cultivates, harvests, and grinds the grain into flour, and who then brought it to the priest, cooked or uncooked. Thus, the grain offering represents the consecration to God of the fruit of one’s labors. As for the other ingredients, the text does not give us a clear reason why they are added. Why oil and incense? We're not told, but perhaps it is to make the offering more delectable. It is a joyous occasion and they help to demonstrate this. When a grain sacrifice was made for a more solemn offering, these are absent. Some see the oil as pointing to the work of the Holy Spirit, picturing His anointing, and the incense denoting the mediation and intercession of Christ, by which our services are accepted. What we give is made acceptable by Christ’s death. "Now when you bring an offering of a grain offering baked in an oven, it shall be unleavened cakes of fine flour mixed with oil, or unleavened wafers spread with oil. If your offering is a grain offering made on the griddle, it shall be of fine flour, unleavened, mixed with oil; you shall break it into bits and pour oil on it; it is a grain offering. Now if your offering is a grain offering made in a pan, it shall be made of fine flour with oil. When you bring in the grain offering which is made of these things to the LORD, it shall be presented to the priest and he shall bring it to the altar. The priest then shall take up from the grain offering its memorial portion, and shall offer it up in smoke on the altar as an offering by fire of a soothing aroma to the LORD. The remainder of the grain offering belongs to Aaron and his sons: a thing most holy of the offerings to the LORD by fire. " Leviticus 2:4-10 Part of the grain offering was accepted and burned as a memorial. By placing a portion of the fine flour mixed with oil and the incense on the fire on the altar, following the blood sacrifice, was a sign to the one offering the animal and the grain, that God, because of the substitute, accepted the sacrifice. The sign of flour, oil and incense brought by the worshipper, placed on the altar and burned, reminded them that God would accept and use what they offered to him. Only a portion was burned, but that served as a reminder for the whole. The rest is accepted for consumption by the priests. The majority of the grain was given to the priests. What the priests could and could not eat was very regulated, but this grain was to be accepted; it was considered holy, because the person offering it did so in light of a sacrificial death. In verses 4-10 is a list of a variety of ways the grain could be prepared and presented. For us this section easily seems to be typical Old Testament redundancy or meaningless exactitude. But each fashion of preparation points to the social status of the one presenting the offering. Only a wealthy person would have an oven. This would produce a better grade of unleaven bread. Next came the griddle which would make something similar to pancakes, the last one is the pan which was the most basic cooking utensil of the Bedouin. But no matter how the food is prepared, it is accepted by God. This sacrifice is a wonderful sign of what God does with our lives We are called to respond to the truth of God’s grace by giving of our lives to Him. But notice what God does with our lives. What we would offer without reference to Christ, is unacceptable and vile, but when given in Christ, is now accepted and holy - not because of what we do, but because of what God does in and through us. Acts 10 is a great illustration of this. Cornelius’ prayers and alms are a memorial. The language used here is that of the grain offering. When Peter comes he doesn’t even get to finish his sermon, there’s no altar call, because Cornelius is already regenerate. The prayers and alms are accepted already because of God’s grace already at work in him. Notice how Cornelius's self (prayers) and substance (alms) are part of that response. Paul uses this sacrifice as pointing to giving in the church. "Do you not know that those who perform sacred services eat the food of the temple, and those who attend regularly to the altar have their share from the altar? So also the Lord directed those who proclaim the gospel to get their living from the gospel."1 Corinthians 9:13-14 "Nevertheless, you have done well to share with me in my affliction. You yourselves also know, Philippians, that at the first preaching of the gospel, after I left Macedonia, no church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving but you alone; for even in Thessalonica you sent a gift more than once for my needs. Not that I seek the gift itself, but I seek for the profit which increases to your account. But I have received everything in full and have an abundance; I am amply supplied, having received from Epaphroditus what you have sent, a fragrant aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well-pleasing to God. And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Now to our God and Father be the glory forever and ever. Amen." Phil 4:14-20 By way of application: The grain offering is continued today in part in the support of the work of the church. Giving is not an option. What you can give depends on how God has blessed you. But whether you give or not is never a personal choice. It flows out of an understanding of Christ’s death for you. To be stingy with one’s finances indicates one who does not grasp the nature of what Christ has done for them. This offering, as with all the offerings in the Old Testament, remind us how God uses very mundane, ordinary, physical, common signs to teach us about His grace and how we can respond. He calls us to use ordinary items in our life and makes them holy. They are holy, set apart, not because of our pure motives in offering them, not because we are to worship a loaf of bread, but because Christ makes them holy. All the legitimate activities we do in Christ are good. Pulling weeds from your garden, cleaning the toys from the family room, working 9-5 at the office or digging a ditch is holy. The activity does not make it spiritual, Christ does because we are His. WE ARE TO GIVE THROUGH OUR SAVIOR What we give does not point to what we add. The reason why they were to add no leaven or honey is not made clear. Leaven was not to be part of the Passover meal, but that was to point to the hurried preparation. Sometimes leaven is equated with corruption, but that is not universal. Part of the sacrifice of the firstfruits was to include leaven. In the New Testament sometimes leaven is bad, sometimes it is good. The parallel nature of leaven and honey perhaps points to the addition of ingredients we think will make the bread taste better. It is forbidden not because of inherent evilness in the ingredients, but the intent can not be allowed. There is nothing you can add to what God has given you to make it more appealing to Him. There is nothing more you can do to be more accepted by Him. Again, you do not make what you do for God more acceptable by making it spiritual. In Christ it is because your are His. We add nothing to our lives to make them more acceptable for God. An artist does not make his painting better by adding a descending dove. A song writer does not write better music because the lyrics are Bible verses; a lawyer is not more holy because he does his work for Christian ministries. But there is something they are to add - salt. Leaven and salt are opposites. The one ferments and multiplies, the other preserves and maintains. What we give points to what God has done for us. All sacrifices include the essential ingredient of salt. It is a universal symbol for preservation, a maintenance of purity. Ancient armies paid their soldiers in salt, thus the Latin term we still use today - salary. It is called the salt of the covenant, which makes it clear that by adding salt to the sacrifice, it preserved the benefit of the sacrifice on the basis of the covenant God had made with his people. The eternal nature of the one-sided covenant God made with his people - that he would be their God and they be His people - would stand. It is stable, enduring. Without the promises God makes on our behalf, no religious service, no work of service for another, no demonstration of love is acceptable in God’s sight. Salt could not be destroyed by fire or any other means in antiquity. To add salt to the offering was a reminder that the worshipper was in an eternal covenant relationship with his God. This meant that God would never forsake him, and also that the worshipper had a perpetual duty to uphold and keep the covenant law. The salt of the covenant was a wonderful picture of God’s preservation of friendship with us. We can eat with Him without fear of spoilage or rejection. There is little more comforting than to know that what we do each and every day, at our jobs, no matter how meaningless they may seem, in our homes, no matter how redundant and frustrating they are - God preserves and uses those activities by His grace. They are seasoned with salt because of the work of Christ on the cross. The author of Hebrews makes this point in Hebrews 13 when he first describes the blood sacrifice and then moves to our duty to continue to sacrifice, not blood, but the fruit of our lips. This is an on going activity. Not just by what we say and sing, but what we do as we share with others. That counts before God. The Lord's Supper: We must not misunderstand this sign, thinking this is what I do to make myself a better Christian, but this is what was done for me, by Christ, so that as I serve Him, all I do will be pleasing to my Father in heaven. Without this food and drink, we starve ourselves and are unable to properly understand our position in Christ. |
