Keep sharing good news without ads.
Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/duncan-dunsire/the-setting-of-the-meal-offering/
Nice to be here again, down at this conference, and I'm from Scotland. I happen to live in Canada, but I am a Canadian citizen, so I've maybe got something going for me. I want to, I don't know if you think I've got a one-track mind, but two years ago I talked on Leviticus 1.
Last year, that was the Berndt Offering. Last year I talked on Nehemiah 10 and 13, and that was the Wood Offering. So, this year I want to speak to you for a little while on Leviticus chapter 2, on the Meal Offering, the Meat Offering, or the Gift Offering, whatever you would like to call it.
There's different terms. The Gift Offering is probably the correct term, although many prefer the Meal Offering. We'll read from verse 1. And when any will offer a meat offering unto the Lord, his offering shall be of fine flour, and he shall pour oil upon it, and shall put frankincense thereon, and he shall bring it to Aaron's sons, the priests, and he shall take thereout his handful of the flour thereof, and of the oil thereof, with all the frankincense thereof, and the priests shall burn a memorial of it upon the altar, to be an offering made by fire of a sweet savour unto the Lord.
And the remnant 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. And if thou bring an oblation of a meat offering bacon in the oven, it shall be unleavened cakes of fine flour, mingled with oil, or unleavened wafers anointed with oil.
And if thy oblation be a meat offering bacon in a pan, it shall be of fine flour thereof. It is a meat offering. And if thy oblation be a meat offering bacon in the frying pan, that's the cauldron, it shall be made of fine flour with oil.
And thou shalt bring the meat offering that is made of these things unto the Lord, and when it is presented unto the priest, he shall bring it unto the altar, and the priest shall take from the meat offering a memorial thereof, and shall burn it upon the altar.
It is an offering made by fire of a sweet savour unto the Lord. 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.
Now we've got some prohibitions. 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. As for the oblation of the firstfruits, ye shall offer them unto the Lord, but they shall not be burnt on the altar for a sweet savour.
Then you've got a must. 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.
Now we trust God will bless to us the reading of his precious word. The meal offering is one of the bloodless offerings. Now there are manifold offerings in your Bible. I think I counted 21 different names.
Some are more generic, like voluntary offerings and freewill offerings, cover a number of offerings, and some are very specific, like we have here in the early chapters of the book of Leviticus. Generally, we are quite well aware of the first five offerings, the burnt offering, chapter one, the meal offering, chapter two, the peace offering, chapter three, the sin offering, chapter four, and the trespass offering, chapter five.
The book of Leviticus stands right in the middle of the Pentateuch, those lovely books of Moses. And we don't have time to go into all the details, but just to say this, if we find in the book of Genesis there's a man called out, if in the book of Exodus we find a people that are redeemed, if in the book of Numbers we find a pilgrim people going through, and in the book of Deuteronomy we come into an inheritance.
It's not heaven, by the way. We come into an inheritance to enjoy the fruits that God has for us. But in the book of Leviticus, we come in. We come into the house of God. We come into the place of worship.
And you will notice that if we have redemption in the book of Exodus, and we have service in the book of Numbers and Deuteronomy, we have worship in the book of Leviticus. And can I suggest to you very carefully, brethren, worship comes before service.
But worship comes after redemption. God cannot accept worship from an unsafe person. That's why the woman, Luke 7, who brought the ointment into the Lord Jesus, I believe she was a saved woman. She met the Lord before.
Thy sins, which are many, they're forgiven. And it wasn't forgiven at that moment. It had been done already. The man in John 9, who is he, Lord, that I may worship him? The blind man. And I believe he trusted in the Lord Jesus, and he offered him worship.
The Father seeketh such to worship him that worship him in spirit and in truth. I'm going to move on fast here. I don't have time to go into too many details. If you read the pundits, they will tell you that we can find the first five books in the various gospels.
We can find these first offerings in the gospels and in the Psalms and so on. It's lovely to look on. Anyway, let's look at our chapter. This is an offering made without blood. If you study your Bible, you will find that the burnt offering is always connected with a meal offering and with a drink offering.
You'll read about your burnt offerings and your meal offerings and your drink offerings. And so, when a burnt offering was offered, when was that done? In the morning and in the evening. Six o 'clock in the morning, a lamb was placed upon the altar.
Six o 'clock at night, another lamb was placed upon the altar. And meal offerings would accompany them. If we went into the law of the offerings, we would find that the priest, when he brought a meal offering, he didn't partake of it.
Half was to be offered in the morning and half was to be offered in the evening. It's what's called a voluntary offering. Now, these first three offerings are looked upon as sweet savor offerings. If I told you that chapter four and chapter five were also sweet savor offerings, would you accept that?
You read very carefully in chapter four, and you will see that the fat of the sin offering for the common people, not for the ruler or the priest, for the common people, was placed upon the brazen altar, and very specifically, Moses writes, for a sweet savor unto the Lord.
And when you come to chapter five, when you're dealing with the trespass offering, as is the sin offering, so is the trespass offering. And what was good for the sin offering with regard to the fat of the animal would be good for the fat of the animal in the trespass offering, child of God.
Even in the darkest hour, there arose a sweet savor unto heaven in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. There was that which was sweet to God. We've told you already, I'll remind you again, that the fire on the brazen altar was an incense fire, an incense burning, a gentle flame.
It burned all day. And we read in chapter seven that the fire of the altar shall never go out. And I believe that included when they traveled. The fire never went out. Remember when men, they had strange fire.
God wouldn't accept it. But God brought the fire down, in chapter nine is it, the fire comes down out of heaven, and it ignites the offering on the altar. It was a fire from heaven, and it could never go out.
So there's a sweet savor right throughout these offerings. This is a sweet savor offering. Let's look at what happens. The ingredients are lovely. We have fine flour. We have oil. We have frankincense.
And we have salt. And those are the main ingredients. And then in verse 14 through to 16, which I didn't read, you have green ears of corn. And there's no time today even to get into that. Fine flour.
Then we have the various methods of offering. The first three verses would tell us that it's an uncooked offering. And so the flour is taken, and the oil is taken, and then upon the whole is the frankincense poured.
And the word in the first few verses is the frankincense is poured. And then we learn of being baked in an oven. Then we learn of being baked in a flat pan. Then we learn of it being baked in a cauldron.
And then finally, of course, there is the green ears of corn that are burnt in the fire. It has been suggested that the oven would speak of the life of the Lord Jesus that was seen before God, those hidden years of the life of Christ.
Man does not know about them. The spirit of God records very little about them. But in all of his going, he pleased his father. No wonder that God could exclaim on Jordan's banks, this is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.
And God was satisfied with the Lord Jesus. In John chapter 8, the Lord Jesus tells that he's not alone, but the father that sent him is with him. He says, I do always those things that please him. When did he start doing that?
Listen to what we read in Luke chapter 2. The Lord Jesus says to his parents, remember that time that they lost him? And don't get on to his parents for that, that's a family affair. And he was with family, they thought, and they came and found him.
And he says this, I must be, your authorized version. Now don't get on to me, Brother Scott. Your authorized version, I must be about my father's business. Mr. Newberry's Margin, oh, it's lovely, listen to it.
I must be in the things of my father. Do you like that, brother? He's nodding, I've made it okay. I don't like to have brethren unhappy with what I teach. I must be in the things of my father. Now, many of you have a job, and you work for an employer.
And you go about your business, but really, at 8 o 'clock in the morning, you arrive there, you turn off what you were thinking about before, turn on your employer. At 5 o 'clock, the bell rings, and you shut off, you go out, and you don't think about the business again until you get back there in the morning.
Is that right? So, not the Lord Jesus, all of his going, all of his doing. He says, my teaching is not mine, but the Father which sent me. When he's given the testimony of his deity in John chapter 5, it's the works that the Father gave him, they speak of him.
He never said a word outside the mind of the Father. He never did a work outside the mind of the Father, but he moved in perfect harmony with the Father. The beautiful picture of the Lord Jesus. Now, let's move on to the fine flour.
I'm not gonna have a lot of time here. Did the Lord Jesus become fine flour? You know how you get fine flour? You know, we've got a powder, I used to get it when I was a baby, I remember it well, talcum powder.
Remember that? How soft and smooth it is? I think fine flour is something like that. Now, I've been at, we have a mill that you get to go and see the flour being ground at the mill in Steinbeck, Manitoba.
And the flour comes, and it's a little bit like the flour that you buy in the store, but it's not fine flour. And you buy stuff in the store and it's all white, they've colored it. And it's smooth, but it's not fine flour.
Fine flour has got to go through the mill again and again. And as you look at fine flour, you'll see no admixture in it, you'll see no unbalance in it. Our brother was telling us about the balance in the life of the Lord Jesus.
And we can try and become fine flour. And God will place us through the mill, and many have been. And as you travel through those difficult circumstances of life, the spirit of God works on us and through us, and makes us what God would want us to be, fine flour.
The Lord Jesus never became fine flour. He became flesh, he became obedient, but he never became fine flour. The man that walked the shores of Galilee was always fine flour. Perfection in his beauty, in his life.
Peter says he was a lamb without blemish and without spot. Remember again the burnt offering as that animal was flayed, it had to be an animal without blemish. And there the height would be removed, and the inwards would be revealed, and they'd be cut in their pieces, the head and the shoulders, the inwards and the legs.
And there the inner perfections would be seen. And that which was seen on the outside was seen on the inside. Her brother told us that grace and truth come by Jesus Christ. Do you remember the woman in John chapter 8?
And they brought their accusations against her. And Jesus said to her, after it was all finished, her accusers were gone, neither do I condemn thee, go and sin no more. There's the grace of the Lord Jesus.
But listen, turn to Matthew chapter 23. You've got those same kind of people. And the Lord says unto them, woe unto you hypocrites. You're like whited sepulchers. And he condemns them time and time again.
You read Matthew 23, woe, woe, woe. There's the truth of the Lord Jesus. He could show grace. He could say, suffer little children to come unto me, for of such is the kingdom of heaven. And he could send these people aside because of their absolute hypocrisy.
He was fine flour. He was pure within and without. But then there was the oil. And the oil in scripture speaks to us of the spirit of God. And we pointed out, we emphasized as we read, that it was poured upon him.
It was poured upon the, the offering. And then it was mingled. And then it was anointed. And then it was put upon, if you go down to the green ears of corn. And when we think of being poured, there's a lovely verse in John chapter 3.
It says this, for he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God. Listen to this, for God giveth not the spirit by measure. There's no limit to the giving of the spirit of God. The oil was poured upon the meal offering.
But then the oil was was mingled in verse four. And we can think of the birth of the Lord Jesus. When the spirit of God, the Holy Spirit we read, would come upon thee. And the power of the highest shall overshadow thee.
Now, I don't really like the revised again. Brother Scott, you and I are gonna have to talk. That holy thing which shall be born of thee, I really don't like that. Mr. Newberry's got a little bit better rendering in his margin about the begotten shall be holy.
And I don't like the word thing in our English language for the Lord Jesus. And the holy one that shall be born of thee, he shall be called the son of God. So, mingled with oil. But remember Luke chapter four?
And the Lord quotes from Isaiah about being anointed with the Holy Spirit. Remember Luke chapter one, when the Holy Spirit comes upon him and so he was anointed with the spirit of God. And in the life of the Lord Jesus, the spirit of God is seen there.
You remember that Luke can tell us that he was led by the spirit of God into the wilderness. And he came up from the wilderness and Luke four, in the power of the spirit of God. I'm interested in Mark, it's the most interesting statement.
Mark doesn't say he was led by the spirit of God into the wilderness. Mark says he was driven by the spirit of God into the wilderness. And here is the Lord Jesus and he's subject to the spirit of God in his movements in this life.
He was led, he was driven, the spirit of God was seen in the life of the Lord Jesus. And so there was the fine flour, and there was the oil. But what else was there? There was the frankincense. Now notice this.
When the ingredients are put together, and whether it's baked as cakes, whether it's baked as wavers, whatever way it's baked, every one of them, there's a handful taken. But there is no frankincense as yet.
And the handful is placed upon the fire, and all of the frankincense is placed upon the handful. No, there's no frankincense will go to the priest. All of the frankincense is for God. Can I suggest this?
And I know there's other thoughts on it. You remember the frankincense was part of that incense in Exodus chapter 30. That was the incense that burned with a white cloud. Do you recall in Leviticus chapter 16 on the great day of atonement, after Aaron burned the bullock for himself, and he went into the holiest of all, and he had a censer of fire, and his hands were full of incense.
And he put the incense on the fire, and the cloud of incense covered the cherubim. Could not be seen. The whole of the holiest of all was filled with the cloud of the incense. And the frankincense would be the agency that would give the fine flower.
I like John chapter 12 when the ointment is poured upon the Lord Jesus. And the Spirit of God reads this. The whole house was filled with the odor of the ointment. I wonder, child of God, on Lord's Day morning, we'll be here.
This auditorium has seen many venues. We've heard about that. Will it experience something it's never seen for a year? Will this room be filled with the odor of the ointment? But listen, let's not stop there.
I'm gonna ask you a question. I've asked it to many people, and I ask it to myself. Last night, what were you thinking of Christ? Well, we were busy last night. Yesterday, while we were traveling, it was a busy time.
Okay, last week, what were you thinking of Christ? We heard about the scriptures today. I spoke to a man in Ireland, one of the elders in the meeting. And talked about reading for the Bible reading. And I have great sorrow with regard to what I'm finding.
I wish I could ask you to put your hands up. Before you go to a Bible study, do you read the passage? Do you read it ten times? I asked a group of young brothers and sisters, a number of them, nearly 20.
If they looked, read the passage before the Bible study. I asked another group of young brethren outside our conference. And the answer was zero. Do you know what I was told? We're too busy. Do you know where I find Christ?
I find Christ in the scriptures, in the word of God. I've not time to go into the rest of these details. Might be time tomorrow, if not. I just want to titillate you. I want to stir up your exercise to get into the word of God.
And go into the Old Testament scriptures. Our brother Al told us about getting a little view of Christ. In Luke chapter 24, the Lord Jesus, for two hours, he walked those dusty roads out to Emmaus from Jerusalem.
And he told them about himself in the Old Testament scriptures, beginning at Moses and all the prophets. You know what he told the disciples later on in that room? He says, when I was with you all that time, I taught you about myself, not only in the books of Moses, not only in the prophets, but in the Psalms.
Look, I want you to read your Bible and try and find Christ in the Old Testament. Our brother Al tried to tell us where the Lord started in Luke 24. I think he started in chapter 1, because he was going to tell them of Headship.
And Headship starts in the first few books of Genesis. But I'd love to have heard them on the first five books of Leviticus. And what about Leviticus 16? Brother Al mentioned it. The two goats, the one that was the Lord's lot, and the one on whom the sins of the people were imputed, and it went out.
Oh, the wonder of the word. What did the Lord tell them all? What did he teach them? Child of God, the Spirit of God in first Corinthians 2 is your teacher and mine. And he takes the word of God, and it's not too difficult.
No, it's not. But you have to read it, and you just can't read one little bit. You have to let the Spirit of God take the things of God and fill your heart and your mind. You have to learn to meditate.
I was saying to a brother the other day, and I've said this here probably before. I say it many times because I practice it, and it's so true. What I go to bed thinking about, I wake up in the morning thinking about.
Is that right? So, dear wife, you go to bed mad at your husband, you wake up in the morning, you hit him over the face, you're still mad at him. True, but you go to bed, and you're full of love and sweetness for him.
You wake up in the morning, and you give him a kiss. If I go to bed occupied with Christ, and thinking of him, and I love to do that. I wake up in the morning, and I just resume where I left off. What I want you to do, this is what the psalmist says.
My meditation of my brethren shall be sweet. We were told, don't follow your brethren. Brother William told us that. Don't get your eye on your brethren. Paul says, look, I want you to get your eye on me.
Brother William, are you there? But he says, only as I follow Christ. The psalmist says, my meditation of him shall be sweet. So, time's up. I don't want to go over time. Look at these offerings. There's some lovely truth in these various methods.
We're not going to touch some just now. But we trust that you may have an exercise and a desire to open up the word of God, and find it's a living book, and it's full of Christ. And Christ in the book is Christ in you, the hope of glory.