The meal offering depicts the fine humanity of Jesus. His work began with the mystery of incarnation: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). God created man in His image and likeness to have dominion on this earth and subdue His enemy, Satan (Gen. 1:26); but the serpent, Satan, deceived man and injected his poisonous, serpentine nature into him (Rom. 5:12), thereby corrupting humanity. Hence, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23), and “As it is written: ‘There is none righteous, no, not one; there is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; they have together become unprofitable; there is none who does good, no, not one’” (Rom. 3:10-12). Then two thousand years ago, God in His wisdom became a man Himself in Christ Jesus to accomplish His purpose. This Man Jesus is “holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners” (Heb. 7:26), perfect and righteous. He is the only One qualified to carry out God’s divine purpose. He overcame Satan, the world, religion, sin and death. He went through all kinds of sufferings, and accomplished redemption on the cross. He swallowed up the power of death and rose again. He ascended to the throne and sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. What a wonderful Man! He is the meal offering as food to us. He is the bread that came down from heaven that we may eat of Him and live by Him (John 6). Let us look into some details of this wonderful meal offering.
The Fine Flour
Wheat in the Bible signifies humanity. The Lord said that He is the grain of wheat that fell into the ground and died to bring forth many grains (John 12:24). As fine flour comes from the grinding of the wheat, our Lord Jesus went through much grinding while He was on this earth. Hence the fine flour signifies the fine humanity of our Lord Jesus as food for His people. He is the bread of life, and whosoever eats Him shall live by Him (John 6:48, 57). Our humanity is very rough, but the Lord’s humanity is not only holy and righteous, but compassionate, merciful and loving, kind, meek and lowly, patient, and full of understanding, able to sympathize with our weakness and ready to help, absolutely obedient to the Father, being fully one with Him for His divine purpose and faithful to God’s house, and much more. For example, in John 13, Jesus washed the feet of His disciples in order to teach them how to serve and be lowly. He also said: “He who is greatest among you, shall be a servant” (Matt. 23:11), and “…learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart…” (Matt. 11:29). There is none other like Him! However, we are the exact opposite of what He is; and our fallen humanity can never accomplish God’s plan.
Mingled and Anointed with Oil
The humanity of Jesus is fully mingled with oil (Lev. 2:1, 4, 7, 15). Oil in the Bible refers to the Holy Spirit, the Anointing. The birth of Jesus is very special. Unlike you and me, He was born of a virgin (Isa. 7:14), and His conception was of the Holy Spirit (Matt. 1:20). The angel told Mary, “that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God” (Luke 1:35b). Mary asked, “‘How can this be, since I do not know a man?’ And the angel answered and said to her, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you’” (vv. 34-35a). His humanity was mingled with the Holy Spirit of God from birth; so, our Lord Jesus is both the Son of God and the Son of Man. However, when He served on this earth, He put aside His divine status and served in His capacity as a man.
When the Lord Jesus came out of the water after His baptism, John the Baptist witnessed the Holy Spirit descending like a dove upon Him, anointing Him, equipping Him with the power of the Holy Spirit for His service (Matt. 3:16). Thereafter He did everything according to the leading of the Holy Spirit and not by Himself. Immediately after His baptism, Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil (Matt. 4:1-2). Needless to say, He was victorious!
Offered without Leaven and without Honey
The virgin birth of Jesus also indicates that in Him there was no sin, no leaven (Lev. 2:11). Leaven in the entire Bible signifies sin, such as malice, wickedness, hypocrisy etc. (1 Cor. 5:8, Luke 12:1). Sin was passed down from Adam to the entire human race; but Jesus, conceived of the Holy Spirit, is the only One called the seed of a woman (Gen. 3:15; Gal. 4:4). 1 John 3:5 says, “…in Him there is no sin.” He “committed no sin, nor was deceit found in His mouth” (1 Pet. 2:22). He was “in all points tempted as we are; yet without sin” (Heb. 4:15). Even Pontius Pilate could find no fault in Him (Luke 23:4,14). That is why He is the only One qualified to be our sin offering (Isa. 53:10). Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:21, God made “Him who knew no sin to be sin for us.” Peter confirmed what the prophet Isaiah had said, that He Himself bore our sins upon a tree (1 Pet. 2:24). Many only appreciate that He died for our redemption, but very few treasure His perfect humanity. This is the reason why many do not pay attention to the meal offering in Leviticus. It takes such a perfect humanity to be able to accomplish God’s plan of salvation for mankind.
The Scripture also says that the meal offering cannot be offered with honey (Lev. 2:11). Honey is sweet and sticky, a description of our natural fallen nature. We are naturally sweet to the people we like, and we stick to them. When this happens, we become partial to them. In choosing coworkers, we like to choose gifted ones, those who would listen and submit to our authority, and of course, those who are rich. This always leads to problems and corruption. The Lord, however, did not choose His disciples this way. He even accepted Judas, who betrayed Him. He did not choose the educated ones; but the simple fishermen and the tax collector.
We like to draw people to ourselves; but Jesus was not like that. Isaiah wrote: “He has no form of comeliness; and when we see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him. He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him” (Isa. 53:2-3). He did not draw people to Himself. When a rich young man came to Him to inquire what he lacked to have eternal life, the Lord told him to sell all he had, give to the poor and follow Him. The young man went away sadly, and the Lord let him go (Matt. 19:16-24). He says, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me” (Matt. 16:24). In John 6, after feeding thousands, Jesus told them He was the real bread from heaven and that they should eat Him. Then everyone but the twelve disciples left Him. He always spoke the truth even though people took offense at His words. He even asked those who remained if they wanted to leave. He never drew people to Himself but relied on the Father to draw them: “No one can come to Me unless the Father draws him” (John 6:44).
With Frankincense
The meal offering must also be offered up with frankincense (Lev. 2:1), which signifies the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. The Lord said: “I am the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25). He is not only the life, but also the resurrection life. When sin entered into man, death also came in (Rom. 5:12). The sin in our flesh causes us to do evil things, and death prevents us from doing what is right. Paul described this very well in Romans 7:19, “For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice.” This is the law of sin and death that dwells in our body. Paul cried out: “Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Rom. 7:24). While we enjoy sports, play games or watch TV, our whole being is very alert; but when it comes to spiritual things, like praying and reading God’s word, or participating in church meetings, all of a sudden, we become sluggish. Why does this happen? We may think it is because we are tired, but that is the wrong diagnosis! In fact, it is death working in us. Death is a very strong enemy. If we lose our temper, we are very strong; but if we are to serve the saints, we become lazy and weak. In the Garden of Gethsemane, three times the Lord found His disciples sleeping instead of praying. He said: “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matt. 26:36-46). This is death working in our flesh; but the humanity of the Lord Jesus is full of resurrection life which overcomes death. It is no wonder that Paul desired to know the power of His resurrection (Phil. 3:10).
With Salt
Another ingredient in this wonderful meal offering is salt. Salt is used for seasoning to bring out the flavor of the food. Without salt, chicken soup does not taste good; but if you pour a whole bag of salt in, the soup will no longer be palatable. Only a little bit of salt is needed to bring out the flavor. Colossians 4:6 says, “Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one.” The Lord also said in Mark 9:50: “Salt is good, but if the salt loses its flavor, how will you season it?” When the Lord was on this earth, people tasted the grace of God in Him. Peter expressed this later saying, “if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious” (1 Pet. 2:3). We preach the gospel, but do people taste anything of Christ in our humanity? Paul knew the secret of the seasoning salt: “…and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place. For we are to God the fragrance of Christ…the aroma of life leading to life” (2 Cor. 2:13-16).
Salt is also used for preserving food. Our humanity is so easily corrupted because it is difficult for us to resist temptation. Today in the world of politics and religion we see so much corruption everywhere. Only the Lord’s humanity is incorruptible. Satan tempted Him with the glory of the whole world, but the Lord resisted and declined it. The Lord told His disciples: “…be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). The tabernacle in the Old Testament was built with acacia wood, which is a strong hardwood resistant to wear and tear; this is a picture of the incorruptible humanity of Jesus. Today, we must build the Lord’s church solely with the humanity of the Lord Jesus; otherwise, sooner or later, corruption will creep in and destroy it.
Baked in Different Forms
The meal offering is not only offered as fine flour, but it can be offered as cakes, prepared in different ways: baked in the oven, in a frying pan or in an open or covered pot with fire (Lev. 2:4-7). These depict the different kinds of suffering and pressure the Lord Jesus went through as a man on this earth. We shy away from all kinds of suffering and look for the easy way out of situations. However, it is written in Hebrews, that Jesus was perfected through sufferings (Heb. 2:10; 5:8-9).
The meal offering is offered as an unleavened cake and unleavened flatbread. The Hebrew word for cake in Leviticus 2:4 comes from the verb “to pierce” or “to perforate.” The Lord submitted Himself to all kinds of mistreatment from the people, but He did not shy away from any of it. Psalm 22 prophesied concerning the sufferings of Christ on the cross in a detailed way: “For dogs have surrounded Me; the congregation of the wicked has enclosed Me. They pierced My hands and My feet” (Psalm 22:16). It also says in Zechariah 12:10: “then they will look on Me whom they pierced.” On the cross, one of the soldiers indeed fulfilled this prophecy in that he pierced His side with a spear (John 19:34). No man would voluntarily endure such suffering! When we go through just a little suffering, we start to murmur and complain, to fight and retaliate. If someone were to offend us just a little, we explode like a volcano; the Lord was baked through these sufferings to become the cakes that are edible for His people.
The Meal Offering as Food for the Priests
Last but not least, we need to see that God requires only a handful of the fine flour to be offered up to Him in the meal offering, and the rest is to be given to the priests for their food. Herein we understand why the Lord said that He is the bread that came down from heaven that we should feed on Him and live by Him (6:57). This may sound strange, but the Lord is speaking of daily spiritual feeding through His living word and by the Holy Spirit. By this we will be strengthened in our inner man to live Christ. We often ask the Lord to strengthen us. The Lord’s answer to us is to eat Him, because only by eating Him do we have the strength to overcome our fallen humanity and to put on Christ as the new man. Day by day, we can eat the humanity of Jesus as the meal offering. Then we can live Christ and will be able to fulfill the Father’s will on this earth.
