The Meal Offering

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[Prayer] Father, again we thank Thee and praise Thee for the privilege for the study of Thy word. We ask again specifically that Thou will give us understanding as we think about the doctrine of typology and the relationship of the Old Testament to the New Testament revelation. Give us direction. Enable each of us to understand and profit and to learn how to read the Scriptures.

For Jesus’ sake. Amen.

[Message] In our last introductory study entitled typology and the burnt offering, we began our study of typology in the Book of Leviticus. We said in the course of the introduction to the study that it was an important topic, and we said that the principle features of typology are correspondence, historicity, and predictiveness. That is that typology is the study of the correspondences between persons, events, things, such as the tabernacle and temple, and the corresponding fulfillment in the New Testament. We said that historicity was an essential part of typology, therefore, a distinguishing typology from allegory. Typology is the correspondence that exists between Old Testament historical persons or events or institutions and the historical fulfillment in the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ in the New Testament. And we said also that a definite and essential feature of typology was predictiveness and what we meant by that was simply that God arranged the Old testament in such a way that the persons and the events and institutions were anticipations and divinely intended anticipations of the coming of the Lord Jesus and the work that he would do. So typology is the study of correspondence, the correspondences between the Old and the New Testament, historical and predictive.

The offerings on which we are centering our special attention, we said give us different pictures of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have five offerings here which begin the Book of Leviticus. Each of them is typical of the Lord Jesus. That is they present certain aspects of his atoning work that it is important for us to know. And they give us a particular slant on the work that he did. It’s like looking at the Grand Canyon. You can look at the Grand Canyon from the south rim or from the north rim. Most people, I understand, look at it from the south rim. They get a certain picture of the canyon there; those who do not want to be like others take the long trip around and take a look at the north rim where you get a different picture. There are some who fly over the canyon in airplanes and get a look at it from that perspective. Some actually fly down in the canyon and look at the canyon from the standpoint of the sides of the canyon and then there are hearty souls who, I understand, get on an animal and ride down into the bottom of the canyon. So it is possible to get all different kinds of perspectives concerning the canyon.

The five offerings: the burnt offering, the meal offering, the peace offering, the sin offering, the trespass offering with which offerings Leviticus begins all give us aspects of the ministry of the Lord Jesus, but they are different in their perspectives. The burnt offering illustrates the personal consecration of the Lord in the work of expiation by penal substitution that leads to divine satisfaction over the atoning work of the substitute. If we were looking for some text in the Bible that represents beautifully the content of the burnt offering, I think, it would be Ephesians chapter 5 in verse 2 where the Apostle Paul writing to the Ephesians believers asks them to, “Walk in love just as Christ also loved you and gave himself up for us an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.” Notice, “Christ loves you and gave himself up for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a fragrant aroma.” You will no doubt recognize that those words that the apostle uses there are taken from the Old Testament revelation concerning the burnt offering.

Now, I did not get to finish the burnt offering last time and I want to make a few rather rapid comments in order that we might finish that particular offering and then go on to the study of the meal offering for tonight. We were talking about some of the things that Moses writes about and beginning with the 3rd verse I made reference to the fact that the male who would be offered for the burnt offering when he came from the herd would be an animal without defect. That was designed to represent the perfection of the character of our Lord Jesus not only his sinlessness but also his impeccability. That is that not only was our Lord a sinless Son of God, but also he was a Son of God who could not sin. In other words, not only did he survive, without sinning, the experiences of life but he was unable to sin. We laid a little bit of stress upon the fact that when the offerer brought the animal before the priest he laid his hand on the head of the offering in token of identification with that animal that he was bringing. In other words, the animal became his substitute. And in this there is pictured our Lord Jesus Christ as our substitute who represents us before God in bearing our penalty that we might go free. Moses writes of the acceptance that the offerer has as a result of his offering in verse 4. He says, “And he shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering, that it may be accepted for him to make atonement on his behalf.” I mentioned that that statement, “It shall be accepted for him,” that is, the animal for the offerer means that the righteousness typically of the animal which is without blemish without defect is accepted for the offerer. So it illustrates the imputation of righteousness.

Now, in the fulfillment the Lord Jesus is our substitute and the righteousness of God is imputed to us by virtue of the fact that he is our substitute in bearing penalty and stands for us before God. We mentioned we did not I don’t think get this far but the text mentions that it may be accepted for him to make atonement for him. Now, the word atonement is a word in the Old Testament means essentially to cover over. The Hebrew verb kaphar which appears in the hitpael stem one of the intensive stems of the form kaphar is a verb that means “to cover over.” In fact, even its sound sounds like the English cover kaphar, cover. It’s one of the ways you remember the meaning of that particular word in Hebrew but it is a word that does not mean really to atone in the sense of ultimate atonement. It means simply to cover over. The idea of the atonement in the Old Testament was the idea of covering sin before God, so that that sin does not stand between the offerer and the Lord. So to make atonement in the Old Testament was to take away the power of the sin by the blood of the animal coming between the offerer and God so that God does not punish him for his sin.

Now, we know from the study of the Bible, of course, the atoning work of the animals was not sufficient. That’s the reason they had to be repeated over and over again. The Day of Atonement which was the great Day of Atonement for the nation Israel was repeated every year. We’ll talk about that later on. That signified, the Scriptures say, that the atoning of the animal sacrifices could not really effectually do the job. But, nevertheless, this is typical; this looks forward to our Lord Jesus Christ who will make the once and for all sacrifice which will not only cover sin but remove sin. Cleanse sin. Put away sin to use some of the antitypical expressions of the New Testament. In the 5th verse the text said, “And he shall slay the young bull before the Lord,” and the sense of that is that the offerer slays the animal. One of the interesting things about this is that that word slay is a word for sacrifice. It really means to slaughter. It is an important that in the New Testament the term “put to death” is never used of the offerer slaying the animal. Now, to put to death might suggest some other death and sacrifice but the Bible is very specific. The Bible does not mean when the term blood is used simply death as we would think of death. When the Bible uses the term blood in a context such as this it means a sacrificial death. That is a slaughtering of an animal. So when the Lord Jesus died we are to think of death as a sacrifice. The term blood in the Bible refers to a violent death by sacrifice.

Now, that is important. There are lots of people who think that the term death, the term blood is not very important, but it is an important word because it suggests a death by sacrifice. The Lord Jesus didn’t die of a heart attack. Dying of a heart attack would not be an atoning death. He must die slaughtered as a sacrifice. So the idea of sacrifice is involved in the term blood and, I think, it’s striking that we never read he shall put the animal to death. The Hebrew word hemeth, the Hiphil form of muwth is never used. It is the word shachat here which means “to slay or slaughter.” So to put to death is not the idea. It’s the idea of a sacrifice.

Now, notice another thing in the 5th verse, “He shall slay the young bull before the Lord; and Aaron’s sons, the priests, shall offer up the blood and sprinkle the blood around on the altar (the burnt altar out in the court) that is at the doorway of the tent of meeting.” So the offerer slew the animal but it was the priest who sprinkled the blood.

Now, that is true to the typology too because our Lord Jesus is slain by men but it is our Lord Jesus as priest who is the mediator, and so the priests of the Old Testament were the mediators but it was the man who slew in the animal illustrative of the fact that our sin is that which slew our Lord Jesus Christ. He was both victim and priest in the antitypical, the fulfillment, of the typical work of the Old Testament. That is separated in the Old Testament in order that you can see both aspects of this. We slay the animal. We put Christ to death but it is the priest who sprinkles the blood. It is our Lord who is the priestly mediator and is also the victim. So he offers his own sacrifice, ultimately, to satisfy the claims of God.

Now, we read also in the 7th verse, “And the sons of Aaron, the priests, shall put fire on the altar and arrange wood on the fire.” And then the animal was burned. Now, fire is the standing symbol of judgment and purification. So it is a picture of the animal being slaughtered and then bearing the penalty for sin. In fact, I think, that what that signifies in the antitypical is what is signified when the Lord Jesus cries out on the cross “My God my God why hast thou forsaken me.” It was then that the sacrifice was being burned by the fires of God’s judgment. And then it concludes the offering from the herd the description of that in verse 9 with the statement that it is an offering by fire of a soothing aroma to the Lord. I don’t know who translated that but that’s not, I don’t think, too good. Soothing does not really convey the aspect of a finished work which it seems to me is suggested by this.

In the Hebrew text, it is literally an odor of rest, and the word translated “rest” in that literal expression is the one from which the name Noah comes. That was his name: “rest giver” or “rest” was his name. So the idea of it is that as a result of our Lord smelling the sweet savor of the sacrifice he has an odor of rest. And because it is an odor of rest, that is, his claims are met in the sacrifice and he, therefore, rests. The result is that it stresses the fact that the animal completely satisfies good and in the antitype it is a reference to our Lord Jesus’ finished work. When he said, “It is finished,” it was then that in the whole Godhead there was an odor of rest. It’s a beautiful expression an odor of rest. That’s what is referred in the New Testament in Ephesians chapter 5 in verse 2, “An odor of a sweet smell to the Lord.”

Well, let’s come now to the second of the offerings the meal offering. If the burnt offering illustrates personal consecration that is the personal consecration of the Lord, his total giving of himself to the work of the sacrifice and that, I think, is the sense because the thing that is stressed in the burnt offering is that it was a whole burnt offering and all of the animal is burned. The meal offering represents the personal character of our Lord. Meal fine flour that is the offering that we have here. Let me read through the verses then I’ll try to pick up the important points in them. I do have an outline tonight because it’s a little more complicated. Let me read through chapter 2.

“Now when anyone presents a grain offering as an offering to the Lord, his offering shall be of fine flour, and he shall pour oil on it and put frankincense on it. He shall then bring it to Aaron’s sons the priests; and shall take from it his handful of its fine flour and of its oil with all of its frankincense and the priest shall offer it up in smoke as its memorial portion on the altar, an offering by fire of a soothing aroma to the Lord.”

Notice the handful that is taken out and then the priest offers it in smoke as an offering. Verse 3.

“And the remainder of the grain offering belongs to Aaron and his sons.”

This is the way they received their food. They did not work as others. They carried on the ministry of the tabernacle and as a result of that they were the recipients of the supply of food through the offerings. And, I think, someone has estimated that they had a pound or so meal as a result of the meal offering because only a handful was taken out for the offering. The remainder of the grain offering belongs to Aaron and his sons the thing most holy of the offerings to the Lord by fire.

“Now, when you bring an offering of a grain offering baked in an oven it shall unleavened cakes of fine flour mixed with oil or unleavened wafers spread with oil.”

Notice that in the first three verses we have mention of a grain offering here now we’re going to have mention of grain offering baked in an oven and then later on made on a griddle and finally made in a pan. Verse 5.

“And 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. No grain offering, which you bring to the Lord, shall be made with leaven.”

Notice that important prohibition.

“For you shall not offer up in smoke any leaven or any honey (Isn’t this interesting? No honey.) as an offering by fire to the Lord. As an offering of first fruits you shall bring them to the Lord. (Now, this is another part of the offering.) As an offering of first fruits you shall bring them to the Lord, but they shall not ascend for a soothing aroma on the altar. Every grain offering of yours, moreover, you shall season with salt. (Notice that too.) So that the salt of the covenant of your God shall not be lacking from your grain offering; with all your offerings you shall offer salt. (No salt-free diet [laughter] for the offerings. All the Levitical priests they had to know what salt was.) Also if you bring a grain offering of early ripened things to the Lord, you shall bring fresh heads of grain roasted in the fire.”

Do you know that the term grits does not occur in the Authorized Version? [Laughter] I’ve often wondered why that version was incomplete. [Laughter] and here it is grits of new growth the New American Standard Bible. That is maybe the best translation that they had ever made [laughter] grits of new growth. I read the other day I saw a cartoon of a woman who went into a wine shop and she asked the question what kind of wine goes with grits. [Laughter]

“For the grain offering of your early ripened things. You shall then put oil on it and lay incense on it; it is a grain offering. The priest shall offer up in smoke its memorial portion, part of its grits and its oil with all its incense as an offering by fire to the Lord.”

The meal offering, the burnt offerings always had offered with them meal offerings and so these two offerings which begin the five Levitical offerings go together. They go together beautifully because the burnt offerings suggest the personal dedication of the Lord to his past of atonement whereas the meal offering refers to the personal character of our Lord Jesus Christ. In the one case, the stress rests on the whole, the complete, obedience of the Lord, in the next, the stress rests on the character of the Lord. His character is like fine flour and also in the case of the meal offering it was an unbloody offering. The first offering was a blood offering. The animal was slain but this offering is an unbloody offering. And so the aspect of sacrifice fades into the background, whereas, the aspect of the character of the sacrifice itself comes to the foreground. In the one case, the heart is stressed the heart of dedication in the other the products of that heart in the acts that characterize the character.

Now, the Lord Jesus Christ was a person who had the absolutely perfect character. The Scriptures when they described his birth speak of him as that holy thing that shall be born of Thee shall be called the Son of God. The Scriptures speak of him as without spot and without blemish. How different from men and even great men of God. The Lord Jesus was a man just as Martin Luther was a man. And many of the beautiful insights that Luther had from Scriptures were the products, of course, of the work of the Holy Spirit who was bringing Luther into conformity to Jesus Christ, but the task was unfinished when Luther died. Luther was noted for his coarseness and in that sense there was always a flaw in his character; a great man of God to whom we are greatly indebted but not the fine perfection of character that the Lord Jesus had. You could never hear the Lord Jesus saying if there is no water around then it will be perfectly all right to baptize in good German beer, but yet Martin Luther made a statement like that. Not a bad statement in some ways, of course, [laughter] for a sense new movement nevertheless you just wouldn’t have our Lord saying anything coarse.

Take John Calvin. We are greatly indebted to Calvin for his theological mind for the way in which the Scriptures have been clarified by the institutes and his many many other volumes of commentaries and other works. But Calvin was a man not known so much for coarseness as for severity. A kind of unbending character but the Scots would call he was a doer man. He was that. No question about it. And in the affair of Michael Cervitis while I don’t want to blame Calvin totally for that the very fact that men could see in the actions of John Calvin the possibility of this unbalanced act is evidence of the fact that his own character was not the perfect character that our Lord Jesus had. The Lord Jesus is beautifully represented by the fine flower but John Calvin is not nor is Martin Luther nor have the saints done through the years been without their flaws too. We all have our flaws and not only the preachers but those who sit in the pew as well

You read through this meal offering and you notice that there are three types of meal in the offering. There is uncooked flour referred in the first three verses. And then there is a reference to flour cakes in verses 4 through 11 and finally in the last few verses a reference to roasted grains. All of these to be offered with oil with salt and evidently with incense.

Let’s look now briefly at the first of the meal offerings, the offering of uncooked flour. This I’m going to suggest without a great deal of dogmatism contrary to my customary lack of fine flour there. I’m going to suggest that this is a representation of our Lord Jesus in his life. There are three descriptions of Jesus Christ in the meal offering that I think we should note. First of all, we read now when anyone presents a grain offering, incidentally, the Authorized Version calls this a meat offering, meat offering and the reason for that is when the King James versions was translated in 1611 meat had the idea of food. My meat is to do the will of him that sent me into finish his work the Lord Jesus said. The meaning of that is my food that’s the thing that makes me go so to speak. So it’s better to translate it meal. It’s possible to translate it a grain offering as is translated in the New American Standard Bible.

Three descriptions of Christ; a grain offering as an offering to the Lord his offering shall be a fine flour. Now, we’ve said that refers to the evenness of the person of our Lord the balanced character that he possessed. He stands out not only as over against Luther and Calvin and all of the other saints since biblical times but he stands out when compared with the saints of the Bible. Moses was the meekest man on the earth but Moses lost his temper and smote a rock when he was told to speak to the rock. The Apostle Paul lost his temper and struck one of the high priests calling him a whited sepluchre or whited-wall. Barnabas a very beautiful man a son of exhortation but, nevertheless, he and Mark got into a scrap and Barnabas had flaws in his character too. The Apostle John the apostle of love why he was the one when the Lord Jesus was moving up toward Jerusalem and the people of a Samaritan village did not respond to him said, “Lord shall we call down fire from heaven upon them.” He was like a gunslinger who was ready to fight. He wanted to brace them all to use those terms. You can tell what kind of literature I’ve been reading recently. [Laughter] So the offering should be a fine flour that’s sifted flour. That word coleth in the Hebrew text expresses flour of excellent character, fine flour.

Now, notice he shall pour oil on it. Now, oil is in the New Testament and in the Old Testament a standing representation of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. I don’t think there is any question among Bible students about this. It is said concerning the Lord Jesus that he was anointed with the Holy Spirit at his baptism and carried out his messianic work in the power of the Holy Spirit. So this offering is to be an offering of fine flour representing the balanced character of the Lord Jesus with oil on it; that is the ministry of the Holy Spirit and frankincense shall be put upon it. There’s a little question about the meaning of frankincense and so I only suggest this to you it has been said that it refers to both the purity and the deity of that with which it is associated. The striking thing about this is that when the priest reached in and took a handful of the meal offering to offer the offering he took all of the frankincense. He took only a part of the meal and he took only a part of the oil but he took all of the frankincense. You’ll see it right there. I’m not going to read it over again but he took all of the frankincense.

Now, that suggests that the frankincense refers to something that only God truly appreciates. So it was all offered on the altar and that is why, I think, probably this does represent the purity and the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is all of the excellence of his character which only God himself can fully appreciate. We can sit down and reflect on the character of our Lord and be thrilled and stirred by it and come to deeper insight. I certainly hope that through the study of Leviticus and through the study of the passion of our Lord on Sunday we have some deeper concept of the person and work of our Lord but we shall never fully understand the excellencies of the character the being and the attributes to use the theological term of our Lord Jesus Christ. We shall be learning throughout all eternity for he is an infinite being in all of his attributes have about them the aspect of infinity. Goodness, infinite goodness, ten thousand years from now when all of us will be dead and in the presence of the Lord I hope we’ll still be having lessons on the goodness of God. Isn’t that something to blow your mind?

Now, then we have one description of the believer in verse 3, we read, “The remainder of the grain offering belongs to Aaron and his sons.” Aaron is symbolic typical of the high priest and the sons of the priests. The New Testament tells us we are all priests. There is no priestly family now within the body of the believers. All of us are priests. So that’s a beautiful picture of the priests. What do they do? Why they receive the meal offering which looks forward to the Lord Jesus and they eat it. They feed on the meal offering. Now, when you eat something you feed on it and of course, it is typical of how the believer priests are to feed on our Lord Jesus Christ. That’s why we talk so much about doctrine in Believers Chapel, incidentally. We are feeding on the biblical revelation concerning the Lord Jesus. This is our food. We shall never get enough of it. I wish I had another sixty-two years to study the Bible but I’m going to leave you before long and get some better teachers. Now, we come to the second type of meal. That’s right I am. You’re smiling but it’s true.

The second aspect of the meal offering is divided into three parts. It is an offering. It is the part of the offering that, I think, pictures Christ in his sufferings because what we have here are the offering of the meal that is cooked. Notice there are three preparations verse 4, “Now when you bring an offering of a grain offering baked in an oven” baked in an oven. Look at verse 5, “made on the griddle” and then verse 7, “made in a pan” that’s a stewing pan with deeper, it’s a deeper pan. And most who have studied these words in the Hebrew text claim that there is a progression in the severity. In other words, the representation of the oven and the griddle and the stewing pan is a representation of increasing heat and, therefore, increasing suffering because the second type of meal stresses our Lord in his sufferings the offering in the oven in the griddle and in the stewing pan. There are two prohibitions here that I want you to notice. Verse 11, “No grain offering, which you bring to the Lord, shall be made with leaven,” why? Well, most of us know that the Bible when it refers to leaven refers to sin. That is a symbol for sin that is found throughout Holy Scripture.

Now, I know that there are liberals and some contemporary theologians that you wouldn’t classify as liberals who do believe that occasionally the term leaven has another sense but I do not think that that is true in the uses of Scripture from the opening use through to the end leaven is a standing symbol of corruption because leaven produces fermentation and, consequently, it is a fitting symbol of sin. But what about honey? Isn’t it interesting that we read in verse 11, “for you shall not offer up in smoke any leaven or any honey,” why my you would think that honey would be the kind of thing you would pour over this offering because honey suggests sweetness and isn’t our Lord Jesus sweet? But no honey. Why? Well, we know that honey has an acidifying and fermenting quality itself. In some cases, it was even used for the making of vinegar in the east but what does honey suggest? It suggests that which we think is sweet which tastes sweet. To put it another way, it suggests carnal sweetness. It suggests gooiness, sugariness. Have you ever known characters like that? They are so gooey that you want to take an instrument and wipe off the hypocrisy which is so evident behind the saccharine kind of behavior that characterizes them. The Christians are never gooey and sugary in their sweetness. They want to give you teeth constantly and a big handshake. No as big as possible and a big slap on the back but that is not necessary characteristic of the kind of Christian character that Scriptures set forth. The Scriptures set forth a kind of love that is true love. The kind of love that cares enough to be astringent at times to say something that is upsetting because its truth the Christian and the Christian love is love according to truth always love according to truth never love at the expense of truth. I think that’s why we don’t have any honey in our Lord Jesus. He would have never been that kind of person. He would not have hesitated to say some of those astringent things and convicting things that he did say and we would have been willing to crucify him before the Holy Spirit worked in our hearts. We would have been so angry at the things that he said.

There are some illustrations of Christ here two of them suggested in verse 10. We read the remainder.

“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.”

Did you notice that as the priest did his work that the offering preceded the eating. He offered the handful of the meal which he took out with all of the frankincense as the offering, and then the remainder was his and the priests to eat because you cannot enjoy Christ until you have come to know him in his saving atoning work. So the offering precedes the enjoyment. You cannot enjoy the Lord Jesus until you have been converted, until you have come to know him as the one who died for you. So the offering precedes the eating. That’s always true. That’s true in the New Testament. We cannot know our Lord Jesus until we know him as the savior from sin then having been born again and given a new nature then we can appreciate him and feed on him. Eat his flesh and drink his blood as he himself in John chapter 6.

In verse 12, we read, “As an offering of first fruits you shall bring them to the Lord, but they shall not ascend for a soothing aroma on the altar.” The offering of the first fruits was not burned. Why? Well, because first fruits in the Bible suggests resurrection doesn’t it? Christ is the first fruits from the dead. So we come to the third type of meal which pictures Christ in his resurrection. In just a minute or so I would like to finish this.

There are two descriptions of Jesus Christ here in verse 12 we read, “As an offering of first fruits.” Well, that’s our Lord in his resurrection and then in verse 14 and, “Also if you bring a grain offering of early ripened things.” Now, that’s a synonym. There’re two terms for first fruits here. In verse 12, there is the term re’shiyth, for who are Hebrew students and in verse 14 it is the term bekiyrah. Re’shiyth is a term it comes from the word re’sh which means “head.” Re’shiyth means beginning. Re’shiyth bara’ Elohim, “in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” So that re’shiyth suggest that there is more to come and thus pictures our Lord Jesus as the first fruits of the resurrection and then they that belong to him shall be resurrected at his come. Bekiyrah which is a word that had to with preeminence suggests that he is the preeminent one among many sons like he shall be the first-born among many brethren. It’s the term that is used to suggest that. So there are aspects of our Lord referred to here.

Now, let me close with reference to the two prescriptions of verse 13 and 14. Two interesting things conclude this study. In verse 13, we read that “every offering shall be seasoned with salt.” Why? Well, salt was a preservative. It hinders corruption. We are told in the New Testament that our speech be seasoned with salt. That does not mean no Aggie jokes so far as I know, but it means something more serious then that. It means that Christian’s talk, the Christian’s conversation should be that which is glorifying to the Lord Jesus. But every one of these meal offerings had salt with it. The reason was that eating bread and salt together meant a great deal to the Orientals. When people made a covenant together they sat down and ate bread and salt together, the salt suggesting the prominence of the agreement. So this, of course, suggests the permanence of the relationship that exists between our Lord and those who are in this covenant relationship to him. In verse 13, it is called the salt of the covenant of your God. So that the references to the fact that the relationship that exists between the Lord in heaven and the believer on the earth is an eternal relationship. Isn’t it great to know that the salvation we possess will be just as surely ours ten thousand years from now as it is right now. Salt.

Now, I don’t have time to mention the green ears of corn that are dried by fire beaten and bruised the last part of that third offering there. It, I think, stresses the fact that the Lord Jesus was bruised for our iniquities.

Let me close by simply saying this. If the lesson for the believer in the burnt offering is the lesson of wholehearted devotion to the Lord Jesus as reflected in the whole burnt offering and his total obedience, the lesson for the believer here is the lesson of feeding on this perfect and holy one and living the kind of life that is suggested by the character of our Lord Jesus pictured here in the meal offering. Its John the Apostle who says in 1 John chapter 2 in verse 6, “He that saith he abideth in him ought himself so to walk even as he walked.” So the perfect character of the Lord Jesus is an example for us in our own Christian life.

Let’s close in a word of prayer.

[Prayer] Father, we thank Thee and praise Thee for these wonderful studies which so beautifully illustrate aspects of the life and ministry of the Lord Jesus. Help us to truly feed on him in a way that would be pleasing to Thee and edifying for us. If there are some here, Lord, who have never believe in our Lord Jesus and do not know what it is to be a Christian, help them to see that Christ has paid the price by the shedding of his blood and that salvation in full and free forgiveness is offered through faith in him blessing the hours that follow.

For Jesus’ sake. Amen.