Characteristics of the Meal Offering
- No honey
- No leaven
- Seasoned with salt
- Oil
- Frankincense
This offering typifies Christ as the perfect and sinless Man and presents to us His wonderful Person and His spotless life which was ever an offering of a sweet savour unto God.
There was no shedding of blood in this offering, so it speaks of the perfection of Christ's Person and life rather than of His death.
The fine flour pictures His sinless humanity with its evenness of moral qualities.
The oil pictures the grace and power of the Holy Spirit, which characterized His life
The frankincense is emblematic of the sweetness and fragrance of His Person and life.
No leaven (yeast) is symbolic of being sinless
No honey was added because probably it would then be fermented ...decay process.
As an offering of first fruits, you may offer leaven and honey to the Lord, but they shall not be burned on the altar for a sweet odour [to the Lord, for their aid to fermentation is symbolic of corruption in the human heart]. (2:12 Amplified)
Read Psalm 16
It reveals to us the perfect man (Lord Jesus Christ)
Every cereal offering you shall season with salt [symbol of preservation]; neither shall you allow the salt of the covenant of your God to be lacking from your cereal offering; with all your offerings, you shall offer salt. (Leviticus 2:13)
Salt Speaks of Preservation
As a preservative, salt stops the normal operations of flesh. It is the nature of flesh to spoil, but salt-cured meat will stay good. Long before we used refrigeration and freezing to keep things, people preserved meats by salting them.
When we come before God, we don’t come in our own “spoiled flesh.” We come in the name of Jesus, on the basis of His merits, not ours. We can only be “preserved” by the constant work of God in us.
Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one. (Colossians 4:6)
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