Crystallization-Study of Leviticus (1)
Message Four
The Vision and Enjoyment of the Meal Offering
Scripture Reading: Lev. 2:1-16; 6:14-23; John 6:57, 63; 12:24; 1 Cor. 10:17
I. The meal offering typifies Christ in His God-man living—Lev. 2:1-16:
A. Fine flour, the main element of the meal offering, signifies Christ’s humanity, which is fine, perfect, tender, balanced, and right in every way, with no excess and no deficiency; this signifies the beauty and excellence of Christ’s human living and daily walk—v. 1; John 18:38; 19:4, 6b; Luke 2:40; 23:14; Isa. 53:3.
B. The oil of the meal offering signifies the Spirit of God as the divine element of Christ—Lev. 2:1; Luke 1:35; 3:22; 4:18; Heb. 1:9.
C. The mingling of fine flour with the oil in the meal offering signifies that Christ’s humanity is mingled with the Holy Spirit and that His human nature is mingled with God’s divine nature, making Him a God-man, possessing the divine nature and the human nature distinctly, without a third nature being produced—Lev. 2:4-5; Matt. 1:18, 20.
D. The frankincense in the meal offering signifies the fragrance of Christ in His resurrection; that the frankincense was put on the fine flour signifies that Christ’s humanity bears the aroma of His resurrection—Lev. 2:1-2; cf. Matt. 2:11; 11:20-30; Luke 10:21:
1. As portrayed in the four Gospels, Christ lived a life in His humanity mingled with His divinity and expressing resurrection out from His sufferings—cf. John 18:4-8; 19:26-27a.
2. Christ’s Spirit-filled and resurrection-saturated living was a satisfying fragrance to God, giving God rest, peace, joy, enjoyment, and full satisfaction—Lev. 2:2; Luke 4:1; John 11:25; Matt. 3:17; 17:5.
E. Salt, with which the meal offering was seasoned, signifies the death, or the cross, of Christ; salt functions to season, kill germs, and preserve—Lev. 2:13:
1. The Lord Jesus always lived a life of being salted, a life under the cross—Mark 10:38; John 12:24; Luke 12:49-50.
2. Even before He was actually crucified, Christ daily lived a crucified life, denying Himself and His natural life and living the Father’s life in resurrection—John 6:38; 7:6, 16-18; cf. Gal. 2:20.
3. The basic factor of God’s covenant is the cross, the crucifixion of Christ, signified by salt; it is by the cross that God’s covenant is preserved to be an everlasting covenant—cf. Heb. 13:20.
F. That the meal offering was without leaven signifies that in Christ there is no sin or any negative thing—Lev. 2:4-5, 11a; 2 Cor. 5:21; Heb. 4:15; 1 Pet. 2:22; Luke 23:14; cf. 1 Cor. 5:6-8.
G. That the meal offering was without honey signifies that in Christ there is no natural affection or natural goodness—Lev. 2:11b; Matt. 10:34-39; 12:46-50; Mark 10:18.
II. The meal offering typifies our Christian life as a duplication of Christ’s God-man living—Lev. 2:4; Psa. 92:10; 1 Pet. 2:21; Rom. 8:2-3, 11, 13:
A. If we eat Christ as the meal offering, we will become what we eat and live by what we eat—John 6:57, 63; 1 Cor. 10:17; Phil. 1:19-21a.
B. By exercising our spirit to touch the Spirit consolidated in the Word, we eat the human life and living of Jesus, we are constituted with Jesus, and the human living of Jesus becomes our human living (Eph. 6:17-18; Jer. 15:16; Eph. 5:26; Gal. 6:17) with the following characteristics of His divinely enriched humanity:
1. The humanity of Jesus fulfills all righteousness—Matt. 3:13-15.
2. The humanity of Jesus has no resting place—8:20.
3. The humanity of Jesus is lowly in heart—11:29.
4. The humanity of Jesus loves the weak ones—12:19-20.
5. The humanity of Jesus is flexible—17:27.
6. The humanity of Jesus serves others—Mark 10:45; 1:35; see footnote 1 on verse 10.
7. The humanity of Jesus cherishes people—Luke 4:16-22; 7:34; 19:1-10.
8. The humanity of Jesus is orderly, not sloppy—Mark 6:39-40; John 6:12.
9. The humanity of Jesus is limited by time—7:6.
10. The humanity of Jesus is unique—v. 46.
11. The humanity of Jesus knows when to weep—11:33, 35.
12. The humanity of Jesus is humble—13:4-5.
III. The meal offering typifies the church life as the corporate living by the perfected God-men—12:24; 1 Cor. 10:17; 12:24; Gal. 2:20; Phil. 1:21a:
A. Christ’s life and our individual Christian life issue in a totality—the church life as a corporate meal offering—Lev. 2:1-2, 4; 1 Cor. 12:12, 24; 10:17.
B. The meal-offering church life is seen in 1 Corinthians:
1. Christ is the man given to us by God—1:2, 9, 30.
2. Paul’s charge to the Corinthians—“Be a man” (16:13, lit.)—means that we should have the high, uplifted humanity of Jesus (9:26-27; 13:4-7).
3. The church life is a life of humanity oiled by and with the Spirit and joined to the Spirit—2:4, 12; 3:16; 6:17.
4. The grace of God which we are enjoying today is the resurrected Christ as the life-giving Spirit—15:10, 45b:
a. We must die with Christ to self daily so that we may live with Christ to God daily—vv. 31, 36; John 12:24-26.
b. We must demonstrate the reality of resurrection by being one with God and having God with us in the status in which we were called—1 Cor. 7:24, 21-22a, 10-13.
c. We must labor not by our natural life and natural ability but by the Lord as our resurrection life and power—15:10, 58.
5. We must enjoy the crucified Christ as the solution to all the problems in the church—1:9, 18, 22-23a; cf. Mark 15:31-32a.
6. We must enjoy Christ as our unleavened banquet—1 Cor. 5:6b-8.
7. In the church life the natural life must be killed by the salt, by the cross of Christ—15:10; 12:31; 13:8a; 2 Cor. 5:16.
8. God desires that every local church be a meal offering to satisfy Him and fully supply the saints day by day; this means that we will eat our church life, for the church life will be our daily supply.
IV. We need to see the law of the meal offering (Lev. 6:14-23); the laws of the offerings are the ordinances and regulations regarding the enjoyment of Christ as the offerings; since the reality of the offerings is Christ, the laws of the offerings correspond to the law of the life of Christ, which is the law of the Spirit of life (Rom. 8:2); these laws indicate that even in the enjoyment of Christ we should not be lawless but should be regulated by the law of life—cf. 1 Cor. 9:26-27; 11:17, 27-29; Gal. 6:15-16; Phil. 3:13-16:
A. Before Jehovah signifies that the meal offering is offered to God in His presence, and before the altar signifies that the meal offering is offered in relation to the redemption of Christ on the cross, the altar being a type of the cross—Lev. 6:14; cf. Heb. 13:10.
B. Part of the flour and oil and all of the frankincense of the meal offering were God’s food (Lev. 2:2, 9, 16); this signifies that a considerable portion of Christ’s excellent, perfect, Spirit-filled, and resurrection-saturated living is offered to God as food for His enjoyment; this portion is so satisfying to God that it becomes a memorial (6:15); the remainder of the offering, consisting of fine flour and oil but no frankincense, was food for the serving priests (2:3, 10):
1. Whereas the burnt offering is God’s food for His satisfaction (Num. 28:2), the meal offering is our food for our satisfaction, a portion also being shared with God; proper worship is a matter of satisfying God with Christ as the burnt offering and of being satisfied with Christ as the meal offering and sharing this satisfaction with God (Lev. 2:2; cf. John 4:24).
2. All meal offerings were offered by fire on the altar (Lev. 2:4-9), signifying that Christ in His humanity offered to God as food has gone through the testing fire (Rev. 1:15); the fire in Leviticus 2 signifies the consuming God (Heb. 12:29), not for judgment but for acceptance; the consuming of the meal offering by fire signifies that God has accepted Christ as His satisfying food (Lev. 2:2).
C. The meal offering is not common food; it is food only for those believers in the church life who are actual and practical priests, serving God in the priesthood of the gospel—6:14-16; Rom. 1:9; 15:16; 1 Pet. 2:9.
D. Eating the priests’ portion of the meal offering without leaven in a holy place signifies that we enjoy Christ as the life supply for our service without sin (leaven) in a separated, sanctified realm; since the Tent of Meeting typifies the church, eating the meal offering in the court of the Tent of Meeting signifies that Christ should be enjoyed as our life supply in the sphere of the church life—Lev. 6:16.
E. Not baking the meal offering with leaven signifies that our laboring on Christ to partake of Him as our life supply must be without sin—v. 17.
F. The law of the meal offering refers us to the sin offering and the trespass offering, signifying that if we would enjoy Christ as our life supply, we need to deal with the sin in our fallen nature and with the sins (trespasses) in our conduct—v. 17; 4:3.
G. Those who partake of Christ as the life supply should be strong in the divine life (males) and also should be God’s serving ones, God’s priests (sons of Aaron)—6:18.
H. The offering of a meal offering by Aaron and his sons on the day when Aaron was anointed signifies that the enjoyment of Christ as the life supply is related to the priestly service—v. 20.
I. The tenth of an ephah of fine flour for a continual meal offering, half in the morning and half in the evening, signifies that the top portion, the tenth part, of the enjoyment of Christ should be for God, and that this kind of enjoyment of Christ should continue in our priestly service—v. 20.