THE MEAL OFFERING (Leviticus 2 - cont)

The fine flour

We must not leave the fine flour just yet. It is fine flour. It could be pressed hard but there was no roughness. The pressures of life have found weakness, failure, and wickedness in all others, but not in this Man. The pressure of famine on the father of the faithful, Abraham, found him going down to Egypt for help where he told lies and risked the character of his wife to save his own life. Elimelech, whose name means "My God is king", in a time of famine deserted God and went to Moab for help. The courageous man, Elijah, fled across two deserts to escape the wrath of Jezebel. Moses, the meekest man in all the earth, was provoked by the grumbling of the Israelites and smote the rock. Joseph became impatient in prison and looked to the butler for help. John Baptist was not a reed shaken in the wind, but in prison he was discouraged and began to doubt, sending disciples to say to the Lord, "Art thou he that should come? or look we for another?" (Lk 7.19). James and John were offended when the Samaritan villagers would not receive the Lord and suggested that He should call down fire from heaven and consume them. Bold Peter, when surrounded by the enemies of the Lord, went back on his word, that although all forsook the Lord he would not. He denied Him more than once with oaths and curses.

Under the pressure of the shame of the cross all the disciples forsook the Lord. Paul, when smitten on the cheek spoke against the High Priest. We turn from all, ourselves included, with shame because of constant failure to look on One who when He was reviled, reviled not again, when He suffered He threatened not. He was never overcome of evil but overcame evil with good. When the rich young man preferred riches to Him, He still loved him. When His creatures cruelly treated Him and finally nailed Him to the cross He prayed for their forgiveness. When God forsook Him who was made sin for us, He vindicated Him and said, "But thou art holy". The greater the pressure, the fiercer the fire, the longer the journey, the rougher the road, the more vicious the enemy, the more we see the fineness of the flour, the patience, the love that suffered long and was kind in this thrice blessed Man. We love Him and we adore Him. Every part of Him is desirable. He is the concentration of loveliness, head and shoulders above His fellows. Beyond comparison, He must stand in contrast to all. He never fears nor flees, fails or falters, is never discouraged or depressed, hates or retaliates. He told Peter to put the sword back in its sheath and healed the hurt that Peter had caused. When not allowed to heal the many in the city, He went to the village and healed a few sick folk. He gave the sop to Judas although He knew he had already betrayed Him. He looked, nothing more, at Peter after he had denied Him thrice. He wept over Jerusalem after they had rejected Him and were about to put Him to death. They crucified Him and He did not call twelve legions of angels to execute judgment upon them, but prayed the Father to forgive them. After He was raised from the dead He commissioned His disciples to go into all the world and preach the gospel, beginning at Jerusalem, the place most guilty.

The handful of the flour

Note the phrase "his handful" (v.2). This word could be translated "grasp". Just as in the burnt offering there were animals of differing size and value speaking of differing appreciation of Christ, so here we have the same underlying truth. As in the natural, so in the spiritual, there are not two hands the same size. We all do not grasp to the same degree the perfection of the features of Christ. Saints are of different ages, at different stages of maturity, and the difference in time spent in gleaning makes a difference. David had much to leave Solomon for the building of the Temple. He stated, "I have prepared with all my might for the house of my God" (1 Chr 29.2). It depends on what our affections are set, on earthly things or on heavenly, spiritual things. John Douglas challenged a gathering in which I sat by asking if our families would go to the bank or to the Book to get what we left them. I say again that we do not all bring the same thing. In the Old Testament the poor man’s offering was not the same as the prince’s. In the New Testament we have Mary of Bethany with her spikenard, pure, precious, and costly, and we have the woman in the house of Simon the Pharisee coming with tears, kisses, and ointment unpriced. We do not all bring the same amount. Mary brought a pound of spikenard; Nicodemus brought 100 pounds of myrrh and aloes mixed. Mary brought before His death, Nicodemus after. Not only what is brought is valued, but when it is brought can add to its worth. We must not miss the significance of the words "his handful" or "his grasp". More than once throughout these chapters we come across words like "thy", "thine", "his offering". God wants what is our own; it must be real, what we have personally gleaned by the help of the Holy Spirit, that which has touched our hearts and moved our spirits.

The Psalmist says, "My heart is inditing a good matter: I speak of the things which I have made touching the king" (45.1). Again, "Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord" (19.14). Again, "‘While I was musing the fire burned: then spake I with my tongue" (39.3).

Abel "took the firstlings of his flock", and Mary took the ointment that she had kept. The women brought the spices which they had prepared. God will not be pleased to accept from us unless it is our own.

In Leviticus 1 our appreciation is not the measure of our acceptance; in this chapter, beside each handful be it large or small, there is placed all the frankincense. The handful is what I have grasped; the audible and the visible things about the Lord. The frankincense is what God sees. Our vision is dim, our hands are small, our heart at best is cold, and our language is beggarly. Our most is not much, but what an encouragement for us to continue to speak to God the Father about the graces and glories of His Son while here on earth as He moved on to the cross. Beside our little, the Father is placing His much. To our finite knowledge of Christ, God is adding infinite knowledge, His unstinted satisfaction, and His full delight. What holy relish must have filled His heart as fragrance rich and rare without interruption rose from that lowly, lovely, spotless life of the Lord Jesus as He moved before the face of God, a man amongst men yet different, distinct, far above all. So let us take heart and continue to offer our handful as we remember Him and show forth His death until He comes, as He Himself requested and Paul instructs us to do on the first day of each week.

The remnant of the offering

My heart rejoiced when I saw that it was the remnant (v.3) and that which was left (v.10) which was for the priests. There was much offered, but there was something left! I thought on the Passover lamb and the phrase, "And if the household be too little for the lamb…" (Ex 12.4). There is more in Christ than we can take. There is more in Christ than we can describe or exhaust. There are depths we cannot fathom, heights we cannot scale, and breadths we cannot measure. If every man became a scribe and material could be found for them to spend their years writing about the Lord Jesus Christ, John says, "‘the world itself could not contain the books that should be written" (Jn 21.25). Paul had to say as he contemplated Christ (2 Cor 9.15) that He is the not yet fully expounded (unspeakable, AV) gift. As the Spirit gathers men, materials, minerals, animals, birds, plants, trees, colours, characters to speak of Him we are forced again to say, as did the Queen of Sheba, "The half was not told me" (1 Kings 10.7). His glories will run on but never run out.

To be continued.