Message 15
Scripture Reading: Lev. 2:1-2, 4, 11, 13; Luke 1:35; Matt. 1:18, 20; Luke 3:21-22; 4:1; 23:14; Matt. 12:46-50; Mark 10:38; John 12:24; 7:6, 16-18; Rom. 8:2, 3, 6, 9-11, 13; 1 Cor. 10:17
In this message I am burdened to give a further word on the meal offering. However, I am not burdened to speak on the meal offering merely in itself. Rather, my burden is to fellowship with you concerning the elements, the components, of the meal offering in relation to the Christian life and the church life.
In the foregoing message we saw that the reality of all the offerings is Christ realized as the Spirit. This means that in our experience the Spirit is the reality of the offerings. If we do not have the Spirit in a subjective way, we will not have the reality of the offerings but only the doctrine regarding Christ as the offerings. In Himself, Christ is the reality of the offerings, but He cannot be this reality to us apart from His being the life-giving Spirit.
In Leviticus there are five basic offerings: the burnt offering, the meal offering, the peace offering, the sin offering, and the trespass offering. It is difficult for us to say which of these five offerings is the main offering. Some may say that the peace offering is the main offering because, according to chapters one through five of Leviticus, it stands in the center. Others may say that the main offering is the burnt offering, which signifies Christ as the One who is absolute for God. Still others may say that, since we have the problems of sin and sins in our daily life, either the sin offering or the trespass offering is the main offering. Although we need all the basic offerings, the main offering with respect to the experience of Christ in its many aspects and details is the meal offering.
In understanding the book of Leviticus, we today are standing on the shoulders of many Bible teachers, especially those among the Brethren, who have gone before us. We surely must give credit to them. Nevertheless, because we are on their shoulders, we can see things which they have not seen. One of these things is the matter of enjoying the offerings in order to be constituted to become a certain kind of person. We become what we eat. If we eat Christ as the meal offering, we will be constituted with Christ.
We need to know the elements that compose the meal offering. We need to realize that the meal offering includes four elements but specifically excludes two other elements. To know all these elements is to know Christ in a practical and detailed way.
The first element in the meal offering is the fine flour. This fine flour signifies Christ’s humanity, which is balanced and fine.
Whereas the fine flour in the meal offering signifies humanity, the oil signifies divinity. The oil signifies God. The fine flour is the base, and the oil is added to it.
If we read Leviticus 2 carefully, we will see that the oil is added to the flour in three ways. The oil may be mingled with the flour, or it may be poured on the flour. The flour may also be anointed with the oil. The most important way of adding the oil to the flour is mingling the flour with the oil. The fine flour does not remain dry but is “oiled” both inwardly and outwardly.
The third element is frankincense. In typology frankincense signifies resurrection. The sweet savor of frankincense signifies the fragrance of Christ’s resurrection. How sweet Christ is in His resurrection!
The fourth element of the meal offering is salt. In typology salt signifies the death, or the cross, of Christ. Salt seasons, kills germs, and preserves. This is the effect of the cross of Christ.
The meal offering is to have neither leaven nor honey. Leaven signifies sin and other negative things. In the Gospels the Lord Jesus speaks of the leaven of the Pharisees, the leaven of the Sadducees, and the leaven of Herod (Matt. 16:6, 11-12; Luke 12:1; Mark 8:15).
Honey signifies the natural human life. It signifies our natural life not in its bad aspect but in its good aspect. We should not think that people are always bad, for sometimes they are very good. But this natural goodness is honey. Hatred is leaven, but natural love is honey. Likewise, pride is leaven, but natural humility is honey.
Honey seems to be different from leaven. However, after a period of time honey can ferment, and this fermentation will issue in leaven. This indicates that whether we are good or bad, the result will eventually be the same. This is the reason Genesis 2 speaks of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We may be either good or bad, but in either case the result will be leaven.
We may use divorce as an illustration of the fermentation of honey. With a marriage that ends in divorce, a certain kind of honey — natural love — has fermented and issued in leaven. From this illustration we see that the issue of both hatred, which is leaven, and natural love, which is honey, is the same. The negative things are leaven, and the good aspects of the natural life signified by honey eventually ferment and become leaven.
The life Christ lived on earth was a life without leaven and without honey, and we should live the same kind of life today. We need to have the four positive elements — fine flour, oil, frankincense, and salt — but not the two negative elements — leaven and honey. If this is our situation, we will be a proper meal offering, an offering composed of humanity oiled with divinity in resurrection through Christ’s death and without leaven and honey. This kind of life is food to satisfy God and also to nourish us as God’s serving ones.
In the four Gospels we have a portrait of Christ’s human living on earth. He was God in eternity, but through incarnation He became a real man, and He lived on earth as a man.
Christ’s humanity has much to do with the Spirit of God. He was conceived of the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:35; Matt. 1:18, 20). From the time of conception, that is, from the very beginning of His manhood, His humanity was wrapped up with the Holy Spirit. Apart from the Holy Spirit, Jesus could not have been conceived and born. The Lord’s conception and birth were altogether of the Holy Spirit. His humanity was mingled with the Holy Spirit. Christ’s human living was based on this mingling.
When the Lord Jesus came forth to minister for God, He was baptized. “As Jesus was baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form as a dove upon Him” (Luke 3:21b-22a). The fact that the Holy Spirit descended in the form of a dove, which is known for its gentleness, indicates that the Spirit of God is a person and not merely a power, channel, or instrument. The Holy Spirit as a person came upon the Lord Jesus. This means that just as oil was poured upon the fine flour, the Holy Spirit was poured upon the Lord Jesus. On the one hand, in His humanity He was mingled with the Holy Spirit; on the other hand, the Holy Spirit was poured upon Him and anointed Him.
The first part of Luke 4:1 speaks of “Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit.” He was full of the Spirit, thoroughly oiled with the Spirit, because He was mingled with the Spirit and because the Spirit had been poured upon Him. He thus behaved and worked in the Spirit. Everything He did in His ministry was done in the Spirit — in the essential Spirit and also in the economical Spirit. He is a man mingled with the Spirit and with the Spirit poured upon Him.
The humanity and human living of the Lord Jesus were without fault. He was brought to Pilate to be judged by the Roman authority, but Pilate declared that he could not find any fault in Him (Luke 23:14). The Lord Jesus had no sin. In Him there was no leaven.
With the Lord Jesus there is no honey. One day, while He was speaking to the crowds, “His mother and His brothers stood outside seeking to speak to Him. And someone said to Him, Behold, Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside seeking to speak to You” (Matt. 12:46-47). When He heard this, He said to the one who spoke to Him, “Who is My mother, and who are My brothers? And stretching out His hand over His disciples, He said, Behold, My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of My Father who is in the heavens, he is My brother and sister and mother” (vv. 48-50). This indicates that with Him there is no honey, that He denied the natural life,
In Acts 15:36-39 there was a problem between Paul and Barnabas. This problem was caused by the honey of the natural life. Barnabas wanted to take John Mark with them on their travels, but “Paul did not consider it suitable to take with them this one who withdrew from them in Pamphylia and did not go with them to the work” (v. 38). As a result, “there arose a sharp contention, so that they separated from each other” (v. 39a). Mark was Barnabas’s cousin (Col. 4:10), and it is likely that the problem between Paul and Barnabas was caused by the natural relationship between Barnabas and Mark. Paul, who was vindicated by the divine record (Acts 15:39b-40), did not agree with this honey.
In our Christian life, we need to learn of the Lord Jesus to avoid the natural life as much as possible. As believers, we surely need to love others, but we should be careful not to love in a natural way. How easy it is for us to love others in a natural, human way! Even in the church life we may love those who are naturally the same as we are. We may love a certain brother because his disposition is similar to ours. This kind of love is honey; it is a natural love.
In Philippians 2:2 Paul speaks of “having the same love.” To have the same love is to have a love for all the saints that is on the same level. In ourselves we cannot have this kind of love, for our natural tendency is to have a love that is on different levels. Our love for certain saints may be on a higher level than our love for other saints. This is honey. The love of the Lord Jesus is not like this.
Mark 10:38 and John 12:24 indicate that the Lord Jesus was always salted, that He always lived a life under the shadow of the cross. Before He was actually crucified, He daily lived a crucified life.
In Mark 10:38 the Lord Jesus asked James and John, “Are you able to drink the cup which I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” When they said that they were able, He went on to say, “The cup which I drink you shall drink; and the baptism with which I am baptized, you shall be baptized” (v. 39). Both the cup and the baptism refer to Christ’s death (John 18:11; Luke 12:50). To drink the Lord’s cup and to be baptized with the baptism with which He has been baptized are to experience His death, to have His death applied to us in our experience.
A hymn that speaks of being salted is Hymns, #631. The second stanza and the chorus say:
The life Christ lived was a life of being salted. For us to experience the cross today is to be salted. We need to receive the salt in our daily life. If we do this, we will be the fine flour for the meal offering.
In John 12, when the Lord Jesus entered Jerusalem, He was welcomed by the crowd. Humanly speaking, that was His golden time. However, when He heard that the people were seeking Him, He said, “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (v. 24). This word indicates that instead of allowing Himself to be exalted, the Lord Jesus was salted. He seemed to be saying, “I am a grain of wheat. I do not need to be welcomed, glorified, and exalted by people. I need to fall into the earth and die.”
We need to learn of the Lord Jesus to be salted. When others welcome us, exalt us, and glorify us, it is very easy for us to have honey instead of salt. Whenever we are welcomed or exalted by others, we should apply salt to ourselves and be persons who want not to be exalted but to die. This means that we should learn to apply the cross of Christ.
Since the Lord Jesus always lived a life of being salted, a life under the cross, He was always in resurrection. The life He lived was a life in resurrection.
For the Lord Jesus to live in resurrection meant that He denied Himself and His natural life and that He lived not Himself but the Father. We see this clearly in John 7. In verse 6 He said, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always ready.” Whereas others had the liberty to go anywhere at any time, He was limited, not living in the natural life.
In verses 16 through 18 He went on to say, “My teaching is not Mine, but His who sent Me. If anyone wills to do His will, he shall know concerning the teaching, whether it is of God, or whether I speak from Myself. He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory, but He who seeks the glory of Him who sent Him, this One is true, and unrighteousness is not in Him.” Here we see that the Lord Jesus did not speak His own word but the Father’s word. The source of His speaking was not Himself — it was the Father. This indicates that He rejected His natural life and lived by the life of the Father. This is resurrection. Therefore, even before He was crucified, the Lord Jesus lived a life in resurrection, denying the natural life and living the Father’s life.
We need to live in resurrection in our married life and family life. Suppose something happens in your married life to make you unhappy. If at such a time you live yourself and your own life, surely you will lose your temper. But instead of living your own life, you may live the kind of life revealed in Galatians 2:20. In this verse Paul first says, “I have been crucified with Christ.” This is a matter of experiencing the salt, of being put to death, of being crossed out. Then Paul continues, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.” This is resurrection.
When the Lord Jesus was on earth, He was fine flour, He was oiled with the Holy Spirit, He was always being salted, and He lived in resurrection, having the flavor of frankincense. But with Him there was neither leaven nor honey. Therefore, He could be a meal offering.
The situation with us today should be the same. This means that our Christian life should be a duplication, a xerox copy, of Christ’s life. This is clearly revealed in Romans 8.
Romans 8 puts Christ and us together. Here we have Christ’s humanity (v. 3), the Spirit of life (v. 2), the cross (v. 13), and resurrection (v. 11) wrapped up together as one. This shows us the kind of living we should have today. We should live the same kind of life Christ lived. He was a man, and we also are human. He was oiled with the Spirit, and we also have been at least somewhat oiled with the Spirit. We have been mingled with the Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from among the dead. Christ was salted, crucified, and we also should put our natural being to death. Furthermore, Christ lived in resurrection, and we also may live in resurrection.
Romans 8 definitely reveals that we should be a duplication of Christ as the meal offering. We should be a copy, a reproduction, of Him and thus be the same as He is. Christ became a person in the flesh, and we today are persons in the flesh. As a man in the flesh, Christ was oiled with the Spirit. Today we are being oiled by the indwelling Spirit. The Spirit dwells within us to do the work of oiling us. Since the indwelling Spirit is oiling us, we should set our mind on the spirit, not on the flesh (v. 6). Then by the Spirit we should put to death the practices of the body (v. 13). If we do this, we will live, and this life will be a life in resurrection. As a result, we will be suitable to be a meal offering for God’s satisfaction.
The purpose of the meal offering is to satisfy God. The top portion of the meal offering, the portion containing the frankincense, was burned in fire for God’s satisfaction. Christ today is the reality of the meal offering. He alone has the fragrance that ascends to God for His satisfaction. In the entire universe, Christ is the only person who can be offered to God in fire to produce the fragrance that satisfies God and makes Him happy and joyful.
As the members of Christ, we should be His duplication and live the same kind of life He lived. This is a life of humanity oiled with the Holy Spirit. Day by day we need to be oiled with the Holy Spirit. We should also continually receive the salt; that is, we should receive Christ’s cross and put our natural deeds to death. Then we will live in resurrection and have the frankincense for God’s satisfaction.
All the frankincense in the meal offering was burned in fire. This indicates that all the frankincense was for God; none of the frankincense was for the priests. From this we see that all the frankincense in Christ as the meal offering is burned to produce a fragrance for God’s satisfaction. This was Christ’s experience. Since we are the members of Christ, His duplication, this should also be our experience today.
In Leviticus 2 we see that the meal offering can be in different forms. Our concern here is with two particular forms of the meal offering. The meal offering may be in the form of flour mingled with oil, or it may be in the form of a cake. The flour meal offering signifies the individual Christ; it also signifies the individual Christian. The cake meal offering signifies the corporate Christ, Christ with His Body, the church. The New Testament reveals that the individual Christ has become the corporate Christ (1 Cor. 12:12) signified by the cake. Paul says, “We who are many are one bread, one Body; for we all partake of the one bread” (1 Cor. 10:17). This one bread is a “cake.”
With the meal offering there is the individual aspect, and there is also the corporate aspect. Today Christ does not live merely in an individual way; He also lives with His Body, the church. Christ lives before God in a corporate way. He is the Head, and He has His Body with its members. Therefore, with the meal offering in the form of a cake we have the church life.
In order to have a cake meal offering, we need fine flour mingled with oil. The mingling of flour and oil will produce dough. The dough is then baked in an oven and becomes a cake. This cake is a symbol of the church life. This symbol indicates that eventually Christ’s life and our individual Christian life become a totality, and this totality is the church life.
The church life is not an angelic life but a life full of humanity. However, some Christians have been told that they should try to be like angels and no longer live like human beings. This concept is altogether wrong. If we would have more church life, we need more humanity. For the church life we need to be very human. But this humanity should not be separate from the Holy Spirit;
rather, it should be a humanity which is mingled with the Holy Spirit and which has the Holy Spirit poured upon it. In other words, for the church life we need to be oiled persons, those who are oiled by the Spirit and with the Spirit. Furthermore, we should not have leaven or honey, but we should have salt and frankincense. In our life much salt, the death of the cross, should be applied, and we should be full of resurrection. This is the proper church life.
If we would have this kind of church life, we must be full of humanity and live like men, not like angels. However, certain sisters, and even some brothers, are trying to live as if they were angels. These saints are peculiar and lacking in humanity. The more you try to be an angel, the more peculiar you will be. Instead of being human, you will be a “ghost.” Therefore, I say again that in the church life we need to be full of humanity, but not with a humanity that is independent of the Holy Spirit.
We should be fully dependent on the Holy Spirit, being oiled with Him inwardly and having Him poured upon us outwardly. If we are such persons, we will be full of the Spirit. We will be centered on the Spirit and possessed by the Spirit. We will also live a life that is through salt and in frankincense, that is, a life that is through the death of Christ and in His resurrection. The salt will deal with the leaven, with the germs of sin; the salt will also deal with the honey, putting the natural life to death. This is the way to have a meal offering church life.
The meal offering church life can be burned to produce a satisfying fragrance for God, and the remainder of this offering will be our food. This means that we will eat our church life, for the church life will be our daily supply. Thus, the meal offering which is our daily supply is not merely Christ but Christ with the church life. Now we are feeding on Christ, and we are also feeding on the church life. We eat the meal offering not only in the first form as flour — the individual Christ; we also eat the meal offering in the second form as a cake — the corporate Christ, the church. I believe that in the coming days in all the churches we will see a meal offering church life, a life that first satisfies God and then feeds us.
