Translation & Sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ The Redeemer Church, Manhattan, KS, 7 Feb 2016
2:1 Now when anyone of you shall offer a grain offering to Yahweh, fine flour shall be his offering, and he shall pour oil upon it and put frankincense upon it. 2:2 Then he shall take it to the sons of Aaron, the priests, and he shall grab from there a good handful of its fine flour and its oil together with all its frankincense, and the priest shall burn up its memorial portion on the altar – a fire-offering of a soothing aroma to Yahweh. 2:3 And the remainder from the grain-offering belongs to Aaron and to his sons – a most holy thing from the fire-offerings of Yahweh.
2:4 Now when you offer a grain offering baked in an oven, it shall be unleavened cakes of fine flour mixed with oil or unleavened wafers spread with oil. 2:5 And if your offering is a grain offering cooked upon the skillet, it shall be unleavened – fine flour mixed with oil. 2:6 Crumble it to crumbs and you shall pour oil over it; it is a grain-offering. 2:7 And if your offering is a deep-fried grain-offering, it shall be made of fine flour with oil.
· It is now February, and lots of people are thinking about that special February holiday - Valentine’s Day!
o Now, suppose I were to buy a dozen roses and a heart-shaped card and give them to my wife on Valentine’s Day and say to her, “Wife, I hereby fulfill my obligation to you as a husband because I have carried a set of bush trimmings from the florist into our home along with the obligatory carotid-shaped piece of parchment. Our marriage is good for the next year.” Do you think that would fly? Why not? Because it’s not about the gift, it’s about the relationship with the giver, right? Do I really love her as a person and relate to her in a truly husband-ly way?
o Well then, what if I said, “Valentines Day is so legalistic! Everybody thinks they are making their marriages right by buying overpriced merchandise that is essentially meaningless! I’m not going to fall for that rubbish! I’m not going to give my wife anything on Valentines Day.” How do you think that would fly? I think I’d have some ‘splaining to do if Valentines Day came and went and I didn’t give her anything! Why? Because gifts really do mean something. They really can be an expression of love, and if no gifts are ever exchanged, you have to wonder if there is really any relationship there at all.
· Now, let’s apply that scenario to us and God.
o Are there some people who think that giving gifts to religious organizations creates a good relationship with God? Of course there are.
o Is that what creates a good relationship with God? Of course not!
o So, should we consider giving to God a form of legalism to be utterly avoided? No way!
o Giving gifts to God through faithful church and parachurch organizations is a normal and healthy way to express our love for God and to continue to demonstrate and remember the nature of our relationship with God as citizens of His kingdom.
· This is what the second offering in the book of Leviticus is about: The Grain Offering
· Remember that the animal burnt offering of chapter 1 emphasized acceptance with God, and, while that truth is in the bedrock of all the sacrifices, the emphasis of the Grain offering in chapter 2 is on remembering the relationship which God has established with us.
· The grain offering was generally presented after the burnt offering. They always went together. The two things they represent also go together. Jesus is the sacrifice which is the grounds of our acceptance before God, but then we offer back to God ourselves and the fruit of our labor because of the relationship which He has established with us to make us citizens in His heavenly kingdom.
· The format of the grain offering is very much like a tribute given to a king to recognize his authority and affirm your personal loyalty to him.
· The name of the particular offering described here is hxnm. Minchah generally means “a present by which one sought to obtain the favor of a superior” (K&D), or a “gift of homage or tribute” (Davidson). It could consist of anything – animal or vegetable, thus the KJV calls it a “meat-offering,” but in Leviticus it is consistently from the vegetable kingdom, so the American Jewish Version and American Standard Version call it a “meal-offering” and the NAS and NIV translate it “grain offering.”
· The basic elements of this grain offering were flour, oil, and incense.
o The Hebrew word for “flour” isסֹלֶת , perhaps from the root verb סלל “to swing” (K&D) or grind thoroughly. This was not just any flour, but specifically wheat flour and finely-ground at that. Only the very best should be offered to God (Son.).
o Flour and olive oil were the bread and butter of people’s diet. Every meal started with those two ingredients, so they were foundation of the food offering to God.
o Frankincense was also to be added to the top of this food offering. The word for Frankincense is לְבֹנָה, the root meaning of which is “white.” This white stuff was sap that came from trees in the Southern Arabian Peninsula and dried in the sun, then was collected and traded throughout the world as an aromatic perfume.
o Don’t you think it is interesting that God required an element in His sacrifice which was not native to Israel? Frankincense had to be imported from present-day Yemen and Oman! God has an interest in being worshipped by all His creation in all the world, so He demanded ingredients that the Jews could not supply from their own country!
o As a form of incense, frankincense would have represented prayer – my words and thoughts reaching God and being heard by Him.
· The Hebrew verb beginning verse 2 is from a word meaning “to go” (בוא), so the offerer was to “cause the grain offering to go” to the sons of Aaron, the priests, in the temple.
· The next step was to withdraw a handful of the grain offering to be burned on the altar.
o The Hebrew text leaves some room for debate as to whether the priest or the offerer is the one who does this. I believe that it is the offerer based on the Hebrew grammar and the Masoretic pointing.
o Having the offerer draw out the portion to be burned could also be a way to keep the priest from a conflict of interest, because the larger the handful given to God and burned on the altar, the less the priest got to keep for himself!
o Although my concern is “Who does it?” apparently the concern for Jewish commentators has been “How much is a handful?”
§ The medieval Jewish commentator Rashi wrote that you could keep your thumb and little finger free so that a handful is defined as what can be held by the three middle fingers “neither sparse nor overflowing.”
§ Now before we criticize the Jewish rabbis, let’s take the log out of our own eye. Don’t we do the same thing? We get all worked up over unimportant details and lose sight of the really important things. How big is a “handful”? Do Christians have to give 10% still? Is that on pre-taxed income or after taxes?
§ Now, it’s one thing to think about these details with a heart that is seeking to honor God and relate to Him in a personal way, but if it’s done out of an attitude of “how little can I get away with giving so I can keep as much as possible for myself without looking unspiritual in other people’s eyes?” that’s the wrong attitude.
§ We need to keep the main thing the main thing and not get sidetracked by rabbit trails such as “How much is a handful?” Give generously; the 10% number is just a reference point. The main thing is to glorify God!
· The third verb in verse two has to do with the burning of this memorial portion on the altar. The portion to be burned consisted of a “good handful” of the fine flour, a handful of the oil, and then all of the incense which had been put on top of the grain offering. This was the portion offered to God on the altar.
· The word describing this portion has זכר (“remember”) as its root, and is consistently rendered “memorial” in English translations. This Hebrew word for “remembering” is not used to describe any of the other types of sacrifices in Leviticus. “Remembrance” is key to the meaning of the Grain Offering.
o This is a time for the worshipper and the priest to pause and remember their God before the priest takes the food from the layman to eat it. In some ways, it is also an invocation for God to “remember” the worshipper as he brings his offering. Both are entirely Biblical concepts:
1) GOD REMEMBERS THOSE WHO WORSHIP HIM (ASV, italics mine):
o Genesis 8: 1 And God remembered Noah, and all the beasts, and all the cattle that were with him in the ark.
o Judges 16:28 And Samson called unto Yahweh, and said, “O Lord Yahweh, remember me, I pray Thee, and strengthen me, I pray Thee, only this once, O God, that I may be at once avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes.”
o I Samuel 1:11 And [Hannah] vowed a vow, and said, “O Yahweh of hosts, if Thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of Thy handmaid, and remember me, and not forget Thy handmaid, but wilt give unto Thy handmaid a man-child”… 19 And they rose up in the morning early, and worshipped before Yahweh, and returned, and came to their house to Ramah: and Elkanah knew Hannah his wife; and Yahweh remembered her.
o II Kings 20:3 “Remember now, O Yahweh, I beseech Thee, how I have walked before Thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in Thy sight.” And Hezekiah wept sore.
o Neh. 5:19 “Remember unto me, O my God, for good, all that I have done for this people.”
o Psalm 25:6 Remember, O [LORD], Thy tender mercies and Thy lovingkindness; For they have been ever of old. 7 Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions: According to Thy lovingkindness remember thou me, For Thy goodness’ sake, O [LORD].
o Jeremiah 15:15 “O Yahweh, Thou knowest; remember me, and visit me, and avenge me of my persecutors; take me not away in thy longsuffering: know that for Thy sake I have suffered reproach.”
o Luke 23:42 And he said, “Jesus, remember me when Thou comest in Thy kingdom.”
2) GOD’S PEOPLE REMEMBER HIM IN WORSHIP
o Deuteronomy 8:18 But thou shalt remember Yahweh thy God, for it is He that giveth thee power to get wealth; that He may establish His covenant which He sware unto thy fathers, as at this day. 19 And it shall be, if thou shalt forget Yahweh thy God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you this day that ye shall surely perish.
o I Chronicles 16:12, 15 Remember His marvellous works that He hath done, His wonders, and the judgments of His mouth… Remember His covenant forever…
o Neh. 4:14 And I looked and rose up and said unto the nobles and to the rulers and to the rest of the people, “Be not afraid of them: remember the Lord, who is great and terrible…”
o Psalm 63:5-6 And my mouth shall praise Thee with joyful lips when I remember Thee upon my bed and meditate on Thee in the night-watches.
o Ecclesiastes 12:1 Remember also thy Creator in the days of thy youth…
o Isaiah 64: 5 Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness, those that remember Thee in Thy ways.
o Jonah 2:7 When my soul fainted within me, I remembered Yahweh; And my prayer came in unto Thee, into Thy holy temple…
o II Timothy 2:8 Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, of the seed of David, according to my gospel:
o In the New Testament, the object most often associated with “remember” is “word” – Remember the teachings of Jesus, the Word of God!
· Just as in a marriage relationship it is appropriate to give gifts and remember each other in special ways, in our relationship with God we should “remember” Him, and it is appropriate to use those occasions to call upon Him to “remember” us.
· That is not to say that He forgets about us and needs our reminders, but it is a convention He uses in our relationship, perhaps like giving roses or chocolate is a convention we use in marriage relationships, even though it is conceivable that a romantic relationship could exist without roses or chocolates.
· It would be entirely appropriate to create memory triggers when we do certain actions, just as God commanded the Israelites to “remember” Him whenever they offered a grain-offering.
o Christians discipled through the Navigators have a tradition of putting Bible verse cards on their bathroom mirrors so that whenever they look in the mirror, they remember a verse of Scripture. That is a good sort of memory trigger to create.
o I have a habit of praying first thing in the morning; it is an anchor point in my day when I take time to remember God and ask Him to remember me. “Let Your name be hallowed, Your kingdom come, and Your will be done... and then please remember me by providing my daily bread and forgiving my trespasses and leading me.”
o You can expand that practice of remembrance to family life. Whenever one of my children has a birthday, I sit down with them and write up a list of things God has done in their life over the past year so we can remember.
o And when we gather as a church for corporate worship, we can put money in the offering box and remember that He gave us everything and that He is our Lord.
o I encourage you to memorialize God and His works regularly and to pray to Him! If you haven’t already done so, take the time to establish some memory triggers that remind you to pray and remember God at regular times.
Now, what about the priest?
1. In Hebrew, Verse 3 literally says “The-remainder from the grain-offering to-Aaron and-to-the sons-of-him.” This construction indicates possession, i.e. it is a possession of Aaron and his sons (the priests). Some sacrifices were the exclusive right of the singular priest who offered them, but this seems to be saying that the flour and oil was shared among all the priests.
a. A legitimate parallel to this practice in the church today is the way a congregation allows its minister(s) to have a certain amount of the money from the collections.
b. Such offerings should be shared among all who need income to do dedicated kingdom functions (missionaries, para-church ministers, elders, deacons, and others as appropriate) and not merely to those who serve as preachers, just as the grain-offering was not only for the priest who officiated the sacrifice but to all the sons of Aaron. It is good and right that all such people in Christian service be paid from the offerings to God. That is why our church also supports mission work out of our general funds.
2. The second half of verse 3 translates literally “a-holy-of holies from-the-fire-offerings of-Yahweh.” This stresses the sanctity of the flour and oil given to the priests.
a. The statement that this is “from Yahweh’s offerings” kinda turns the handful offered to God on the altar and the majority left-over around: it is not an offering to the priest from which God gets a little handful; rather the whole offering is God’s, and the priest gets to keep a “remainder!”
b. We can apply this today by realizing that really everything you own belongs to God. When you give your tithes and offerings at church, you can use that as a symbol that everything you have is at God’s disposal.
c. As we will see later, God placed strict guidelines around who could eat this food and where. Only priests and their immediate families could eat it, and some of it could only be eaten in a holy part of the temple.
d. Likewise, today, we need to keep strict guidelines on the allocation of money offered to the Lord in our congregations. Not only should we guard this holy money carefully from theft, we must also hold the treasurers accountable to spending it in holy causes. The Evangelical Council on Financial Accountability is a good idea, auditing Christian organizations to make sure they spend their money properly.
e. As a parallel, Christians need to regard their gifts as holy. Giving chintzy amounts into the offering box - just because you feel you are supposed to put in something - mitigates against the honoring of that gift as holy, as does the giving large amounts of money in an ostentatious way. We should consider our gifts to the Lord as “a thing most holy” (KJV). If a congregation regards its gifts as holy, they will be more apt to see to it that it is spent honorably, too.
· Now that the grain offering has been described in broad strokes in verses one through three, verses four through ten repeat the essence of the grain offering with particular instructions on three ways the grain offering can be prepared – baked in an oven, pan-fried, or deep-fried. Kinda like KFC: baked, original, or crispy.
· The first way of cooking it was מַאֲפֵה תַנּוּר “from baking of an oven” – You may have heard of a “tanoor” oven. This sort of oven would resemble a large clay pot with a fire at the bottom of it. I was fascinated to see men cooking flatbread in the country of Yemen using this method. They would make the dough round and then slap it onto the inner wall of a big clay urn. The tackiness of the dough kept it stuck to the wall of the urn, and the propane fire at the bottom of the urn cooked it. Then they would remove the cooked bread with tongs – delicious!
· God gave two ways to prepare the oven-baked version of the grain offering:
o As חַלּוֹת מַצֹּת “unleavened cakes”
§ You may have heard of matzoh before - no leavening agents were used (i.e. no yeast or sourdough or baking soda).
§ The cakes were to be made of “fine flour mixed with oil” (perhaps some water too?).
§ There is some uncertainty over the root of the word “cakes,” whether it means “round” (indicating a round or ring-shaped bread – Hol., Son.) or whether it means “pierced” (with holes in them – K&D, HAW, BDB.),
§ but the English translations pretty much agree on calling them “cakes.” It is not, however, what we would conceive as a cake (like a birthday cake); rather, this is a flat-bread, like tortillas, chapatti, or pita-bread.
§ It was traditional for the Jews to bring ten cakes of this sort of bread for their minchah offering (Son.).
o The other way to prepare the oven-baked version of this grain offering was רְקִיקֵי מַצּוֹת “unleavened wafers” –
§ The word for “wafers” comes from the root רקק, meaning “to be thin.”
§ Keil & Delitzsch, in their commentary, call them “pancakes,” but
§ I think it would be more like a cracker. I went with “wafers” because that seems to be the consensus of English translations and because it is a good descriptor.
§ The way this kind of bread was probably made was that a batter of flour and water was mixed up, then it was baked in the clay oven until it was crunchy. After it was cooked, they spread some oil on the cracker.
§ I’ve always wondered why some restaurants serve butter with their crackers … maybe this is the answer!
· The second cooking method for making a grain offering is detailed in verses 5-6: It’s cooked on a pan, like what we would think of with pancakes – we cook flatbreads in iron skillets at my house quite often. עַל-הַמַּחֲבַת “upon the skillet” comes from a root meaning “low” or “flat” (Son.) – indicating a large, flat cooking surface (NIV, NAS, Son.) like a “griddle.”
o These flatbreads were to be made with flour and oil mixed together (no leavening). Once cooked, the grain-offering was to be crumbled to bits and have oil poured on it.
o The verb at the beginning (“crumble”) and the noun at the end (“crumbs”) have the same root, פתת “to break up.”
o Breaking bread and putting oil on it is a universal tradition. European tradition is to use a knife to cut a loaf into slices and then spread each slice with margarine (oil) or butter, but what we’re reading here is more of a middle-eastern tradition still practiced today.
o The breaking of bread was part and parcel of Biblical tradition. Here, in the sacrificial system, the bread was broken up before it was served to God and His priests. It is significant that Jesus also used the breaking of bread during His “last supper” to symbolize His death – “this is my body which is broken for you.” The breaking of bread is also indicative of fellowship; when the Christians “broke bread from house to house,” they were “eating meals together” in community (Acts 2).
· Now in verse seven, we come to the third way of preparing a grain-offering: the deep-fry! The operative word here isמַרְחֶשֶׁת which I translated “deep-fry,” and others translate “pan” (NAS, NIV), “frying pan” (Hol., KJV), or “stew pot” (Son., BDB).
o This was a deeper pot, filled with oil, into which the bread dough was dropped to cook – like fritters or beignets or hushpuppies or sopapillas or donuts. The Hebrew word here could be onomatopoea for the sizzling sound that the dough makes when it hits the hot oil - “recheshet” (Son.).
· Now, it is interesting that God allowed three different ways for this offering to be prepared. He could have said, “Hey, only oven-baked goods,” but He recognizes the diversity mankind has in making bread and shows an appreciation for a wide range.
o The praise we offer up to God is a kind of food for God, but we are not all the same. We do not all praise God the same way. We do not all even speak the same language.
o That is not to say that there are no boundaries to how we may worship God or that everything every culture does should be indiscriminately accepted just because it’s different, but are we also willing to recognize that the ways we eat, interact socially, and worship are probably not the only Biblical ways to do it?
o Are you willing to believe that God enjoys your way of worshipping (assuming you’re not somehow flagrantly violating God’s word) and that you don’t have to look and act exactly like everybody else in church?
o In the book of Revelation, John saw people from every tribe, tongue and nation worshipping before the throne, so there must have been some cultural distinctives he saw in that multitude for him to say that they were from different nations.
o You may have noticed that the subjects in this section of the chapter are second-person “you” instead of “he,” making it even more personal. Within the range of Biblically-allowed worship, each person relates to God uniquely as a person, and God loves that.
o And the greater the number of diverse groups of people there are worshipping God in truth, the greater glory God receives!
o It’s o.k. for the Church of Christ and the Reformed Presbyterians to sing a cappella on Sunday and for us and the Fundamental Baptists to use orchestra instruments and for the Vintage Faith and the Christian churches to use rock bands, as long as we are offering the same substance of fine flour and oil, as it were – the bread of God’s word saturated by the Holy Spirit by faith in Jesus.
· Now, in v.8 the instructions about the Grain Offering start to overlap into instructions about the Firstfruit offering, so I’ll save the rest of the chapter for next Sunday.
· But what have we learned from the Grain Offering? It turns out that a great many principles apply to the worship and devotional life of the Christian!
o Although we no longer burn offerings on an altar, we still need occasions to remind ourselves of our relationship with God. We can do that in our daily life as well as in our weekly corporate worship.
o And what is that covenant relationship that we remember? Although there is a sense in which it is the relationship of father to child, or even brother to brother, our relationship is also like that of a vassal to his or her lord, a citizen to a king, and, as such, it is natural for us to give gifts to our Lord to show Him honor.
o When we give, it should be “a good handful” – generous, yet not legalistic
o The tangible gifts we give, God has seen fit to use in providing the needs of those who are employed in His service. Are your pastor and the missionaries well provided for?
o Just as the Hebrews offered frankincense which symbolized prayer, we should offer the real thing– prayer to God.
o And, just as that frankincense had to be obtained by travelling to the ends of the earth, so we should travel to the ends of the earth to covert people into His worshippers.
o The gifts we give are holy and should be treated as such – are you giving to honor God or are you just fulfilling an obligation? Is the money of the church being used only for holy purposes?
o And, finally, God is not looking for only one way for people to worship Him; He enjoys our unique, personal expressions of worship when they are submitted to His authority, so don’t be ashamed of your culture; be your Holy Spirit-transformed self in worship!