In every case, the grain offering supplements an animal burnt offering. Two offerings illustrate the supplemental, spontaneous context. First, the well-being offering of Leviticus 3 and 7 was given voluntarily and required three types of unleavened bread — loaves, cakes, and wafers — along with leavened bread loaves.
Second, a raw grain offering also supplemented the freewill offering defined in Numbers The grain offerings were also presented in a large number of conditional contexts. These included the priestly ordination service, [13] the ceremony marking the end of a Nazirite vow, [14] the Levite cleansing ritual, [15] the leper cleansing ritual, [16] and the atonement sacrifice for the unintentional sin of a congregation.
The various feasts and festival days set forth in Numbers 28 and 29, which are also found in Leviticus 23 and Deuteronomy 16, also included supplemental grain offerings. Three ceremonial features of the grain offering need to be addressed. The final ceremonial feature to be discussed is the claim that the grain offering also functioned as a ritualistic provision for the poor. This instruction was repeated in Leviticus However, much debate has surrounded the meaning of this word.
In fact, these texts fail to provide any detail about the fate of the grain offering after it is presented to the priest. Milgrom assumes that the entire grain offering is burnt on the altar along with the animal offering it accompanies. He explains that extra clarity was needed for the grain offering since it was usually burnt entirely. However, no contradiction exists because Leviticus 2 is addressed to the lay person who does not need to know these priestly details; they need to know only that the offering belongs to the priests.
Since one of the main concerns of the Numbers 18 text is the general support and compensation of the priests and Levites, it does not need to concern itself with the specifics of distribution. In addition to being dependent on the people for their material well-being, the priests and Levites were also dependent on the people for carrying out their own ritual duties.
The ordination of priests and cleansing of Levites for service in the tabernacle required both a supplemental grain offering of semolina and loaves of bread. These large offerings included significant amounts of grain that served as a deposit for the priestly supply. These supplies would be continually replenished as the people brought their daily, Sabbatical, monthly, festal, and voluntary offerings.
The priests and Levites were totally dependent on these offerings to fulfill both their daily needs and their ritualistic roles. The final ceremonial aspect of the grain offering to be discussed is the claim by some that it functioned as a ritualistic provision for the poor. In this way, the poor were given an opportunity to participate in a ritual system that relied heavily on the ownership of animals.
Among the supporters of this idea, rabbinic tradition holds the grain offering as equal to all others according to the example of the graduated purification offering found in Leviticus 5, where the text is clear that a poor person could present an offering of semolina if an animal could not be afforded.
Finally, evidence from ancient Mesopotamian religious practice reveals the grain offering as the definitive offering of the poor. It was simple, but, as the discussion thus far has shown, it came in different forms, at many different times, and for many different reasons — most of which are not clear to the beginning Bible student or even the seasoned Biblical scholar. The difficulties faced when studying the grain offering are common to most studies of the of Old Testament law as it is presented in the Pentateuch, especially Leviticus.
However, the priestly writers of Leviticus did not think rationally; as Mary Douglas reveals, they thought analogically. The life of Christ is to those who are being saved a sweet fragrance of eternal life, however, to those who are perishing it is the stench of death and eternal punishment. There is nothing so sweet, pure and wonderful as the sweet smell of Jesus in our lives.
The grain offering is a beautiful picture of the believer in Christ who has appropriated the burnt offering of Christ by faith. The person who has been justified by faith in Christ is filled with eternal praise to Him. We receive our spiritual nourishment, our daily bread from Christ.
It is a privilege to offer back to Him a portion of what He has so graciously given to us. The apostle Paul reminded the believers at Philippi that their faithful ministry was an offering to God. He looked on their gift to him as a spiritual sacrifice that they laid on the altar to the glory of God. Paul wrote in His thank you letter to them for their missionary support these words of encouragement.
And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Now to our God and Father be the glory forever and ever. Amen" Philippians What a privilege to be involved in something that will still be worthwhile a million years from now! In service, we offer back up to him a small gift that says "thank you. That's grace! Do we pause daily and thank Him for the jobs He has provided for us?
Do we offer up thanksgiving to Him for His daily provisions in our lives? He is a great provider, not only of our physical needs, but our spiritual as well. I'm Yours, Lord. And that's what we as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, as priests, royal priests of the new covenant are to do.
Lord, we are not our own. We belong to God, and we live our lives for Him. This grain offering speaks, then, of consecration. But it also speaks of acceptance and assurance of our acceptance. Notice in verse 21 we read:.
When it is well stirred you shall bring it. It will not be the last time that you meet that phrase! You will continue to meet that phrase in the book of Numbers. You will see it sprinkled through the rest of the Old Testament all the way, at least to Ezra, and the first time you saw it in the Bible was in Genesis 8. Hang on to that phrase, and look at one other. It is to be entirely consumed by fire, like the holocaust offering.
And as it is consumed, what is the offerer going to see? The smoke of the offering going up. The smoke of that offering is to serve as an assurance to the offerer of God's acceptance of the offering. But beyond that, we are told, as we have already read in verse 21, that it is going to be a soothing aroma to the Lord.
Now turn with me to Genesis The first time that phrase occurs in the Bible is in the context of Noah building an altar to the Lord after the cessation of The Great Flood. While the earth remains, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall not cease. Now, that passage is an anthropomorphism. And the purpose of that anthropomorphism is to express graphically that God was pleased to accept the sacrifice of Noah, and Noah's sacrifice had been deemed acceptable to God.
And in His merciful response, God had determined to never again destroy the world by water. It is a glorious picture of the efficacy of a sacrifice accepted by God. Now why is that important? Well, the people of God, when they offered a grain offering, had the benefit of being assured by the priests eating that offering that the offering itself met the ritual requirements of perfection, and was thus accepted by the Lord. The priests couldn't eat any of their offerings to the Lord, so how would they know that it was acceptable?
Moses is assuring them here by saying as you lift this offering up, it will be as a soothing aroma to the Lord. Here is God, concerned that the priests themselves will experience assurance of His acceptance as they come bringing their offerings and dedicating themselves to the Lord. God is concerned about his people's assurance. God is concerned that we know that we have been accepted by Him, as we rest and trust in His promises; as our faith is grounded in the provision of His sacrifice of Jesus Christ; as we realize that the One who has been sacrificed for us is indeed the Messiah, the Anointed of Israel, the Son of the Living God, Jesus the Christ…God is concerned that we would be assured of His acceptance of us in Jesus Christ.
This passage reminds us that the priest himself needs reconciliation before he can devote himself to the Lord; before he can consecrate himself to the Lord; before he can dedicate himself to the Lord's service, he himself needs reconciliation.
He needs to lift up an offering to the Lord. You see, priests are sinful, and priests need forgiveness, too. And this daily offering, even by the priests, indicates that priests need forgiveness and restored communion. But it also begs the question, and the question is this: If the priests mediate for the people, who mediates for the priests?
Who mediates for the mediators? And the Old Testament doesn't answer, but only foreshadows the answer to that question. But the answer is given in Hebrews, chapter seven. Turn with me there. Look at verse Hebrews For the Law appoints men as high priests who are weak, but the word of the oath, which came after the Law, appoints a Son, made perfect forever.
You see the contrast that's being drawn here by the author of Hebrews. These Old Testament priests themselves were sinners! In essence, the grain offering served the same purpose. When ancient Israelites offered up their grain on the altar, they were thanking the Lord for His mercies and for supplying their needs. According to the instructions in Leviticus 2, either raw grain or grain that had been made into cakes could be given to God vv.
The cakes to which the text refers were something like a modern pancake and were a daily staple of the people. Offering such things symbolized the need to dedicate every aspect of their daily lives to the Creator, including the labor by which they coaxed the grain from the ground. Like the other offerings, the grain sacrificed to the Lord had to be pure.
No leaven or honey could be added to the cereals that were offered v. This interpretation makes sense when we recall how leaven is often, but not always Matt.
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