We have, next laid down, injunctions of much interest and spiritual weight. On the one hand leaven and honey were in every fire-offering to Jehovah; on the other, as oil we have seen was to be variously used, so salt was not to be lacking, but offered with all.
There is no shadow of doubt on the symbolic force of leaven. It is used for corruption that spreads and contaminates, unless the contextual employment modify it otherwise. This force is plain in the first and standing type of the Ο.T., the peremptory exclusion of leaven from the passover and its accompanying dependent feast of unleavened bread. On and from the very first day they were to put away leaven out of their houses; for seven days none should be found there. Nothing leavened was to be eaten on pain of cutting off from Israel. In 1 Corinthians 5 the reference is express, and the antitypical meaning certain. As leaven, even a little, taints the whole lump; so does known sin, if tolerated, the Christian assembly. It is vain to plead the old man. For was not Christ, our passover, sacrificed? and is it not our obligation now, as being unleavened in Him, to purge out the old leaven, that we may be a new lump? Leaven is characterized here as evil in itself and wickedness in its effect. Likewise in Gal. 5:99A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. (Galatians 5:9) it is applied to the pravity in doctrine of letting in a ritual ordinance, which upset grace in justifying by the faith of Christ. Both are hateful to God, and incompatible with our calling: if either enter, we are bound to clear ourselves at all cost.
Yet we know as a fact that the church, or Christian, differs in this essentially from Christ, that He was the Holy One of God, absolutely in and from His birth, we only as born anew and in virtue of His sacrifice. Hence in the type of Him as the wave-sheaf (Lev. 23:10-1410Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye be come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest unto the priest: 11And he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the sabbath the priest shall wave it. 12And ye shall offer that day when ye wave the sheaf an he lamb without blemish of the first year for a burnt offering unto the Lord. 13And the meat offering thereof shall be two tenth deals of fine flour mingled with oil, an offering made by fire unto the Lord for a sweet savor: and the drink offering thereof shall be of wine, the fourth part of an hin. 14And ye shall eat neither bread, nor parched corn, nor green ears, until the selfsame day that ye have brought an offering unto your God: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. (Leviticus 23:10‑14)), it was waved before Jehovah with burnt-offering and meal-offering and drink-offering; whereas the new meal-offering of the wave-loaves which represented us was baked with leaven. The sin of our nature is clearly taken account of, and a sin-offering requisite, with peace-offerings, as well as the burnt and drink-offerings. A similar principle obtained in the peace-offerings for thanksgiving. In no case was uncleanness more solemnly denounced (Lev. 7:19, 2019And the flesh that toucheth any unclean thing shall not be eaten; it shall be burnt with fire: and as for the flesh, all that be clean shall eat thereof. 20But the soul that eateth of the flesh of the sacrifice of peace offerings, that pertain unto the Lord, having his uncleanness upon him, even that soul shall be cut off from his people. (Leviticus 7:19‑20)); but it is recognized that leaven was there, though not actively working, and leavened cakes were prescribed accordingly (Lev. 7:1313Besides the cakes, he shall offer for his offering leavened bread with the sacrifice of thanksgiving of his peace offerings. (Leviticus 7:13); Amos 4:55And offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven, and proclaim and publish the free offerings: for this liketh you, O ye children of Israel, saith the Lord God. (Amos 4:5)).
Honey set forth the sweetness of nature. It was good in its place and allowed for use, but not too much. Nevertheless it was forbidden in an offering to God, however wholesome and pleasant to man's taste. No one approached the perfectness of Jesus, the Child or the Man. If He grew and waxed strong, He was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon Him. Yet even as a Youth, He said to His parents (tried by His staying behind in the temple), “Did you not know that I ought to be in the things of my Father?” And when His mother appealed to Him at the marriage in Cana, saying that they had no wine, His answer was, “Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come.” Certainly there was not an atom of disrespect; but it was not what answered to honey. Rather was it the salt of the covenant, which must not be wanting in a fire offering to Jehovah. Christ was doing then as always the things that were pleasing to the Father. He would not act on a human motive, were it even to hearken to His mother. He was come to do the will of God. All must be a sweet odor to Him.
We have already noticed the deeply important truth taught by the oil, whether as mixed with the flour in the composition of the cakes, or as poured thereon. There too the bearing on Christ is plain. In His birth, in His incarnation, was the former verified as nowhere else. He was the truly and only-begotten Son of God here below, as He was Son of God eternally. The believer has analogy, as being born of God. He is quickened by the Spirit's power, born of water and the Spirit; but this leaves his old nature where and what it was. Christ on the contrary had “no old man.” By the Spirit's power His humanity was free from all taint and evil. Not only He sinned not, but no sin was in Him. His anointing or sealing was at His baptism, the reception of the Spirit in power for His service; and here by virtue of His work of redemption the analogy in our case is quite as close, always remembering that Christ received the Spirit as Himself the Holy Son of man, we after His blood-shedding and by the faith of it.
As the oil may be viewed as in contrast with honey, so may salt, which the Lord pronounces “good,” stand opposed to leaven, the type of corrupting evil. Its use among men as preserving purity without any violence fits in with such an application. Our Lord said “Everyone shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt.” So the Apostle exhorts that our speech be always in grace seasoned with salt. As the salt of the covenant was a pledge on God's part of a savor that passed not away, so is there the need on ours of a holy separative energy Godward to keep from corrupt words and ways. Christ and His offering of Himself to God for us could alone be the ground of such a pledge and perpetuity. But how wondrous that such a figure should be extended from His offering of Himself to our speech as it should be seasoned! But as our Lord exhorted at the close of Mark 9, “Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.” The separative power applies here to ourselves, the gracious spirit is for one with another. Without holiness peace mutually would be an illusion.