How precious is this portion of the Word of God to our souls! In the offerings brought before us in Leviticus, we have in the first few chapters: the burnt offering, the meat offering, and the peace offering. They form, we may say, one group. The sin offering and the trespass offering form another. The first group we call the voluntary offerings-they speak of worship. The sin and trespass offerings speak of meeting the claims of God's holy nature, and man's guilt.
In the meat offering presented to us in Leviticus 2, we have Christ as the One who came down into this world to glorify God as man. We do not have in the meat offering that which speaks of putting away of sins, but One who walked down here, whose life was not to do His own will, but the will of Him that sent Him.
One thing very striking in connection with the meat offering is that it seems to have been prepared at home. O brethren, that speaks to my heart, and I trust it will to all; I believe that it is in communion with God at home that our hearts in the secret of our lives learn the preciousness of Himself to our souls. It is blessed to be gathered together in this way, but how much of Christ do we enjoy in our home life? How much of Himself do we meditate upon when at home alone?
"Fine flour" speaks of evenness, which characterized the Lord Jesus as a man down here. Every part of that blessed walk of His was acceptable to God. Everything was perfect. Every part of the display of the heart of God comes out blessedly and perfectly in Him, does it not? How precious to meditate upon His walk and ways here!—to think of Him as the One of whom John speaks in the 18th verse of the first chapter, "No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him."
Suppose one asked the question, Why did God send His Son? Perhaps you would say, In order to put away my sins. This is true. Or perhaps you would say, Because He loved me. That would be perfectly true too; but the verse referred to says, God sent His Son in order that we might know what was in the bosom of the Father, that we might have the fullest unfolding of all that was in the heart of God. How that has come out as the heart of God has been revealed in the Person of Christ. He could say, "He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father." What will heaven be, brethren? It will be the company, the companionship of the Lord Jesus, and the knowledge of all that God is as revealed in Him. Well now we know in part and prophesy in part, and that is what we have when we come to the next verse of our chapter.
In the first verse we have, "and he shall pour oil upon it." That is the blessed Lord down here as a man, as the anointed One. Every act of His was in the energy of the Holy Spirit of God, and together with that act was the frankincense that met the heart of God from that blessed One in every step of His journey.
The "handful of the flour" tells us that we can never take in all that Christ is, never fully apprehend all that He is to the heart of God, and all that He has accomplished for the glory of God; but we can each take our handful. Each may lay hold in his measure of that preciousness of the Person of the Lord Jesus and enjoy Him in his soul.
In Eph. 3:1717That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, (Ephesians 3:17) we read, "That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith." He does dwell there, but that faith might live in the good of it. "That ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height," etc. If there is going
to be fruit, there must be roots. "Grounded" is firmly established. It should be "apprehend," not "comprehend," because you could not take it all in. That is the "handful of the flour." I know that the 3rd
of Ephesians goes further than the 2nd of Leviticus, because in the 2nd of Leviticus, it is Christ as man glorifying God down here; while in Ephesians, it is Christ up in the glory. But how precious to know that the One up there in the glory is the One that has glorified God as man down here. And so we may "be able to apprehend"—how feeble our apprehension is! But in the measure in which these things are apprehended in our souls—the measure in which Christ is enjoyed—in that measure our hearts long for His glorious coming. Why is it that our hearts do not respond more readily to that blessed word in Revelation 22, "The Spirit and the bride say, Come"? Because there is a tendency with every one of us to settle down here. How we long to get things in a satisfactory state down here, do we not? How we would like to have everything go smoothly in our home life, our business, and in the assembly; but God will never order it so. Why? Because the difficulties of the way are just the opportunities that God uses to teach us more and more of the preciousness of Christ-His patient grace. If He teaches us our failures as we walk with Him, He teaches us too His own resources in grace; His patience; His love. How often He has encouraged us; how often He has taught us amid failure the blessed satisfaction of His love that abides.
It is a digression, but I want to speak of the case of Naomi's husband (Ruth 1). Why did he go down to the land of Moab? To escape the famine. How often in a time of difficulty, we try to escape it, instead of going through it with God! whether it be in our home life, business life, or in the assembly. I do not speak of being mixed up with what is contrary to God, for then we are to get out of those circumstances; but if in the path of His ordering, let us never leave it, however difficult the day, however trying the circumstances; and if the Lord does not come the difficulties will increase; trying circumstances will increase, but one finds in themselves a tendency to escape them-like Elimelech, to get out of that place where Jehovah had put His name, and go down to Moab. Let us never do that. Let us go through them with God, and learn the lesson He would have us learn. How we find that blessed One treading that path here, never turning aside, going on in that ministry of love and grace, meeting on every hand the rejection of man; but oh, those waters of divine love and grace that found their source in Him, flowed forth in all their blessed fullness. How that barren and perishing land of Israel received blessing from Him because of the One who was here walking in communion with the heart of God, and ministering the grace of God in spite of all He met with daily.
Returning now to the 2nd of Leviticus, "and the priest shall burn the memorial of it upon the altar." Fire speaks of trial. It is not here the fire of the altar-that wherewith God judges sin-but the One that trod that pathway here in this world to the glory of God, and was tried in every step of that pathway; and the trial only brought out the blessed perfection that was in Him. An illustration may help the younger ones. One was traveling some years ago and met a gentleman on the train. He was speaking of the Lord Jesus in that temptation in the wilderness, and he said that the Lord could sin. One had to remark to him, "My dear sir, that expression is wicked." He said, "If He could not sin, where was the temptation?" He had a ring on his finger, and one said to him, "Possibly that ring is brass?" But he insisted that it was gold. How are we going to settle the difficulty that lies between whether that ring is brass or gold? We told him when we reached our destination, we would go into a jewelry store and have it put into a vial of acid and test it to ascertain of what metal it is. As it comes out of the vial, we find that it is pure gold. Then we merely told him this: that the temptation in the wilderness was only to prove that the Lord was "pure gold"-He was "holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners." There was no sin in Him. He was the "holy one of God." That trial in the wilderness was just to bring out that fact. God knew it all the time, but He would make demonstration before all that that One was the Holy One of God. He would have it made manifest that He was the Lamb of God foreordained before the foundation of the world. How our hearts delight to honor Him! To think of His pathway wherein every step manifested forth the fact that He was the Holy One of God; tried and tempted in every way, but proven to be the fine flour with the oil and frankincense. Every trial brought out the fragrance and perfection of who He was, the glory of His Person.
3rd verse: "And the remnant of the meat offering shall be Aaron's and his sons': it is a thing most holy of the offerings of the LORD made by fire." You and I can indeed joy and worship before God as we think of Him down here as the blessed perfect Man. Notice that it says, "It is most holy." I believe the Spirit of God thus guards the Person of the Lord Jesus as a man, and brings before our souls the delight that was in the heart of God toward that One who ever glorified God on the earth.
In verses 4, 5 and 6 we have the offering baked in the oven. I believe it is rather those hidden sufferings of Christ. It was the compassion of His heart that made the Lord a sufferer, and not the difficulties of the way. At the very moment that He was rejected, He could rejoice in Spirit and turn to the Father and say, "I thank Thee, 0 Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes." Luke 10:2121In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes: even so, Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight. (Luke 10:21). We find the Lord Jesus weeping only three times. At the grave of Lazarus, His heart was told out in sympathy. Think of who He was -the Son of God-God manifest in flesh. Tears coursed down His blessed cheeks. The compassion of His heart brought forth these tears, not the difficulties of His course, or trials.
Let me put it in another way: How often you and I can hear the blessed name of the Lord Jesus taken in vain, and perhaps in five minutes we have forgotten about it; but if it is you or me that is spoken against, it sometimes takes weeks and months to get over it. Sometimes our feelings are so badly hurt that we do not get over it for a year! What a heart the blessed Lord had! What an unfolding of the heart of God! You and I are going to live with that blessed One for eternity. What will it be to be in the company of the One whose heart was told out so blessedly in order to have our hearts won from this poor world, a world that will deceive you, young people, if you go after it; but the heart that seeks the company of Jesus will find that which brings joy and gladness, however dark and difficult the day. We find that brought out blessedly in the epistle of John. John had seen the Church as set up at Pentecost; he had seen those wonderful days of power and blessing; but he had seen decay too; he had seen "all... in Asia... turned away," but in the epistle of John, I believe, we get the secret of happy Christian life amid ruin. I believe we get that which will sustain the heart in the day of ruin - walking in communion with the Father and the Son. "Fellowship"—knowing the heart of God revealed in Christ, and our hearts abiding in the joy and good of it.
"The frying pan" gives us the manifested sufferings of Christ. Perhaps as you and I read through the Scriptures, we are only able to discern the manifested sufferings. We might speak of those occasions upon which the Lord wept. His sufferings were manifest, but what about the hidden sufferings? I believe all His pathway was one of sorrow because His heart went out in sympathy with every one of those for whom He died, because of the sorrows and difficulties of the way. What a blessed Savior!