Leviticus 2

Leviticus 2:1

B. The Meal Offering (Chap. 2) The grain offering (Heb. minhe3h) was of meal flour, or grain. The offering itself: There were various types of grain offerings, as follows: fine flour, with oil and frankincense poured on it (v. 1). This was not cooked, but a handful of it was burned on the altar (v. 2). There were three different types of bread or cakes: (a) baked in the oven (v. 4); (b) baked in a flat pan (v. 5); (c) cooked in a covered pan (v. 7; the KJV and RSV say “frying pan,” but some believe this offering was boiled in water, like a dumpling). There were also kernels of grain representing firstfruits of harvest, roasted in fire (v. 14). Verse 12 refers to a special meal offering (Lev_23:15-21) which was not to be burned on the altar because it contained leaven. No leaven or honey was to be used in any of these meal offerings (v. 11). These implied fermentation and natural sweetness. But salt was to be added, as a sign of the covenant between God and Israel. It was called the salt of the covenant (v. 13), signifying that the covenant was unbreakable. See Num_18:19; 2Ch_13:5; Eze_43:24 for other references to “the covenant of salt.” Duties of the offerer: He prepared the offering at home and brought it to the priests (vv. 2, 8). Duties of the priest: The priest presented the offering at the altar (Lev_6:14); he then took a handful of the offering and burned this memorial handful on the altar (vv. 2, 9). Distribution of the offering: The “memorial handful,” burned on the altar with all the frankincense, was the Lord’s; the priests were permitted to take all the rest of the offering as food (vv. 3, 10). The officiating priest was entitled to whatever was baked in the oven or cooked in a pot or pan (Lev_7:9). Everything mixed with oil and everything dry was to belong to the rest of the priests (Lev_7:10); the offerer received no part of this offering. The person who brought the meal offering acknowledged the bounty of God in providing the good things of life, represented by flour, frankincense, oil (and wine in the case of the drink offering). Symbolically this offering speaks of the moral perfection of the life of our Savior (fine flour), untainted by evil (no leaven), fragrant to God (frankincense), and filled with the Holy Spirit (oil). The hymn writer expresses it beautifully: Life, life of love poured out fragrant and holy! Life, ‘mid rude thorns of earth, stainless and sweet! Life, whence God’s face of love, glorious but lowly, Shines forth to bow us, Lord, low at Thy feet! F. Allaben