Steps Back to God 3. (Meat Offering)

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(Meat Offering)

Scripture Readings: John 6: 32 to 63; John 17: 15 to 26; Leviticus 2nd :

Texts: "And I will make of thee a great nation and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing; and I will bless them that bless thee and curse him that curseth thee; and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed." Genesis 12: 2 and 3.

"Now thanks be unto God which always causeth us to triumph in Christ and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place. For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ in them that are saved and in them that perish; To the one we are the savour of death unto death; and to the other the savour of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things?." II Corinthians 2: 4 to 6.

From the Consecration offering we go to a high experience which is the lesson of the Meat Offering or Food Offering. The meat offering was burned on the burnt offering and could not be offered before it. By the same token, it represents an experience which is beyond, and above and can result only from the experience of the burnt offering. All these experiences are progressive and continuous.

We do not mean that nothing of the meat offering can be experienced until the significance of the burnt offering has been exhausted in our lives. We shall never get beyond the burnt offering, but as we get to some degree into the experience of the burnt offering we shall begin to realize something of the glory of the meat offering, but never before. We shall go on realizing more fully in our lives what it is to be wholly consecrated to God.

The meat[ing] offering was made unto the Lord, an offering of fine flour, and of oil, with all the frankincense and it was burned upon the altar for a memorial and it was an offering made by fire of a sweet savour unto the Lord. And we are told in Leviticus second chapter that "it is a thing most holy of the offerings of the Lord made by fire. No meat offering which ye shall bring unto the Lord shall be made with leaven; for ye shall burn no leaven, nor any honey in any offering of the Lord made by fire; and every oblation of thy meat offering shalt thou season with salt." Also read Leviticus 6:14 to 30.

You recall when Jesus said "Except ye eat my flesh and drink my blood ye have no life in you." Whosoever eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day." And many of the disciples went back and walked no more with Him. They said "This is a hard saying, who can hear it?" And Jesus turned even to the twelve and said "Will ye also leave me?" And they said "Lord, to whom shall we go, thou hast the words of eternal life." Jesus did not say anything they would not have readily understood if they had not lost the spiritual meaning out of their own sacrifices. All He said was an application of the principles and meaning of the meat offering. And all this that applies fully to Christ, applies also to us in a lesser degree. He tells us "As the living Father hath sent me and I live by the Father, even so, he that believeth on me shall live by me." And this divine life in us was to be manifested in us in the same saving way as in Him, for He tells us again "As the Father hath sent me even so send I you." Again "The water that I shall give you shall be in you a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life." "He that believeth on me out of him shall flow rivers of living water."

Paul saw all this and said "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, and hath committed unto us the gospel of reconciliation." And in our own experience, too, the meat offering will be burned on the burnt offering. True salvation is all and only of God in Christ. "No man cometh unto the Father but by me." "No man knoweth the Father but the Son and He to whomsoever the Son shall reveal him." But you can not get men to look back two thousand years to find God. Men are facing the future, and they look to find God, often with bitter disappointment, God forgive us, in the lives of those who profess to be the Lords.

We do not say it is always so, for a man alone with God in the middle of the great Sahara desert can find conviction, forgiveness, pardon and peace, but usually we first get a glimpse of God in some saved soul here. The Church is His Body, to manifest Him who is the Head. We are His heart to love people back to God. We are His hands to do loving service. We are His feet to run on errands of mercy. The Church is the Church of Christ, is the Body of Christ, just to that degree, and only to that degree that it continues on earth His passion of love. His sacrifice of service and so becomes a revelation of Him as He is of God. So the meat offering represents that experience in us as in Christ, which fits us in a lesser degree to reveal God to men. Only as we are consecrated can we do this, for the meat offering was burned on the consecration offering and could not be presented before it. Over and over we are told "it is a Most Holy offering of the Lord made by fire."

We are told the "fine flour" was bruised small; and the oil was of the bruised olive, meaning the grace of the Divine Spirit coming into the life was made sweet and tender by suffering. And the salt was the symbol of loyalty, the pledge of fealty. Having eaten a man's salt one must be true to him unto death. This was the Oriental thought; but salt too was the symbol of the preserving power of truth and righteousness. "Ye are the salt of the earth."

There must be no leaven nor honey in any offering made by fire. The reason for this was there the leaven and honey would not stand the fire, it caused a stench, but instead they put in frankincense which was a combination of spices so compounded that while they were fragrant all the time they yielded up the sweetest of their fragrance in the flame. And this was offered a memorial burned on the altar to God and all the frankincense was burned. The remainder the Priest ate to show that on such men must feed to find God. They are the Bread of Heaven, as Christ was completely and in the ultimate. All the frankincense goes up to God.

Christ said I have many things to say unto you but ye can not bear them now. He and the Father had communion together at night on the mountain side. And we too will have experiences with Him of which we can not speak to others. "To him that overcometh I will give a white stone and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth save him who receiveth it. Such lives are the "Fragrance of Christ ascending up to God.

The Bible is full of symbols seeking to set forth the beauty and sweetness of such a life. They are described as a stream in the wilderness; a fountain in the desert. We find these graces described in the Songs of Solomon. "A fountain of gardens, a well of living waters and streams from Lebanon. Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow up on my garden that the spices thereof may flow out."

George E. Fifield