Leviticus

Leviticus 2: The meal offering to the LORD

Begin in prayer

Before we read Leviticus 2, where God gives the rules for the meal offering of fine flour, oil and frankincense, let us quiet our minds in prayer. Ask the Lord to teach our family, and to show us the pure and sinless life of Jesus.

Honor Yahweh with your substance, with the first fruits of all your increase:

Proverbs 3:9

Father in heaven, please open our eyes as we read Your Word. Show us that You ask for worship on Your own terms, and help us to trust Jesus, whose spotless life and death please You. Make us more like Jesus. And please bless our family as we worship You together. In Jesus' name, Amen.

See where we're going

After the burnt offering of animals in chapter 1, the LORD gives the law for the meal offering. A worshipper brings fine flour with oil and frankincense, or unleavened bread baked in an oven, on a griddle, or in a pan. He brings it to Aaron's sons, the priests. The priest takes a handful of flour and oil with all the frankincense and burns its memorial on the altar. What is left belongs to Aaron and his sons as a most holy thing. No yeast or honey may ever be burned on the altar, and every offering must be seasoned with the salt of the covenant of God. A worshipper may also bring fresh parched grain as a meal offering of first fruits.

As you read Leviticus 2, look for the answers:

Reflect together

Key truth

God receives the gifts He appoints, and Christ offered the one pure life that pleases Him.

The meal offering was a gift from daily bread, made of fine flour, olive oil and frankincense, with no animal blood (verse 1). Whether brought raw, baked, or cooked in a pan, it let a poor person bring a gift from his table (verses 4 to 7). It also fed the priests who served at the tent (verse 3). Only a handful, called “its memorial,” was burned on the altar, and the rest was “a most holy thing” for the priests (verse 3). Even in this simple gift, the worshipper could not follow his own taste. God forbade burning yeast or honey on the altar, and He commanded “the salt of the covenant of your God” (verses 11 and 13). In the ancient world salt kept food from spoiling, so a covenant of salt meant God's lasting, unbreakable promise (Numbers 18 verse 19). These laws were a shadow of things to come, and the substance belongs to Christ, who lived without any sin (Colossians 2 verse 17).

How does Leviticus 2 show us that God receives the gifts He appoints, and that Christ offered the one pure life that pleases Him?

The priest burns a memorial handful, and the rest belongs to the priests.

The worshipper brought fine flour with oil and frankincense to the priest (verses 1 and 2). The priest burned a handful on the altar as “a pleasant aroma to Yahweh” (verse 2). What was left belonged to Aaron and his sons as “a most holy thing” (verses 3 and 10). God does not need food, as Psalm 50 verse 12 says, yet He received the gift and fed His priests.

No yeast or honey may be burned on the altar to the LORD.

Whether baked in an oven or cooked on a griddle, the flour had to be unleavened (verses 4 and 5). Verse 11 says, “you shall burn no yeast, nor any honey, as an offering made by fire to Yahweh.” People could bring first fruits, yet yeast and honey could never rise up in smoke on the altar (verse 12).

Every offering must have the salt of the covenant of God.

In verse 13 God says that “the salt of the covenant of your God” must never be lacking from the meal offering. Salt was added to every offering on the altar to remind Israel of God's sure covenant. When a worshipper brought fresh parched grain for first fruits, he also put oil and frankincense on it (verses 14 to 16). Even in a simple gift of grain, God bound every worshipper to His lasting covenant.

Memorise

The priest shall take from the meal offering its memorial, and shall burn it on the altar, an offering made by fire, of a pleasant aroma to Yahweh.

Leviticus 2:9

Looking to Jesus in my life

Ask yourself in your heart, am I trying to please God in my own way, instead of trusting Jesus?

When an Israelite brought a meal offering, he could not make it however he liked. God said in verse 11, “you shall burn no yeast, nor any honey, as an offering made by fire to Yahweh.” It had to be unleavened fine flour with oil, frankincense, and “the salt of the covenant of your God.” Then the priest burned its memorial as “a pleasant aroma to Yahweh.”

If our lives were laid on God's altar, they would never be pure fine flour. Every day our thoughts, words and deeds are mixed with sin, and our best gifts cannot pay for a single wrong. Only Jesus lived a pure, unleavened life before His Father, without one spot of sin. Then He went to the cross and died for His people, carrying their sin. He rose from the grave, and His one offering is enough for all who trust Him.

Do not bring your own goodness to win God's favor. Turn from your sin and put your trust in Jesus. Whoever comes to Him in faith is forgiven and welcomed into God's unbreakable covenant of grace.

Parent's note

Tell your children that no gift of ours can make us clean, because only Jesus lived without sin and died for sinners. Please do not tell them they are saved just because they grew up in a Christian home. Call each child to turn from sin and trust Jesus, and pray that God would give them a new heart.

Pray together

Now please close your time together in prayer. Thank God for the sinless life and finished sacrifice of Jesus, and bring the heart question to Him. Every child can pray, so let each one say a short prayer if they want to.

by which will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

Hebrews 10:10

Father, thank You for teaching us that we must come to You in the way You have appointed. Thank You for Jesus, who lived without any sin and gave His body once for all on the cross. Please turn our hearts from trusting our own works, and help us trust Jesus and serve You gladly this week. Amen.