The Grain Offering

The Sacrificial System – How To Draw Near To God

The Grain Offering - Lev. 2

This morning we are going to be in Lev. 2 and consider the second offering God prescribed for the nation of Israel as a means for them to draw near to their God. It is known by a variety of names – meal, grain, and even meat (Keil and Delitzsch, Edersheim). I‟ll be referring to it as a grain offering because it consists of grain being offered on the altar in a variety of forms.

Memory Project: “Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, „Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, „I am the LORD your God. You shall not do what is done in the land of Egypt where you lived, nor are you to do what is done in the land of Canaan where I am bringing you; you shall not walk in their statutes. You are to perform My judgments and keep My statutes, to live in accord with them; I am the LORD your God. So you shall keep My statutes and My judgments, by which a man may live if he does them; I am the LORD.‟”

Very quickly, someone remind us of the theme of Leviticus. Right. It is “the holiness of God.” What does holy mean? Holy means separate, set apart, or sacred. God was holy, and the nation of Israel wasn‟t! So if they wanted to be in fellowship with their God, two things had to happen. First of all, they had to be aware of what was separating them from their holy God, and second, they had to have a means of dealing with the things separating them. Everything in the book of Leviticus falls under one of those two general categories. What constitutes separation from God, and how do I deal with it?

Remember too that Leviticus is full of object lessons. God graciously illustrated for His people what holiness looked like, and the first set of object lessons was the five sacrifices, or offerings. What is the root idea of the word “offering?” To draw near. If these people who were separated from their God wanted to get close to God, or to “draw near” to God, there was a specific way they could do it. So last week we looked at the burnt offering in which the one bringing the animal slit its throat, cut it into pieces, and then gave to the priest to throw on the altar. The entire animal was consumed in the fire on the altar – none of it was burned outside of the camp, the priest didn‟t get to keep a part of it, and the one bringing the burnt offering didn‟t get to share a meal from it with the priest, like some of the other offerings.

This morning we are going to look at the grain offering, and this offering is in a category all by itself in that it is the only offering that didn‟t involve the shedding of blood. This fact alerts us to the purpose behind the offering, which we will see at the end of the message, but for now, just keep in mind as we are going through the particulars that this offering has special significance for the one bringing it.

Let‟s start with the word that is translated as “grain” in the phrase “grain offering” in verse one. “When anyone presents a grain offering as an offering to the Lord, his offering shall be of fine flour.” There is a very interesting word used here that really doesn‟t have anything to do with corn or wheat or barley. The word literally means “gift, tribute, offering,” or “present.” We see the concept illustrated in Gen. 32 where Jacob is on his way back home after spending 14 years in exile at his uncle‟s house. If you remember the story, Jacob tricked his older brother into giving up the family inheritance and then fled for his life. But in Gen. 32, he is now a wealthy man and on his way home knowing that he is going to have to face his brother. And he has no idea how Esau is going to respond – but he is clearly fearing for his life! So in Gen. 32 let‟s start reading in verse 13.

"So he spent the night there. Then he selected from what he had with him a present for his brother Esau: 14 two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams,15 thirty milking camels and their colts, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys. 16 And he delivered them into the hand of his servants, every drove by itself, and said to his servants, "Pass on before me, and put a space between droves." 17 And he commanded the one in front, saying, "When my brother Esau meets you and asks you, saying, 'To whom do you belong, and where are you going, and to whom do these animals in front of you belong?'18 then you shall say, 'These belong to your servant Jacob; it is a present sent to my lord Esau. And behold, he also is behind us.'" 19 Then he commanded also the second and the third, and all those who followed the droves, saying, "After this manner you shall speak to Esau when you find him; 20 and you shall say, 'Behold, your servant Jacob also is behind us.'" For he said, "I will appease him with the present that goes before me. Then afterward I will see his face; perhaps he will accept me."

That is the idea behind the word translated as “grain” in the phrase “grain offering.” It is a “gift” or “present” used to “draw near” to God. The reason the translators use the word “grain” is because of what we see in verse one – “his offering shall be of fine flour,” and verse 14, “if you bring a grain offering of early ripened things to the Lord, you shall bring fresh heads of grain roasted in the fire.”

Concerning the specifics of this offering, there were four different ways you could bring it – it could be flour baked in an oven as we see in verse 4, or fried on a griddle as we see in verse 5, or something like a dumpling or donut boiled in oil as we see in verse 7. The NAS says, “Now if your offering is a grain offering made in a pan, it shall be made of fine flour with oil.” The Hebrew there indicates something a little different as the New English Translation shows, “If your offering is a grain offering made in a pan [the NKJV calls it a “covered pan”, so it would be similar to a pot], it must be made of choice wheat flour deep fried in olive oil.” The final way this offering could be made was to bring roasted grain, as we see in verse 14.

Of particular interest to us is the kind of flour that was used. It is repeatedly referred to as “fine flour,” to be contrasted with roughly ground flour that would be more like corn meal. Some of the resources I have been using referred to this as “spun” flour to reflect how it was obtained. After the wheat was ground, it was put into a bag that allowed only the finest particles of flour to come out, and it was spun around in a larger container. The centrifugal force of the spinning would force the fine flour through the cloth, where it would be collected and spun again in a finer woven bag. Jewish tradition stipulated that the flour used in these offerings had to be spun 13 times!

So as we think of what this offering entailed, don‟t envision going to the pantry and getting out some flour, making it into a batter, frying it, and then bringing it to the tabernacle to be used as a grain offering. It was much more involved than that, and in keeping with the costly nature of a sacrifice. While the grain offering may not represent the financial sacrifice that a burnt offering represented, it did represent a significant sacrifice of your personal time.

In the grain offering we are introduced to an element not seen in the burnt offering, and we see it in verses two and three. “He shall then bring it [the fine flour] to Aaron's sons, the priests; and shall take from it his handful of its fine flour and of its oil with all of its frankincense. And the priest shall offer it up in smoke as its memorial portion on the altar, an offering by fire of a soothing aroma to the LORD. 3 'And the remainder of the grain offering belongs to Aaron and his sons: a thing most holy, of the offerings to the LORD by fire.” Only a portion of the sacrifice was put on the altar and burned, the rest of the offering went to the priest.

We will deal with this more fully when we look at the priesthood, but for now just understand that this was God‟s way of providing for the priesthood. The overarching principle is that since the “men of God,” or the priests, spent their days caring for the spiritual needs of the people of God, the people of God were to take care of the material needs of the priesthood.

Now, there were three special rules that applied to this sacrifice, found in verses 11 – 13. “No grain offering, which you bring to the LORD, shall be made with leaven, for you shall not offer up in smoke any leaven or any honey as an offering by fire to the LORD. As an offering of first fruits, you shall bring them to the LORD, but they shall not ascend for a soothing aroma on the altar. Every grain offering of yours, moreover, you shall season with salt, so that the salt of the covenant of your God shall not be lacking from your grain offering; with all your offerings you shall offer salt.”

The three rules were no leaven, no honey, and salt had to be added. Why the prohibition against leaven and honey? Leaven, or yeast as we know it, and honey were both used in fermentation. If you had some grape juice that you wanted to turn into wine, you added yeast and sugar, in the form of honey. If you had some grape juice you wanted to turn to vinegar, you added honey and let it ferment. But understand that there was nothing intrinsically evil or wrong with either of these ingredients. We know that because leaven could be used in the offering of firstfruits (v. 12), but it could not be used in an offering that was burned on the altar. So why the prohibition?

Remember that one of the unique elements of Leviticus is God‟s use of object lessons. He often took ordinary things to teach eternal truths, and we see this in the rejection of honey and leaven. What both of these substances were know for was their pervasive nature. In other words, a small amount affected the whole batch. One cup of sugar can ferment an entire gallon of kombucha. One tablespoon of yeast can double the size of a lump of dough. Honey and yeast don‟t stay contained – they spread. That is their nature, and it is because of this that leaven is often compared to sin. In both 1 Cor. 5 and Gal. 5, Paul makes the statement that “a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough,” and he says it in the context of unrepentant sinful people in close proximity to God‟s people. He goes on to say, “clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump.” And then just to make sure they understood his point, he ends the chapter by saying, “Remove the wicked man from among yourselves.”

God‟s point with the prohibition is that these two elements, know for their spreading and corrupting influence (fermentation is a corruption of the original liquie), have no part in a holy sacrifice that is going to ascend to Him in smoke on an altar. God wants purity. He wants a perfect animal. He wants flour that has been refined, and refined, and refined to the point that it is pure and without any corrupting influences.

But what about salt though? Salt is so common to us today that it is meaningless, but salt used to be so rare that it was very valuable. Our word “salary” comes from the Latin salarium, which is a form of sal, or Latin for salt, and it is believed that at one time, Roman soldiers were paid in salt because it was so valuable. So in the days of the Old Testament, to add salt to a sacrifice was a costly thing to do, but it didn‟t end there because salt also had symbolic importance, much like leaven and honey. Salt, as we all know, is a preservative. It draws the moisture out of food to enable the food to last for long periods of time. This is why we have things like salt cured ham and salted fish.

I have cabbage in my basement that is salted and preserved. This summer, I‟d lay down a layer of shredded cabbage, salt it, and then pound it flat. Then another layer of cabbage and more salt and pounding. Then another layer of cabbage and salt and pounding. And eventually, the crock was full of the liquid that had been sucked out of the cabbage. You let it sit in that brine for three or four weeks, and you have sauerkraut that doesn‟t need refrigeration. Because of the salting, it is preserved. Salt stops the course of nature as living matter starts to break down and deteriorate.

That is the nature of salt – it is a preservative. Which is why as recently as a hundred years ago, salt was being used symbolically in Arabic cultures to seal deals and invoke a binding nature to an agreement. The two parties would sprinkle a little salt on the ground, and that made the agreement permanent. This helps us understand Num. 18:19 a little better. “All the offerings of the holy gifts, which the sons of Israel offer to the LORD, I have given to you and your sons and your daughters with you, as a perpetual allotment. [Now listen to how God describes these offerings.] [They are] an everlasting covenant of salt before the LORD to you and your descendants with you.” So to add salt to the offering was a symbolic gesture invoking permanence and incorruption.

Finally, the grain offering was another voluntary offering. Or as we described it last week, it was a free will offering. It was something you did at your own initiative, and it was usually offered at the same time of the burnt offering or peace offering, but could be offered all by itself. And in verse 2 we see that it was described as a “sweet savor” to the Lord. What is this “sweet savor” that described these first three offerings: the burnt, the grain, and the peace offering (the other category of offerings was the “non-sweet savor,” which were the sin and trespass offerings)? The best way to understand it is to think of it from the perspective of being “pleasing.” When you walk past a house where they are grilling something outside, you say, “m-m-m-m-m . . . that smells nice.” It is a pleasant smell, and God was pleased when His people would on their own initiative draw near to Him with a sacrifice.

I want to close this morning by pointing out one of the differences between the burnt offering and the grain offering. The burnt offering accomplished atonement, as we saw in 1:4. That means the person‟s sinfulness was covered up and he was acceptable to God. Note that the grain offering did not accomplish atonement! This means that the purpose behind this offering had nothing to do with wanting to be acceptable to God, it was all about appreciation for God. When your heart welled up with gratitude for everything God had done for you, you brought a grain offering. You weren‟t looking for anything from God. You weren‟t after acceptance, like in the burn offering. You weren‟t after peace, like in next week‟s peace offering. You were simply saying to God, “Thank you.”