Leviticus 2-3
Dear RTB’ers,
STS question #1, “Consider how [the cereal] offering is fulfilled in Christ.” This grain offering was of the finest ingredients – fine flour, with oil and frankincense added, but no leaven or honey. Flour and oil and frankincense make a sweet smell when burned. Yeast is used as a metaphor for sin, so it is excluded from the grain offering. (See I Corinthians 5:7a.) I’m not sure why honey is excluded, but together yeast and honey would produce alcohol. STS offers two further references:
For it was fitting for us to have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens.
Hebrews 7:26
…whoever says he abides in Him ought to walk in the same way in which He walked.
I John 2:6
Put it all together and Jesus is that perfect sacrifice, holy and blameless, offered up on our behalf. His death and resurrection together restore our fellowship with the Father, something that we could never do with our own sacrifices, with our own efforts.
Blessings!
My study Bible mentions that the peace offering usually followed the burnt offering. This was because the burnt offering reconciled you to God, and then you were at peace with God and so you could have fellowship with him.
My study Bible also mentioned something else that I would never have figured out on my own: the reason for burning the animal’s liver. Apparently in the pagan cultures surrounding Israel, the liver was used for fortune telling which was strictly forbidden to the Israelites. And if it was burned it couldn’t be used that way.
Good insights, Katey! Somewhere deep in my memory I have heard the same thing about the liver. Maybe that’s why I don’t like the taste!!
Folks, I love it when we all have Study Bibles that give us insights that we might otherwise have failed to notice. There are also online commentaries that can be helpful.
My study Bible indicates yeast and honey were prohibited because both cause fermentation, which represents corruption.
Good point, Dan. But what’s strange to me is that both are excluded if, in fact, it’s due to fermentation. But if that’s the case, why not just exclude the yeast and allow the honey? Or maybe honey smells bad when cooked over an open fire? Strange.
Strange? Why should this be strange? Honey with high moisture content can certainly ferment “on its own” without a deliberate introduction of yeast, because microbes are everywhere, just unseen. Let’s remember that we’re looking at life 3,500 years ago. We’re not talking about modern-day beekeepers putting cultivated honey into sterile glass jars. This is wild honey presumably collected into not-entirely-sterile clay jars. Fermentation in that environment? I would imagine so.
More importantly, we need to consider our own attitudes and opinions as we read through these laws. Do we demand a rational explanation for every detail? Or are we willing to let God be God? Yes, it is good to seek understanding of the Scriptures. Let’s just be sure that in doing so we are “standing under” the Scriptures first. There are any number of things in the Scriptures that may strike us as odd or strange or for which we cannot fathom an explanation. What do we do with those things? What is our true heart attitude? What is our posture toward God in those moments?