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What Is The Spiritual Significance of The Meat (Meal) Offering? Part 1

What Was Wrong With Cain’s Offering?

This is the second of the five types of offerings which Christ fulfills for us and in us. 1) burnt, 2) meat (meal), 3) peace, 4) sin, 5) trespass. There are two sub-types: the first three are sweet smelling savors, and the last two are not sweet smelling savors. This offering is just one part of the revealing of the “secret hidden from the ages:”

Col 1:26  Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints:
Col 1:27  To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: [the ability to ‘do the things I say’]

There are three categories within each of the five types except for this offering. 1) herd, 2) flock, and 3) fowl.  These offerings are the revelation of “Christ in you the hope of glory.”

This offering differs from all the others in that there is not a life being given. So, there is no herd, flock or fowl categories in this offering. Instead it has four parts of one offering: it was composed of 1) flour, 2) oil, 3) frankincense and 4) salt. Each of these parts reveals more of what is Christ in you. All three are “fruit of the ground” and therefore represent what man, who was made out of the ground, made of the dust of the earth through “Christ in him”, owes to God in service to his fellow man. The meat offering being of the fruit of the ground represents our good works which we perform in our flesh. However, these ‘good works’ are not a “sweet savor” if they are not offered upon a burnt offering. Consequently, we have these phrases in God’s Word:

Lev 23:18  And ye shall [on the day of Pentecost] offer with the bread seven lambs without blemish of the first year, and one young bullock, and two rams: they shall be for a burnt offering unto the LORD, with their meat offering, and their drink offerings, even an offering made by fire, of sweet savour unto the LORD.

Num 29:2  And ye shall offer a burnt offering for a sweet savour unto the LORD; one young bullock, one ram, [and] seven lambs of the first year without blemish:
Num 29:3  And their meat offering shall be of  flour mingled with oil, three tenth deals for a bullock, and two tenth deals for a ram,

Ezr 7:17  That thou mayest buy speedily with this money bullocks, rams, lambs, with their meat offerings and their drink offerings, and offer them upon the altar of the house of your God which [is] in Jerusalem.

Jdg 13:19  So Manoah took a kid with a meat offering, and offered it upon a rock unto the LORD: and the angel did wondrously; and Manoah and his wife looked on.

The Law of The Meat Offering

Lev 2:1  And when any will offer a meat offering unto the LORD, his offering shall be [of] fine flour; and he shall pour oil upon it, and put frankincense thereon:

“Fine flour” means that this offering has been “crushed to powder.”

Mat 21:44  And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.

Luk 20:18  Whosoever shall fall upon that stone shall be broken; but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.

What is the difference between ‘falling on the stone and being broken’ and ‘the stone falling on you and grinding you to powder?’ Here is that difference:

Rom 9:31  But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness.
Rom 9:32  Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone;
Rom 9:33  As it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumblingstone and rock of offence: and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.

“Believing on Christ” is ‘doing the things I say.’ It is becoming ‘fine flour’ with no unevenness. It is to become completely malleable in the hands of the Potter to be “made anew”.

Luk 6:46  And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?

The meat offering was what Cain presented to God. But Cain had not done ‘the things which I say’. Cain had not obeyed God’s instructions concerning how to approach God. God had already covered Adam and Eve with the skins of animals to cover their nakedness. Yet Cain saw no need to bother with shedding blood. He would have had to go to his brother to get a lamb. That was a humility Cain could not bear. Foreshadowing what was to come, Cain killed God’s anointed rather than obey God’s instructions concerning how God was to be approached and satisfied:

Gen 4:1  And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD.
Gen 4:2  And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.
Gen 4:3  And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD.
Gen 4:4  And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering:
Gen 4:5  But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.
Gen 4:6  And the LORD said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen?
Gen 4:7  If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee [shall be] his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.

“The fruit of the ground” was what God had given man at this time as man’s nourishment:

Gen 1:29  And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which [is] upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which [is] the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.

But “the fruit of the ground” does not satisfy God. What does satisfy God is the burnt offering which requires the shedding of blood. God’s portions which satisfy and nourish Him was not to be eaten by man at that time. It was not until after the flood that God gave man meat to eat. And even then He reserved the blood to himself:

Gen 9:3  Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.
Gen 9:4  But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.

“You shall rule over him” is a prophecy of Cain’s, and all men’s, ultimate destiny through the sacrifice of Christ for which Cain saw no need. “If you do well” means ‘if you do the things I say.’ Cain had not done as he had been instructed. Cain was the original King Saul, who was instructed to kill all the Amalekites and their animals, but he decided he knew how to better approach God than God knew. King Saul unilaterally decided to keep the cattle and women and King Agag. But King Saul’s good works, like our good works when those works are out of us and not through the burnt offering through Christ, become “as filthy rags” before God.

Isa 64:6  But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.

“Our [most insidious and hard to detect] iniquities” are “our righteousnesses.” They are not called our unrighteousnesses; they are called “our righteousnesses,” our ‘blamelessness according to the righteousness which is in the law.’ They “are as filthy rags” and have taken us away” from the presence of our God.

Lev 2:2  And he shall bring it to Aaron’s sons the priests: and he shall take thereout his handful of the flour thereof, and of the oil thereof, with all the frankincense thereof; and the priest shall burn the memorial of it upon the altar, to be an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the LORD:
Lev 2:3  And the remnant of the meat offering shall be Aaron’s and his sons’: it is a thing most holy of the offerings of the LORD made by fire.

Aaron and  his sons represent Christ, our priest:

Heb 7:12  For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law.

His handful (Lev 2:2) represents His claim upon our entire lives just as the tithe represented God’s claim upon Israel’s entire life. All of the shadows of the Old Testament represent Christ.  This offering represents His claim upon our entire life as a life in service to our brothers. We present our entire bodies as living sacrifices to God:

Rom 12:1  I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, [which is] your reasonable service.
Rom 12:2  And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what [is] that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

This offering is the type and shadow of Christ in us being ground to powder so as to be of service to our fellow man is a way which is a sweet smelling savor to God.

We will finish this offering when we come together again.

Lev 2:4  And if thou bring an oblation of a meat offering baken in the oven, [it shall be] unleavened cakes of fine flour mingled with oil, or unleavened wafers anointed with oil.
Lev 2:5  And if thy oblation [be] a meat offering [baken] in a pan, it shall be [of] fine flour unleavened, mingled with oil.
Lev 2:6  Thou shalt part it in pieces, and pour oil thereon: it [is] a meat offering.
Lev 2:7  And if thy oblation [be] a meat offering [baken] in the fryingpan, it shall be made [of] fine flour with oil.
Lev 2:8  And thou shalt bring the meat offering that is made of these things unto the LORD: and when it is presented unto the priest, he shall bring it unto the altar.
Lev 2:9  And the priest shall take from the meat offering a memorial thereof, and shall burn [it] upon the altar: [it is] an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the LORD.
Lev 2:10  And that which is left of the meat offering [shall be] Aaron’s and his sons’: [it is] a thing most holy of the offerings of the LORD made by fire.
Lev 2:11  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.
Lev 2:12  As for the oblation of the firstfruits, ye shall offer them unto the LORD: but they shall not be burnt on the altar for a sweet savour.
Lev 2:13  And every oblation of thy meat offering shalt thou season with salt; neither shalt thou suffer the salt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking from thy meat offering: with all thine offerings thou shalt offer salt.
Lev 2:14  And if thou offer a meat offering of thy firstfruits unto the LORD, thou shalt offer for the meat offering of thy firstfruits green ears of corn dried by the fire, [even] corn beaten out of full ears.
Lev 2:15  And thou shalt put oil upon it, and lay frankincense thereon: it [is] a meat offering.
Lev 2:16  And the priest shall burn the memorial of it, [part] of the beaten corn thereof, and [part] of the oil thereof, with all the frankincense thereof: [it is] an offering made by fire unto the LORD.

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