Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Leviticus 2:4-7, 11

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.

5 And if thy oblation be a meat offering baken in a pan, it shall be of fine flour unleavened, mingled with oil.

6 Thou shalt part it in pieces, and pour oil thereon: it is a meat offering.

7 And if thy oblation be a meat offering baken in the fryingpan, it shall be made of fine flour with oil.

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.

In the last post we discussed the meat offering made from separate ingredients, now we see the option to have it already baked as a cake or a wafer. One key detail from verse four and eleven is that if the offering were baked, it needed to be “unleavened,” which is to say having no germ agent that would cause it to cause it to rise. Thus, what they were bringing was not like bread, but crackers.

Many scholars have already explained that the reason for this was as a symbol of purity. You were to keep the ingredients plain, not introduce a foreign agent that transformed the end result. Those coming to the tabernacle were expected to eschew all foreign doctrines, all forms of idolatry, and all pagan superstitions. They were to keep the word of God pure, uncompromised by the philosophies of the world.

Of course, we do interact and cooperate with the larger world, and the Israelites did use leaven in their home cooking. But all of us should have a place that is pure. Just as the Israelites would not bring leaven into the tabernacle, we should not bring the world into our most sacred moments of worship.

One other point regarding leaven. Some may recall that Jesus spoke favorably of it when he compared it to the kingdom of heaven in Matthew 13:33. While leaven is usually used as a negative symbol in the scriptures, including from Jesus, it is not, in and of itself, good or evil. Broadly speaking, it is a symbol of influence and transformation. And influence and transformation can be good, but they can also be evil.

SacrificeEligible oblationStepsExplanation
Meat OfferingFlour, oil, frankincenseGiving gratitude for blessings
Separate ingredients burned on altarBody, spirit, and prayer uniting in gratitude
Ingredients baked into unleavened cakesDevotion to God’s law, unsullied by pagan practices

Full table.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 27:20-21

20 And thou shalt command the children of Israel, that they bring thee pure oil olive beaten for the light, to cause the lamp to burn always.

21 In the tabernacle of the congregation without the veil, which is before the testimony, Aaron and his sons shall order it from evening to morning before the Lord: it shall be a statute for ever unto their generations on the behalf of the children of Israel.

We already heard about the seven lamps upon the menorah within the tabernacle, but today we learn about the oil that they would use. A wick would be placed into the oil that would absorb the oil up into its body. When lit, the wick would continually absorb up more oil as the previous oil was consumed in the flame. Being saturated by the oil, the wick would be able to tolerate the flame and not immediately turn to ash as it would if it were dry.

There is clear symbolism here, wherein the wick is our soul, the oil is the spirit of Christ, and the flame is the glory of God. Surrendering our lives to God’s glory is like being subjected to a fire, glorious and scorching at the same time, but we are able to tolerate its heat by the constant refreshing of His spirit. If the spirit in us is not refreshed, we will eventually run out and be left vulnerable to the flame. So, just as the priests were required to replace the oil “to cause the lamp to burn always,” we must continually seek spiritual refreshment to keep our spiritual flame forever alive. This brings to mind Jesus’s promise to be a fountain constantly springing up into everlasting life within us.

Another point that must be made is the requirement that the oil to be used was “pure oil olive beaten.” There were two ways of extracting the oil from olives. The first was to put them into a mill and grind them. This would extract a lot of oil quickly, but it would be filled with the sediment of the broken olives and particles from the stones used in the mill. The other method was to beat and bruise them in a pestle, after which the oil would flow out freely, extremely clear and pure.

Crushed olives, mixed with the sediment of the world, produces a cloudy oil. So, too, fragmented gospel, mixed with the trends of the world, produces an unclear vision. Pure truth takes precision and effort to extract. It includes beating out our misconceptions and bruising our ego, often flowing from our wounds. Of course, there is also symbolism of Christ as the olive that was beaten and bruised, and His spirit flowing out of his wounds for all of us.

Note: It can be difficult to visualize some of the structures described in these verses. Here is an excellent and extremely focused series of animations that show the visual form of the temple and its instruments, built up verse-by-verse from the Exodus record: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpjohncRg94EZ55nJrbaKfi-lfeo3MFgl&si=6wm1J9Sdnu7LKYC_