In the meat (meal) offering of Leviticus 2, perfect manhood is offered to God in the Person of our blessed Lord. There is no leaven here. Another aspect of the meat offering (that of the Pentecostal loaves, in Leviticus 23) shows us redeemed man presented to God in the power of the Holy Spirit, with leaven being baked in the loaves. Let us briefly consider the two aspects of this offering.
In Leviticus 2 our Lord is seen as the perfect Man, for the Word became flesh. When He walked upon earth, all His life was full of fragrance to God. All the incense was burned with the memorial in verse 2 and went up in a sweet savor. The offering was most holy among sacrifices offered by fire to Jehovah.
In verses 4-10, it is well to notice the anointing with oil of each portion of the cake, for our Lord’s every action, every word, bore the character of the oil — the blessed, dependent Man, who ever walked in the power of the Spirit. The more we read of His life, the more do we see its divine beauty. The memorial was burnt on the altar, and the rest of the offering was eaten by the priest. We too need, in this character, to feed upon the meat offering.
The Firstfruits
The last few verses of Leviticus 2 are very blessed and show us another way in which the meat offering was presented to God. The full-grained ears of corn (wheat) are crushed, and the memorial burnt. Notice that in every meat offering the fire has to be gone through, and the accomplishment of this we find in the Gospels, where the perfect offering was made. Especially in Luke’s Gospel do we find the perfect manhood of our blessed Lord exposed to the fire.
But let us now briefly look at the second aspect of the meat offering, in Leviticus 23:16-21. In verse 15 seven weeks were counted from that day when the sheaf of firstfruits had been presented, and this sheaf no doubt represents our Lord’s resurrection. There could be no change as to His person morally, for He is Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever. But what a change as to condition, on that morning of the resurrection, when Jesus, no longer the man of sorrows, but triumphant over the grave, gave life in abundance to the disciples! The last Adam is a quickening spirit, and so we find, in the sheaf of firstfruits, the figure of the risen Christ.
The Feast of Pentecost
Then, seven weeks afterward came the day of Pentecost, the day on which the Holy Spirit was sent to form the church of God upon earth. The assembly is here represented by the two loaves baked with leaven; there is an adequate testimony to the grace of God by which the redeemed company is presented to Him on the ground of perfect redemption in Christ.
No such thing had been known before this, and it has been well said that before the Holy Spirit could come to dwell in men, the dwelling-place must be prepared. His very presence in the assembly testifies to the perfect work on the cross of Him who rose seven weeks before the day of Pentecost. Blessed are they who understand the true connection between the risen Lord and the favored company united to Him by the Holy Spirit! It is very important to know that the Spirit is now present upon earth, as sent from the glorified Head of the church.
Loaves Baked With Leaven
But we notice that there was leaven in these two loaves, although it was baked in them. This is a very different offering to that which we considered as the figure of our Lord’s perfect humanity. In this one, representing the church, the leaven is found, for there is evil in us. The passage in Galatians 5:17, where the flesh is said to lust against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh, would help us here. The meaning is that we should not do that which naturally, according to the flesh, we may wish. Although the flesh is there, the Spirit is superior to it, and we see this in the loaves presented at Pentecost with the leaven baked in them. Redeemed man is presented to God in the power of the Spirit.
Notice, too, that in the passage before us (Lev. 23:18-19), burnt offerings and a sin offering accompanied the presentation of the two loaves; that is, nothing can counteract sin but the work of Christ. This is brought to memory by the goat offered for a sin offering (vs. 19), for Christ as our sin offering must always be before us. Thus we see in these two passages, on the one hand (Lev. 2), the beauty of Christ as the perfect meat offering; on the other hand (Lev. 23), a new meat offering — man presented to God in redemption, in the power of the Spirit, but with leaven, showing that the flesh is still in us. But this new meat offering was presented with a burnt offering, a sin offering and a peace offering, showing us that, as to sin, all has been answered in Christ.
E. L. Bevir (adapted)