Make it Taste Good
No grain offering which you bring to the LORD shall be made with leaven, for you shall burn no leaven nor any honey in any offering to the LORD made by fire. As for the offering of the firstfruits, you shall offer them to the LORD, but they shall not be burned on the altar for a sweet aroma. And every offering of your grain offering you shall season with salt; you shall not allow the salt of the covenant of your God to be lacking from your grain offering. With all your offerings you shall offer salt. (Leviticus 2:11-13 NKJV)
Importance of Following the Recipe
Have you ever gone to a family reunion and had something on the buffet table seem like a little bit of heaven it tasted so good? So you ask the cook for the recipe and she or he gives it to you. You make the recipe at home, but your family thinks it tastes like cardboard and they aren’t impressed at all. They ask you, “Why doesn’t this taste like what we ate at the family reunion?” And you respond, “Well the recipe called for a lot of sugar and I didn’t think that was healthy so I cut back on the amount I used. As a matter of fact, I substituted honey for some of the sugar. The recipe called for butter but butter is so expensive that I used margarine. The recipe called for more salt than I thought was good for us, so I didn’t use the full amount. So this should be healthier than what you ate at the reunion and I thought it would taste just as good.” But of course it doesn’t because you did not follow the directions.
The Meal (or Grain) Offering
Some of the grain offering was burned on the altar as a memorial portion for the Lord, but most of it was eaten by the priests. Most people like things that are either salty or sweet, and some of us like things that are both salty and sweet. (I am craving a Baby Ruth candy bar right now.) The Lord had a recipe for the grain offering that would make it taste good for the priests that ate it but his recipe left out the leaven and the honey and added the salt.
Now I may be speculating here but honey is a natural sweetener that requires no processing to taste good and is representative of things that appeal to the flesh. Eating a little usually makes us yearn for more. Leaven or yeast in the Bible speaks of that which puffs up and which permeates the whole loaf of bread. I suggest it speaks of the evil of pride. The meal offering is to be without yeast. So apparently this offering which does have oil in it must be a kind of soft cracker. Salt in the Bible speaks of the kind of righteousness that makes us want and need water. Water speaks of the blessings of the Holy Spirit.
So God has given the Iraelites a recipe that is instructive in a symbolic way. But while He has asked for denial he has also provided for satisfaction. This meal or grain offering would not only taste good but it would be good for a person. Altering the recipe might make the meal offering more appealing to some, but it would not teach the lesson that God wants to teach us. If we alter the recipe, God would not be happy and we might not like the result.
Are we Altering the Recipe?
I wonder how the Lord views churches as they are organized today. Have we kept out the leaven and the honey and made sure there is the right amount of salt in our congregations? We may taste good and we may appear to be successful from the standpoint of numbers, but will the Lord look at us like He does the church of Laodicea in Revelation 3? Will He want to “spue thee out of my mouth (Revelation 3:16 KJV)?” Or will we be like the church of Philadelphia (brotherly love), “I know your works. See, I have set before you an open door, and no one can shut it; for you have a little strength, have kept My word, and have not denied My name (Revelation 3:8 NKJV).” They kept or guarded His word, they considered His name or authority important.
Conclusion
I could go through a laundry list of things where I think churches in the developed nations have deviated from the pattern of the New Testament Church as seen in the Acts of the Apostles and as taught in Paul’s epistles. However, since the souls of men and women and boys and girls are so important to God and since there are so many dying in wars and plagues and accidents, I will only touch on the way that the Gospel is preached.
I personally intend to keep “preaching” the Gospel. I don’t plan on “sharing” it. I share my financial resources, my pizza, and my time. But I preach the gospel. I still preach heaven and hell. I still preach sin. I still preach that you must be born again to be prepared for time and for eternity. I am really not sure that the unsaved really want to “share” in that until the Holy Spirit convicts them of their need. Even Peter told a man who had believed in the power of the Gospel but not in the Person Who saves, “You have neither part nor portion in this matter, for your heart is not right in the sight of God (Acts 8:21 NKJV).” In addition, I am not going to tell people that there is nothing that they can do to merit God’s salvation and then tell them to do something to get saved. When they ask the question, “What must I do to be saved?” I am going to give them the scriptural answer, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved (Acts 16:31 NKJV).” I still believe that people who want to be saved need to be asked if it is TRUE that Christ died for the ungodly. Most people have no trouble believing what they are convinced is true. After they believe that truth there is much that they will likely want to do to please the Lord.
Let’s keep the honey and the leaven out of the Gospel and let’s keep the gospel seasoned with salt.
Bruce Collins
Meditation for the week of April 3, 2022