In Lev. 6:14-23 we see the law of the meal offering, which actually corresponds to the law of the Spirit of life, showing us that in the enjoyment of Christ we should not be lawless but should be regulated by the law of life.
The laws of the offerings are ordinances and regulations regarding our enjoyment of Christ as the offerings. Since the reality of all the offerings is Christ, the laws of the offerings correspond to the law of the life of Christ, which is the law of the Spirit of life (Rom. 8:2).
These laws, the laws of the offerings – like the law of the meal offering – indicate that even in our enjoyment of Christ we should not be lawless but we should be regulated by the law of life (cf. 1 Cor. 9:26-27; 11:17, 27-29; Gal. 6:15-16; Phil. 3:13-16).
Yes, Christ is our meal offering, and we need to enjoy Him daily and even moment by moment, but according to the law of the meal offering, we should enjoy Christ in a particular way, with particular people, and only a certain kind of people could enjoy the meal offering.
This is very precious, and God has ordained this for us to have a mutual enjoyment of Christ with Him before the altar, with the fellow priests, and in the holy place of the church life, with all the saints.
Today we want to see some of the ordinances of the law of the meal offering, how do these apply to us, and how we should enjoy Christ as the meal offering in the way God ordained, with the people He ordained, and in the place He ordained.
Eating the Lord as the reality of the meal offering is not something we do in a wild way, in a lawless way, or in an unregulated way. God wants to train us to enjoy Christ, take Christ as the reality of all the offerings, and partake of Christ in His way, for God’s satisfaction, for our supply, and for our acceptance before Him in Christ.
May we be full of prayer before the Lord as we read His word, and may He shine on us to first unveil us, remove any veils of precious knowledge and opinions, and bring us into the full enjoyment of Christ as the reality of the meal offering, so that we may enjoy Him with God and before God together with all the priests.
The Law of the Meal Offering – it was to be Eaten before God, before the Altar, and in a Holy Place
The meal offering was to be enjoyed before God and before the altar (Lev. 6:14-16), and in a holy place, which is the court of the Tent of Meeting. It can’t be enjoyed at home, by ourselves, and in our own way.
The meal offering was offered before Jehovah, which means that it was offered to God in His presence.
Also, the meal offering was offered in front of the altar, meaning that the meal offering is offered in relation to the redemption of Christ on the cross, for the altar is a type of the cross.
The meal offering is offered to God in His presence, but it must be offered in relation to the redemption on the cross.
When we eat Christ, we eat Him together with and in front of God, in His presence, and we eat this Christ based on the redemption He accomplished on the cross.
Hallelujah, based on the cross of Christ, we can be before God, be in His presence, and enjoy a portion of Christ as our food, our life supply.
As we eat Christ as the meal offering, God is satisfied and we are fed. Whenever we take Christ as our meal offering we need to realize that God is present, we eat Christ before God, and that Christ can be our food based on His sacrifice on the cross.
We may even tell the Lord,
Lord Jesus, we thank You for Your sacrifice on the cross, which made You available for us to eat and enjoy together with God and in God’s presence. We come forward to God right now based on Your redemption on the cross, and we want to take You as our meal offering. Lord, You are our food, our life supply, and our priestly nourishment for us to enjoy and eat with God, before God, and together with God so that we may be inwardly supplied to serve God as priests.
Furthermore, the place where the priests ate the meal offering was to be eaten in a holy place, in the court of the Tent of Meeting (Lev. 6:16). The tent of meeting typifies the church, so the court of the tent of meeting signifies the sphere of the church life.
Today our enjoyment of Christ as the meal offering should be in the sphere of the church life, together with the saints. Our Christ is so rich, so wonderful, and so available for us to eat and be supplied, but we as priests need to eat Him in the church life, with the view of the church life, and for the building up of the church.
Our eating of Christ as the meal offering is not merely for our own enjoyment and supply, but for the church, in the realm of the church, and together with the saints in the church life. When we are with the saints, we should exercise our spirit to enjoy the Lord as our meal offering, our sustaining supply for our service to God.
When we are by ourselves, we can still enjoy Christ as the meal offering and eat Him, but our view should be that we enjoy Christ and eat Him as the meal offering for the church life, for the building up of the dwelling place of God.
Christ as the Meal Offering is Food for God and for Us, the Serving Priests
According to the law of the meal offering, part of the flour and oil and all of the frankincense of the meal offering were for God’s food (see Lev. 2:2, 9, 16); this signifies that a considerable portion of Christ’s living is offered to God as food for His enjoyment.
A considerable portion of Christ’s excellent, perfect, Spirit-filled, and resurrection-saturated living is to be offered to God as food for His enjoyment, and this portion is so satisfying and precious to God that it becomes a memorial (see Lev. 6:15).
God is delighted and satisfied when His people offer Him the wonderful Christ with His perfect and excellent humanity, and the aroma of resurrection rises to Him and makes Him happy.
Christ really satisfies God, for in all His being, living, and work, He did the will of God, lived by God, expressed God, sought God’s glory, did God’s work, and lived for God’s satisfaction, doing everything in and by the Spirit.
The remainder of the meal offering – consisting of fine flour and oil, but no frankincense – was food for the serving priests (Lev. 2:3, 10).
The burnt offering was fully for God – it was God’s food for His satisfaction (Num. 28:2), the meal offering is our food for our satisfaction, and a portion is also shared with God. Proper worship is a matter of satisfying God with Christ as the burnt offering and of being satisfied with Christ as the meal offering and sharing this satisfaction with God (Lev. 2:2; see John 4:24).
On the one hand we need to offer Christ to God for His satisfaction, for only Christ lived a life absolutely for God; on the other hand, we can eat Christ’s excellent, perfect, Spirit-filled living and be satisfied, and we also share this satisfaction with God.
The meal offering was offered by fire on the altar (Lev. 2:4-9), which signifies that Christ in His humanity offered to God as food has gone through the testing fire (Rev. 1:15). The fire in Lev. 2 signifies the consuming God as fire (Heb. 12:29) not for judgment but for acceptance. God accepts Christ as His satisfying food by consuming the meal offering on the altar.
The meal offering is a matter of Christ as the satisfaction of God’s people enjoyed together with God; first God enjoys His portion of the meal offering, and then we have our enjoyment. We have a co-enjoyment, an enjoyment that is with God’s enjoyment, in His presence, and with the wonderful and excellent Christ.
God as a consuming fire has accepted Christ as the reality of the meal offering, and we as His serving priests can eat Christ and be nourished and satisfied. What a mutual satisfaction through our mutual enjoyment of this wonderful Christ!
Lord Jesus, we exercise our spirit to eat You as the meal offering, our priestly supply. We want to eat Your excellent, perfect, Spirit-filled living and Your humanity so that we may be satisfied, fed, and nourished. Lord, we offer You to God in spirit, for only You with Your resurrection-saturated and perfect living can satisfy Him. Oh God, we want to enjoy this wonderful Christ in Your presence, with You, and in a mutual enjoyment and satisfaction, being accepted by You in Your beloved Son!
The Law of the Meal Offering: only the Priests can Eat the Holy Food
According to the law of the meal offering, this offering is holy food – it is not common food, but holy, and as such, it could be eaten only by holy people, the serving priests.
Where are the priests, and who are the priests? We all need to reconsider our way (see Hag. 1:5-11) to realize that we are not merely common believers but priestly believers, believers who minister to God and to man.
In order for us to serve God and minister to Him, we need to eat Christ as the meal offering in the church life together with our fellow priests.
We are priests to God, and we serve Him in our spirit in the priesthood of the gospel (Rom. 1:9; 15:16), offering the saved and perfected believers as acceptable sacrifices to God through Jesus Christ.
Our portion as priests is to eat Christ as the meal offering with no leaven (no mixture, no sin, nothing evil) in the church life with all the saints, being sanctified unto Him and enjoying Him.
In the church life we all are priests: we are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a people acquired for a possession, so that we may enjoy Christ as our meal offering – our serving supply, and we may tell out the virtues of Him who has called us out of darkness and into His marvelous light.
Lord Jesus, thank You for choosing us to be priests to God, those who minister to God and to man. Thank You Lord for becoming our food, our serving supply; You are the meal offering to supply us for our service to God. Lord, we exercise our spirit to enjoy You and eat You to be supplied inwardly in the sphere of the church life so that we may serve You in spirit in the gospel of Christ.
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ed Marks for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Leviticus, msg. 12 (Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Leviticus (1), week 4, The Vision and Enjoyment of the Meal Offering.
- Hymns on this topic:
# The life we live in spirit / The meetings here display / As we present our offering / And God to man convey. / The atmosphere of feasting / A testimony bears— / God has received His portion / And with us all He shares. (Song on, The meal offering church life)
# Based on the burnt oblation / And the meal offering too, / We now may offer Jesus / As our peace-offering true. / The more we eat and drink Him / In His humanity, / The more we may enjoy Him / While feasting corporately. (Hymns #1104)
# When in sacrifice he offers / Christ to God as God has willed, / Then as food he doth enjoy Him / And is with His riches filled. / O how blessed is the priest’s life, / Christ to him is all in all: / All his clothing, food, and dwelling, / And his portion therewithal. (Hymns #911)
About aGodMan
Amen. Eat Christ and live in him. He lives in you and you live in him. Just call his name.
Wow! Thank You Lord for being the Spirit of reality! Thank You there is a law of life the regulates even our enjoyment of you!
Lord grant us Your grace and mercy to have more experience of You for the church.
Amen brother. Praise the Lord for such a supply, O may we function as priests by enjoying the priestly food. God enjoys the meal offering first and we enjoy what is left of it. O Lord increase our enjoyment of You, we like to be before You and before the altar so You can reproduce Yourself in us that God can enjoy a corporate meal offering.
主に感謝します! アーメン
[Thank you Lord! Amen.]
All meal offerings were offered by fire on the altar (Lev. 2:4-9), signifying that Christ in His humanity offered to God as food has gone through the testing fire (Rev. 1:15). The fire in Leviticus 2 signifies the consuming God (Heb. 12:29), not for judgment but for acceptance. The consuming of the meal offering by fire signifies that God has accepted Christ as His satisfying food. (Lev. 2:2, footnote 2, Recovery Version Bible)
In these days while I am considering the book of Leviticus, my heart is weeping….Among us there is little that would cause us to be joyful. We are talking about the priestly food, but who are the priests, and where are they?…I am burdened to stress this one point—the book of Leviticus is for the priests….We all need to reconsider our way [cf. Hag. 1:5-11]. What kind of believers are we? Are we priestly believers or common believers?
Although we may not eat the burnt offering, we may eat a part of the meal offering. When a person offered the meal offering, a “handful of its fine flour and of its oil with all its frankincense,” were to be burned “as its memorial portion on the altar, an offering by fire, a satisfying fragrance to Jehovah” (Lev. 2:2). Here we see that part of the flour and oil and all of the frankincense are God’s food. God must be the first to taste and to enjoy the meal offering. The remainder of the meal offering, consisting of fine flour and oil but no frankincense, was to be food for the priests.
The priests serve God. Their service is holy, and their food also is holy. If we would serve God as priests, we need to eat the priestly food, the holy food that befits our holy service. This food nourishes us that we may have the strength to serve God.
The meal offering is a matter of Christ as the satisfaction of God’s people enjoyed together with God. First, God enjoys His portion of the meal offering, and then we have our enjoyment. Our enjoyment is thus a co-enjoyment, an enjoyment that is with God’s enjoyment. (Life-study of Leviticus, pp. 218, 107, by Witness Lee)