Most Holy. Leviticus 2:3. A further act of gratitude accompanied the man who brought the animal. He brought a gift of devotion and grain to show his respect and honor for God. He brought some of the food God gave him and offered it to God. It would have been the best that he had, and by this one act, he publicly confessed he knew all he had come from God. Over the grain, oil, and frankincense were poured, and when it was ready, it was seasoned with some salt.
These ingredients may seem strange to those around who wonder at the scene, but to those who know our Lord, it reminds us of what speaks of Christ, the perfect, humble Man. In His perfection, He lived here and never once did sin. He was the perfect, fine flour in His nature. The oil of gladness and the frankincense of a fragrant character further remind us of our Lord Jesus, and the salt used to season the offering refers to the eternal terms of the covenant between God and those who know and love Him.
There were always two individuals involved in bringing a sacrifice to God – the offeror and a priest who was a mediator between God and the man who offered the sacrifice. The “bridge-builder” makes access to God possible. He makes confession of sin possible, and forgiveness can be assured because of the office the priest holds. Our Lord Jesus is our Mediator and Advocate.
His spotless purity was like fine flour, white and pure, and the fragrance added to the flour reminds us of His life. He lived here in this sinful world as a perfect Man among men, and in every step He took, there was always that which testified that Jesus was truly the Son of God. No leaven was put in the grain offering because that is a fungus or a mold. The life of Christ, and His person, too, showed He was the Son of God. The type was seen way back then, when a man brought them as an offering to God. His offering pointed him, and us, to the Lord Jesus, Him who saves.
For flour to be fine, there must be a lot of beating to break all the particles into a perfectly smooth, even texture, without any foreign or unwanted pieces that could corrupt it. The Lord Jesus was miraculously conceived in the womb of a virgin woman, Mary, and was perfect, pure, and sinless in every way. During His time on earth, He endured the most profound suffering as He fulfilled all righteousness that God demanded for man to be acceptable to Him. He suffered in His soul, "Now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say..." He suffered in His spirit as He wept to realize that death came to men because of sin. He suffered in His body when "He bare our sins in His own body on the tree."
All that He did was first to satisfy God and then for our blessing. The fine flour had no uneven character, remained unchanged throughout, and was perfect in its smooth texture. The gentleness of Christ and every attitude of His Person, whether meekness, lowliness, or every other characteristic, was consistent. When the flour was taken in the hands of the priest and held up before God, a whiteness was left on the hand of the priest even as it was being burnt.
Mixed with that fine flour was oil, expressing in type, the Holy Spirit who came upon Mary. There was no leaven in the flour that would indicate the Lord Jesus had in any way inherited the tendency to sin, the desire to sin, or the ability to sin. The flour was pure, and the oil that bound the flour together reminds us that the Lord Jesus was filled with the Spirit in infancy, in childhood, when He "waxed strong in spirit," and in His public ministry. At His baptism, the Spirit appeared as a dove upon Him. In the wilderness, the Spirit was there. The power of the Spirit was upon Him when He preached because the Spirit anointed him.
The perfections of life and work of our Lord Jesus Christ as a Man are all for God. The things He did and said while here fulfilled the written word. Evidence everywhere pointed to "This Man" as the only One who could fulfill all righteousness because He is the God-Man, His own Son. When we lift Him up to God, our hands are covered with white like the fine flour on the hands of the offeror/priest. We are able to present our Savior to God by faith and not by sight. To those who don't know God, it is only a form they go through. To those who know and love the Lord, it is the best that we can do.
The meal offering unfolds the perfections of the Perfect Man. When we bring our offerings of praise, we worship as only believers can, "In spirit and in truth." The grain offering was an act of worship rather than retribution for sin. It was a reminder and an acknowledgment of God’s favor shown to the offeror, and it was “an aroma pleasing to the Lord.” This is the criterion we are to obey; therefore, we must keep within the bounds of the scriptures in all we do and say.