Inspiration #21
Leviticus 2:1-4 CEVDCUS06
When you offer sacrifices to give thanks to me, you must use only your finest flour. Put it in a dish, sprinkle olive oil and incense on the flour, and take it to the priests from Aaron's family. One of them will scoop up the incense together with a handful of the flour and oil. Then, to show that the whole offering belongs to me, the priest will lay this part on the bronze altar and send it up in smoke with a smell that pleases me. The rest of this sacrifice is for the priests; it is very holy because it was offered to me. If you bake bread in an oven for this sacrifice, use only your finest flour, but without any yeast. You may make the flour into a loaf mixed with olive oil, or you may make it into thin wafers and brush them with oil.
Many people have never taken the time to read the book of Leviticus as it has become known as the Book of the Law, a book that only delineates God's Holy requirements for man. But--the book is so much more. It is a book of symbols, types, and shadows of our Lord, Jesus Christ. In other words, throughout the book of Leviticus, the person of Jesus becomes our key to understanding this book's mysteries and secrets embedded within it.
In Luke 24:27, "Jesus then explained everything written about himself in the Scriptures, beginning with the Law of Moses and the Books of the Prophets." Therefore, as previously stated, our key to understanding or seeing mysteries and secrets revealed to us in the Old Testament, period, is to use Jesus as the key. Proverbs 25:2 states, "It is the glory of God to conceal a thing, but the glory of kings is to search out a thing." Even in Ephesians 1:17-18 Paul prays, "(For I always pray to) the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, that He may grant you a spirit of wisdom and revelation (of INSIGHT INTO MYSTERIES AND SECRETS) in the (deep and intimate) knowledge of Him, By having the eyes of your heart flooded with light, so that you can know and understand the hope to which He has called you..."
Let's delve into these mysteries and secrets. In Leviticus 2, God instructs the people on how to offer the grain offering, an offering intended to give Him thanks for all He's done. Specifically, He told them that it should be made out of fine flour accompanied with incense and oil. They were admonished to make bread or small cakes with the flour, excluding yeast, break it into pieces, and finally pour oil over the bread (the flour) and bring it to the priest along with incense to be burnt on the altar for a offering of thanks to God. In return, God would accept the offering and it would bring a satisfying fragrance to the Lord.
Flour comes from wheat. It is grown in the ground, then beaten, crushed, and bruised (so to speak) to its finest consistency, which becomes the flour we're familiar with. There's no lumps within the flour, it's soft, and easy to use for baking purposes. I present to you, Jesus is like flour. In Isaiah, we're told that Jesus was wounded and crushed for our sins, and bruised for our iniquities..." Those verbs are the same to make flour! Just like flour, there's no lumps or imperfections in Jesus. He is soft and gentle, yet firm. "He is all together lovely." Therefore, in Leviticus, the offering of thanks was referring to Jesus. He's the flour that would be broken into pieces for us. The bread immersed in oil (as was poured over Him prior to His burial), and accompanied with incense as only Jesus' perfection, holiness, and finished work is satisfying and sweet to the Lord.
Now, anywhere you come across flour being referred to in the Old Testament, it will more than likely refer to Jesus. For example, in 2 Kings 4:38-41, the prophet Elisha had ordered souo be made for some prophets he had been teaching. Unfortunately, the soup was poisoned. Upon the prophets tasting the soup, they shouted, "the soup is poisoned!" Immediately, Elisha orders that FLOUR be brought and placed in the stew. And after Jesus' healing and restoring power was added to the stew, it tasted fine and the prophet's bodies were healed. Another example is Noah and the ark. Jesus is the ark!
How then can we learn from this. We have so many wonderful things to thank Jesus for on a daily basis. Here recently, I had a friend to encourage me to begin seeing Jesus in my everyday life, in the simplest ways. In other words, he admonished me to keep my spiritual antennas up. Begin to see God in the minutest ways. And that I have!! Just yesterday, I wasnt having the best of day. However, upon entering a restaurant, a lady complimented my smile. That's a small matter, but that was Jesus giving me encouragement as He knew what I needed at that exact moment. Another instance was when I had been searching all over for an app to read the Bible to me. One that I wouldn't have to cut and paste into another app. Surprisingly, just yesterday, I received an email from YouVersion, (my Bible App), 'just making sure I was taking full advantage of the app'!! Hmmm?? Literally, that's what the email said. And, of course, one of the features I wasn't taking advantage of was the audio feature, which would read the bible to me. Jesus is at the center is it all!!
I urge you, my brothers and sisters to keep your spiritual antennas up throughout the day. Jesus mysteriously shows up and reveals himself in the minutest ways. He is concerned about every detail of your life. If it concerns you, it concerns Him. He was there all along throughout the Old Testament, hidden in things we would never think of. Likewise, He is here, today, operating through people, places, and things we would never think of. Wanna see Him? Keep your spiritual antennas up and I guarantee you, you will!
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