“The responsibility of Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest is the oil for the light and the fragrant incense and the continual grain offering and the anointing oil– the responsibility of all the tabernacle and of all that is in it, with the sanctuary and its furnishings” (Numbers 4:16).
In the previous study, we looked at the duty of the priest as it pertains to the oil for the light and fragrant incense. We established these as signifying our reliance on the Holy Spirit to be empowered for our ministry of the Word and of Prayer. Today, we shall look at the continual grain offering and what that represents in our New Covenant priesthood.
The grain offering was a free will offering presented to the Lord (see Leviticus 2); “a thing most holy of the offerings to the Lord by fire” (Leviticus 2:3). Under the New Covenant, what the LORD requires from us as a holy offering to Him is this: that we, by the mercies of God, present/offer our bodies as a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is our spiritual service of worship (see Romans 12:1). The responsibility the Levitical priests had to continually offer grain offering to God also equates to our spiritual service of worship, which is holy unto our God. This is something we are to do continually as priests of our God.
We read in Leviticus 2:11 that “no grain offering, which you bring to the Lord, shall be made with leaven”. Leaven in Scripture also represents malice and wickedness (1 Corinthians 5:18) as well as the teachings of the Pharisees and Sadducees (Matthew 16:12), which essentially bothered on legalism and lawlessness. Even so, being faithful in our spiritual service of worship requires that we do not yield our bodies as instruments of sin, but rather yield ourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and our members as instruments of righteousness unto God (see Romans 6:13; Romans 12:2). We cannot choose to merely set ourselves apart, i.e. be holy, during worship services on Sunday mornings, and live as we please afterwards. To do so is to mix leaven with your offering; a thing displeasing to the Lord.
The Lord also required that incense and oil be added to the grain offering (Leviticus 2:2; Leviticus 2: 15). As we established earlier, incense represents prayer (Revelation 5:8) and oil, the Holy Spirit (Isaiah 61:1-3; 1 Sam 16:13). Even so, a true life of worship should be one that is lived with a life of prayer and reliance on the Holy Spirit, just as true worshipers of God are to worship Him in spirit (from our hearts as we rely on the Holy Spirit) and in truth (the way God desires it) (John 4:23).
To be continued…
Kwadwo Omari,
9th April, 2016.