Scripture Daily

Context No. 339 of 4322 · Leviticus

Context · Reflection

Leviticus 2:1-10: in context

1“‘When anyone offers an offering of a meal offering to the LORD, his offering shall be of fine flour. He shall pour oil on it, and put frankincense on it. 2He shall bring it to Aaron’s sons, the priests. He shall take his handful of its fine flour, and of its oil, with all its frankincense, and the priest shall burn its memorial on the altar, an offering made by fire, of a pleasant aroma to the LORD. 3That which is left of the meal offering shall be Aaron’s and his sons’. It is a most holy part of the offerings of the LORD made by fire. 4“‘When you offer an offering of a meal offering baked in the oven, it shall be unleavened cakes of fine flour mixed with oil, or unleavened wafers anointed with oil. 5If your offering is a meal offering made on a griddle, it shall be of unleavened fine flour, mixed with oil. 6You shall cut it in pieces, and pour oil on it. It is a meal offering. 7If your offering is a meal offering of the pan, it shall be made of fine flour with oil. 8You shall bring the meal offering that is made of these things to the LORD. It shall be presented to the priest, and he shall bring it to the altar. 9The priest shall take from the meal offering its memorial, and shall burn it on the altar, an offering made by fire, of a pleasant aroma to the LORD. 10That which is left of the meal offering shall be Aaron’s and his sons’. It is a most holy part of the offerings of the LORD made by fire.

This is the law of the grain offering, and it stands out among the sacrifices because it involves no animal and no blood. It is an offering of fine flour with oil and frankincense, or of baked cakes and wafers, and that makes it the offering within reach of everyone, including the poor who could not afford a bull or a lamb. It is, in a sense, an offering of bread, and bread is the product of ordinary labor: grain grown, harvested, ground, and baked. To bring the grain offering was to hand God the fruit of your everyday work.

Two details are worth noticing. First, only a handful is burned on the altar. The priest takes a portion of the flour and oil with all the frankincense and burns it as what the text calls a memorial, a token part that stands for the whole, rising to God as a pleasing aroma. The rest of the offering does not go up in smoke; it goes to Aaron and his sons, the priests who had no land of their own, to feed them. So the offering of a person's ordinary produce ascends to God in a handful and then comes back down to sustain God's servants. Second, and this is easy to miss, the humble flour offering is called most holy, and its smoke is a pleasing aroma to the LORD, exactly the same language used for the grand animal sacrifices. The plain bread of a poor person's labor is as holy on the altar as anything.

The quiet dignity in this is worth keeping. I tend to think only dramatic, costly sacrifices count with God, the big gestures. But here the ordinary product of daily work, offered up, is a most holy thing and a pleasing aroma, and a handful of it sustains the whole household of God. What ordinary handful of my everyday work have I assumed is too plain to offer, when God receives exactly that kind of bread as holy?

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