We will now look at the new birth in the grain offering of Lev 2:1-16; 6:14-23, and its pervasive application.

      1 "When anyone offers a grain offering to the LORD, his offering shall be of fine flour. And he shall pour oil on it, and put frankincense on it," Lev 2:1.
      This offering is called a grain offering or a food offering because it was made of wheat ground into fine flour and often baked into bread in a pan or an oven. However, all the sacrifices were the bread of God. Five times in Lev 21 this is stated. Lev 21:6,8,17,21,22. Every sacrifice or offering that was burned on the altar testified of God's food, even though the priests ate a part of most offerings on behalf of the covenant people.
      Of course, God's life is constant and does not at all require any intake of food as our bodies, our minds, and our passions or emotions do. God's food consists of divine fellowship within the Godhead, the understanding, faith, love, worship, and obedience of angels, of those of mankind who are qualifying for the firstborn sonship, and the proper function of all His creation.
      Our physical and spiritual senses are constantly feeding information into our minds and emotions which produce actions, both in our spiritual being as well as our physical being. Our mind is an integral (inseparable) part of our spirit, yet it governs our body actions and emotions through our brain. When the human spirit is separated from the physical body (Lk 16:19-31; 1Th 4:13-18; Rev 6:9-11), it is transported by the angels to paradise or the place of punishment where it remains until the time of resurrection and judgment. And, as we see in Lk 16:19-31, our spirit also has the same senses that our body has.
      The Son of God was born of a virgin into the human family as a major step in God's eternal purpose of creating a unique "firstborn sonship" out of the human race. The uniqueness is that the firstborn sons, and they only, will be transformed from a mere human state of being into God's divine image and likeness. This was God's counsel and purpose from before the beginning of creation, Eph 1:1-23.
      God did not in the beginning create man into a divine state of being for the following major reasons, 1) God Himself chose righteousness and hated iniquity, as demonstrated by prophecy (Ps 45:6-7), and by that prophecy being fulfilled in the human life of Christ; 2) man must choose righteousness and hate iniquity in order to be in God's likeness, and 3) God desired to eternally demonstrate His attributes of righteousness, love, compassion, goodness, longsuffering, mercy, glory, power, etc., to and through those who, in their earthy lifetime, would choose righteousness and hate iniquity. This was wonderfully demonstrated by our divine Kinsman Redeemer, as He lived a sinless human life within our sin laden human environment, Ps 45:6-7; Heb 1:8-9.
      The grain offering provided a daily and constant instrument of prophetic instruction of the divine intent for every Israelite and covenant person to study, understand, and personally endeavor to defuse the divine aroma to everyone within the sphere of his or her influence. This prophetic design is paramount throughout the Scriptures, both Old and New Testaments, as we will continue to see in the Old Testament offerings, feasts, and numerous other ordinances.

      1 "When anyone offers a grain offering to the LORD, his offering shall be of fine flour. And he shall pour oil on it, and put frankincense on it," Lev 2:1.

      2 "He shall bring it to Aaron's sons, the priests, one of whom shall take from it his handful of fine flour and oil with all the frankincense. And the priest shall burn it as a memorial on the altar, an offering made by fire, a sweet aroma to the LORD....."
      9 "Then the priest shall take from the grain offering a memorial portion, and burn it on the altar. It is an offering made by fire, a sweet aroma to the LORD," Lev 2:2,9.
      10 "Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand.
      11 "He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities.
      12 "Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, nd He shall divide the spoil with the strong, because He poured out His soul unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors, and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors," Isa 53:10-12.
      The entire ministry of Christ on earth was the heavenly Father's food. Within the far reaching purview of scriptural water baptism, Jesus said to John the Baptist, "THUS it becomes us to fulfill all righteousness," Mt 3:15. The word "thus" covers the entire human life and ministry of Christ, including His sinless human life, His personal ministry on earth, and His excruciating death, burial, and divine new birth resurrection. The voice of the Father from heaven said, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased," Mt 3:17; 17:5.
      The grain or food offering and all the sacrifices on the altar were food for God, and the fire consuming that portion of the sacrifices was intended to signify God's acceptance of the worship. We are to be constantly presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. God is pleased with our spiritual discernment and worshipful obedience to Him, but He is even more pleased as we grow in understanding and are thereby better able to worship Him with keener awareness of His personal delight in our spiritual growth and devotion.

      31 "In the meantime His disciples urged Him, saying, ‘Rabbi, eat.'
      32 "But He said to them, ‘I have food to eat of which you do not know.'
      33 Therefore the disciples said to one another, ‘Has anyone brought Him anything to eat?'
      34 "Jesus said to them, ‘My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work,'" Jn 4:31-34.
      Doing God's will was food for Christ, as well as food for the Father, for the Holy Spirit, and for us. These words of Christ reinforce what we have written above in the following ways: 1) whatever Christ did was always righteous and pleased the Father, and was therefore food for the Father and food for Christ as Christ delighted in doing the Father's will; 2) whatever the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit do that we come to know and understand is food for our minds and emotions, and if we respond and obey, that is even greater food for God and for us, therefore; 3) whatever is said and done, whether good or bad, is food for good or bad for everyone who becomes aware of it.
      The food offering and all the animal sacrifices first represented Christ as the food of God. By the Holy Spirit, Christ offered Himself in perfect fulfillment of all the Levitical sacrifices (Heb 9:14), and therefore His sacrifice in life and in death pleased the Father, the Holy Spirit, and all righteous beings, and was spiritual food for all.

      3 "The rest of the grain offering shall be Aaron's and his sons. It is most holy of the offerings to the LORD made by fire," Lev 2:3.
      We must ever keep in mind that the Levitical priesthood represented the whole nation of Israel as God's kingdom of priests, Ex 19:6; Isa 61:6. Likewise the church in this age represents all the faithful last will and testament people, as a kingdom of priests, 1Pe 2:5-9; Eph 2:11-22. We will continue to demonstrate from the Scriptures that this kingdom of priests, and they alone, will each receive the new birth when Christ returns.
      In the beginning God (in the Person of Christ) promised that He would become our Kinsman Redeemer through the Seed of the woman, Gen 3:15. Two thousand years later, He promised He would be the same Redeemer as the Seed of Abraham, Gen 21:12. He promised that He would make Abraham the father of a nation of faithful and divine firstborn sons, Gen 12:1-3; Ex 4:22-23; 19:6. He revealed to Abraham the divine state of being into which each of his faithful descendants would be born, Jn 8:56; Heb 11:8-16.
      Abel offered the firstborn lambs of his flock (Gen 4:4), demonstrating that he understood the last will and testament to promise divine life to those who would believe and obey God under the required discipline of the testament, Heb 11:4. The righteousness of justification (Heb 11:4), promised in the last will and testament, is the fulness of God's divine nature, Mt 6:33; Gal 5:5; Phi 3:9; 2Pe 1:1-4; Jn 17:21-23. Abel clearly understood and believed this, and therefore responded reverently in the discipline of the Lord.
      Enoch prophesied of the divine Seed of the woman and the myriads of saints in divine bodies descending from heaven to execute righteous judgment, Jud 14-15. Noah went forth out of the ark and immediately offered burnt sacrifices of thanksgiving for God's great salvation, Gen 8:20-21. God smelled the sweet aroma of Noah's understanding and blessed him in the purview of the divine firstborn sonship, Heb 11:7; Phi 3:9.
      Abraham was so godly and so passionately eager to see the last will and testament inheritance that God literally showed him the Millennial glory of Christ, the deified saints, and the divine city, Jn 8:54; Heb 11:8-16. Job in terrible distress prophesied that he would die, but would be raised from the dead and experience the same divine glory that his father Abraham told so repeatedly to his descendants, and they in turn told it over and over to their descendents, Job 19:25-27; Heb 11:8-16.
      Christ is the grain or food offering, and will Himself eternally feed on the sweet savoring aroma of His redemptive ministry. The same is true of His companions who experience with Him the crucifixion cycle of bearing about in their bodies the crucifixion, death, burial, and new birth resurrection life of Christ, 2Co 4:7-12; Rom 12:1-2; Col 3:1-11.

      4 "And if you bring as an offering a grain offering baked in the oven, it shall be unleavened cakes of fine flour mixed with oil, or unleavened wafers anointed with oil," Lev 2:4.
      The person who brought this offering was to do so with the true intent which God ordained. The offering was prepared as physical food, and though the person who brought the food offering did not feed physically on the offering, yet that person and all those with spiritual understanding fed heartily on the sweet savor of the symbolic and prophetic significance of this and all the other offerings.
      The part burned on the altar was symbolically God's part, and the fire signified God's acceptance of the offering. The sweet aroma was to signify God's acceptance and favorable disposition toward the one bringing the offering and toward all observers. This was normally sufficient with those of good understanding of the covenants as last will and testaments.
      Sometimes, however, God quite convincingly demonstrated His acceptance, as between Cain and Abel (Gen 4), and with Elijah, 1Ki 18. Then there were often times when offering appeared of no avail, as with Hannah (1Sa 1), and with Job. Covenant training may leave faithful covenant people over a period of time in foreboding circumstances, as in the case of Lazarus (Lk 16), or of bitter persecution and martyrdom.

      15 "He shall take from it his handful of the fine flour of the grain offering, with its oil, and all the frankincense which is on the grain offering, and shall burn it on the altar for a sweet aroma, as a memorial to the LORD," Lev 6:15.
      The high priest bore the names of the twelve tribes of Israel on the breastplate on his chest and again on the onyx stones on his shoulders as a memorial before the Lord and before the people, Ex 28:12,29. The twelve loaves of showbread, representing the twelve tribes were, eaten by the priests and replaced by new loaves as a memorial every Sabbath, Ex 24:5-9. These memorials were to be in the hearts of the people constantly as eternal testimonies from the Lord, and were to feed the minds, the faith, and the emotions of every covenant person.
      All the last will and testament people were supposed to be well aware of the memorial significance of these ever present witnesses, and personally participate in the offering of the grain offerings. God accepts no excuse for our ignorance of any of the last will and testament contents. God wants us to know them, and the Holy Spirit is ever ready to teach us, but He is allowed to do so only when we genuinely humble our hearts and desire to know and do His will. Of course, we can do this only by the Holy Spirit, but the Spirit does so only as we yield to Him, Act 7:51; Rom 8:26-27; Ja 4:4-5.
      God's part of the food offering and other offerings was burned to ashes, but God ordained that the ashes bear a profound testimony of a divine resurrection birth. To understand the Scriptures correctly, we must associate every verse of scripture into its proper place in the redemption cycle. In this perspective, please review the November 2003 article on "ashes." When the Scriptures speak of the ashes of burnt offerings, or even of ashes used in fasting, the redemption cycle is under consideration. The ashes of fasting speak of humbling oneself in view of qualifying for the new birth resurrection, and hopefully of a more abundant entrance into the kingdom, according to God's will, Jn 10:10; 2Co 9:10, 2Pe 1:3-11.
      Likewise, the very pleasant fragrance of the food offering and other burnt offerings carried tremendous meaning. The fire (fiery trials) was a major factor in producing the sweet spiritual savor in the lives of the last will and testament people. The true sweet aroma before God was and still is the spiritual understanding and sincere faith-obedience of Christ and of His faithful covenant people, 2Co 2:14-16.
      14 ‘Now thanks be to God who is always leading us in triumph in Christ, and through us is constantly diffusing the fragrance of His knowledge in every place.
      15 "For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.
      16 "To the one we are the aroma of death leading to death, and to the other the aroma of life leading to life. And who is sufficient for these things?" 2Co 2:14-16; Phi 4:18.
      14 "The secret of the LORD is with those who fear Him, And He will show them His covenant," Ps 25:14.
      Adam, Eve, Abel, Enoch, Noah: God has always revealed His covenants to those who love to walk with Him, and hunger and thirst after His righteousness, Heb 11:4; 2Pe 2:5; Jud 14-15; Job 42:8; Ps 17:15; Mt 5:6; 6:33; Gal 5:5; Phi 3:9. All the offerings were "the bread of our God" (Lev 21:6,8,17,21-22), and everyone who offered those offerings should have understood their prophetic significance, just as Jesus so quickly learned as a human (Lk 2:40,49,52), and thus taught throughout His earthly ministry, Mt 4:4; Jn 6:1-67.
      The priests did eat of all the offerings except the burnt offering; though they did receive the skin of the burnt offering, which represented the righteousness of God, Rev 19:7-8; Phi 3:9; Mt 6:33. We must understand and keep in mind that the priests represented all the covenant people as being a kingdom of priests; a kingdom of divine firstborn sons who will eternally minister in a divine capacity before God on behalf of all of God's creation, Ex 19:6; Num 3; Isa 61:6; Heb 7; 1Pe 2:5,9: Rev 1;6; 1Co 3:21-23.

      1 "When anyone offers a grain offering to the LORD, his offering shall be of fine flour. And he shall pour oil on it, and put frankincense on it," Lev 2:1.
      The grain offering consisted first of flour from wheat grains ground into fine flour. The fine flour was used for making the grain or food offering, the feast of unleavened bread, the weekly twelve loaves of showbread, the wafers, etc. It represented the humanity of Christ and of the last will and testament people as "one" with Christ.
      35 "And Jesus said to them, 'I am the bread of life. He who is coming to Me shall never hunger, and he who is believing into Me shall never thirst,'" Jn 6:35 (27-63).
      27 "Do not labor for the food that is perishing, but for the food which is enduring into everlasting (divine) life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him," Jn 6:27.
      The Son of God promised, in all the last will and testaments, to become the Seed of the woman Redeemer, Gen 3:15-21. To do so, He had to become a human, live a perfect human life, die for the sins of the human race, be buried, and rise again the third day into the divine image and likeness of God, Gen 1:26; Eph 1:4-5; 1Pe 1:18-20.

      27 "But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him," 1Jn 2:27.
      The fine flour was anointed with oil, which speaks of the promise of the Holy Spirit, Joe 2:28-29; Lk 24:49; Jn 14:16,17,26; Act 1:4; 2:17-21. This promise was inherent in God's purpose in creating man in the beginning, Gen 1:26. To be in God's precise image and likeness requires the permanent indwelling of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is inseparable from, and is constantly abiding in those who are being trained to inherit the divine nature, Jn 7:37-39; Gal 4:4-7; Mt 3:16-17; Rom 1:4.
      This grain (food) offering, having the "oil" poured on it, carried the promise of the divine indwelling of the Holy Spirit. The tabernacle in the midst of the last will and testament people testified that the faithful of this people would inherit the divine firstborn sonship. This promise of the Spirit was inherent in God's purpose, and is the prime reason for creating such a vast diversified universe over which the firstborn sons will rule jointly with Christ. Herein, God is demonstrating the whole spectrum of His divine attributes (Rom 9:22-23), and is preparing a very unique people to share His divine Person and glory, Eph 1:22-23; 3:19; 5:31-32; 2Pe 1:4; Jn 19:30-36; 14:8-11; 17:21-23 (1-23).

      20 "Then Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
      21 "And the LORD smelled a soothing aroma. Then the LORD said in His heart, ‘I will never again curse the ground for man's sake, although the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done,'" Gen 8:20-21.
      2 'He shall bring it to Aaron's sons, the priests, one of whom shall take from it his handful of fine flour and oil with all the frankincense. And the priest shall burn it as a memorial on the altar, an offering made by fire, a sweet aroma to the LORD," Lev 2:2.
      11 "And when they (the wise men) had come into the house, they saw the young Child with Mary His mother, and fell down and worshiped Him. And when they had opened their treasures, they presented gifts to Him: gold, frankincense, and myrrh," Mt 2:11.
      The frankincense adds to the sweet aroma of the food offering, and represents first the perfect obedience of Christ to the Father, Isa 53:10-12; Heb 5:8-9. The Frankincense also represents the faith, obedience, love, joy, hope, peace, prayers, and worship of the saints through the ages (Rev 8:3-4), all of which flows gracefully through Christ to the Father by the Holy Spirit.
      As in all the offerings, the grain offering first represents Christ, but always includes His divinely firstborn people, joined inseparably to Him in an all-surpassing divine bridal relationship. The saints have qualified for this divine birth by the Holy Spirit in constantly offering the proper sacrifices included in bearing about in their bodies the crucifixion, death, burial, and resurrection life of Christ, 2Co 4:7-12; Rom 12:1-2; Col 3:1-10; Heb 12:1-17.

      13 'And every offering of your grain offering you shall season with salt; you shall not allow the salt of the covenant of your God to be lacking from your grain offering. With all your offerings you shall offer salt," Lev 2:13.
      49 "For everyone will be seasoned with fire, and every sacrifice will be seasoned with salt.
      50 "Salt is good, but if the salt loses its flavor, how will you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and have peace with one another," Mk 9:49-50.
      Salt is good when applied properly, since food can have too little or too much salt. Here salt refers to our godly influence, yet our influence can be overdone or lacking in the grace of godly influence, usually lacking. In different words, godly salt or grace is measured by how submissive we are to the working of the Holy Spirit in and through us. This, in turn, depends on how much and how properly the Word of God is diffused throughout our mind, our passions, our speech, and our conduct.
      6 "Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one," Col 4:6.
      We can quickly understand how our mind, passions, speech, and conduct must be surrendered to the working of the Holy Spirit diffusing the Word of God throughout our being and conduct, and thereby constantly tempering our lives into a sweet savor of life into life (divine life), 2Co 2:14-17; 4:6-12.

      14 "If you offer a grain offering of your firstfruits to the LORD, you shall offer for the grain offering of your first-fruits green heads of grain roasted on the fire, grain beaten from full heads.
      15 "And you shall put oil on it, and lay frankincense on it. It is a grain offering.
      16 "Then the priest shall burn the memorial portion: part of its beaten grain and part of its oil, with all the frankincense, as an offering made by fire to the LORD," Lev 2:14-16.
      The fully ripe yet green heads of wheat perhaps signify the prime of manhood of Christ. The oil again speaks of the anointing of the Holy Spirit on both Christ and the last will and testament people. The roasting fire addresses the severe covenant training of Christ and the testament people. The frankincense testifies of the eager and sincere resolve of Christ and the covenant people in giving their best and their all to the Father, and of the Father's pleased acceptance of their eager submission and sacrificial faith.
      The worshipers were able to have this knowledge and responsive spirit, as is certainly indicated in Heb 11:8-16 and the whole chapter. The articles on The Introduction to the Old Testament were to point out the fullness of understanding that was available to all in the Old Testament times. It should be increasingly evident that the understanding of the last will and testament was indeed revealed to the faithful, Heb 11.

      11 "No grain offering which you bring to the LORD shall be made with leaven, for you shall burn no leaven nor any honey in any offering to the LORD made by fire," Lev 2:11.       Leaven in the Bible represents sin of whatever kind, was forbidden in the Passover, in the feast of unleavened bread, and in most of the food offering. Likewise honey was forbidden in any offering made by fire since it does not give off a pleasant odor when burned. Over a dozen times the land of Palestine is called "a land of milk and honey" in the writings of Moses. Honey has a very sweet taste, even when heated in foods. However, when fire is applied directly to it, it does not give off a sweet aroma, but somewhat the opposite. The fire of the altar has been discussed earlier in the study of the altar, but will be touched on briefly below.
      Our service to God, our worship of Him, our interrelationship in the church, in our families, and before the world should diffuse reciprocally and out from us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of God and of the perfect submission, obedience, and godliness of Christ, 2Co 2:14-16; Heb 5:8-9.