{Disclaimer: these are my rough teaching notes I use in my Mishkan Katan weekly broadcasts. There will be "typos". Proceed at your own risk, lol.You can find all my Mishkan Katan video teachings on my YouTube channel: genahood2818 . Look on the playlist called Messianic LAMB TV Network.}
Today, we will begin by taking up where we left off in last week’s teaching, and that is in re-focusing our attention on the third type of offering, and that is the grain offering, also known as the Korban Mincha, a word that means “gift”. Let me emphasize again that none of these first three types of offering we have studied thus far (burnt, peace, grain) were offered as atonement offerings or as put another way, sacrifices for sin. They were brought to the LORD in His holy dwelling place (Tabernacle/Temple) as ritual gifts offered to God out of a glad and willing heart. All three of these types of offerings were voluntary.
Now, we first see mention of sacrifice of grain offered by Cain, (of all people!) in Genesis 4:2-4.
Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, while Cain was a tiller of the soil. 3So in the course of time, Cain brought some of the fruit of the soil as an offering to the LORD, 4while Abel brought the best portions of the firstborn of his flock.
And the LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering, 5but He had no regard for Cain and his offering. So Cain became very angry, and his countenance fell.
You may have heard the above passage exegeted (interpreted) to elevate the meat offering above the grain offering. Obviously, this story pre-dates Leviticus, where God gave His commands about the various types of offerings. However, if you read it carefully, you will find that Cain was rejected for bringing “some”, while Abel brought “the best”. Big difference, and a key theme in the korbanot later instituted in Leviticus. In all cases, God commanded that “the best” was to be brought, and only the best. Plus, “heart attitude” in bringing the offering was of paramount importance. (Reflect on the story Jesus told of “the widow’s mite”, in Luke 21:1-4 and Mark 12:41-44.)
Leviticus 2 gives the details on the grain offering, the korban mincha.
It could be offered by itself, as a "stand-alone" offering; or, it could be offered in conjunction with another type of offering. In the case of the very poor, it could be offered in lieu of a more expensive meat offering. And, the Torah specified that every Olah (burnt) or Shalem (peace) offering was to be accompanied by a grain offering. The same was true for the offerings made at the Jewish festivals.
The grain offering, the least expensive and the simplest korban to bring, was primarily of either wheat or barley flour (the Omer, brought on the second day of Passover was barley flour because the wheat harvest was not yet ripe), The minchah offering required the grain or the baked bread be unleavened. (The grain or bread was, however, salted. More about that later.) Leaven was not allowed on the altar, as it was widely considered a “type” or picture or representation of sin. For this reason, the bread was usually offered after having been baked, to prevent natural leavening from occurring.
The korban minchah could be offered three times a day in alignment with the Temple’s routine of sacrificial services and with daily prayers. In fact the name of this offering is the same as the name for the afternoon prayers, offered by the priests (kohanim) at the Temple. The grain was combined with oil and frankincense. The priest would offer small handfuls of the grain on the altar and would use the rest of the offering for his family. If a baked product was offered, the priest would offer the “memorial portion” (“three fingers worth”) on the altar and keep the rest for his own sustenance. The offerer did not partake of the grain offering.
As another reminder, the Levitical priests were supported by the various korbanot (offerings) brought by the people. In addition, the people obeyed God's command (Exodus 25-27:19) to bring them terumah (supportive offerings of wine, grain, produce, etc.) God ordained it this way so that these men could provide for their families while devoting themselves whole-heartedly to the study of God, the teaching of His statues, and the operation of the Tabernacle (and later the Temple.) Interestingly, Levites did not make war, as did the other tribes. They were not awarded a separate land allotment in the Promised Land, but were, rather, allotted certain cities/areas within each tribe's allotment. The Levites were the Army of God, and He was their provision.
Note that in the King James Version, the grain offering is referred to as a “meat offering”. However, in the early 1600s, when that translation was written, “meat” did not refer to “flesh”, as it does today. The word meant “food in general”.
If you read Leviticus 2 when I mentioned it earlier, you saw reference to salt and its inclusion in this sacrifice. Next, I want to share with you about salt and its importance in the Tabernacle/Temple’s system of offerings.
There’s a folktale of a king who had three lovely daughters. He knew he would need to select one of them to rule after him. He decided to make the determining factor for this momentous decision which daughter loved him the most. So, he asked each one of them. The first said, “Father, I love you more than gold and silver.” The second replied, “Father, I love you more than diamonds and rubies.” The third said, “I love you more than salt in my soup.” His majesty had been feeling pretty good, on hearing from his two older daughters, but the answer from his youngest enraged him. Accordingly, he banished her from the kingdom. Shortly thereafter, a salt shortage hit the kingdom. Soon, the people were crying out for salt, as their bodies began to suffer the consequences of salt deficiency. Upon hearing of this bad situation, the younger daughter returned, to find her father very ill. As she comforted him beside his sickbed, he recognized the truth of her words of love, and he gave to her the kingdom.
Legends and folktales endure because at their essence there is some kernel of truth. In this story, the importance of salt is emphasized. We find in the Bible that salt is elevated there too. Let’s start with the words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. The verse appears in similar form in all three of the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew 5:13, Mark 9:50, and Luke 14:34.) Here is Mark’s version from the NLT (New Living Translation):
Salt is good, but if the salt loses its saltiness, with what will you season it? Have salt among yourselves, and be at peace with one another.
Did you ever wonder why Jesus used salt as a learning aid? I’ve heard sermons about this, and most of them refer to the preserving properties of salt, and/or the healing properties of salt. It is true that the Body of Christ, we who follow Him as Savior, serve as a positive influence in this world in those ways. But, in addition, I believe Jesus was heartening back to the salt covenant of the Old Testament, by using salt as the metaphor here.
Let’s look at the verses in the Old Testament which inform us about the salt covenant and the use of salt in the korbanot (offerings).
First, in Leviticus 2:13 - -
And you shall season each of your grain offerings with salt. You must not leave the salt of the covenant of your God out of your grain offering; you are to add salt to each of your offerings.
Further along, Numbers 18:19, a salt covenant was made between the LORD and the Aaronic priesthood.
All the holy offerings that the Israelites present to the LORD I give to you and to your sons and daughters as a permanent statute. It is a permanent covenant of salt before the LORD for you and your offspring.
So, as a result of the commands for the Temple korbanot, all of them were offered with salt. And, in both cases, the “covenant of salt” was mentioned. (Salt was also added to incense that was offered on the altar.)
Ezekiel 43:24 and 2 Chronicles 13:5 are also pertinent references to the study of Salt Covenant.
In 2 Chronicles 13, we read about the epic battle between King Abijah of Judah against King Jereboam of Israel. Before going into battle, where his forces slew 500,000 of Israel’s warriors, King Abijah referenced the salt covenant God made with the descendants of David. Verse 5 - - -
Do you not know that the LORD, the God of Israel, has given the kingship of Israel to David and his descendants forever by a covenant of salt?
Here the reference is made to the salt covenant being between God and King David and his descendants (of which Jesus was one, of course.)
We first see salt mentioned as important in Job 6:6-7 - - -
6Is tasteless food eaten without salt,
or is there flavor in the white of an egga?
7My soul refuses to touch them;
they are loathsome food to me.
“Loathsome food” ... interesting. And, wouldn’t you think he would have said, “my tongue refuses to touch them”? But, no, he said my SOUL refuses....
A covenant, biblically speaking, was a strong, enduring, legally-binding promise, initiated by God. We have examined here three major touch points in Scriptures, concerning salt being used to symbolize specific covenantal relationships with God: the Aaronic priesthood, the line of Davidic kings and the covenantal relationship between Yeshua and His Body, His Bride. (In Matthew 5:13, He says “You are the salt of the earth...”)
The truth is that God does not get overly specific in Scripture as to why He chose salt to symbolize these important covenantal truths. But, I do think we can draw some logical conclusions.
1. Salt endures and preserves.
Several years ago, I went through a “prepper” phase, where I hoarded non-perishable foodstuffs in our basement. Fortunately, “the end of the world as we know it” has not occurred, which would require desperate action to stay alive. However, I will tell you that the 100 or so rolls of toilet paper I had stored up certainly made 2020 less anxious for our family, but I digress.... My point is that there are several canisters of salt down there. Kosher Salt and Sea Salt “do not go bad”, despite that it has an expiration date on the canister.
For centuries, salt was used and is still used as a preservative for food, particularly for meat. Though a distasteful thought, salt was also used in mummification, again, as a preservative.
2. Salt enhances flavor and gives a picture of establishing the covenant.
Our English word “salary” comes from an ancient word meaning “salt money”. Salt has long been associated with making agreements.
In other extra-biblical Near East sources, we find salt playing a key role at covenantal meals, where it was eaten by the parties involved to “seal the deal”. That tradition still endures in some Eastern cultures today.
As mentioned in last week’s teaching, In Malachi 1:1-12 the altar of God is referred to twice as a table, “the table of the Lord”. Even today, at the Sabbath table, a ceremony is performed where the Sabbath bread is dipped in salt, as a reminder of the eternal attribute of God, His changelessness. What He has vowed, He will fulfill. What He has promised, He will keep. His words will stand past the end of time.
In summary, while the salt covenant is never explicitly spelled out in the Bible, we can deduce from the characteristics of salt, its value and the contexts in which the salt covenant is mentioned that it has a great deal to do with God’s promises to His chosen. Blessed be His name, forever!
We are progressing through our learning about the five types of sacrifices (korbanot) in a certain order, and that is the order they are revealed in Leviticus 1-7. Thus far, we have studied three of the five, the first three revealed by God as He instructed Moses - - the burnt offering, the grain offering and the peace offering. Next, as we will discover in today's post, comes the purification (also called the sin) offering and then, finally, the guilt offering.
Now, here's a curious thing. God revealed to (taught) Moses the five offerings in the order mentioned above (starting in Leviticus 1). But, let me ask you something. When it came to the establishment of the Aaronic priesthood and their first practice of making these sacrificial offerings, which offering did they offer first? Both when they were ordained (a lengthy process), in Leviticus 8, and then when they made their first official offerings as priests of the Most High God, they offered the same sacrifice first. To find the answer, we need to look at Leviticus 9:8 - -
8 So Aaron approached the altar and slaughtered the calf as a sin offering for himself.
He offered this offering on behalf of himself, and then which of the five categories of offering did he offer first on behalf of the Israelites? Seven verses later - - -
15 Aaron then presented the people’s offering. He took the male goat for the people’s sin offering, slaughtered it, and offered it for sin like the first one.
Leviticus 9:15
So, by instruction from God, the sin offering was given as the fourth offering; but, in practice, we see it offered first. Why do you suppose that is?
It is helpful to remember that the entire sacrificial system points toward Yeshua haMashiach Jesus the Messiah. In short, the first three offerings represent the sinless life Yeshua/Jesus lived, because they are offerings of devotion, offerings made out of a sincere love for God and for one's fellow man. And, Yeshua lived a life of sinless devotion. He is the only man who has or who ever will. At the end of His earthly life, He became our atonement, taking away our sin and our guilt. Hallelujah!
However, in human practice of these offerings in the Old Testament, sin separated the people from God. As with each believer's acceptance of Yeshua as Messiah, sin had to be dealt with. This is why the Aaronic priests of the Tanakh (Old Testament) offered the sin and the guilt offerings first. There is no meaning in, or God's acceptance of, "devotion" offerings, if sin separates us from God.
It would be helpful at this point to define "sin".
If you are part of an evangelical church, you may have heard that "sin" means "to miss the mark", such as when an archer shoots an arrow and fails to hit a bulls-eye or to hit the target at all. From where did that description come? The Hebrew word for "sin" is "chattaah", which means (you guessed it) "to miss the mark". But, WHAT mark? The word "torah" is very closely related to the Hebrew verb “yarah”, which means “shot, threw, cast”, as in shooting an arrow. The words Torah, instruction, horah, parent, morah, instructor/teacher and yorah, archer . . . They all have the same Hebrew root.
Evangelicals often call the Torah, the Law, a "schoolmaster" or an "instructor". In short, God's Law, the Torah, show us what it means to live a perfect life, which Yeshua lived. Sin is what it means to fall short of doing that, because no man except for Jesus has kept the whole Law. (The "falling short" aspect reminds me of a dean of women in college who once prayed for the Lord to "forgive us our falling shorts", which was a catalyst for many silent chortles and spasms of laughter among the collegiate faithful. She was thinking of Romans 3:23, I guess. But, I digress....)
Actually, sin is no laughing matter. God makes clear in the Bible how He hates it. And, why? Because it separates Him from those He loves. In living the redeemed life, the holy life, our individual process of sanctification, we become more and more discerning of sin, especially our own sin. We become increasingly aware that we may sin at any time. Sin is the hallmark of our old nature, ever with us, constantly warring with the new nature we received when we accepted Christ Jesus as Savior, and had all of our sins forgiven, washed away, remembered by God no more. Sin ever seeks to diminish us, AND our God, to take the glory from God. The apostle Paul describes the "O Wretched Man That I Am Battle" inside the believer, in Romans 7:14-25.
Wouldn't it have been wonderful if, after becoming one with Christ, our old nature was forever banished from us? However, that is not "real life here below Heaven". Sin is like a cancer, a silent enemy, always looking for opportunities to derail, up-end, marginalize and, if we let it, destroy us in this life. Thank God our eternity in Heaven with our Savior is assured!
Ok, now to examine the fourth category of offering, the Korban Chatat. This offering worked in concert with the fifth category of offerings, the guilt offering. Together, these two picture the confession of both the sins of the heart AND the sinful actions which follow inward sins. The major focus of the Chatat offering is purification, cleansing, while a key element of the Asham offering (the last one we will look at) is restitution/reconciliation. But, lest we get confused, let's focus only on the Korban Chatat for now.
This offering was, yes, offered for unintentional sins committed. However, it was broader than that. A sin offering was also offered on occasions such as when a person defiled himself by touching a corpse (Numbers 6:14), or for after a woman gave birth (Leviticus 12:16), or for ritual impurities such as coming into contact with a leprous person (Leviticus 14:19.) Purification cleanses away defilement. The Purification Offering removed the defilement which occurred when the people broke God's Torah.
This type of sacrifice was also offered in the fulfillment of Nazarite vows. I'm not going to launch into an exposition of what a Nazarite vow was, although I will point out that the apostle Paul, after the ascension of Christ back to Heaven, made a Nazarite vow and kept it, ending the vow period by going to the Temple and making a sin offering, a Korban Chatat. This is recorded in Acts 18 and also in Acts 21. To many Christians this story is quite troublesome, because it seems to not jive with the all-sufficiency of Jesus' sacrifice. In other words, WHY would Paul, who seemed to understand the gospel quite well, go offer a Temple sacrifice, after his conversion? I will attempt to deal with that question later. But, for the moment, let's not digress.
What types of items were featured in the sin offering? The requirement varied, based on who committed the sin. The more authority the person carried, the greater the offering. So, for example, when a member of the priesthood sinned, the offering was of a bull, a very expensive offering. Or, when a king sinned, the offering requirement was a male goat. When an "everyday Israelite" sinned, the requirement varied according to that person's wealth (or lack thereof): a lamb, one or two doves, grain/flour.
Sin offerings were also offered on the most holy day of the Jewish calendar, Yom Kippur, or the Day of Atonement. This occurred from Leviticus 9 and on through until the last Temple was destroyed in Jerusalem in 70 C.E. It is the Korban Chatat and the Passover Lamb sacrifice (a peace offering) which are most closely associated with the work of Jesus Christ, during Passion Week, the week of His death, burial and resurrection.
We read in Leviticus 4 that the animal offered for a sin offering had to be the most perfect specimen available, one "without blemish". The animal would be brought to the altar and the sinner would put his hands on its head, which symbolized transferring his sins onto the animal. Then, the animal would be killed, which would take place on the north side of the altar. The blood would be handled in a specific way, as well as the fat of the animal. Then, usually, the carcass of the animal would be burned up away from the Temple, "outside the camp". (Compare Hebrews 13:12.)
Have you thought about how the sinner must have felt, to see a beautiful, innocent animal pay the ultimate price, for his sins? How much more should our hearts be stricken, when we contemplate how Jesus Christ died, bearing the wrath of a holy God, for us? "...and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin." (1 John 1:7)
As I am about to wind up this section, you may have noticed I emphasized the word "unintentional" several minutes back. Did you wonder about this? I'll have more to say about that in my teaching on this last category of offerings.
I mentioned a few moments ago that it is the korban chatat and the korban asham (guilt or trespass) offerings which resonate most with Christians, even if they don't have much familiarity with them from studying Leviticus. Most Christians believe, and rightly so, that Yeshua’s once-for-all sacrifice was the fulfillment of these two "bloody", atoning, Old Testament sacrifices. Before we look in-depth at the korban asham, I want to expound upon the theme of atonement represented in the sin offering and the guilt offering. It is extremely important that, as believers in Yeshua, we understand the role of blood in the Bible. Leviticus 17:11 makes plain that "the life of the flesh is in the blood." In the Old Testament and as a scarlet thread running through the New, blood was the means of atonement, being made right with God. In the times of the Tabernacle and Temple, blood was also used to consecrate holy things, those used in Temple service. See Exodus 29:20-21 and Hebrews 9:21. Leviticus 17:11 was only partially quoted earlier. Here is the entire verse.
For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul.
Let's start with birth. Now, in the modern Western world this seems weird to most of us, but according to the teachings of the Torah, when a woman gave birth she was considered to be "ceremonially unclean", just as when she was having her monthly period. (Leviticus 12:2,7) Do you recall in the last post the korban chatat was offered after a woman gave birth? That is why. There was a certain number of days a woman had to wait until the korban chatat could be offered at the Tabernacle or Temple, and it varied based on whether she birthed a boy or a girl. (I'm not going to rabbit trail off onto that topic as it is another topic for another post.) So, the miracle of human life began in ceremonial impurity, and if nothing else this illustrated that man is incapable of spiritual cleanness. Because of the Fall of Man, we are all literally "born in sin". Even Mary, the mother of Jesus, who gave birth to the only sinless human to ever live, fulfilled this ceremonial requirement by appearing at the Temple to offer the korban chatat (Luke 2:21-24).
Leprosy was also a condition that encompassed a variety of skin diseases, under the heading of the Hebrew word "tzara'at". Those with skin diseases, especially those with long-term or permanent skin diseases, were ceremonially unclean. They had to dwell outside the encampment of Israelites, or outside the city wall of Jerusalem. They were ostracized in this way. They even had to shout out "Unclean, unclean" to protect those who might get too close, from catching their disease. In cases where the condition was not permanent, the sin offering would be made. He or she would also be immersed into a special bath called the mikvah. In this way the person would be purified and able to rejoin the rest of the community. Water and blood are symbols of cleansing in both the Torah and the New Testament. (John 19:34)
Most of my readers are Christians. So, the following will be familiar to you. But, for the sake of some, these points are too important to be glossed over.
Sin separates us from God, and we are born in sin, hopelessly alienated from God. Sin warps the soul and spirit, thoroughly contaminates and (left unaddressed) results in death, not just physical, but more importantly, spiritual. This is why Paul states (Romans 6:23) that "the payment for sin is death." God's prescribed remedy for sin has always been substitutionary death. Where do we first see this? In the story of Cain and Abel (Genesis 4:1-4; Hebrews 11:4). We see it again when Noah disembarked from the ark (Genesis 8:20). We see it yet again at the first Passover, where the blood of the slain lamb is smeared on the doorposts of each home. We see the shedding of blood for the atonement for sins formalized as part of God's Torah/Law at Mt. Sinai, in Leviticus 4 - 9.
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