When you bring a grain offering which has been baked in the oven, it is to consist of either unleavened cakes made of fine flour mixed with olive oil or matzah spread with olive oil. If your offering is a grain offering cooked on a griddle, it is to consist of unleavened fine flour mixed with olive oil; you are to break it in pieces and pour olive oil on it – it is a grain offering. If your offering is a grain offering cooked in a pot, it is to consist of fine flour with olive oil. Leviticus 2:4-6
Unleavened cakes, matzah, unleavened fine flour, break it in pieces. I have written on these elements in previous posts concerning Yeshua, showing how the matzah or unleavened bread represent how He took lashes upon His back, and was pierced and broken for us. It is easy to see Yeshua clearly here, but it was the opening phrase of these verses, “When you bring a grain offering”, that caught my attention.
The grain offering was a voluntary offering. It was brought with a desire to draw near and to worship God. In John chapter 4, one of the most famous meetings in the Bible takes place between Yeshua and the Samaritan woman, where He told her, “But the time is coming – indeed, it’s here now – when the true worshipers will worship the Father spiritually and truly, for these are the kind of people the Father wants worshipping Him. God is spirit; and worshipers must worship him spiritually and truly.” John 4:23-24 The Father wants us to voluntarily worship Him with a pure heart, and this is something that is mentioned throughout scripture.
· For what I desire is mercy, not sacrifices, knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. Hosea 6:6
· For you don’t want sacrifices, or I would give them; you don’t take pleasure in burnt offerings. My sacrifice to God is a broken spirit; God, you won’t spurn a broken, chastened heart. Psalm 51: 18(16)-19(17)
· When the P’rushim saw this, they said to his talmidim, “Why does your rabbi eat with tax-collectors and sinners?” But Yeshua heard the question and answered, “The ones who need a doctor aren’t the healthy but the sick. As for you, go and learn what this means: ‘I want compassion rather than animal-sacrifices.’ For I didn’t come to call the righteous, but sinners!”
· One Shabbat during that time, Yeshua was walking through some wheat fields. His talmidim were hungry, so they began picking heads of grin and eating them. On seeing this, the P’rushim said to him, “Look! Your talmidim are violating Shabbat!” But he said to them, “Haven’t you ever read what David did when he and those with him were hungry? He entered the House of God and ate the Bread of the Presence!” – which was prohibited, both to him and to his companions; it is permitted only to the Cohanim. Or haven’t you read in the Torah that on Shabbat the choanim profane Shabbat and yet are blameless? I tell you, there is in this place something greater than the Temple! If you knew what ‘I want compassion rather than animal-sacrifice’ meant, you would not condemn the innocent. For the Son of Man is Lord of Shabbat!” Matthew 12:1-8
Our offering of worship is a matter of the heart, and during the most famous sermon in all of history, Yeshua said, “So if you are offering your gift at the Temple altar and you remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift where it is by the altar, and go, make peace with your brother. Then come back and offer your gift.” Matthew 5:23-24 This was a radical concept, as most Israelites did not live in Jerusalem where the Temple was located. This idea meant that depending on where the person they needed to make restitution to lived, it could be a several days walk one way. It meant having to die to self, to humble oneself, to have a chastened heart and broken spirit. To offer or to be given mercy.
We should be following Yeshua’s words today, just as they were given at the time of the Sermon on the Mount. How often do we come to the altar, bringing our offering of worship, yet the grain if full of leaven, or made of a lesser flour instead of fine flour, all because we do not look inside ourselves first. Is there someone that we should have shown mercy to rather than condemned? Is there someone that we have hurt that we need to apologize and ask forgiveness of? Is there someone who has come to us, seeking restitution and we rejected them? Compassion and mercy. When you look at the Father’s heart, that is what you will see. In His compassion and mercy, He gave His only Son as the ultimate sacrifice, to eradicate sin and to cast it as far as the east is from the west. How much more should we who have been forgiven much extend that forgiveness to others, or to humble ourselves before others.
The chorus for the worship song, The Heart of Worship says, “I’m coming back to the heart of worship, and it’s all about you, it’s all about you, Jesus. I’m sorry Lord for the thing I’ve made it, when it’s all about you, it’s all about you, Jesus.” It is time that we are real with ourselves and ask the question, is it really about Him, or something else and we’re convincing ourselves otherwise? Like the grain offering, we voluntarily bring our worship to Him, but it has to be in spirit and truth. It has to be with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, it has to be made from a heart of compassion and mercy for others, just as He is compassionate and merciful to us. It has to be all about Yeshua, Jesus, with nothing of ourselves in the way, no leaven in our hearts, only the fine flour that is pure and true. Create in me a clean heart, God; renew in me a resolute spirit. Psalm 51:12(10)
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