Hey, Wait A Minute

Leviticus 2: 1 – 16

Hey, wait a minute

2 ‘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. 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. 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. 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. 5 But if your offering is a grain offering baked in a pan, it shall be of fine flour, unleavened, mixed with oil. 6 You shall break it in pieces and pour oil on it; it is a grain offering. 7 ‘If your offering is a grain offering baked in a covered pan, it shall be made of fine flour with oil. 8 You shall bring the grain offering that is made of these things to the LORD. And when it is presented to the priest, he shall bring it to the altar. 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. 10 And what is left of the grain offering shall be Aaron’s and his sons’. It is most holy of the offerings to the LORD made by fire. 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. 12 as for the offering of the first fruits, you shall offer them to the LORD, but they shall not be burned on the altar for a sweet aroma. 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. 14 ‘If you offer a grain offering of your first fruits 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.

I am sure you have used the term, ‘Hey, wait a minute.’ So what does this statement mean? People often use expressions such as wait a minute or just a minute when they want to stop you doing or saying something.

We learned from the start of our Bibles that Abel brought God an offering from his flock and it was accepted yet Cain brought a sacrifice to God from the harvest of crops and fruit and it was rejected. Now we come to the book of Leviticus and one of the acceptable offerings seems to be the same that Cain brought. So, we naturally get the statement, ‘Hey, wait a minute, how come this is now okay yet it wasn’t when Cain seems to have brought the same for his offering?

This question comes from Genesis 4.3-7 where Cain, the firstborn of Eve and Adam, takes an offering of his crops to the Lord and Abel took a first-born lamb. God accepted Abel's offering, but not Cain's. In the course of the story Cain becomes angry and was apparently saddened, but God offers no explanation of why the offering wasn't accepted. Instead God says to Cain, "Why are you angry, and why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted?" (Genesis 4.6-7). In the end, Cain's anger and jealousy gets the best of him and he murders his brother Abel.

So, why was Cain's offering not acceptable? You see in truth Cain’s offering and the first fruit offerings which our Holy Lord God accepts are not the same.

We turn to both the Old and the New Testaments to find our answer. Cain and his deed is mentioned three other times in the Bible, outside of the Genesis story.

The writer of Hebrews in chapter 11 verse 4 attributes Cain's lack of faith as the reason for God's rejection of the offering. 4 By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and through it he being dead still speaks.