The Grain Offering Series

Now when I say higher quality what I am referring to is that you would make things from fine flour that were used for more exquisite purposes.

I talked to some chefs this week, women who are really good with food in our church. I think they are chefs.

I said, “What would I use fine flour for?”

They said, “If you are making like a really nice pastry, if you are going to make a really nice cake.”

And so it takes a lot of time in that culture it took a lot of time to really make this flour the kind that would not be course or, as one of the ladies told me, have the look of like flax seed.

So they took a lot of time. They ground their flour. They ground their grain. They brought it... the Bible then next says that they would then pour oil on it and put frankincense on it.

Now here is probably what that looked like because the Bible says that they would bring a lot of the stuff so they might bring some fine flour. Olive oil was probably pretty preva-lent. They would bring this and they would pour the oil on it. Now they probably didn’t have the Tupperware in that day and age, but we will just go with the analogy, won’t, we, people, right?

Work with me here. Thank you very much.

Then it says they would put frankincense. I had a… here it is. More than likely what this refers to is they would bring the frankincense in some kind of flask or perhaps some kind of pottery piece. No I don’t know if they actually poured it on there. There is indication they could have. They may have just laid the frankincense on there.

But regardless they put all the frankincense, but out of this offering the priest would then reach in... I am not going to do this part. He would reach in. He would grab a handful of the flour and of the oil. He would grab it all. Or as you guys say up here oil. He would grab all of this...

I saw you grinning there earlier. I know what you were thinking.

Man, I never heard the word oil. Well, it is word, Trust me.

He would reach in. He would grab a handful of this and he would throw it on the brazen altar and it would... all of it would be consumed. There would still be some left, though. And with what was left he would take and it would be used to cook for him and his sons. That is what they would use to make their bread, how they would make their food.

And so in this offering, unlike the whole burnt offering, all of it was cooked. In this offering the priest would grab a handful, throw it on the altar. It would be consumed. He would keep the rest and use it to make food for himself and his sons, that is if they brought it as an uncooked grain offering.

Now there were some other things that happened in this offering. I think that the priest probably added salt to it. They did put frankincense on it. All these things were part of the requirement as you read it in verses one through three.

Let’s finish that text, can we?

It says he has fine flour and oil and all of this frankincense and the priest shall burn this as its memorial portion on the altar.

That is a key phrase because memorial speaks of remembering something.