|
Forum
 |
Adding
Spice To Your Ecclesial Life,
The recipe for success |
|
|
|
| Amanap |
| Posted:
Apr 2 2003, 01:01 AM |
|
|
Archived
Post
|
The
meat offering consisted of 3 ingredients - flour,
oil and frankincense (Leviticus 2:1), was not to
have any leaven or honey (v11) and was to be seasoned
with salt (v13).
What does it all mean?
It is significant that the 3 ingredients of the
meat offering are also:
The main ingredient for the table of shewbread =
flour
The main ingredient for the lampstand = oil
The main ingredient for the altar of incense = frankincense
These 3 items of furniture made up the holy place
in the tabernacle. This represents those who have
been baptized (the laver) into the sacrifice of
Christ (the altar of burnt offering) and entered
into the ecclesia.
So the meat offering represents our work of service
in the fellowship of the ecclesia: - the breaking
of bread (table of shewbread), Bible study (lampstand)
and prayer (altar of incense).
An example of the outworking of the meat offering
is in Acts 2:41-42 where the disciples of Christ
continued in the apostle's doctrine (oil), fellowship
(holy place), breaking of bread (flour) and prayer
(frankincense).
On the day this started it says that 3000 were baptized,
a contrast with the 3000 killed in Exodus 32:28.
Why did it happen? Because the ecclesial meat offering
had gone bad!
Corruption had set in to their worship (v1,4-7)
and it was up to the Levites to stand up for the
Truth (v26). The Levites were the workers in the
tabernacle and we need to keep offering our meat
offering in order to counter this falsehood.
We don't want corruption to set in to the ecclesia,
but how do you avoid it? The answer is in the extra
ingredient of the meat offering, salt. This is a
preserver and something that will keep the flavour
of our ecclesial lives.
Matthew 5:13-16 describes our lives in the truth
by exhorting us not to lose the salt. We can't
afford to lose the stuff that adds flavour to our
lives in the Truth. If we do then we will end up
like the Israelites in Exodus 32, involved in a
religion that appeals to the flesh.
Dont lose the salt!
What preserves and adds flavour to our ecclesial
lives?
The context of the mention of salt in Matthew is
that of letting your light shine before men. Colossians
4:2-6 also speaks of salt in the context of preaching.
Without preaching our lives in the truth can be
dull we go to meeting, we do readings, we pray
etc. It can become nothing more than ritual. But
when you get out there and preach your life suddenly
has flavour and it preserves you in the Truth!
Why no leaven or honey in the meat offering?
Leaven in Matthew 16:11-12 is associated with the
false doctrine of the Pharisees - legalism, that
which puffs up.
Honey in Proverbs 5:3-4 is said to be smoother than
oil (i.e. in the meat offering) i.e. the false
doctrine of the strange woman is more palatable
than true doctrine, at least for the flesh.
Sound doctrine in the ecclesia is of vital importance!
We need to avoid both sides of false doctrine -
legalism and paganism.
So false teachers are likened to strange women
they flatter, seduce and tempt others into sin
false doctrine is good for the flesh.
For example, in I Samuel 2:12-17 the sons of Eli
abhorred the meat offering. There is an echo here
with Genesis 6:5,11 in the context of Genesis 6:2
where the ecclesia was seduced by worldly women.
In I Samuel 2:22 the sons of Eli lay with the women
at the door of the tabernacle. False doctrine was
rife.
In I Samuel 2:27-30 Eli is reprimanded for his and
his sons' treatment of the meat offering. They
had despised their ecclesial duties and made them
of little importance. Flour, oil and incense had
become too dull for them, they had lost the salt,
and they were full of leaven and honey.
In Isaiah 6:9-10 we have an echo with Eli - too
fat, blind and deaf to the things of God. But Isaiah
was different, he was like Samuel in verse 8 where
he was encouraged to go and preach by saying "here
am I". His life was seasoned with salt. May ours
be too. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
