THE PRIESTLY DIET
We must realize that the meal offering is mainly for us. Only a handful as a memorial is for God; all the remainder, the major part, is for the priests. “And the remainder of the meal offering shall be Aaron’s and his sons’” (Lev. 2:3). This is the diet of the priests. The priests feed on Christ as the meal offering day by day. We are the priests, so we must eat Christ as the meal offering for our priestly diet.
The Lord Jesus said in John 6:57, “He who eats Me shall also live because of Me.” If we eat the meal offering, we will live by this offering. We are what we eat. What we eat eventually becomes our being. If day by day we eat Christ as our meal offering, eventually we will become Christ. “For to me to live is Christ” (Phil. 1:21). It is this kind of life which is adequate to serve God in the priesthood.
God does not expect the angels to serve Him as priests. He wants human beings. We must not serve God as angels, but as men. For men to serve God is indeed wonderful, but we need the nourishment. To be in the presence of God serving Him, we need the nourishment. To be in the presence of God serving Him, we need an extraordinary diet. That is Christ as the meal offering. The more we enjoy Christ as such a diet, the more we will be nourished, qualified, strengthened, and supported to serve God in a priestly way. This is why we need to experience such a Jesus daily.
We all need to have a change in our diet. Forget about reading magazines or newspapers. We must spend more time in eating the man Jesus in the four Gospels. The humanity of Jesus will then become our real food and our daily diet. When we come to the meeting, we will be real priests serving God.
THE MINGLING OF THE OIL
With the meal offering there is the fine flour, and there is the oil. We all know that oil signifies the divine Spirit. The fine flour is Christ’s humanity, and the oil is the divine Spirit. The oil is poured upon and even mingled with the fine flour. I have been criticized in the past for using the word “mingle” to describe the mingling of divinity with humanity. But eventually I found the word here in Leviticus 2:4-5: “…fine flour unleavened, mingled with oil.” The fine flour is mingled with the oil! The humanity is mingled with the divinity. The humanity is flavored, strengthened, and watered by the divine Spirit.
John Darby was one who really knew the Bible. In his New Translation of the Bible, he points out that to mingle is more than to anoint. This word was mistranslated in Psalm 92:10 as “anoint.” It should be: “I shall be mingled with fresh oil.” We all must be mingled with the Holy Spirit. It is not just to have the Holy Spirit poured upon us, anointing us, but to have the Holy Spirit mingled with us. Christ Jesus was such a Person. When He was on the earth, He was a man fully mingled with the Holy Spirit.
THE FRAGRANCE OF FRANKINCENSE
Not only is there oil with the meal offering, but also frankincense. “And thou shalt put oil upon it, and lay frankincense thereon: it is a meal offering” (Lev. 2:15). The frankincense signifies the sweet fragrance of the manifestation of resurrection. When the Lord was on earth, whatever He did in all His activities, behavior, and conversation was always a sweet, fragrant manifestation. His deeds were not natural, but something of resurrection. Though He was not yet crucified, He was living in resurrection. Even when He was twelve, He was in the temple caring for God, behaving Himself in the way of resurrection. He never did anything according to His natural concept; He was always in the manifestation of resurrection life. It was so sweet and so fragrant. He had the real frankincense. In the Lord’s humanity, there is always the oil plus the frankincense. There is always the divine Spirit plus the fragrance of resurrection.
One day while He was speaking, He was told that His mother and brothers were looking for Him. He replied that all those who do the will of God are His mother and brothers. This was not natural, but something of resurrection. Even when He wept, He did not weep in a natural way. In His weeping there was also the fragrance of resurrection.
The fine flour signifies the humanity of Jesus, the oil signifies the divine Spirit, and the frankincense signifies the fragrance of resurrection life. This is the man Jesus: a life in humanity, mingled with the divine Spirit, and expressing something of resurrection life. This is the meal offering. Just a handful of this offering was burnt on the altar to God for His satisfaction as an eternal memorial, and the remainder, the greater part, was left for the priests. We all must learn to feed on Christ as this offering to be presented to God in the tent of meeting. We simply partake of the same Christ with God, and this will become our daily food. This food will transform us so that we have a priestly life, thus qualifying us to serve God as the priesthood.
(Christ as the Reality, Chapter 4, by Witness Lee)
