The Grain Offering Explained: How Christ’s Life Becomes Our Strength | Leviticus 2

Who gives the grain? We give the grain. We give the grain. Who do we give it to? We give it to the Lord. Yes, praise the Lord. Now then, is manna a gift? Yes. From whom to whom? God to us. Is it free? Does it grow in the ground? No, no, no. Where does it come from? What about the grain? Who gives the grain? We do…the land. No, that’s true, but we, we bring it in the time of the meeting, and who do we give it to? Is it a gift? Is it a free gift? No. What did you do to get that grain, brother? You worked on the ground to get it. It’s free to the Lord. It’s free to the Lord. Yes, it is a gift to the Lord, but it was not a gift to us. We labored on the land to produce it. We got a gift from heaven, and we just took it, and it was from God. Here we have something to give to God we labor on. And to whom do we give it? To the Lord. He gives us a gift; we haven’t earned it, but here is something that we have labored on, and we give it to God.

Now, what are the works? What is the original source of the grain? The earth. What is the original source of manna? The heavens. Now, can you see the difference? One is from heaven, one is from earth. One’s a gift from God. One is the labor we give to God. They differ in every respect.

Now then, I want to ask you, which is more of value, the manna or the grain of bread? The grain. Why? The manna was given for where? Where was the grain coming from? From the land. The land in Israel. And where is it taken to? To the temple, to the temple, or to the tent. Now, are you getting it? Praise the Lord.

I think if you just took a poll right here and said, “Is something more important coming from heaven or from earth?” I think most people would say heaven, wouldn’t they? I would tell you that the more important is from the earth; it is from the earth,  and it is for the house, it is in the house, it’s for the house, and it’s to the Lord.

Well, I want you to get a little impressed that we labor to give this one to the Lord. We have an experience to give it to the Father, to God. We have to labor to do it. Now then, you aren’t required, but I tell you, you really aren’t required, but I think you miss a lot. One day in East Texas, I was driving past a community. I stopped at a man’s house to see him, and I saw something I had never seen in all my life in East Texas, never once. I saw a cornfield, and the corn was up about that high, and the entire cornfield was covered in weeds. The farmers worked hard to get rid of the weeds, so hard that you just never saw a field with weeds in it. I don’t know if any of you have ever chopped weeds out of a corn or a cotton patch. I have. We would go out there, and we’d chop them down the moment they came up. But I just looked at that cornfield and realized that that man was going to get absolutely no harvest whatsoever, because he hadn’t taken his hoe out there and worked the land, and the grass, the weeds, were absolutely killing the corn. There was no hope that corn would come up.

Well, I’ll tell you something: when harvest time came, all those other farmers had something, and it was joyous, and it was valuable. He didn’t have anything because he didn’t work the land. Now, you don’t have to work the land, brothers and sisters. It’s really optional. But when the harvest time comes, you’ve got two options: starve or borrow. And neither one of them, neither one of them is fun…no, the joy of seeing the crop come up. Praise the Lord. So, brothers and sisters, it’s our privilege to bring something into the house of the Lord.

Alright, we need very briefly…I’m just, I’m just going to make this so quick. What is the grain offering? What is, what is the grain offering? Oh, yes, it’s the Lord Jesus Christ. But how is it the Lord Jesus Christ? The fruit of the Spirit, yes. His life worked in ours. Alright, that’s getting much closer. Alright, I will try to make it really clear to you. Brothers and sisters, we come to the meeting and bring something that has come up out of the earth and grown. There are three aspects to this offering: the grain that came up out of the earth, the oil, and the frankincense.

Okay, brothers and sisters, the first aspect of this offering, the vegetable life, is something sown into the earth that came up that speaks to us of the Lord in His humanity. Christ was sown into the earth, and He’s come up. He is that man who came up. In John 1, you get the Lamb, that’s the burnt offering. In John twelve, you get the grain that’s come up. This is the vegetable offering. But one speaks of the Lord’s humanity.

There is something in John 11 that’s very, very interesting. In the first part of that chapter, if you will read it, you will see the vegetable life of the Lord Jesus Christ. You will see Him as a grain. Two things in that chapter are very interesting. First, Jesus Christ is very joyful. Second, Jesus Christ weeps. He starts out joyful; He ends up weeping.

Well, what is that? You referenced something like this tonight. Sister Laura brought a grain offering tonight. She doesn’t realize she did. Sister Laura, what is this? In chapter eleven, Jesus is joyful, and then He weakens. It’s the reality…no, it’s the realness of the life of the Lord. It’s His pure humanity, something very, very real. I’m gonna use a strange word. It’s the honesty of Jesus Christ. You know, it is, it is pure humanity.

A dear Chinese brother, whom I heard speak four, five hundred, maybe several thousand times, said, “We must be “Jesusly” human.” He could come up with strange statements sometimes. We must be “Jesusly” human. “Jesusly” human. I don’t know if you can get that, but when a group of people can come in together, and they can see humanity, and they can really say, “Boy, those folks, you know, those are just ordinary folks; they’re real.” And yet they realize something so different among the people. May the Lord give us not only a grain offering, but a grain feast. Brothers and sisters who have really experienced the very human Lord Jesus, a triumphant humanity, nonetheless a humanity.

I’m not suggesting that everybody go out tonight or tomorrow, get a basketball, and start playing so you can be just real, common, and human. I would come back to my brother’s term “Jesusly” human. It is very difficult for me to explain what I want to say, but when the church gathers, the Lord’s strong humanity is seen in the offering.