God needs food to satisfy His hunger, and the burnt offering according to divine revelation is not just a kind of sacrifice, but food for God. Leviticus 3:11, speaking of the burnt offering, says, “And the priest shall burn it upon the altar: it is the food of the offering made by fire unto the Lord.” This verse, along with Leviticus 21:6, 8, 21, and 22, shows us that the burnt offering is food for God. God is hungry and needs to be satisfied. So we must provide the burnt offering for His food.
All the different offerings are not only for our enjoyment, but also for God’s enjoyment. They are a kind of mutual enjoyment. God enjoys all the offerings, and we enjoy them too. All the offerings are types of the different aspects of Christ. Christ is so rich; He has so many aspects. Such a rich Christ is a mutual enjoyment both to God and to us. Thus, Leviticus is not merely a book of law, but a book of enjoyment.
The first offering, which is the burnt offering, is for God’s enjoyment. There is only a small portion for our enjoyment, that is, the skin for the priest who presents the burnt offering to God. Most of the burnt offering is for God’s food, but still there is a small part for our covering. The burnt offering is not for us to eat, but to put on. It is God’s enjoyment, but it is our covering. We have no right to enjoy Christ as the burnt offering for our food; it is God’s food. But there is a little part for our covering. The more we present Christ as enjoyment to God, the more we are in Christ and covered with Him. The more Christ becomes God’s enjoyment through our presentation, the more Christ becomes our covering. Eventually, all that others can see of us is Christ. The skin of the burnt offering has become our covering, and we have become one with the burnt offering.
There are eight points that we must see concerning the burnt offering. The first is that God is waiting for His food in the tent of meeting. God does not purchase the food, nor does He grow the food by Himself. God is in the tent of meeting, waiting for His food. If there is no one to labor on the good land and no one to present the surplus of the riches of the land in the tent of meeting, there is no way for God to obtain His food. How much God depends upon us and our labor on the good land! He is depending on our presentation of the surplus of the riches of the good land for His food.
We must realize that God has been hungry for centuries because many Christians have not known how to labor on Christ as the good land. They simply have not known that whenever they meet, they should bring something of Christ to God. They have known how to have a so-called Christian service, but they have not known how to bring the surplus of the riches of Christ to God as the burnt offering. They have known how to fast and cry to God for His mercy. Their prayers were mainly, “O God be merciful to us and send a great revival.” They simply have not known how to bring the riches of Christ to God as His food.
But praise the Lord that in these last few years He has shown us this very thing. We no longer need to meet in that poor way of fasting, crying, and weeping. We may meet in a joyful way, coming together with the very Christ whom we experience day by day. We have a surplus of this rich Christ, because we have been laboring on Him as the good land all day long. Why do we have the morning watch? Just for laboring on Christ! Why do we call on the name of the Lord? Just to labor on Him! Why do we feast on Him in the Word all the day? Simply for laboring on Him! Christ is our good land, and we labor on Him all the day. Then when we come to the meeting in the tent of meeting, we have something of Christ to present to God. God is really hungry. He is looking forward to the meetings to receive some food. Our meeting together is not just to set up a table among ourselves, but to set up a table for God.
Many Christians are always trying to get something from God. However, in the tent of meeting, the first thing which we must present is the burnt offering, not for our enjoyment, but for God’s enjoyment. We must satisfy God with the very Christ upon whom we have labored. This is far from the concept of most Christians. They are always looking to God for something, but they never have anything to present to God as food. We must labor on Christ that we may have something of His surplus to bring to God when we come to the tent of meeting. We can then present the burnt offering to Him for His food.
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