Before we consider the humanity of Jesus in Luke, I feel that we still need to consider the appreciation of the meal offering in different degrees. We mentioned in the last chapter the different appreciations of the Lord Jesus as the burnt offering and the meal offering. In each of these two offerings, there are three degrees. With the burnt offering there is the bullock, the sheep or goat, and the turtledove or pigeon. This does not mean that there are only three kinds of appreciations of Jesus as the burnt offering. It simply means that there are many different degrees. Some are higher, some are lower, and some are between.
When we come to the meal offering, there are also three degrees of appreciation of the Lord Jesus. There is something out of the oven, something out of the pan, and something out of the frying pan. We all know what an oven is. It is an enclosed container for cooking or baking. It is entirely enclosed, unlike the pan, which is open at the top. Yet the pan is deeper than the frying pan, which is the most open and shallow. All of these different cooking utensils signify differing degrees of suffering. The suffering in the oven is the greatest. It is the deepest and most hidden. It seems that nothing is going on, but something is suffered in a hidden way.
In the pan, the suffering is not so hidden or deep. It is rather open to everybody. And the frying pan is even more shallow. Thus, we can see the suffering in these three kinds of cooking utensils. But we must realize that there is no difference with the Lord Jesus Himself; the difference is only in our appreciation, in our apprehension and understanding. How much we appreciate the Lord’s suffering depends on how much we apprehend it. The appreciation comes out of our apprehension.
The cakes and the wafers in the oven are the most definite in form. Paul mentions in Galatians 4:19 that Christ must be formed in us. The cakes and wafers have a definite form. In the pan the fine flour is soaked and mingled with oil and divided into four portions. It is inferior in form to the cakes and wafers in the oven, but it is not inferior in substance. The substance is the same as the cakes and wafers, but the form is not as definite or full. In the frying pan, the third category, there is just some fine flour and a little bit of oil. It has almost no form. Nor does it say that the flour is mingled with the oil, but just that the fine flour is with the oil.
These three degrees should not be a mere doctrine to us. We must put these things into practice. I do believe that we have brought something of Christ as the meal offering to the tent of meeting. But there is the matter of degree. Is what we bring to the meeting definite in form and with the greatest suffering? Or is it just a little of Christ, not having such a definite form, and with only fine flour and a little oil from the frying pan. When I was young in the Lord, I appreciated Him so much. But now when I look back, I realize that my appreciation of the Lord at that time was just the meal offering baked in the frying pan. There was no form and not much suffering. By the Lord’s mercy, I do believe that today I have some appreciation of the Lord as the cakes and wafers in the oven. It is definite in form and with a greater suffering.
Whenever we come to the church meetings, we must come with something of Christ as the meal offering, and some of the more mature ones must come with a meal offering baked in the oven. Some of the younger ones will bring something of Christ as the meal offering from the frying pan. It is still good. We all must bring something of Christ to the meetings as the meal offering. We will present this as a kind of present to God to constitute the proper worship to Him in the meetings.
Strictly speaking, among today’s Christians, there is the service, the work, the preaching, and the teaching, but there is almost no worship. The worship that God desires is that the people of God would bring the very Christ whom they have experienced in their daily life. Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy were all written about the worship to God, but there is hardly a word telling us to bow down and prostrate ourselves before the Lord.
Home | First | Prev | Next