But I would ask you a question: Have you ever appreciated the Lord in any other way? Have you ever appreciated the Lord as a big bullock? According to the New Testament and according to the types in the Old Testament, the preciousness of Christ is not only in His being an excellent man in His humanity, but also in His being a bullock, laboring, working, sacrificing, and eventually being killed on the cross not only to satisfy God’s requirements, but also to meet our needs and to satisfy our need.
Christ was not only a fine man living an excellent human life on this earth. While He was on this earth He was also laboring and working to fulfill God’s eternal will. And after all that He did, He was brought to the cross as a bullock. However, most believers do not appreciate the Lord as such a laboring and sacrificing bullock so much as being a man so perfect and fine. But God does. Christ’s main commission was to be a bullock laboring and sacrificing for the fulfilling of God’s redemption. This made Him the biggest sacrifice with a lot of blood shed. Only such a big sacrifice for the sin offering could afford enough blood for the high priest to bring into the tabernacle, to sprinkle before the veil, and to sprinkle upon the four corners of the golden incense altar, and then to pour out the rest at the base of the burnt offering altar. A pigeon couldn’t afford that much blood for the priest to accomplish all these things.
Most Christians simply appreciate the Lord Jesus as a fine man. This means as the fine flour. He was so balanced, so gentle, so mild, so meek, so kind, so gracious. I am afraid that you have never appreciated Christ in the way of a bullock. If the Lord Jesus had only been the fine flour, how could He do the Father’s will? How could He labor and work for the fulfilling of God’s eternal plan? The grains of wheat could not be crucified on the cross. The grains had no blood to shed. With the grains of wheat there was no way to fulfill God’s purpose and no way to satisfy God’s requirement and no way to solve your problems before God. The offering had to be not fine flour, but cattle. So our appreciation must come up to a higher standard.
When we come to the meetings, especially the Lord’s table, most of our praises and thanks have been only up to the standard or to the height of the fine flour. Most of our praises and thanksgiving have only been concerning the fine humanity of the Lord Jesus. Seldom has there been adequate praise concerning the Lord’s laboring and working and being slaughtered on the cross for fulfilling God’s eternal purpose and accomplishing God’s will. We simply don’t have this kind of appreciation, so we have no cattle to offer. We have no cattle to bring to the meeting. Most of the time we only bring a handful of fine flour.
It does not mean that God doesn’t want you to offer a bullock. God wants you to, but you do not have the strength. You are not able because you have never appreciated the Lord in this way. You don’t have the appreciation, so you do not have the experience, the produce.
Today the Christians who can offer the fine flour might even be considered as the best ones. Quite a number don’t have anything to offer. In the prayer meeting and in the Lord’s table meeting perhaps only one-fifth are the praying ones. Perhaps four-fifths are the silent ones. I don’t know what the silent ones have to offer. For sure they don’t have any cattle, and perhaps they do not have even one tenth of an ephah of fine flour.
We surely need to have a revolutionary change, first in our concept, then in our appreciation, then in our experience, and then in our meetings. Daily we don’t have any appreciation of the Lord as any kind of cattle with blood to shed. So we do not experience Him in this way. Not many could offer in their experience such a big bullock or a ram or some turtledoves or pigeons. I believe that many of us are simply offering fine flour meeting after meeting. Once again I would say that the different items in these chapters are not based upon God’s requirements only. They are based also upon our appreciation and our experience of Christ.
With this as a foundation, we can understand how a tenth of an ephah of fine flour as a trespass offering could become a sin offering. That offering is not of the animal kingdom, but of the vegetable kingdom without any blood. How could this be accepted by God? God did say in His Word that without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sin (Heb. 9:22). With fine flour it is quite evident that there is no blood. If there is no blood, how could God forgive our sin?