“Its meal offering shall be two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mingled with oil as an offering by fire to Jehovah for a satisfying fragrance” (Lev. 23:13a). This signifies the resurrected Christ as our meal offering mingled with the anointing Spirit, offered to God as food in His resurrection as a fragrance for God’s satisfaction.
The resurrected Christ is first our burnt offering and then our meal offering. As the burnt offering, Christ is for us to live a life that is absolutely for God. As the meal offering, Christ supplies us, supports us, and strengthens us to live such an absolute life for God.
Christ was crucified and buried, and then on the third day He rose from among the dead. With this resurrected One some Old Testament saints were resurrected. I believe that this is a sign indicating that all who believe in Him will one day be resurrected. The resurrected Christ has become a burnt offering that includes all His believers, who may now live a life that is absolutely for God. Christ has also become a meal offering mingled with oil, which signifies the Holy Spirit. Actually, in His resurrection Christ Himself became this Spirit. The fine flour in the meal offering is also Christ Himself. He was a grain (John 12:24), but He was finely ground into fine flour which is mingled with oil to become the meal offering, which is the life supply to support us to live a life that is absolutely for God.
With the burnt offering and the meal offering there was the drink offering of wine (Lev. 23:13b). This signifies the resurrected Christ in His human life who lived absolutely for God and was poured out on the cross, offered to God in His resurrection for God’s enjoyment.
On the cross Christ was not only crucified; He was also poured out. He was crucified as the sin offering, the trespass offering, the burnt offering, and the peace offering, but He was poured out as the drink offering, as the wine poured out before God for His satisfaction. Christ included us when He was crucified and also when He was poured out. In Christ we all were poured out to God as a drink offering. Today we have to live a life as a burnt offering that is absolutely for God. This life is supported by the meal offering as our daily food. Meanwhile, since God is One who enjoys drinking, we should also be a drink offering poured out for God’s drinking. Such a drink offering is altogether for God’s enjoyment to be our enjoyment with Him and with one another.
“And you shall eat neither bread nor roasted grain nor fresh ears until that same day, until you have brought the offering of your God; it shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations wherever you dwell” (v. 14). This signifies that the resurrected Christ ascended to the heavens and was offered to God with all the fruit in His resurrection as God’s food for God’s satisfaction first. Then He became man’s supply for man’s satisfaction.
The resurrected Christ, the fresh Christ in His resurrection, was first to be enjoyed by God. This is the firstfruits, and the firstfruits are for God’s enjoyment. Then the resurrected Christ becomes our enjoyment with God and with one another.
The feast of the Passover, the feast of unleavened bread, and the feast of firstfruits all took place within about three days. Christ was crucified on the Passover, and, within three days, He was resurrected on the day of the feast of firstfruits. Between the feast of the Passover and the feast of firstfruits, the feast of unleavened bread began. Therefore, all three of these feasts took place within the time of the Lord’s death and resurrection. Through His death and resurrection we now enjoy the feast of Passover, the feast of unleavened bread, and the feast of firstfruits. As we shall see in the next message, we still need the feast of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit was poured out from the heavens for the completion of our New Testament Christian feast. We enjoy Christ in His death, we enjoy Christ in His resurrection, and we enjoy Christ in His being poured out from the heavens as the economical Spirit of God.
These four feasts are constituted of Christ’s death, Christ’s resurrection, and Christ’s being poured out as the economical Spirit of God. These feasts have become our enjoyment, and we are keeping them continually. We Christians are always having festivals for the enjoyment of Christ in His death, in His resurrection, and in His being poured out from the heavens as the economical Spirit.
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