OFFERING

"For I am ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand." (2 Timothy 4.6)

In the last letter we briefly examined WORSHIP and perhaps the cited scripture seems a bit unusual to use as a point of departure for further exploration of the same topic. It's a statement by Paul, made as he neared the end of his earthly journey and is especially applicable to us as we come to the end of our own self-life, seeking to GIVE OURSELVES IN WORSHIP and praise to our LORD and Saviour. This desire for complete surrender of self in worship indicates that we long for an ever-increasing flow of His life through us, for a ONENESS IN CHRIST -- to HIS praise and glory.

A better translation of the cited scripture is, "For I already am being poured out, and the time of my departure has arrived."

The word "offered" used in the passage is in the Greek "spendo", used only twice in the New Testament. It means "to be poured out" -- and is used by Paul in Philippians 2.17 where he says, "But if indeed I am poured out on the sacrifice...". Both of these statements are used in reference to the Old Covenant "drink offering", which was poured out before the LORD.

For further survey of the type and shadow of this drink offering and meat (grain) offering (they are always offered together) let's read, first, Joel 1.8-10:

Mourn like a virgin in sack cloth grieving for the husband of her youth.

Grain offerings and drink offerings are cut off from the house of the LORD.

The priests are in mourning, those who minister before the LORD.

The fields are ruined, the grain is dried up;

The grain is destroyed, the new wine is dried up, the oil fails.

(NIV)

A sad state of affairs, indeed, but one that should be familiar to present churchanity!

Praise and worship are departed and the priests are in mourning. Fruitfulness has ceased -- corn, wine, and oil are utterly depleted. There is no flow of worship and no return blessing from the LORD. What horrid bleakness -- all wasted, all dried-up, languishing, mourning -- despair quite like the present lukewarm, social-issue oriented, man-controlled church of this era.

But the situation was not then, and is not now, to remain that way, because His promise is given, and His WORD is sure:

Be not afraid, O land;

be glad and rejoice.

Surely the LORD has done great things...

The threshing floors will be filled with grain;

the vats will overflow with new wine and oil.

I will repay you for the years the locust has eaten --

the great locust and the young locust,

the other locusts and the locust swarm --

MY great army that I sent among you.

You will have plenty to eat until you are full,

and you will praise the name of the LORD your God,

who has worked wonders for you;

Never again will my people be shamed.

(Joel 2.21,24-26, NIV, N.B.:"MY great army)

Victory! Restoration! Truly the end of every step of our processing is one of great victory and a tremendous flow of His grace and provision. HE IS ALWAYS TOTALLY VICTORIOUS.

Let's now drop back a few verses and pick up the sequence of His working. This utter desolation and emptiness is a process God used to turn man back to Himself.

"Even now", declares the LORD,

"return to me with all your heart,

with fasting and weeping and mourning."

Rend you heart

and not your garments.

Return to the LORD your GOD,

for He is gracious and compassionate,

slow to anger and abounding in love,

and He relents from sending calamity.

Who knows? He may turn and have pity

and leave behind a blessing --

grain offerings and drink offerings

for the LORD your GOD.

(Joel 2.12-14, NIV)

We are commanded to turn to Him with this great, God-given, rending of our heart, no longer to rend the superficial garments of play-church self-worship! No longer is He interested in our outward signs and symbols, our flesh-actions, our howling and moaning. He wants (and will get) the deep contriteness of heart, a true inner surrender to Him, as He breaks up the deep of our being so that there will flow from our hearts that worship and praise due Him.

The results of this inworking grace and the correction of His judgements upon us is that He imparts His blessings, until there shall be a grain and drink offering that we return to Him.

Clearly, "We love Him, because He first loved us." (1 John 4.19). It's His LOVE which motivated all the chastenings which brought us to that place where we first "gave up" and turned to the SAVIOUR. It's His LOVE which now imparts those wonderful blessings which enables us to in turn give back an offering to HIM.

The Holy Spirit asks, "What hast thou that thou didst not receive?" (1 Corinthians 4.7). Truly, "A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven." (John 3.27). All that we are, all that we shall ever be, all that we have to give, IS FROM HIM. Without Him we are nothing, and we have nothing. But, -- as His mercy abounds towards us, He supplies us with the glorious "grain and drink offering" which we then offer back to Him with love from our enlivened hearts.

In John 17.1 we read that Jesus prayed, "Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you." In the measure that He imparts His glory to us, we can then return to Him -- a pouring out of praise and worship which He seeks. When we can say with the Psalmist, in spirit and in truth, "Bless the LORD, O my soul: and ALL that is within me, bless His holy name," then we can know that our entire being is ready to be POURED OUT AN OFFERING TO HIM. But there must first be a becoming, a wholeness, an inward perfection, which is the very CHRIST in us. THEN such a libation is acceptable.

In Psalm 49.18 we have an absolute contrast to the total surrender cited in the preceding paragraph: "All men will praise thee, when thou doest well to thyself." As long as man places his own self-interests first, as long as he just "looks out for old numero uno" and whips off on his intermittent ego-trips, saying, perhaps, "I will ascend above the heights of the clouds" (Isaiah 14.14) -- the higher he goes the more the world will praise him. He may be esteemed successful, be envied and admired -- even worshipped -- BUT -- it's all vanity. THERE IS NOTHING IN MAN'S SELF-CENTEREDNESS THAT CAN BE POURED OUT AS AN OFFERING TO OUR GOD.

Carnal man's worship is directed toward material things, vacuous ideas, magical myths of carnival spirituality and, most markedly, toward himself --; he has nothing for God. All is void, vain, worthless and he is a spiritual pauper, unable to stand before His maker.

God is purging this self-centeredness from His chosen, so that we are ready to be filled with His love and grace, and then ready to give ourselves as a drink-offering, poured out to the LORD, a sacrifice for benighted mankind.

"And the drink offering thereof is a fourth of a hin for one lamb: in the holy place shalt thou cause the strong wine to be poured unto the lord...a drink offering" (Numbers 28.7).

The type is truly beautiful. Wine has long represented the blood, and "the life of the flesh is in the blood", (Leviticus 17.11), hence the wine becomes a type of the LIFE that is poured out -- in the holy place.

The word "holy" in the scripture cited above is in the Hebrew/Chaldee "Kodesh", an adjective meaning "consecrated", "dedicated", "hallowed" -- and modifies the word "place" -- whereon the libation is to be offered. This tells us of a place in our walk with God that is totally separated from the fleshly working of our selfhood -- a place unto which God's processing has brought us.

Further, this life is poured out "unto the LORD". Whatever He does with this offering as He receives it (which we first receive from Him) is of His working -- not poured out to things, places, projects -- but TO THE LORD. A principle far too often forgotten is, "whatever ye do, do it heartily, as TO THE LORD, and NOT UNTO MEN". (Colossians 3.23).

During man's sojourn here Our LORD provides places, situations, and circumstances where the self-life may need to be laid down, whether it be for husband, for wife, for parents, for children, friends, neighbors or country, natural love will enable one to give himself for them to a certain degree, but it takes the LIFE OF CHRIST WITHIN to empower man to lay down his life when the requirements are more than what human love and compassion can attain. Often, if 'self-sacrifice" is for family, children, or neighbors such actions are easily converted to a sort of super-saintly-martyrdom and usually results in pride, a sort of self-beatification, which is a gross misstep -- BUT -- when one is POURED OUT UNTO THE LORD, this spirit of defilement is evaded.

Laying down one's self-life unto the LORD will be found a peerless and definitive form of WORSHIP -- for it debases self, gives ALL to Him, and acknowledges His absolute Lordship and Sovereignty.

It is written of Our LORD at Isaiah 53.12:

Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong,

because he poured out his life unto death,

and was numbered among the transgressors.

(NIV, my emphasis).

When Jesus of Nazareth, very God, offered Himself, poured out His life -- it brought death to Himself and it brought LIFE to the world. When we come to that place of ONENESS IN HIM, in the true ministry of intercession, where we stand, as it were, between God and man, it will mean the pouring out of our life.

"So, then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you", Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4.12. The virtue of God's life flowing out of us and into mankind will nourish HIS new life in them.

Jesus Christ died, gave His life, and through His death He has imparted His life into His firstfruits company -- His seed company. This seed comes now to the place of pouring out their life UNTO GOD, which shall result in others coming into His life and victory. I'm not writing about "physical death", though that may be the plan for some in God's great scheme of reconciliation. But there is a GIVING OVER of the soul life, a complete surrender of the will, where every thought, intent, imagination -- the entire intellect is given to Christ and swallowed up into His mind. All of our emotions and impulses are poured out to the Lord -- and then the birthing of a new creation begins, becomes, i.e., comes to fulfillment in Him.

There was a time when the Philistines held Bethlehem, and David longed for water saying, "'Oh, that someone would get me a drink of water from the well near the gate of Bethlehem!' So the Three broke through the Philistines' lines, drew water from the well near the gate of Bethlehem and carried it back to David. But he refused to drink it; instead, he poured it out before the LORD. 'God forbid that I should do this!' he said. 'Should I drink the blood of these men who went at the risk of their lives?' Because they risked their lives to bring it back, David would not drink it." (1 Chronicles 11.18-19, NIV).

David wouldn't drink, for the satisfaction of his flesh, this water which had been brought to him at the risk of men's lives. He poured out his thirst, his carnal appetite, with the water -- his longing mingled with the water, poured out unto the LORD -- a drink offering to GOD. We might well ask the question asked in Matthew 26.8, "Why this waste?" concerning the woman who poured the box of precious ointment on Jesus' head.

How often have YOU felt that the "pouring out" of your life has been a waste? Separated from all else, poured out only unto the LORD and no one else sees it. Others cannot drink and be refreshed; others can't be encouraged -- and it seems to be selfish exclusion. But -- it is POURED OUT UNTO THE LORD and BY NO MEANS WASTED. Every life poured out in worship of OUR LORD, though isolated from others, with no apparent ministry, is gathered in that golden censer (vial) of God (see Revelation 5.8) to await His further use. HE receives it to Himself. He desires our worship -- in spirit and in truth.

There will come a time in His plan when all the prayers and poured out lives of His chosen shall be poured out on the earth -- and bring LIFE to the dead earth and the somnolent "church".

The mountebanks who profess to lead our present decadent churchdom have taught man to esteem his "service" to others more valuable than the simple time of aloneness when worship and praise are poured out to God. Whether the "church militant" disguised as Jesuits or as the evangelico-do-goody-and-go-to-heaven fundamentalists, or the stuffed-shirt quasi-intellectuals of the Georgian brick and paper collar establishments -- all have demanded that we "do something for God" -- preferably something that is newsworthy and money producing.

What can man possibly do for God?!? Think about it! Even the "great" philosopher B. Spinoza realized nothing can be done for or to God, nothing can be added or taken away from Him, and it's apparent from his writings that he had never been called to meet Jesus Christ. (His time will come.)

There is no waste in any offering that is GIVEN TO HIM. As we worship Him in spirit and truth, whether alone in our home, in the field, walking, sitting -- whatever -- our life is laid down to Him -- a life we received from Him. Though these offerings are unrecognized by those demanding the mundane from us -- He sees and receives.

Along with the drink offering is the grain offering, the two combining to make a complete offering to the LORD.

"When someone brings a grain offering to the LORD, his offering is to be of fine flour. He is to pour oil on it, put incense on it..." (Leviticus 2.1,NIV).

"Every grain offering you bring to the LORD must be made without yeast, for you are not to burn any yeast or honey in an offering made to the LORD by fire. Season all your grain offerings with salt. Do not leave the salt of the covenant of your God out of your grain offering; add salt to all your offerings." (Leviticus 2.11,13, NIV).

These are meaningful instructions concerning the grain offering and I believe it is especially significant that yeast is forbidden to be mixed with the flour and oil and incense. There's a positive application that can be made for yeast in regards to the Kingdom of Heaven being as yeast that shall work in to the whole (see Matthew 13.33 and Luke 13.21) but the use in the cited verses from Leviticus is in a NEGATIVE sense, disallowing its mixture in any offering made to the LORD "by fire". Jesus told His disciples, "...'Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.' Then they understood that He was not telling them to guard against the yeast used in bread, but against the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees" (Matthew 16.11-12,NIV).

The inworking of the Holy Spirit is required to purge us of all the dogma and presumptive precepts of man's carnality, so that that Spirit may guide us into all truth.

As we offer worship to God, as we are poured out and offered with the grain offering, there must be no yeast of religious Babylon's carnal credenda mixed in. Whether our yeast is left over from the Roman-pagan church, from the lukewarm and niggling-kneeler protestant establishment or from the snake-fondling, strident, hooting-howling brotherhood -- NO yeast is allowed. It makes our offering unacceptable.

The processing by which Our LORD purges erroneous teaching from us is astonishing! He always deals with us according to how we, individually, can bear the process -- and ALWAYS with His ineffable love undergirding the work. It's not just a constant tearing down and ripping out of the old, but a glorious inflow of His light and His enlivened truth which becomes a solid base. On that foundation we stand secure and grow in Him -- according to His time and His purpose.

"Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast -- as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the BREAD OF SINCERITY AND TRUTH." (1 Corinthians 5.7-8,NIV). Let the reader understand!!

No honey is allowed in the grain offering. Honey is sweet to the taste but also corruptible -- placed in any drink offering it would soon cause fermentation and rottenness. And burning it doesn't improve its odor.

Now, honey is made by bees extracting the sweetness from the nectar of flowers and fruit blooms, and SELF also most times wants to extract the "sweetness" of what carnality calls "life", and leave the "bitterness" of discipline lay. But in God there is a balance, and He controls all the interplay of good and evil, so that "sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof" (Matthew 6.34).

There must be salt on our offering. Salt purifies, preserves, heals, and makes the offering more savory. In one place we are admonished, "Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt." (Colossians 4.6). "Salt", to the heathen meant "wit", or even to use a cruder, more earthy expression -- "his language was salty". But the child of God's speech is to be seasoned with wisdom, prudence,and that which is pleasing to our LORD. This takes on an added depth of meaning when we consider our words and manner of speaking found in our worship and our praise to Him who IS. An honest flow from our heart in spirit and truth is pleasing to our LORD, but I doubt that He is pleased with a "pouring out" of fancy phrases, platitudes, or vain liturgical palinoia.

"You are the salt of the earth", said Jesus (Matthew 5.13). Each of us has a specific God-given personality, which, when fully controlled by God's spirit brings flavor, purification and continuity to the whole. As we worship our LORD and pour ourselves out as an offering to be used by Him, we are a unique addition to the corporate offering of the Son-Company.

In this day when many of our staunchest members of the congregation prefer to make a financial contribution rather than to get personally involved, the Song of Deborah has special present meaning. "...when the people WILLINGLY offered THEMSELVES, Praise the LORD" (Judges 5.2, NIV). To give ourselves wholly to Our God requires a deep personal commitment to Him alone, and to worship Him thus with ALL WE ARE becomes an acceptable sacrifice.

"Put incense on it." This incense spoken of here is what is usually translated "frankincense" in the King James Translation and is the gum extracted from a shrub common in Arabia. It burns with a bright and strong flame, not easily extinguished. It was used by the Israelites in temple service and was considered an emblem of prayer. In its purest sort its flame is reported to be "pure, bright, and pellucid". Its full fragrance, brightness and transparency can only be brought to perfection by burning. God's fire of holiness tries us, as it tried Jesus of Nazareth, and in doing so purifies us and brings us to that place in worship that delights our LORD. This is the incense of Revelation 8. 3-4, although with a different Greek name. (See Wilson's Old Testament Word Studies).

The "frankincense" of the Old Testament was also used in embalming and in sacrificial purification. It covered the smell of burning sacrifices -- flesh -- and we need the "smell" of our fleshly life not only covered but obliterated -- and our whole sacrifice made a "sweet smelling savor to the LORD".

"He is to pour oil on it." Oil is nourishing and healing. Its nature is typical, a shadow-symbol of the work of the Holy Spirit. It was used in the anointing of the Levitical priests and is, in its Holy Spirit symbol, the anointing that separates and consecrates the present company of God's ministering Sons.

It is well that we recall it is not by might and power of the flesh (which must be crucified with Him) but by the power of the Holy Spirit, Divine Enablement, which brings victory. Jesus was bruised and ground and crushed as grain to make fine flour, but He NEVER LACKED POWER -- because of the oil.

It doesn't matter how often and how richly the grain offering has been anointed with oil -- if some yeast or honey is mixed with it, it is unacceptable. There are now, as always, those ministries poured out on the altar, retaining much of Babylon's doctrine and the yeast of personal kingdom building practices. There is a stench in the offering.

We want our worship of Him to be pure, and all of our being offered to Him to be acceptable. Hence -- the need to be purged of things which defile and pollute the offering.

The "fine flour" of the grain offering symbolizes the deepest of sufferings our LORD experienced, the grinding and bruising by the people to which He came. He was "milled" as it were by the hardness of their hearts -- but His surrender to the Father was complete and there was (and is) no limit to His self-sacrifice.

The some-times stupidity of the disciples, the rage of His enemies, the craftiness and trickiness of the religious leaders buffeted and crushed Him as the bread-corn spoken of in Isaiah 28.28,but He never wavered, because for Jesus the will of the Father was (and is) paramount.

Our emotions, our intellect, and self-love must all undergo the process of grinding and crushing, the "bruising" of the seemingly ceaseless pressures of our soul so that we become the fine flour of the offering -- NO unevenness in us.

Think of John, noted for his simple affection. He wrote much of love, yet there was a time when he contended with others as to who should be the highest in the kingdom and sit on Christ's right hand. (Matthew 20.20-21). On another occasion when he found some who wouldn't accept Jesus as the Messiah he was ready to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them. (Luke 9.54). He had not yet been milled and processed enough to be "fine flour" of the offering.

Consider Peter, a man known well for his zeal to take a place he was not able to fill. He stepped out on the water, and sank. He followed our LORD from afar, yet denied Him. Yes, Peter had his highs and lows -- because the process was not complete and he was not "fine flour". When his processings were complete, he would be ready to be offered, poured out as an offering to God who was pleased with him, but the record we have presents him in an uneven "unsifted" state.

In Jesus Christ all is EVEN and PERFECT. All His attributes are even as fine flour at its best. We have our highs and lows, our weaknesses, whether too much sympathy, too little compassion; perhaps we are too "gushy", too reserved; perhaps too shy or bashful, maybe too bold -- BUT -- God is perfecting a company of called-out Sons, a people made of "fine flour", that shall be acceptable to Him as a savory offering for the rest of creation.

How beautifully He arranges circumstances to grind us until we are to HIS LIKING -- all unevenness smoothed out, all impurities sifted away, our sharpness dulled and we are in perfect balance -- expressing HIS nature and glorifying our Matchless Redeemer.

It is HIS will -- and His will WILL BE DONE.