Grain Offering – A Life Prepared as Fine Flour in Christ

 

What is the Grain Offering?

Grain Offering (מִנְחָה minchah)
The Grain Offering is a sacrifice made with grain.
Although it is bloodless, it is offered with fine flour, oil, and frankincense (Lev 2:1).

It represents the fruit of labor-offering to God the result of human toil and sweat.
Though there is no shedding of blood, it is an offering of obedience, as if one's life has been ground into it.

Only a memorial portion is burned on the altar; the rest is eaten by the priests.
Exception: If the priest himself offers the grain offering, the entire portion is burned (Lev 6:23);
in that case, he receives nothing for himself.

Symbolically, the grain offering represents service, ministry, and sharing with fellow believers.

A Surprising Truth: The Grain Offering Could Be Given as a Sin Offering

“According to the law, nearly everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”
(Hebrews 9:22)

“But if he cannot afford two turtledoves or two young pigeons,
then he shall bring as his offering for the sin he has committed a tenth of an ephah of fine flour for a sin offering.
He shall put no oil on it and shall put no frankincense on it, for it is a sin offering.”
(Leviticus 5:11-12)

Jesus Christ, through His shed blood, became the sin offering that redeemed our sins.
Yet, in the Old Testament, God allowed even a grain offering as a sin offering for those who were so poor that they could not afford birds.

One might think, “Couldn’t they just catch a bird from the mountain?”
But in reality, the poor and sick often could not even do that.

So, during the harvest, God instructed that the edges of the field and the gleanings be left for the poor and the foreigner (see Leviticus 23).
For the poor, gleaning was their only means of survival.

But let's reflect more deeply.
Whether poor or sick, the requirement for the sin offering was still a tenth of an ephah of fine flour (סֹלֶת solet).

Let's explore the Hebrew terms:

• סֹלֶת (solet) - Fine flour, typically referring to finely sifted wheat flour.
• אֵיפָה (ephah) - A dry volume measurement in ancient Israel.
  Estimated at about 22 liters, so a tenth would be about 2-2.5 liters (or roughly 1-2kg).
• עִשָּׂרִת (issarit) - A tenth part, from the Hebrew root עשר (ten).

Fine flour was a valuable food item, often from wheat.
Would God truly demand such costly flour from the poorest and weakest?
I believe not.

We gain insight from the Book of Ruth:

“So Naomi returned, and with her Ruth the Moabite, her daughter-in-law, who came from the land of Moab.
They came to Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.”
(Ruth 1:22)

“Let me go to the field and glean among the ears of grain.”
(Ruth 2:2)

In Israel, barley is harvested before wheat:

• Barley: Around the time of Passover (spring - Nissan)
• Wheat: Around Pentecost (early summer - Sivan)

Barley was cheaper and considered food for the poor and animals.
So it’s likely that the grain the poor brought was barley, not wheat.

But how could they turn coarse barley into fine flour?

The term for coarse flour is קֶמַח (qemach), commonly used for everyday meals.
Examples from Scripture include:

• Genesis 18:6 - Abraham tells Sarah to prepare bread for the visiting angels with qemach solet—coarse and fine flour together.
• Judges 6:19 - Gideon prepares unleavened bread with an ephah of qemach as an offering, which God accepts with fire.
• 1 Kings 17:12 - The widow of Zarephath has only “a handful of qemach” and a little oil, yet gives it to Elijah.

 

Clearly, qemach was the daily flour of the poor.
Yet for the sin offering, they were still to bring solet-fine flour.

Could the poor really afford to buy and offer fine wheat flour?
Probably not. But here’s a possible explanation:

The barley harvest occurred in spring, while the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) is in the fall.

This gap allowed the poor to:

• Gather barley through gleaning
• Dry it thoroughly over the summer
• Grind it finely-because dried grains are easier to mill finely and burn better

Thus, even the poorest could prepare fine flour from barley by the time of the sin offering.

God Does Not Tolerate Sin-But He Made a Way for Sinners to Return

That way was perfectly revealed in Jesus Christ.
He opens a path for even the smallest offering, knowing our frame, meeting us in our circumstances, and asking for our best hearts, not our best wealth.

“Speak to the Israelites and say to them:
‘When you enter the land I am going to give you and you reap its harvest,
bring to the priest a sheaf of the first grain you harvest.’”
(Leviticus 23:10-11)

This first sheaf (reshith qatsir) is a prophetic foreshadowing of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
He was the Firstfruit, offered wholly to God.

But note: it’s not just a grain, but a sheaf-a bundle.
Those united with Christ become that one sheaf, lifted as a wave offering before God.

How Can Our Lives Become a Grain Offering?

Through the blood of Christ, our sins are forgiven.
Now, our lives-the fruit of labor, love, and service-become a grain offering to God.

Loving and serving one another in the church is our grain offering.
From coarse grain, we are being ground finer through love.

“When anyone brings a grain offering to the LORD, his offering shall be of fine flour…” (Leviticus 2:1)

But fine flour is not made overnight.

 

 

Today we explored the Grain Offering among the five major offerings.
Whenever we meditate on the Word, we always find Jesus Christ.

We marvel at God's mercy and love-how from Genesis to Revelation, His redemptive plan in Christ overflows with wisdom and life.

So once again, I am humbled.
And I find myself amazed:
“I’ve grown…”