The things missing from the grain offering were as important as the ingredients added to it.
In our previous lesson on the mincha or grain offering, we thought about three categories: a handful of flour, baked cakes, and green heads of grain roasted in the fire. Now we want to notice the three things missing from this offering. In the next lesson, we’ll note the three important ingredients added. Obviously there was no blood, so our focus is on Christ’s life. Second, there was no leaven: “No grain offering which you bring to the Lord shall be made with leaven” (Lev 2:11). We will later find one exception on the Day of Pentecost, but that’s because the loaves there speak of us in Christ. But generally this was true. Leaven spoke of the ever-expanding influence of sin, but of our Savior we read, He “knew no sin” (2 Cor 5:21); He “did no sin” (1 Pet 2:22, KJV); and “in Him there is no sin” (1 Jn 3:5). Interestingly, the two points where false teachers question His sinlessness—when He was “made flesh” (Jn 1:14, KJV), pictured in the grain offering, and when He was “made…sin” (2 Cor 5:21), as seen in the sin and trespass offerings—are the three instances where God declares the offerings “MOST holy” (see 2:3, 10; 6:25; 7:1). God has thought of everything, hasn’t He! Third, and we might find this strange at first, there was to be no honey. Honey is natural sweetness, and Christ was never guided by mere sentiment. For example, when Mary suggested He help at the wedding, He let her know He was not running on her schedule now, but the Father’s. When Peter told Him not to even think of going to die, He replied, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of [do not savor] the things of God, but the things of men” (Mt 16:23). Christ was already a sweet savor; no honey needed!