MEAL OFFERING IS A GIFT
Leviticus 2:4-10
2:4 “‘When you offer an offering of a meal offering baked in the oven, it shall be unleavened cakes of fine flour mixed with oil, or unleavened wafers anointed with oil.
5 If your offering is a meal offering made on a griddle, it shall be of unleavened fine flour, mixed with oil.
6 You shall cut it in pieces and pour oil on it. It is a meal offering.
7 If your offering is a meal offering of the pan, it shall be made of fine flour with oil.
8 You shall bring the meal offering that is made of these things to Yahweh. It shall be presented to the priest, and he shall bring it to the altar.
9 The priest shall take from the meal offering its memorial, and shall burn it on the altar, an offering made by fire, of a pleasant aroma to Yahweh.
10 That which is left of the meal offering shall be Aaron’s and his sons’. It is a most holy thing of the offerings of Yahweh made by fire.
Romans 1:10-12
1:10 requesting, if by any means now at last I may be prospered by the will of God to come to you.
11 For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift, to the end that you may be established;
12 that is, that I with you may be encouraged in you, each of us by the other’s faith, both yours and mine.
This section describes the laws for the minchah, or grain offering. Unlike the olah (burnt offering), which is entirely burned, only a portion of the minchah is burned as a “memorial” on the altar. The remainder is eaten by the priests, Aaron and his sons. Thus, most of what is brought to the tabernacle is given to the priests for food. The section concludes with Paul’s statement that in community we are mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, echoing the priests gathering together to partake of the offering.