More accurately, bring “a cereal offering [minchah] as an offering [qorban see on ch. 1:2], ” RSV. The word minchah, originally without specific religious significance, designated a gift presented to a superior. The “present” Jacob gave Esau was a minchah (Gen. 32:13). So also was the “present” that Joseph’s brothers gave him upon their arrival in Egypt (Gen. 43:11). It stood, as well, for the tribute paid by conquered peoples (2 Sam. 8:2, 6). These gifts expressed submission and dependence. At the time of Sinai minchah became the official designation for a gift to God, a gift of homage, an acknowledgment of the superiority of the One to whom the gift was given. It signified man’s dependence upon God for all the good things of life, in recognition of Him as owner and provider. In presenting such an offering a man acknowledged himself as but a steward of the things entrusted to him.

 When the KJV translation was made the word “meat” meant food of all kinds. However, the expression “meat offering,” from minchah, now conveys the idea of flesh meat, which was not used in the “meat” offerings of Lev. 2. It was, rather, a meal or cereal offering, consisting of flour or grain prepared in various ways, but never of flesh meat. The minchah of Abel was, nevertheless, a lamb (Gen. 4:4). Most recent translations render minchah as “meal” or “cereal” offering.

As there were both private and public burnt offerings, so there were private and public meat offerings. The private meat offerings were voluntary, and could be offered at will and at any time. The public meat offerings were prescribed and mandatory. Chief among the public meat offerings was the shewbread, or “bread of the

 Presence,” placed each Sabbath on the table in the first apartment of the sanctuary. It was first presented to the Lord, left on the table for a week, and then eaten by the priests. It was called the “bread of the Presence,” literally the “bread of the Face,” as it was continually on the table in the presence of, or before the face of, God. The shewbread table was also called the “pure table” (Lev. 24:6).

 The shewbread offering consisted of 12 loaves, each made from about 51/3 lb. (2.4 kg.) of flour, and hence of considerable size. The loaves were placed in two stacks of six each on the table. The priests who had served during that week offered the Sabbath morning sacrifices and remained until the priests who had come in on Friday to serve the coming week offered the Sabbath evening sacrifices. The outgoing priests removed the old bread as the incoming priests placed the new on the table. They were careful not to remove the old until the new was ready to be put on; for there must always be bread on the table, as there must always be a burnt sacrifice on the altar. Hence, the burnt sacrifice was called the “continual burnt offering,” and the bread the “continual shewbread” (Ex. 29:42; 2 Chron. 2:4). The shewbread was offered to God under an “everlasting covenant” (Lev. 24:8). It was an ever-present testimony of Israel’s dependence upon God for sustenance and life; on God’s part it constituted a continual promise that He would sustain His people. Israel’s need was ever before God, and God’s promise was ever before the people.

 A drink offering accompanied the morning and evening sacrifice (Ex. 29:40; Num. 15:5). For this reason the shewbread table contained dishes, spoons, covers, and bowls, or as other versions render it, dishes, spoons, and “cups, with which they pour out” (Ex. 25:29, Young’s translation). This drink offering was poured out in the holy place “unto the Lord.”

 It is not a long step from the table of shewbread mentioned in the OT to the table of the Lord in the NT (see Luke 22:30; 1 Cor. 10:21). The bread is Christ’s body, broken for us. The cup is the new testament in His blood (1 Cor. 11:24, 25).The “bread of the Presence” is symbolic of Him who “ever liveth to make intercession” for us, of the “living bread which came down from heaven” (Heb. 7:25; John 6:51).

This offering could be brought by anyone who desired to present a gift to God. It consisted of fine flour, oil, and frankincense. At times it was brought as a separate offering, but was generally combined with a burnt sacrifice.

Fine flour is the product of cooperation between God and man. God places the life principle in the seed, gives sunshine and rain, and causes it to grow. Man sows the seed, tends it, harvests it, grinds it into fine flour, and then presents it to God either in its material state as flour or as cakes baked in an oven. It is God’s original gift plus man’s labor. It is giving back to God His own with interest. It is symbolic of man’s lifework, of talents improved.

God gives to every man talents according to his capacity for using them. Some have more than one talent, no one has less. God is not pleased when men give back to Him only that which He has given them, return to Him only the amount of seed entrusted to them. God would have man plant the seed, tend and harvest it, remove all foreign and coarse particles, grind it between the upper and the nether millstone, crushing all life out of it, and then present it to Him as “fine flour.” He expects every talent to be improved, refined, ennobled.