12 ' As an offering of first fruits you shall bring them to the Lord , but they shall not ascend for a soothing aroma on the altar . 13 'Every grain offering e of yours, moreover, you shall season with salt , so that the salt of the covenant of your God shall not be lacking from your grain offering ; with all your offerings you shall offer salt . 14 'Also if you bring a grain offering of early ripened things to the Lord , you shall bring fresh heads of grain roasted in the fire , grits of new growth , for the grain offering of your early ripened things . 15 'You shall then put oil on it and lay incense on it; it is a grain offering . 16 'The priest shall offer up in smoke its memorial portion , part of its grits and its oil with all its incense as an offering by fire to the Lord .
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Leviticus 2:12-16
Commentary on Leviticus 2:12-16
(Read Leviticus 2:12-16)
Salt is required in all the offerings. God hereby intimates to them that their sacrifices, in themselves, were unsavoury. All religious services must be seasoned with grace. Christianity is the salt of the earth. Directions are given about offering their first-fruits at harvest. If a man, with a thankful sense of God's goodness in giving him a plentiful crop, was disposed to present an offering to God, let him bring the first ripe and full ears. Whatever was brought to God must be the best in its kind, though it were but green ears of corn. Oil and frankincense must be put upon it. Wisdom and humility soften and sweeten the spirits and services of young people, and their green ears of corn shall be acceptable. God takes delight in the first ripe fruits of the Spirit, and the expressions of early piety and devotion. Holy love to God is the fire by which all our offerings must be made. The frankincense denotes the mediation and intercession of Christ, by which our services are accepted. Blessed be God that we have the substance, of which these observances were but shadows. There is that excellency in Christ, and in his work as Mediator, which no types and shadows can fully represent. And our dependence thereon must be so entire, that we must never lose sight of it in any thing we do, if we would be accepted of God.