Tempered with Oil

And unleavened bread, and cakes unleavened tempered with oil, and wafers unleavened anointed with oil: of wheaten flour shalt thou make them, Exodus 29:2.

Tempered with oil, how much oil? The bible doesn't say. It merely assumes that whoever was making these cakes would have sense enough to know how much oil was needed to be mixed in with the flour to have the perfect cake tempered with oil.

Tempered with oil doesn't mean that it had oil poured on it. It is the wafers that have oil poured on them (anointed with oil). No, it is expected that whoever it is that makes these cakes would understand the proper proportion of oil to flour and that would depend on how big the cake was, and probably the quality of the flour mattered.

There are so many offerings in the bible wherein the exact measurements are given. For example, in this same chapter the Lord spelled out exactly how much of each ingredient was to be used. And with the one lamb a tenth deal of flour mingled with the fourth part of an hin of beaten oil; and the fourth part of an hin of wine for a drink offering, Exodus 29:40. Unlike the cake in verse two, whoever made up this offering was not allowed to use their own discernment. It was spelled out exactly.

We see another example of the priest needing to use his own discernment in Exodus 30:34-36:

Exodus 30:34 And the LORD said unto Moses, Take unto thee sweet spices, stacte, and onycha, and galbanum; these sweet spices with pure frankincense: of each shall there be a like weight:

Exodus 30:35 And thou shalt make it a perfume, a confection after the art of the apothecary, tempered together, pure and holy:

Exodus 30:36 And thou shalt beat some of it very small, and put of it before the testimony in the tabernacle of the congregation, where I will meet with thee: it shall be unto you most holy.

We are not told how small is small and we do not know the proportions for each ingredient. There is no priest who could be blamed if he chose more or less of any particular ingredient. What he was seeking was that particular smell. Given the nature of various herbs and how well they store, I would imagine that whoever sought to make up this particular perfume would have to use discernment to know how much of each ingredient was needed to achieve the desired scent.

We see a similar thing in the Millennial Temple. And thou shalt prepare a meat offering for it every morning, the sixth part of an ephah, and the third part of an hin of oil, to temper with the fine flour; a meat offering continually by a perpetual ordinance unto the LORD, Ezekiel 46:14. Whoever is to prepare this meat offering must have the sense to know what the Lord would consider tempered with fine flour. Just how much do you mix in to temper it right?

The key to each of these verses is the root word "temper". The Oxford English Dictionary gives us this definition: To mix, mingle, blend (ingredients) together, or (one ingredient) with another, in proper proportions.

With this in mind, the word "temperance" comes into focus. The root word of temperance is temper. In order for whoever did the mixing of the flour, or of the ingredients of the perfume, they needed to exercise temperance to temper those things properly. There is no exact measurement because the quality of the ingredients can vary, the person mixing these things in a fashion pleasing to God can not use a formula. They need to have discernment and the act of using discernment to temper the ingredients is called temperance.

Galatians 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,

Galatians 5:23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

A truly Spirit led Christian does not need a written set of rules in how to live. The Spirit of God invests him with temperance so that he knows how to temper each of the ingredients in his daily life into a pleasing scent before God. Written rules of conduct in regards to hair length, skirt length, jewelry, music, etc, might indeed be good for adolescents still void of discernment, but all too often they become rules for would be fundamental christians lacking the Holy Ghost.

As grievous as it is to see the reckless sensuality of the modern church movement, the opposite side of the pendulum is the person bound up in rules whereby he seeks to fit in with his peers.

In Vermont, I once found an old cookbook from the early 1900s. It was a homemade cookbook in which a housewife had taken an old boring textbook and pasted her own recipes into it. What I marveled at was the lack of specificity. It would say something like, "heat the oven moderately hot". It would say , "mix in clabbered milk". It never told you "how hot" or in "what quantities".

It assumed that whoever was doing the baking had good enough sense to know "how hot" and "in what quantities". For the most part, that kind of discernment and skill is lost to us. Somehow, I doubt that our cakes coming from cake mixes never really measured up to those mixed by a discerning cook who tempered her ingredients together as the availability and quality of the ingredients allowed.

2nd Peter 1:4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

2nd Peter 1:5 And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;

2nd Peter 1:6 And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;

2nd Peter 1:7 And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.

2nd Peter 1:8 For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.