For this series in Philippians, I am going to limit each post to one verse, and hopefully produce a short, succinct read for my friends who follow.

2:17   Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all.

A drink offering on a sacrificial offering?

In the Old Testament, God required a number of different offerings in the sacrificial system. The main offerings are of course

• The Burnt Offering – generally an offering for atonement of sine and an expression of devotion to God, and could be a bull, sheep, goat, dove or pigeon, and the animal, with the skin removed was completely consumed in the fires of the sacrifice.

• The Grain Offering – generally used as a voluntary offering of gratefulness, and an expression of devotion to God. As the name states, this sacrifice was bread based, and was only partially consumed, that is a part of the bread was sacrificed, with the priest retaining some for their own consumption.

• The Peace Offering – generally was used to consecrate a meal between two or more parties before God. This offering included both animal and grain in the sacrifice, with portions retained for the priest.

• The Sin Offering – occasionally seen as an offering to atone for unintentional sins, or for the removal of guilt from the offending party. Some of the sins atoned for were of ritual impurity, but primarily is used to purify the offering party to enter into God’s presence. This offering was not to be shared with anyone.

• The Guilt Offering – sometimes called the trespass offering, was not to clear the conscious of the offeror, but to restore, or make restitutions or reparations to the one offended. This offering usually ended up being a provided in cold hard cash, or some monetary offering to settle a debt.

Notice that in all the offerings, not once was a drink offering described. Each of these five offering hearken to the Lord Jesus, and in my “Jesus in the Old Testament” series we will enter into each of offerings a bit deeper, seeing how they speak of the Messiah. For now, let us understand that the drink offering Paul describes himself as is that which supplements the sacrificial offering of the Philippians faith.

In the Old Testament, the drink offering was associated with the peace, burnt and grain offerings. In Paul’s mind, I want to think that he is referring to the Philippians faith as a burnt offering, that offering which signifies complete dedication to God. Paul, in his life as the apostle, is simply describing himself as an “add on” to the Philippians faith, a supplemental drink offering to their sacrificial lives.

What a wonderful way to consider his life, a humble man that sees his own existence as only supplementing someone else in their effort to please God. Again, we see the humility of the Lord Jesus being expressed in a side comment from the apostle Paul. He is simply speaking of his desire to assist the Philippians in their faith, for them to understand his deep love and devotion not only to God but to them.

Humility of service shines forth from the apostle, and the theme of humility continues through this short passage, starting back in the first few verses of Chapter 2. Humility is a characteristic of the Lord, a characteristic of the apostle Paul and a characteristic of the faithful believer.

Humility. Are you proud of your humility? Boast in the Lord and humility will be a fruit that grows without noticing!

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