Todays devotional was written by Clark Wrather, who is the pastor
of the First Baptist Church of Broken Bow, Oklahoma.
Sacrifice
You shall observe the Feast of Tabernacles seven days, when you have
gathered from your threshing floor and from your winepress. And you shall
rejoice in your feast, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant
and your female servant and the Levite, the stranger and the fatherless and
the widow, who are within your gates. Seven days you shall keep a sacred
feast to the LORD your God in the place which the LORD chooses, because the
LORD your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your
hands, so that you surely rejoice. "Three times a year all your males shall
appear before the LORD your God in the place which He chooses: at the Feast
of Unleavened Bread, at the Feast of Weeks, and at the Feast of Tabernacles;
and they shall not appear before the LORD empty-handed. Every man shall give
as he is able, according to the blessing of the LORD your God which He has
given you. - Deuteronomy 16:13-17.
Worship equals sacrifice or giving in the Old Testament. Just take a look at
Deuteronomy 16. Hebrew Worship in the Old Testament can be summed up in one
word - sacrifice. The Hebrew people worshiped by sacrificing. This act of
sacrifice was a holy offering to the Lord of the gift of an animal. They
brought to the prescribed place the required offering or gift: an ox, a
sheep, a goat, or a bird. It had to be a flawless gift.
Giving up one of these animals may not seem like a big deal to us, but to
these people I assure you it was. Your average person in their society would
only get to eat meat around three times a year at different religious
festivals. Giving up these animals cost them something. The more costly the
gift, in terms of the worshipers ability to provide, the more it expressed
Gods supreme worth. David on one occasion refused to accept animals for
sacrifice from one of his subjects without first paying for them. David
said, No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price for I will not
offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God which cost me nothing (2 Samuel
24:24).
Hebrew sacrifice provided an avenue of approach to God through offerings
brought by the worshiper in recognition of Gods worth. These ancient
Hebrews expressed their worship of the Lord God of Hosts through sacrifice.
Thousands of years later, we still enter into Gods presence through
sacrifice. We receive the right to become His children only through the
sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross. We grow closer to His will and way
for our lives when we sacrifice our selfish desires and messed up priorities
and ask God to please reign on the throne of our heart.
To become the person He wants you to be, you have to sacrifice your time to
read His Word, spend adequate time in prayer and worship him with other
believers in church. To be the person He created you to be, you have to
sacrifice your time and resources to do works of service that build His
kingdom.
God is approached through sacrifice. Scripture makes this clear and most of
us have learned this truth in our own lives. When a person of group of His
people want His attention and power displayed in a specific area, special
sacrifices are often made for this purpose. King David and Josiah made
special sacrifices to God. Moses led the people to make special sacrifices
to God, usually when they needed His forgiveness. Some still do this today
when they fast and pray. Others sacrificially give for a targeted purpose.
Will you approach God through sacrifice? A sacrifice is costly and it is an
act of worship. I pray that you will join me in worshipping our God with a
costly sacrifice.
