O Israel, and I will testify against you:
I am God, your God.
I do not rebuke you for your sacrifices
or your burnt offerings, which are ever before me.
I have no need of a bull from your stall
or of goats from your pens,
for every animal of the forest is mine,
and the cattle on a thousand hills.
I know every bird in the mountains,
and the creatures of the field are mine.
If I were hungry I would not tell you,
for the world is mine, and all that is in it.
Do I eat the flesh of bulls
or drink the blood of goats?
Sacrifice thank offerings to God,
fulfill your vows to the Most High,
and call upon me in the day of trouble;
I will deliver you, and you will honor me." (Ps 50:7-15)
God says here that he has no need of the sacrifices of bulls and goats - he already owns the cattle on a thousand hills. The law required those sacrifices to be made, but God did not need them.
"You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;
you do not take please in burnt offerings.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart." (Ps 51:16-17)
King David wrote this after he had committed adultery with Bathsheba, and he identifies what the real sacrifices of God are. The sacrifices in themselves are not what God is looking for - they are merely an outward sign of the condition of the heart. He is not interested in outward appearances, but with inward reality.
"Araunah said, 'Why has my lord the king come to his servant?'
'To buy your threshing floor,' David answered, 'so I can build an altar to the Lord, that the plague on the people may be stopped.'
Araunah said to David, 'Let my lord the king take whatever pleases him and offer it up. Here are oxen for the burnt offering, and here are threshing sledges and ox yokes for the wood. O king, Araunah gives all this to the king.' Araunah also said to him, 'May the Lord your God accept you.'
But the king replied to Araunah, 'No, I insist on paying you for it. I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.'" (2 Sa 24:21-24)
David is seeking God's forgiveness after sinning by ordering a census of the fighting men. God instructs him to build an altar (the future site of the temple) on the threshing floor of a man named Araunah. Araunah is surprised by the king's visit, and offers to give him everything he needs to build the altar and offer the sacrifices. But David's reply cuts to the heart of what sacrifice really is. "I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing."
Sacrifice must involve a real cost, or it is not really a sacrifice. The cost of offering a sacrifice in the Old Testament was atually quite substantial - an unblemished lamb, goat, or bull from your flocks was definately a substantial cost. While we do not offer such sacrifices today, the question remains: do our sacrifices or offerings to God actually cost us anything? If they do not, then are they really a sacrifice?
"The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart" (Ps 51:17). Paul writes in Romans 12, "Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God - this is your spiritual act of worship" (Ro 12:1). Sacrifice today should involve us offering all of ourselves to God. This does come at a cost. If we truly offer ourselves to God, then we must lay down our own goals and ambitions, and submit them to what God's plans are. The paradox is that when we do that, it is then that we discover what our goals and ambitions should have been all along.
The words of a Third Day song, Offering, sum this up fairly well:
This is my offering, dear Lord
This is my offering to You, God
And I will give You my life
For it's all I have to give
Because You gave Your life for me.
Comments
Great post, man! I'm gonna cop the verses for a Bible study I'm working on :)
Hosea 6:6 and Matthew 9:13 speak about sacrifices and offerings? That He doesn't want; all He ever wanted was us to surrender and to know Him. The rest is Mosea law.
I also liked what you said.
If I give him 96% of me and hold onto 4% I gave him nothing.
Thank you for your post. It really drove the point home. I am especially grateful as I try to find what sacrifice means in my path. Thanks
Thank you for your post. It really drove the point home. I am especially grateful as I try to find what sacrifice means in my path. Thanks