GodReflection: Power Words
Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker; – Psalms 95:6
Sacrifice isn’t a particularly dramatic word to me. It is far from my reality as a 21st century urbanite.
Slashed animal throats and gushing blood is neither common to my history nor to my present.
What provokes thought is to examine God’s design of weaving the first and the best into sacrifice.
The Creator devised a means of worship to aid humankind learn trust in His love and care.
The First Testament defines sacrifice as a gift of the first and the best. Second and blemish disqualified the gift. God joined the gift of the first and the best to the tithe.
God was to receive the first and the best tied to income.
If I was an Israelite living prior to Jesus and in their agrarian society what would I think of God’s request?
By definition, the best of breeding stock to guarantee and increase my future income is His. The best seeds of all fruits are His. In addition—inclusive in the request—ten percent of my income (plus other offerings) is His.
God asks no less than to trust Him with my future.
Those who attempted to live under God’s covenant became familiar with Sacrifice.
Through the centuries prior to Jesus, God told of a time when He would return the gift.
This time He would make the sacrifice. This time it was for the people.
This would be the sacrifice to conquer sin and death and to atone for a Satan struck world.
The sacrifice was to cover for sin and to demonstrate the righteousness of God. It was the sacrifice to return earth to its rightful orbit in the path of God’s Holiness.
Paul the apostle described it in these words: God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness.
Here is what I think.
I find I need to address the question of response.
How can I honor God in light of His indescribable sacrifice on my behalf?
I learn from Scripture, in view of God’s mercy, I am to offer my body “as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.”
I read that a pleasing Sacrifice to God is to walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
The author of the letter to the Hebrews reminds me Through Jesus, I am to continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name. I am not to forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.
In the context and tenor of the entire Scripture—in addition to offering my life as a sacrifice of praise, mercy, love, and good works, He still desire for my response to come from the sacrifice of my first and best lambs.
Sacrifice remains a word of power because it creates trust in my creator. To sacrifice is 24/7 worship of Creator God.
Stay tuned.
Dr. Gary J. Sorrells – A GodReflection on Sacrifice as a Power Word.
God Reflection 