Blemished Sacrifices
Why should the condition of a
sacrifice matter to God? He created all things, defective animals as well as
the healthy ones. Why would He not accept gifts that were flawed? And why did
God care about this enough to have his messenger Malachi speak so strongly?
The imperfect sacrifices of the priests and people
demonstrated the content of their hearts.
The people were not sincere. To sacrifice a perfect, healthy animal looked to them like a waste, and they considered the work of preparing their gifts
properly to be a foolish use of time and energy. Malachi confronted
this attitude with the Law of God, which clearly demanded unblemished sacrifices and sincere hearts (see Lev. 1:3; 3:1; Deut. 17:1). Malachi also confronted the
people with God's judgment of their actions. God was perfectly aware of what
they were doing and the condition of their
hearts. No sacrifices at all would have been better than second-rate
and insincere ones. The people were
not giving "sacrifices"; they were merely doing what was convenient, just enough to appear
to obey God. Then they would turn around and
pat themselves on the back for being righteous.
But even though God's people had broken their covenant
with Him, God remained true to His promises
(see Is. 53). He did not shrink from sending
His only Son to a cruel death on the Cross.
Jesus was the true, unblemished sacrifice to
which the Old Testament sacrifices pointed
(Heb. 7:26-28). He
was perfect—free from all sin. And through
Jesus' sacrificial death the Lord provided
salvation for all of our sins. In doing
this, the Lord demonstrated His
sincere love for us because He sacrificed the very
best to save us (see John 3:16).
Christ only accepts offerings from a cheerful heart of love - no longer tithes for that might limit the amount one might give.
| 2Co 9:7 | Every man according as he purposes in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loves a cheerful giver. And that would not be one with a blemished trait of any sort. |
Half-Hearted
Christianity?
People in the churches today give the general public the idea that
Christians are half-hearted in their walk with God. There is no such person as
a half-hearted Christian that enters the Kingdom of God. Jesus knew there would
be those who have no real relationship with His word as well as Himself and the
public sees the outcome of this false relationship. And He spoke of this
attitude of reluctance in Luke 9:51, 62. Christ had just been rejected by a
Samaritan Village. At that point it says that He “steadfastly set His face” to
go to Jerusalem. And that was in order to save men’s lives. James and John
wanted to bring fire down on them to destroy them. He then came across some
others who desired to follow Him but first one wanted to go bury his father
first and the other wanted to bid farewell to those at his house. Christ
replied to these distracted and half-hearted followers that no one that plows
looks back in the kingdom of God. They need that steadfast face set, not one
that turns back.
No comments:
Post a Comment