Sacrifice Without Blemish
TEXT: DEUTERONOMY 17:1-6
Key verse: “Thou shalt not sacrifice unto the Lord thy God any bullock, or sheep, wherein is blemish, or any evilfavouredness: for that is an abomination unto the Lord thy God” (Deuteronomy 17:1).
It was said of Robert Hartington of Leeds, a Cambridge graduate that he lived in a single room, cooking his own meals: yet he gave foreign ministries 500,000 pounds on the condition that it was all to be spent on pioneer work within twenty-five years. He later wrote these words “Gladly would I make the floor my bed, a box my chair and another box my table, rather than that man should perish for want of the knowledge of Christ.”
The consecration of this noble man of God of blessed memory, summarizes the expectation of God from the children of Israel as regards worship. He expected then and now a wholesome and unalloyed sense of responsibility from His creatures in worship. Our worship and sacrifice should come out of grateful hearts.
It is wickedness to forsake God in preference for other gods. Our sacrifice must be out of voluntary submission to the will and dictate of God. We should learn to take a moment to consider the frailty and brevity of life, and how our priorities reflect this truth. We must strive for a firmer understanding that anything outside the will of God will one day fade away. Any other “god” who receives our worship in the form of excess time, thought, energy, or resources will most surely burn and be swept aside. Neglect of God for earthly pursuit attracts heavy punishment. In our passage today, it is death by stoning after diligent effort to establish the truth, after the confirmation of two or three witnesses to the act of idol worship.
When we refuse to accept the living God of the Bible, we become worshippers of various elements in life, such as money, worldly possessions and pleasures. A person who lives outside of Christ is a lost person regardless of where he lives on the globe.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY : An idolater is an ingrate.