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September 21 Sacrifice is Not a Game

The sacrifice of the wicked is detestable—how much more so when brought with evil intent. ~Proverbs 21:27


“A son honors his Father, and a servant his master. If I am a Father, where is the honor due Me? If I am a Master, where is the respect due Me?” says the Lord Almighty. “It is you, O priests, who show contempt for My name. “But,” you ask, “How have we shown contempt for Your Name?” “You place defiled food on My altar. By saying that the Lord’s Table is contemptable. When you bring blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice crippled or diseased animals, is that not wrong? Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you?” says the Lord Almighty? “When you bring injured, crippled or diseased animals and offer them as sacrifices, should I accept them from your hands?” says the Lord. Cursed is the cheat who has an acceptable male in his flock and vows to give it, but then sacrifices a blemished animal to the Lord. For I am a great King,” says the Lord Almighty, “and My Name is to be feared among the nations.” ~Malachi 1:6-8-&&-13B-14

You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; You do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, You will not despise. ~Psalm 51:16-17

God cannot be manipulated. He cannot be bought. He cannot be impressed. And He cannot be fooled. He also will not stop loving us, even though we may make the choice not to love Him. Suppose you have more than enough of something. Let’s say that you have more than enough eggs in your refrigerator, maybe even more than you can use. So, you decide to make a donation to the food pantry. You find a few cracked eggs, put them in a good carton and take them to church to leave in that refrigerator with a little post-it note that says, “for the pantry.”

Wow, everyone thinks you’re pretty generous. You gave of your own eggs for others, what a wonderful sacrifice. In the meantime, you still have more than enough good eggs, for your own use at home, but nobody at church, or the pantry knows that. You know that you just got rid of some risky eggs that may not be useable for long, but they don’t know that either. In truth, you gave what you did not want to risk using yourself. It looked good, you appeared to be generous, so, you fulfilled a sort of obligation to give to those in need, but not really.

That’s kind of what was going on with the people that God was addressing in the passage in Malachi. People were bringing injured and deformed animals as sacrifices. They gave those because they knew they couldn’t sell them and didn’t want to go through the expense of feeding them. It was a win-win for them. They looked good bringing a sacrifice and were cleaning out their flock, saving money in the process.

God even says, “Would your governor want these animals? I’m your King, why are you bringing them to me?” Just a little test here, if you are thinking of giving something to a ministry that you would be embarrassed to give to someone face to face, it may not necessarily be a sacrifice. Of course, second-hand stores and yard sales are a different matter. People have a choice in whether they purchase what you have donated, and all the money earned goes to the charity. But even there, they have a large dumpster in the back where they throw out stuff that people “donated” because they can’t sell it!

It’s hard for us to exactly grasp the insult to God here because in our culture, we give money. I suppose you could give bad money, counterfeit, but for the most part, money is money. You can stomp on and crumple up a $20 bill and it still has its value. Sacrifice in our monetary system is based more on amount rather than quality. The heart issue can still be the same though, just ask Ananias and Sapphira.

“The sacrifice of the wicked is detestable—how much more so when brought with evil intent.” For God, the attitude of the heart determines the quality of the sacrifice. If one is giving to impress others, that is not good. If one is giving to influence others, that too is not good. If one gives, believing that in that way they will pay for their sins, they insult Jesus who already paid with His blood, so that isn’t good either. We don’t buy God’s favor or impress Him with what we give in His name. But we do honor Him with our obedience when we give out of our love for Him.

“You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; You do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.” He loves our gifts that are given with a humble heart, overflowing with love for Him and gratitude for all He has done. It’s not the size, but the heart that pleases God in our sacrifices to Him.

Prayer: Father, help me to guard my heart so that I always give good gifts, worthy of Your glory, and pleasing in Your sight, to the best of my ability, with humility in my spirit and yet with great joy too. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Song: I Give You My Heart 


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