Prayer: Father, help me this morning to understand what true sacrifice means. May I become sacrificial in all my life. Amen.
Reading: Exodus 38 key: vs. 1-2
He then made the altar for burnt offering from acacia wood. It was square, five cubits long, five cubits wide, and three cubits high. 2 He also made the horns on the four corners from one piece, and overlaid it with bronze.
Attention: Do you remember what a cubit is? A cubit was figured by the average person measuring from their elbow to the tip of the middle finger of their hand. The estimate is a cubit was roughly 18” in length. If we accept an 18” figure, five cubits would be roughly 90” or seven feet, six inches “square.”
The surface area was longer and wider than your average NBA player. Remember however, the altar was supplying the implement of sacrifice for an entire nation of people, over 2 million in number. When each person brought his families sacrifice, that is quite a quantity of meat being sacrificed upon this altar.
Let’s delve for a moment into the meaning of sacrifice for the Levitical system and the Hebrew people of that day. This chapter tells of the implements used in making sacrifice. In the books of Leviticus and Numbers we will find the instructions for the people in making sacrifice for sin.
I fear that we modern day followers of Adonai have a rather deficient consideration for what a sacrifice is all about or how it applies to our lives.
A biblical definition of sacrifice is, “The offering up of sacrifices is to be regarded as a divine institution. It did not originate with man. God himself appointed it as the mode in which acceptable worship was to be offered to him by guilty man. The language and the idea of sacrifice pervade the whole Bible.” Additionally, a sacrifice “derives etymologically from a Latin term that means “make sacred.” This etymological meaning is quite appropriate for the rituals in the Hebrew Bible that are typically designated as “sacrifices,” since they involve the transfer of offerings from human beings to God, from the common to the sacred.”
We will see throughout the Old Testament books, application of the laws which Adonai is establishing with the Hebrew nation in Exodus.
Do we sacrifice today? Are we required to sacrifice? The closest we may get to an Old Testament sacrifice is in the summer when celebrate birthdays and holidays by grilling; however, Adonai still requires of us a sacrifice of heart, mind, and soul. Paul exhorts us to offer our “bodies as a living sacrifice—holy, acceptable to God—which is your spiritual service” (Romans 12:1b).
Let’s elevate our sacrifices to God in praise, worship, financially, generosity, thought, compassion, and love.
Action: I will elevate my sacrifices daily, with the word “all”. I cannot outgive God.
Yield: I give my all my love to the One who gave it all for me.
Engage: I engage with the Holy Spirit in a lifestyle of generosity and sacrifice.
Relationship: I am in full relationship with God, when I live for Him.
Prayer: Father, I am weak when it comes to sacrifice. Help me to become more…. Sacrificial, generous, kind, patient, and loving. In Yeshua’s name. Amen.
Memory Verse: Psalm 51:18-19
18 For You would not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it,
nor be pleased by burnt offerings.
19 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit.
A broken and a contrite heart, O God,
You will not despise.
Music Video: Matt Redman—Gracefully Broken https://youtu.be/IJNR0lxbIP4
Remember, “Abide in Yeshua, today!”