Lessons From Ezekiel's Temple, Part 12:
The Sacrifices, Part C:
The Preparation of Sacrifice
Last week, in Lessons from Ezekiel's Temple, Part 12a,
we discovered that God desires our sacrifices, but in order to present them
to a pure and holy God, we must make sure that we, as the givers, are also
pure. We do so by allowing Jesus' blood to cleanse us, and by allowing the
Holy Spirit to help us separate ourselves from our pet sins, to humble us
before God, to grow our faith, and to be obedient. Only then will our
sacrifices be acceptable in His sight.
Today's lesson takes a look at the preparation of our sacrifices:
"This is the place where the priests will cook the guilt offering and the
sin offering and bake the grain offering, to avoid bringing them into the
outer court and consecrating the people." (Ezek 46:20 NIV)
When God asked the people of Israel to bring
sacrifices to the Lord, there was a distinct difference between what the
people brought and what actually went on the altar. The people were asked to
bring animal or grain sacrifices: Bulls, lambs, goats, kids, doves, fine
flour, etc. But the priests then took those sacrifices and prepared them.
Some parts of the sacrifice were burned on the altar. Others were used by
the priests for food. Others were eaten by the those who gave the sacrifice.
The description of the preparation of the sacrifices was very specific. For
example: "From the fellowship offering he is to bring a sacrifice made to
the Lord by fire: its fat, the entire fat tail cut off close to the
backbone, all the fat that covers the inner parts or is connected to them,
both kidneys with the fat on them near the loins, and the covering of the
liver, which he will remove with the kidneys. The priest shall burn them on
the altar as food, an offering made to the Lord by fire." (Lev 3:9-11
NIV)
I could fill pages and pages with similar examples taken straight from the
books of Moses, but the point is, what God received looked very little like
the gift that was given!
Ezekiel describes many rooms set aside for preparing
the sacrificial offerings (see Lessons from Ezekiel's Temple, Part 10B), and
the concept of the preparation of the sacrifices reminds us that when God
asks for our sacrifices, our only job is to give. He will then take our
humble gifts and mould them and change them into something beautiful, into
something that can be used as a tool in His hands!
The tendency, however, is to expect God to accept our sacrifices just as we
present them, and to be hurt when He doesn't. It is important to remember
that it is only when our sacrifices are stripped of our flesh that God can
use them to His glory.
Some years ago God told me to write an Easter play to be presented at the
church I was attending at the time. I obeyed. I spent hour upon hour writing
and rewriting it, planning the music, picking the actors, and I'm sad to
say, even casting myself as one of the key characters. In the end, I was
quite proud of my work, and I was sure that the congregation would be
blessed by my efforts.
But something happened. When I presented my script to
the church, I was asked to team up with someone else and produce a play
together. My partner had her own ideas about how the play should look, and
she proceeded to write her own version. In the end, the two were merged
together, and the end product looked nothing like what I had envisioned.
Then, as if my sacrifice hadn't been "prepared" enough, I was asked to be
the director of the play, and not a lead character!
In the end, the play turned out to be truly beautiful, and it was a major
blessing to the people of my church. God took my sacrifice, stripped it of
my pride, and turned it into something that would shine for Him!
Always remember:
That solo you wrote for yourself might be sung by someone else, but had you
not given it, it would never have been a blessing!
The time you offered to hand out food at the local soup truck, but instead
you were asked to call volunteers and organize everything, you gave of what
you had, and God turned it into something He could use!
And what about those pies you baked for the church bake sale that didn't
sell? When your labor of love ended up being given to the poor family in the
church who didn't have money to buy a pie, your sacrifice was used to
glorify the name of the Lord!
The point is this: When God asks us to give, that is exactly what we must
do. And once the gift is in His hands, we must trust Him to use it to the
utmost of His glory, even if the final product looks nothing like what we
gave! After all, the fatty tail and the fat from the kidneys doesn't look
much like the animal, does it?
Enough to ponder, but do ponder this: When we are called to sacrifice, we
must be aware that our gifts to God will be molded and formed in His hands
so that the end product may look little like the initial gift. Nevertheless,
the initial gift was a necessary part of the final product!
Join us next week for another important lesson from Ezekiel's temple:
Lessons from Ezekiel's Temple, Part 13: Living Water
God bless each of you as you seek to draw closer to Him!
In His love,
Lyn
Lyn Chaffart, Mother of two teens, Author and Moderator for
The Nugget, a tri-weekly internet newsletter, and Scriptural Nuggets, a
website devoted to Christian devotionals and inspirational poems,
www.scripturalnuggets.org ,
with Answers2Prayer Ministries,
www.Answers2Prayer.org .