The Lord also required monthly sacrifices which were: two young bulls; 1 ram; seven 1-year old male lambs; 18 quarts of flour; 12 quarts of wine (dispersed with each animal) and 1 male goat.
As I was reading this, I was reminded of a book I read a couple of years ago called, The Devil's Cauldron. It is the true story of a man who was heavily involved in witchcraft and whenever he did incantations or needed power, the demons would call for dark rum. Sometimes he sprayed rum on the walls or spilled it out on the floor and threw a burning match on it but rum was always involved when great power was needed.
Maybe, demons were speaking to me as I was reading Numbers 28 but I said, "Lord all those sacrifices and the spilled out wine and oil sounds just like witchcraft! I understand the animals and that there needed to be blood to atone for sin but I don't understand the flour and wine."
Right now, as I am writing this, I am realizing that it is not the Lord's ways that sound like witchcraft.....it is witchcraft copying and mocking what the Father had in mind from the very beginning. But I digress....back to my story.
More often than not, when I ask the Lord an honest question from my heart, He ANSWERS and He came to me once again with His heart. He told me that all of His motivation is dealing with humans is RELATIONSHIP. He called for the blood sacrifices (as I knew) to atone for sin but He wanted to meet with His people, the Israelites every morning and evening. He wanted them to acknowledge and come to Him. Food was precious to the Israelites and as they gave it back to Him, He promised to pour back on them in abundance.
The offerings symbolized a MEAL and God the Father of the universe sat and ate with them! He was (and is) always yearning for relationship. It was as if He was saying, "In the morning come and eat with me and in the evening, come and eat with me." Most people have meat, starch and wine with their meal and the sacrifices were the symbols of a meal. First the blood is spilled to bring us into right relationship with God and then we can sit down with Him and have fellowship.
"Come now, and let us reason together," says the LORD, "Though your sins are as scarlet, They will be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They will be like wool." Isaiah 1:18 Amazing that our God, the God who created the heavens and the earth invites us to "reason" with Him.
Following those exciting thoughts, the Holy Spirit brought to my mind what New Testament offerings are:
"We have an altar from which the priests in the Tabernacle have no right to eat. Under the old system, the high priest brought the blood of animals into the Holy Place as a sacrifice for sin, and the bodies of the animals were burned outside the camp. So also Jesus suffered and died outside the city gates to make His people holy by means of His own blood. So let us go out to Him, outside the camp and bear the disgrace He bore. For this world is not our permanent home; we are looking forward to a home yet to come, Therefore, let us offer through Jesus a CONTINUAL sacrifice of praise to God, proclaiming our allegiance to His name. And don't forget to do good and to share with those in need. These are the sacrifices that please God." Hebrews 13: 10-16
So, He still wants or requires sacrifice today and just as in the Old Testament, it is still all about relationship. My fear keeps me from praising Him but when I praise Him despite my fear, I am drawn into His presence, right where He wants me to be. He wants me. He desires my heart. He wants me to be near to Him. Our God has such big arms and all He wants is to enfold us in them.
No comments:
Post a Comment