Offering

By Jerry D. Ousley

            I am a hypocrite.  You see, I don’t know of anyone who loves meat as much as I do.  Set me down to a succulent, juicy steak and I am a happy man.  I dearly love turkey and am a sucker for a big juicy, meaty chicken breast.  I have eaten many types of meat to include, beef of all sorts, chicken, turkey, quail, pheasant, Cornish hen, many different types of fish, and shell delicacies like shrimp, crab and scallops.  I have eaten most forms of pork and what man isn’t in paradise in front of a plate full of bacon?  I’ve had bison, elk, deer, squirrel, rabbit, frog legs and even racoon.  I love them all.

            But what makes me a hypocrite is that, if it came down to killing it myself, dressing it and butchering, I just don’t have the stomach for it.  If I had to prepare it from hoof to table myself, I’d probably have to settle on being a vegetarian.  I can’t look Bambi in the eye and pull the trigger.  I passed a load of hogs on the interstate one day and almost cried knowing where they were going and what their fate was going to be.  I can’t help it; it’s just the way it is.

            It makes me shudder when I hear of Christian ministers being compared to Jewish priests and the temple being compared to the church.  There is no resemblance whatsoever.  Here was the main job of the priest, “When his offering is a sacrifice of a peace offering, if he offers it of the herd, whether male or female, he shall offer it without blemish before the LORD.  And he shall lay his hand on the head of his offering, and kill it at the door of the tabernacle of meeting; and Aaron’s sons, the priests, shall sprinkle the blood all around on the altar.  Then he shall offer from the sacrifice of the peace offering an offering made by fire to the LORD.  The fat that covers the entrails and all the fat that is on the entrails, the two kidneys and the fat that is on them by the flanks, and the fatty lobe attached to the liver above the kidneys, he shall remove; and Aaron’s sons shall burn it on the altar upon the burnt sacrifice, which is on the wood that is on the fire, as an offering made by fire, a sweet aroma to the LORD.”  (Leviticus 3:1-5).  “How gruesome is that” I ask you?  This minister, for one, could never qualify as a priest.  When I read it in detail and think about what was going on day in and day out, hundreds of times a day, it turns my stomach.

            There were several types of offerings and you can read about all of them in the Book of Leviticus.  But generally, they were about the same.  The differences were that some were completely burned on the altar, while some, only the fatty parts and the rest of the carcass was carried outside the camp and burned.  In some instances, the priest were allowed to keep part of the meat as provision for them and their families.  Offerings were made when the priests sinned, when the leaders sinned, when people sinned accidentally, when people sinned on purpose and on special occasions and feast days.  Remember that with women, children, and the mixed multitude that left Egypt with the men of Israel, there was probably nearly 2 million people who had to live by these sacrificial laws.  Can you even wrap your head around how many animals were killed daily to pay for all that sin?

            Why did God require the sacrificial system?  Today’s animal rights activists would have a field day with this.  It was to illustrate how much mankind needed a Savior.  That is exactly why Jesus came.  That’s why He is called “The Lamb of God.”  All the wasted lives of all those animals only paid for an individual sin.  Every time a man sinned, he had to sacrifice an animal.  I don’t know about you, but I would have had to make a very large investment in livestock.

            Here’s what the Bible says about our Sacrificial Lamb of God, Jesus the Christ, “For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.” (Romans 6:10).  “Who does not need daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for his own sins and then for the peoples, for this He did once for all when He offered up Himself.” (Hebrews 7:27).  “Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.” (Hebrews 9:12). And “By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” (Hebrews 10:10).

            Jesus became for us what no other could possibly do.  He was beaten with the cat of nine tails until the flesh was pealed from His body when He was scourged.  Then they thrust a crown of thorns down on His skull.  When taken to be crucified He was forced to carry His own cross.  Some feel it was the entire cross while others think it was just the cross beam.  Either way, after what He had already been through it was more than most men could do.  Once up on the hill of Golgotha, He was forced to lay down on the cross while spikes were driven through His hands and feet.  He was stripped naked for all to see and then the cross was pulled up and dropped into the hole that had been dug to hold it up and with a thud the weight of His body was hammered on the places where the spikes held Him, tearing flesh and nerve.  There He hung, being ridiculed by spectators, hanging naked in His shame, until the life drained from His body.

            But that wasn’t the worst of it.  He had always known fellowship with God His Father.  But on that day, He took upon Himself the blame for all the sin of mankind.  He hung there in our place.  He became the sacrifice to end all the animal sacrifices.  He died once for all.  And all that sin made God turn from Him causing Jesus to utter the words, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”  (Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34).

            The best part was yet to come.  For on the third day, we are told that He rose from the grave, thus defeating death, hell and the grave.  When we come to Him repenting of our sin, and we all have sinned (Romans 3:23), then our old self has died with Him on the cross, and we have been resurrected a new creation with Him.

            The word “sin” literally means “to miss the target.”  When we think of a target we think of a chart or board that has circles drawn on it.  In the center is a small solid circle that is called “the bullseye.”  When we shoot an arrow, or a gun, or throw a dart, or even an axe, at a target we get points if we land in one of those circles, even if we don’t hit the bullseye.  But in life, God’s target only has a bullseye.  We don’t get credit for being a “good ole’” boy and getting close.  It’s the bullseye or nothing.  Nobody hits it every single time.  And when we miss even once, we are guilty of not hitting the target.  That is sin.  I have sinned and you have sinned.  The only One who hit the target every single time was Jesus Christ.  So, when He died for sin, He alone was qualified to pay for our sin.  All we must do to have it accredited to us is to accept Jesus Christ as Savior, as the One who hit the bullseye for us, and then determine to turn away from sin and live for Him.  We won’t be successful all the time.  That’s why John wrote, “My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin.  And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.  And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.  Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments.  He who says, ‘I know him,’ and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.  But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him.  By this we know that we are in Him.  He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.” (1 John 2:1-6). 

            You don’t need to be a butcher, a hunter, a cattle rancher, or a priest to come to God for forgiveness of sin.  You only need to accept Christ and then live for Him.  He became our offering.  It’s easy in its own complicated way.  What do you say?  Are you ready to accept Jesus?  He did it for you.  He did it in your place.  But you have to receive it in your heart.  Hit the bullseye with Jesus as your Offering and you will never regret it.

Jerry D. Ousley is the author of ?Soul Challenge?, ?Soul Journey?, ?Ordeal?, ?The Spirit Bread Daily Devotional and his first novel ?The Shoe Tree.?  Visit our website at spiritbread.com to download these and more completely free of charge.