Love and Sacrifice

Malachi 1:6-14

“A son honors his father, and a slave 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 theLord Almighty. “It is you priests who show contempt for my name. “But you ask, ‘How have we shown contempt for your name?’ “By offering defiled food on my altar. “But you ask, ‘How have we defiled you?’ “By saying that the Lord’s table is contemptible. When you offer blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice lame 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. “Now plead with God to be gracious to us. With such offerings from your hands, will he accept you?”—says the Lord Almighty. “Oh, that one of you would shut the temple doors, so that you would not light useless fires on my altar! I am not pleased with you,” says the Lord Almighty, “and I will accept no offering from your hands. My name will be great among the nations, from where the sun rises to where it sets. In every place incense and pure offerings will be brought to me, because my name will be great among the nations,” says the Lord Almighty. “But you profane it by saying, ‘The Lord’s table is defiled,’ and, ‘Its food is contemptible.’ And you say, ‘What a burden!’ and you sniff at it contemptuously,” says the Lord Almighty. “When you bring injured, lame 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 moves straight from talking of God's great love for his people in the beginning of the chapter, to how the people and priest in particular are not showing love back. God demands that he be show the honor that he deserves. The main way that the people can show this too him is through sacrifices. Only the priest are offering blemished, unclean, sacrifices. 

It would be easy at this point to say: "We don't do sacrifices any more" and move on to the next bit. But it is important to think about what God finds unpleasing and what is important to God in the way we honor him.

God expects our best. For the Jewish people the only way that they could find forgiveness was by offering up a sacrifice. For us this sacrifice is no longer needed because Jesus has offered himself up for our sins. The sacrifice that the Jewish people offered was never going to cover all their sin. In fact they were constantly offering up sacrifices, year after year. Jesus' sacrifice was perfect. In fact we have nothing to offer that can compare. Still Malachi holds a strong warning, put God first.

When asked what the most important commandment was, Jesus said "To love the Lord your God with all your heart, all of your soul and, all of your mind" (Matt 22:37). Jesus still calls us to put God first in our lives. To offer him the best of who we are. The easiest way to do this is to offer the best of us, is to offer the first of what we do and what we make. When you get paid do you instantly put aside an amount that goes to God's work? When you are given a promotion at work, is your first thought a thanksgiving to God? 

I constantly struggle with putting God first in my life. Tithes too often become an after thought. I worry first about my bills, then giving back. I wake in the morning and think about work or food or going for a run. I make food and I'm far more interested in eating it, then giving thanks. But when I stop, and think first of God, I'm constantly surprised in how God's love over flows in my life. 

It is this thanksgiving that is most important. Ann Voskamp, in her book, One Thousand Gifts, says "All gratitude is ultimately gratitude for Christ, all remembering a remembrance of Him. For in Him all things were create, are sustained, have their being. Thus Christ is all there is to give thanks for..." God, Christ's only wish for us is to be His children. He wants to love and care for us, and to have us love Him in return. 

For the Jewish people they way to show love and honor was through their sacrifice on the alter. When they brought a defective or bad sacrifices, they were basically telling God that they didn't care enough about him to bring him the best of themselves. They were saying that they were not thankful for His gifts. They were saying they didn't care about his love. Like any parent, God wants to be loved in return for the love he has shown. 

And its not that God doesn't understand that we can't perfectly love him. After all we are fallen people, incapable of prefect love. Yet this is the reason for Christ's coming. It is the reason for his death and resurrection. God loved us so much, that even His own son was not safe. So in Christ we find a man who is able to perfectly love God, in ways that we cannot. In Christ we find a human who can honor God far better, and higher then we could ever wish. And Because of Christ, our love will be made perfect and our honor higher then anything we could offer by ourselves. 

God demands Honor and Love because of all the beings in all the universe in all time, he is the only one worthy of that Honor and Love. The reason God wanted the Jewish people to perform the correct sacrifice is because he want's to forgive their sin. He wants to be able to bless them. He wants it to be said that 'The Lord is great among the nations'. 

So how can we show him this love? It really simple and a relentless struggle. We must constantly search after how to love the Lord with our hearts, souls, and minds. We must seek after Him who loved us first. And we do this not because we must, but because we have been so loved. Basically we should offer the first and the best of ourselves to the One who gave all of himself.