It will not be accepted on your behalf

“Do not bring anything with a defect, because it will not be accepted on your behalf.” (Leviticus 22:20)

 

Between God and man is basically the relationship of the Creator and the creature. The sacrificial rite of the Old Testament and the worship service of the New Testament are all the ceremonies of sacrificial rite offering to God from man. The sacrificial rite of OT and the worship service of NT are essentially the same one, but it has been changed into a new form at the point based on Christ’s sacrifice the Crucifixion. Important points in the matter of the relationship between every giving and receiving are both who the recipient is, and also the giver’s true mind as well as a giving article of good quality without a defect. The value of any sacrificial rite depends on the offering giver’s sincerity and whether or no of the blemish with offered things. If the relationship between the receiver and the offering is fit and right, the effects of sacrificial rite and worship service will be inevitably positive.

 

Reading the regulations of the ritual recorded in the Old Testament makes it seem to bore as if nothing any considerable meaning. Contents of this Bible text might perhaps be regarded meaningless also like that. However if you pay a concern to what the essential point means, you would realize well the real value of meaning. First of all, this Bible text is the word that the Lord gave to the people of Israel. And the text requested to give a sacrificial offering so that God would be pleased to receive it. And it teaches, in order to do so, you must give a perfect offering without defect. And the Bible said, a thing defective could be used as the sacrifice for the offering of freewill, but that is not suitable for the sacrifice of a vow offering.

The sacrificial rite of the Old Testament and the worship service of the New Testament are different in form one another, but here they are called the worship to God all. All men’s worship must be directed at Jehovah God only. Because He made all the creatures in the universe, and He is ruling all the things as the only Almighty. And important thing, all worship have to be done through Jesus Christ. Because Jesus Christ is the Savior who is the holy Son of God descended onto the earth. The Israelite of the Old Testament offered sacrifices to Jehovah God. Their rituals of sacrifice had required the blood of many beasts. Yet, the sacrifices of blood were demanded repeatedly because any blood of animals could not play a full role. In the end, Christ fulfilled salvation completely through the sacrifice of the Cross to complete the prophetical system of OT’s sacrifice system of rites.

If you wish to be blessed and righteous in life, you must offer a complete sacrificial rite to God Jehovah. In order to do so, of course, you should real worship for God to receive it pleasantly. If you don’t believe in Jesus Christ, who had become the sacrifice of the Crucifixion, your worship will never be a service that God will gladly receive. Not many people would not think of Jesus as a great man. And also not many people will not know Jesus’ lesson about love and justice. Yet not a little people do not know the great fact that Jesus is the Savior who removed the fundamental sins of life. It’s a pitiable thing if they only know incidental without knowing the most important truth. Let’s do to dedicate our own life to God by believing in the eternal salvation of Christ who is the sacrifice sheep without defects.

Without believing in Jesus Christ, true worship is impossible, because Christ is the sacrifice sheep of vow offering which was given to God as the substitution for all human life. In addition to the rite of a vow offering, which is the core of salvation, we should also practice the sacrificial rite of freewill offering too. A person who realizes the grace of salvation would want naturally to give whatever he or she has to God within the space and time of life. The person is trying to give to the Lord anything because of knowing oneself is indebted to salvation. Reversely speaking, a person not doing the offering sacrifice of a freewill to God would not be the one who was saved by Christ. God did not require a thing of complete quality for a freewill offering. In fact, there can never be a perfect thing for a man to offer to God. But even if it is incomplete, anything can be used beautifully and preciously if it is dedicated to the Lord through Christ. Every sacrificial offering become have a value through Christ like that.

 

He who tries to offer something to the Lord God is an excellent person of faith. A man of real faith in Jesus can give his entire life to God. In order to become a good life to be offered to the Lord, we have to make exclude things with artificial defects, instead of natural defects. For things made in ways that go against God’s creation, order, and lessons will not be accepted gladly by God.

 

(Written by Koonoh, Pastor of JDO Presbyterian Church in Korea, on Sept 12th 2021)