Sacrifices

Series: Changes

Psalm 40:6-8 ESV

Hebrews 10:5-10 ESV

When we think of sacrifices we often think about giving something up for a purpose. In 1975 I was newly married and I had a great job working for the railroad. I was a railroad clerk. I loved my job and everyone I worked with except one man. Looking back I now realize staying out of his way was not the best course of action. Today I would get to know him and what he loved to do. I would learn about that “thing” and try to establish a fun way of communicating with him about the “thing” he loved.

In a sense I would sacrifice my time to win him over. I’ve found almost everyone can be won over if we work at it. In this case I would sacrifice bits of my time to win him over.

I’m a silly sort and I laugh a lot. When I was twenty I was a silly sort of person but I hid it. That means I was silly in my head but I kept it to myself.

Today I do not. I no longer hide my silly humor.

According to Oxford Dictionary a sacrifice “can be a noun or a verb, referring to the act of giving up something valuable to help someone else, or to kill and offer something to a god.”

I am primarily a visual person with a twist…I see pictures in my mind. A sacrifice is an open heart and hands.

From the Old Testament David wrote in Psalm 40:6-8, “In sacrifice and offering you have not delighted,

but you have given me an open ear.

Burnt offering and sin offering you have not required.

Then I said, “Behold, I have come; in the scroll of the book it is written of me:

I delight to do your will, O my God;

your law is within my heart.”

The beautiful realization about David’s words is the truth he knew about Yahweh God. It was a truth few knew or understood. It was that God revealed to David that God does not really want burnt offerings. God revealed to David through an ‘open ear’ that delight in being ever so close enough to God to know the mind of God (how God loves and thinks). That is really what God desires. David knew God loves with an everlasting love and desires to be in relationship with His creation.

That’s what Jesus offers.

Hebrews 10:5-10 tells us, “Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said,

“Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me;

in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure.

Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.’”

When he said above, “You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings” (these are offered according to the law), then he added, “Behold, I have come to do your will.” He does away with the first in order to establish the second. And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”

The sacrifice was given for us through Jesus. We are sanctified. We are set apart…made holy through Jesus.

Even though it’s difficult for us to fully understand receiving such a gift that Jesus gave, we can receive the gift. We do not need to understand everything.

That’s because God gives us the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God is our guide.

Through Jesus, Deborah