Tuesday 29 Oct 2013

Tuesday Reading: 1 Samuel 2:17-18

Key Verse: 1 Samuel 2:17
17 Therefore the sin of the young men was very great before the Lord, for men abhorred the offering of the Lord.

Devotion:
What was the thing that was causing most damage to the people and their sacrifices at this time? It was the fact that the people were being dutiful and honourable in bringing their annual sacrifices to God, but they were seeing some of the priests going against that law that was written down my Moses for them to follow. They could see those few people ruining it for everyone else in the congregation but they continued to come to offer their own sacrifices to God. It was not man’s place to pass judgement on them but God’s place.

Some of the people were not bringing their sacrifices before the Lord because of what was happening in the temple. Why should they bring their sacrifice if it was not going to be offered properly before God? But Samuel continued to minister before the Lord in all honesty and humility wearing his prescribed linen ephod. He continued to follow the law as written down by Moses and continued to work for the people and for God in the temple. When we come to church we should be willing to offer our sacrifice before Him with an open heart and be willing to do so without regret.

I am truly thankful that we do not have to offer physical sacrifices before God on a regular occurrence! I’m not sure whether I would be able to stand it if I knew that someone else was not following God’s rules when I was trying to… But each and every day we should still be offering sacrifices to God in a special way. We can sacrifice time and money and bring them before God. We can sacrifice our pride and other issues and allow God to wash us clean as we offer them to Him.

Jesus has paid for our sin debt and we no longer need to offer an animal sacrifice; but we should not stop everything and assume God will do it all. Bringing ourselves before Him and allowing Him to use us is a sacrifice that is well worth offering. That way we are showing God that we are willing to go that step further and follow on in Samuels example rather than the sons of Eli.

Points to Ponder:
What do you do for others?

What do you bring to God?