A Thank Offering to the Lord

Leviticus 23:1-44

Key Verse 22:29

"When you sacrifice a thank offering to the LORD, sacrifice it in such a way that it will be accepted on your behalf.”

Today we would like to think about how the Lord trained the Israelites to give thanks to him. We also would like to consider the thanks topics the Lord gave to his children. 

Part I – The way of thanksgiving  

One serious problem with fallen men is that although the Lord grants them tons of reasons to give thanks to God, still they remain unthankful; they complain and remain as ingrates. If ten things go smoothly they keep their mouth shut: they do not give thanks to God. But if one thing goes with even slight difficulty they start complaining. 

The same was true with the Israelites of Moses' day. As of the time the Lord spoke to the Israelites, they proved themselves to be good at doing one thing: complaining. As the Scripture says, they used to live in Egypt as a slave nation for 430 years. During this long period of time they came to develop the habit of complaining. So they complained in the morning, complained more in the afternoon, and complained even more at night. In this way they complained day and night.   

But God did not call them to live as professional complainers. God chose them to live as his children, not as a bunch of slaves. In God's mercy they were chosen to live as a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. One of the key characteristics of a child of God is to be thankful in all circumstances. Even when ten things go unfavorable, and not one single thing seems to be going well, still a child of God can be thankful to the Lord. 

However, a good character trait, especially the good habit of thanksgiving, does not come naturally; it does not develop overnight. Like all other good character traits, the spirit of thanksgiving and the good habit of being content in all circumstances comes through a lot of discipline.  

For this reason the Lord God trained the Israelites to be thankful. Look at the key verse for today: "When you sacrifice a thank offering to the Lord, sacrifice it in such a way that it will be accepted on your behalf." Here the phrase, "in such a way," indicates that there is a certain way in which one must discipline himself to give thanks to the Lord. 

When we combine this phrase with what is written in the following chapters, we can see that God indeed trained the Israelites according to a certain standard. God did not train them at random. In order to train them God came up with a strict regiment. In fact, Leviticus 23 shows us that God designed for them a special training program. Before sending them into the Promised Land, God commanded Moses to let the Israelites go through the program as a matter of life and death. The Lord did not give them these rules as a matter of "suggestions;" they were not casual words: they were the Lord's command! The Lord gave them the command to keep these feasts as a lasting ordinance, not just for one generation or two but for the generations to come (second gen, third gen, fourth gen, and on and on). 

How did the Lord train them? There are a lot of points to consider. Maybe volumes of books can be written about them. But for our own purposes we would like to think about just one point – that is, the spirit of sacrifice.

The Lord trained the Israelites to thank God by wholeheartedly sacrificing something valuable to the Lord. "When you sacrifice a thank offering to the LORD, sacrifice it in such a way that it will be accepted on your behalf.” Here we see the word "sacrifice" repeated twice. The Lord characterized a thank offering as a "sacrifice." Specifically in Leviticus 23 the Lord describes the contents of the sacrifices, for there we see some of the details of the offerings the Israelites were to bring to the Lord on the feasts. Although Leviticus 23 sets forth various categories of offerings, such as doing no regular work, bringing grain offerings or animal offerings, the items mentioned are in no way exhaustive; you need to read other Bible passages such as Exodus as well as the entire book of Leviticus in order to come up with the complete list of all the sacrifices the Israelites were required to make. 

In addition, there are procedures to offer the offerings. The qualities and the amount of the offerings were prescribed in advance. Priorities are also set forth (such as in bringing to the priest a sheaf of the first grain as in Lev 23:14, "You must not eat any bread…until you bring this offering to God"). 

But the point of all these do's and don'ts remains the same: God's training method is to train them to sacrifice something valuable to the Lord and do it with a reverent attitude. 

Why then did God command them to sacrifice? Why does the Lord ask his children to bring this offering or that offering? Why should our thanksgiving be more than just lip service? We already know the answer: it is through sacrificing what is valuable on our part that we come to appreciate the value of all the provisions the Lord blesses us with. 

In addition, this appreciation is the key to fulfilling God's purpose within us. We can express this principle with the word PAR which stands for Participation, Appreciation, and Realization. As we participate in the Lord's way (of thanksgiving) by bringing offerings to the Lord sacrificially, we come to appreciate how precious the Lord and all of his provisions are; as we appreciate the values, we are motivated to cherish them dearly. Then we become worthy of him and all of his blessings. This fruit then results in us becoming worthy of greater blessings the Lord has in mind. As we learn to be thankful to the Lord more and more, the Lord comes to bless us as much as we can possibly bear.

We can better understand this truth when we think about what sacrifice is all about. What is sacrifice? By definition sacrifice is losing something valuable on our side. And it is when we lose something precious to us (either by way of giving it up voluntarily or by way of God taking it away from us even against our will) that we come to appreciate the value of the provisions from the Lord.

Once upon a time a man used to complain because he did not have a pair of Nike shoes. But when he saw a man without two legs, he stopped complaining. 

One pastor I know lost his mother at the age of 8 months. When he became in his kindergarten age, he went to a Sunday school. Christmas was fast approaching. The Sunday school teacher announced the names of the children who would participate in the Christmas play. He was waiting for the teacher to announce his name. But his name never came out of the mouth of the teacher. He thought the teacher forgot his name. So he went up to the teacher and reminded her of his name. The teacher said, "I know." But that was it. The boy thought, "Had my mother been around, my mom could have persuaded the teacher to give him a position in the play." But his mother was no longer with him. That night he went to bed, buried his face in a pillow and wept the whole night. Later he realized that Jesus became a man of sorrows. As he met Jesus personally he withdrew comfort from Jesus; then he grew up to be a shepherd with a motherly heart. With a motherly love he shepherded thousands of students suffering from all sorts of sorrows. 

In Genesis 22 Abraham came to fully appreciate the value of the gospel message by himself obeying the Lord's command to sacrifice his only begotten son Isaac. Through his self-sacrifice he came to know the preciousness of the Lord’s provision, and thereby he became a source of blessing for many.

Joseph in Genesis is another example. In his childhood he lost his mother Rachel. As he grew up under his stepmothers, he longed for motherly support. Since he did not have support from his own mother, as the last resort, he turned to Jacob, and held onto the love of his father Jacob. But at a tender age his brothers sold him to slave traders; so he was torn away from his father. At the end of his rope he held onto the Lord who was always with him. These trials led him to deeply appreciate the value of the fellowship with the Lord. As he cherished the relationship with the Lord and walked with the Lord, the Lord blessed him until he became the father of many nations. 

We know that Moses was a great shepherd. But his greatness did not come naturally. When he had grown up he refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter; he chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short period of time. He gave up his position as the royal prince of the Egyptian empire. Then what happened to him? He fell straight down from the high position of Egyptian Prince to the lowest position of Mr. Nobody. This sacrifice however opened up the opportunity for him to meet the God of Israel personally. Unbeknownst to him the Lord put him through a training program to serve the Lord as a shepherd for the slave nation Israel. This training program lasted for 40 years, plus 40 years more (the first 40 years were preparatory training; the next 40 years was on the job training)! Through his sacrificial life as a shepherd he grew to be a mature servant. Then he became a prophet of prophets, thus it is written: "No prophet has risen like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face."  

The ancient Chinese philosopher Lao Tsu said in the book of Tao Te Ching, "A student desiring to learn the way of Tao, learns to lose something daily." The Apostle Paul expressed the same truth when he said, "But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ; What is more I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Jesus Christ my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things; I consider the rubbish that I may gain Christ" (Phi 3:7-8).

Look at the key verse again. "When you sacrifice a thank offering to the LORD, sacrifice it in such a way that it will be accepted on your behalf.” Here one of the meanings of the phrase "on your behalf" is "for your own benefit." How are we going to be benefited? We already know the answer: as we learn to be thankful to the Lord, we come to cherish our relationship with the Lord better; and as we walk with Him, the Lord works for us that all the good purposes God has in mind would be fulfilled in us. 

How can we apply this principle to our practical lives? Here are some suggestions: get a pen and paper. Write down all that you think are truly valuable to you, such as time, money, career, job, relationships, such as your relationship with your parents or children, or spouse, or girlfriend or boyfriend. You may also wish to categorize them: if it is material possessions put all the possessions in that category like paycheck, cars, computers, savings, clothes, etc. Then check what you are doing with what you have. For example, if it is money, how much are you going to devote to the Lord? 1%, 2 or 3%, 10%, or nothing? If it is your time for what are you going to use it? There are 24 hours in a day, and seven days in a week. So what do you do with your morning hours, lunch break, or evening hours? What about the weekdays or weekends? Do the same thing with everything you have been blessed with. Most importantly, think seriously and pray sincerely about what you want to do with your "life"! If you are not sure of your salvation, or if you are not thankful for anything that is going on in your life, by all means sacrifice something valuable to the Lord. And do it all the more. Certainly God will change your life drastically. God will make your life truly exciting. 

And never be mistaken about this truth: it is truly rare if not impossible to see a selfish person being content in any circumstances; no matter what the circumstances he always has something to complain about. On the other hand, a sacrificial person is thankful even in times of hardships and difficulties.  

Part II - Thanks Topics

The world hits us with a lot of bad news. People are worried about global warming. Gas prices are going up. The value of the U.S. dollar is going down. Home values are going down. More people are claiming unemployment benefits than the number of people who are getting freshly hired and get off benefit programs. Last Sunday in Detroit, the owner of one gas station gunned down the owner of a rival station in cold blood; and he did it because his rival lowered the gas price by 3 cents from $2.96 to $2.93 per gallon. Did the value of human life come down to even 3 cents or less? These incidents make us feel horrible.

But still we Christians have reasons to give thanks to God. What are the reasons? We already know the answer: we have Jesus Christ in our midst, the greatest gift we can possibly imagine to receive from God. 

What the Lord commanded the Israelites to do through Moses in Leviticus 23 also supports this truth. In Leviticus 23, the Lord God commanded the Israelites to keep the Sabbath. He then commanded them to keep the seven feasts which are all associated with the Sabbath. 

They are:

 

the feast of the Passover; 

the feast of the Unleavened Bread; 

the feast of the sheaf of the first grain;

the feast of the firstfruits;

the feast of trumpets; 

the Day of Atonement; and 

the feast of tabernacles. 

In five different verses of this chapter the Lord God expresses these feasts as "my appointed feasts" (2); "the appointed feasts of the Lord" (2,44); and "the Lord's appointed feasts" (4,37). These expressions indicate that the point of the feasts is this: a blessed life in the Lord. 

As we know, the Israelites used to live in Egypt. They lived there without the Lord. They suffered under the iron rule of Pharaoh a type of Satan. But in the Promised Land they received the privilege to live under God's grace, mercy, love, and power. In order to perpetuate the blessed life in the Lord the Lord commanded the Israelites to keep the Sabbath and the feasts. 

The Sabbath reminds them of the privilege to work for God's glory, and the work comes with the joy of finding rest in the Lord. 

The seven feasts (or festivals) all point to the truth that the Israelites are all forgiven sinners and that it is purely by the grace of the Lord that they could live under God's blessed wings of provision and protection. 

So through keeping these feasts the Israelites can give thanks to God for the provisions and protection. As they keep the feasts they can be thankful to the Lord who alone is the source of all blessings (physical blessings such as bread and wine, and spiritual blessings such as forgiveness of sins and joyful fellowship with others in the presence of God). 

Practically, we can apply these thanks topics to our life by including the Lord into our hearts and acknowledging him in every walk of our lives (i.e., family, school, work, community and nation). 

So each and every day let us give thanks to the Lord for all he has done. Most importantly, let us give thanks to the Lord for the fellowship with our Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior. 

In conclusion, we learned that God trained the Israelites to be thankful to the Lord in order to perpetuate the Israelites' blessed relationship with the LORD. For training purposes the Lord God did not play a sugar daddy; the Lord God commanded them to bring offerings sacrificially so they would cherish their relationship with the Lord and grow worthy of their position as children of God. In the second part of the passage we learned that of all the thanks topics we have in the Lord, the Lord himself is the greatest thanks topic. So let us dedicate all of our resources, even our lives, to serving the Lord with many thanks. 

One word: a thank offering to the Lord

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