A Question on Sacrifice
I wonder if any of my blog readers can help me. You may well know what it is, especially if you are a preacher, to feel that you are about to get hold of an aspect of truth that is going to prove vital and powerful (as truth is!) but you haven’t quite grasped it yet! You know that you are searching for gold, for hidden treasure, but you are still in the process of sifting the dirt! Recently I have felt God has begun to show me something about worship, praise and prayer - as sacrifice. In one sense, all the sacrifices of the OT point to the once and for all sacrifice of Christ on the cross. As far as atoning for sins is concerned, there is no need for any more sacrifice (Heb.10:18). And yet the language of sacrifice is used especially in relation to a ’sacrifice of praise’ in the NT and Psalms (Heb.13:15; Ps.27:6; 107:22). And I have begun to wonder if there is not something to be learned from OT sacrifices in terms of on-going spiritual principles relating to worship that we should take on board - certainly not in terms of a fixed ritual, but in terms of it being wholehearted, passionate, raw, visceral, extravagant, gutsy - and even messy! Too often I have been in prayer or praise meetings where it is too tidy, correct, polite, even apologetic and hesitant. There can be nothing hesitant about slaughtering a bull or a goat!!
I love it when people praise God and call upon God in prayer with uninhibited passion. A friend of mine pointed out, in relation to prayer, how Jesus sweated blood at Gethsemane. That was of course a very specific occasion of prayer, but I do tend to think that there might at least be sweat on the carpet after a good prayer meeting, if not blood exactly! I’m exaggerating of course (though the sacrificng of multiple animals was a bit exaggerated!!) - but am I on to something, or do I still need to do loads of sifting!? If anyone has any insights into this whole area (Matthew?) please leave me a comment.
March 1st, 2006 @ 10:33 pm
Trev, I have also been thinking about this recently. In fact the night before you spoke about “messy” sacrifrice at our Sunday morning gathering I found that God was speaking to me about this.
The word I felt God say was that he wants us to not be afraid of a bit of mess. Too often people hold back in their prayer, prophesy, praise etc because they think it doesn’t look right or (particularly in the area of the prophetic) they don’t know EXACTLY what they are going to say.
However, God also reminded me that whilst His house can be messy that does not mean that things happen as and when. In the OT the sacrifices were bought in very specific ways, the bible clearly states how the people of Israel were to perform them.
I believe God doesn’t mind mess but His house is still a place of order. Therefore, when we meet there needs to extravagant, even messy praise, but there still needs to be order to our meetings.
March 1st, 2006 @ 11:58 pm
I was talking to a friend of mine last night, she was saying how she sometimes feels that it is all too easy to get into a mind set of how to do worship rather than being free to express our thanks and praise to God and wait on him to speak to us. Worship is rather like a conversation with your best mate, quite often done in diferent settings and circumstances.
God does like order though; Paul in 1 Corinthians 26-40 talks about orderly worship.
I explained to my friend that God has provided us with a structure for our worship in which His Spirit will flow. God create us with structure; without skin, and bones (our frame and canopy) we cannot function properly. Put simply we would just fall apart.
I will leave you with this message that Paul gave to the Colossians, Chapter 2, verse 5:
For though I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit and delight to see how orderly you are and how firm your faith in Christ is.
Please feel free to visit my new blog at:
http://pfrance.livejournal.com
March 2nd, 2006 @ 3:12 am
I totally agree. Sacrifice is the very essence of worship. After establishing formal worship through sacrifice in Leviticus 9, God responds by revealing himself in all his glory. In the New Covenant, we no longer sacrifice animals, but live a sacrificial life of worship in everything we do. We can now experience the manifest presence of God all the time. As Keri would say “Ten thousand thanks to Jesus!”
March 2nd, 2006 @ 8:52 am
You’re so right about the need to be less hesitant. To be hesistant indicates that a person is weighing it up, working it out. I’m learning more and more that Praise and Worship is NOW, current, at this moment.
I can’t store it up like food in my cupboards. I can’t say to God I’ll praise you 85% tonight but leave 15% in the tank for Sunday. It’s ‘all’, it’s overflowing and that is why praise and worship, I believe, is always in the present.
That’s how it would have been in the OT with sacrfices. They couldn’t dice up the goat to use some bits at one time and save the rest for the next time - God didn’t allow that. It was to be the best, it had to be fresh - not stale or rotting.
I’ve always held that praise and worship has to cost me something, I have to give of myself, my substance - that in itself helps me give my all, my everything because if I’m holding back then I’m really just giving ’some’, perhaps just out of the surplus of a full life when I want to be giving from the deep of myself.
These are just my thoughts Trevor. Let them stir you as you come to your revelation - which I will look forward to hearing or reading about in the very near future!
March 2nd, 2006 @ 1:15 pm
Hi Trevor,
I love moments like this. Sometimes you have to put your questions on the back-burner and come back to them again (and maybe again and again) but when something new clicks into place and it all “just fits” without any sense of being forced it’s worth the wait!
Some passages and thoughts that I have considered in this area that may help:
Worship is like sacrifice in that it must cost us. We cannot give the left overs we wont miss anyway, they must be the best:
“I will not sacrifice to the LORD my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.” 2Sa 24:24
It holds nothing back (I think the drink offering is particularly relevant here) poured out freely, just like the woman’s act of worship with the alabaster jar. (Mk 14:3)
Of course worship is also like putting our own lives on the altar: Ro 12:1
Look forward to reading your revelation on this subject.
March 3rd, 2006 @ 9:16 am
Thank you all for your helpful comments. This is a great means of contributing to the seeking of revelation - not at a substitue of course. But I believe there is a lot to be said for seeking God together - as no doubt the companies of prophets in the OT did. It is not always just about the sole individual up the mountain. Blogging can help this corporate enquiring of the Lord. Particular thanks to Dan - you have a prophetic spirit that stirs me! Keep fanning it into flame!!
March 22nd, 2006 @ 10:11 pm
Trevor I’m challenged with the fact that we are not the ones who offered the NT sacrafice that is the embodyment of the OT types but rather the God the Father offered His Son. Oh how extravagant can it be. The perfect unblemished lamb, like no lamb that has ever been, priceless in value and the fulness of all beauty. I love the OT pictures and I do think they bring a great flavor to our praise but they always bring me back to the cross, which is what they should do I think.