Obedience in Giving (Part 2)

David Hwang

Thus, in the matter of giving, the concept that “obedience is better than sacrifice” means that our giving must flow from lives that are first given over to the Lord.  When our lives are indeed given first to the Lord, several important attitudes will characterize our giving.  These include reverence, trust, generosity, and joy.

1. Reverence

When our lives are given to the Lord, the first desire of our lives will be to worship Him; to give Him the honor and the glory that He alone deserves.  Our giving will therefore be, first and foremost, an act of worship to our great God and King.  Our offerings will be an acknowledgement of our complete dependence on Him and a reflection of our desire to honor Him above anything or anyone else.

This attitude of reverence has important implications for how we give to the Lord.  First, it means that we should give humbly, realizing that we give only from what He has given to us.  As David prayed after giving a very large offering, “But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this?  Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand…. O Lord our God, as for all this abundance that we have provided for building you a temple for your Holy Name, it comes from your hand, and all of it belongs to you.” (1 Chronicles 29:14,16)  The Lord is not dependent on our offerings, nor is He obligated to us in any way when we give to Him, since He gave us everything in the first place (cf. Psalm 50:8-13).  We are not doing Him a favor when we give, nor does He owe us anything when we bring offerings to Him.

Second, when we give with an attitude of reverence, it means that we will give our best to the Lord, not the “leftovers” after we have had our fill, because what we give shows how much we think He is worth.  This was why God commanded Israel in the Old Testament to present Him with the “firstfruits” of the crop, that is, the first and best portions of their harvests (e.g. Exodus 23:19; Leviticus 23:9-14). Further, diseased or blemished animals were not acceptable (Leviticus 22:19-25; Deuteronomy 17:1).  When the Israelites in Malachi’s day tried to bring unacceptable sacrifices to the Lord, He rebuked them, saying,

“A son honors his father, and a servant his master.  If I am a father, where is the honor due me? If I am a master, where is the respect due me?” says the LORD Almighty.  “It is you, O priests, who show contempt for my name.… When you bring blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong?  When you sacrifice crippled or diseased animals, is that not wrong?  Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you?  Would he accept you?” says the LORD Almighty…. “Oh, that one of you would shut the temple doors, so that you would not light useless fires on my altar! I am not pleased with you,” says the LORD Almighty, “and I will accept no offering from your hands.  My name will be great among the nations, from the rising to the setting of the sun.  In every place incense and pure offerings will be brought to my name, because my name will be great among the nations,” says the LORD Almighty. (Malachi 1:6,8,10-12)

The Israelites’ sacrifices showed their complete disrespect and contempt towards God.  They tried to offer sacrifices to the LORD Almighty that even their local governor would have been insulted by; thus, rather than being accepted, they were rebuked and rejected.  In the same way, had King Saul truly desired to honor the Lord, he would have taken the best of his own flocks to sacrifice to the Lord, rather than trying to offer sacrifices that cost him nothing and that didn’t even belong to him.  His act of disobedience showed how little the Lord was worth in his eyes.

In contrast to Saul’s arrogant disobedience and the thoughtless and contemptuous sacrifices of the Israelites in Malachi’s day, was the offering of precious perfume that Mary poured out on Jesus (John 12:1-8).  Worth more than a year’s wages, this was likely Mary’s costliest possession, yet she poured it all out on her Lord because she considered Him worthy.  In contrast, those around her “rebuked her harshly” saying, “Why this waste?” (Mark 14:4-6) because they did not value Jesus Christ as Mary did, nor did they consider Him worthy of this treasure.

Living as we do under the New Covenant in Christ’s blood, we are no longer to bring animal sacrifices before the Lord, but the principle still remains that our offerings to the Lord show the value or worth that we place on Him.  If we bring Him offerings “that cost us nothing” (cf. 2 Samuel 24:24), it shows that our hearts despise Him and that we consider Him unworthy.  When we give, we ought to give of our best to the Lord, not just what we can spare.  In our money-based economy, this means, for example, that we should honor Him with the first of our income, rather than waiting until we have spent all that we want to spend on ourselves before tossing some spare change His way.

“‘I am a great king,’ says the LORD Almighty, ‘and my name is to be feared among the nations.’” (Malachi 1:14b).  When our lives are first given over to the Lord, our offerings will give Him the reverence and honor He deserves.

Related links:

Obedience in Giving (Part 1)

奉献中的顺服(一)

奉献中的顺服(二)