Obedience in Giving (Part 1) David Hwang In 1 Samuel 15:22, Samuel rebuked King Saul for disobeying God’s command to completely destroy the Amalekites and keeping the best of the Amalekites’ livestock, supposedly so he could offer sacrifices to the Lord. Samuel said, “Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the LORD? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.” Under the Old Covenant, God commanded the Israelites to present various sacrifices and offerings to Him, but this passage in 1 Samuel, together with other Scriptures, establishes the principle that obeying God is more important than sacrifices and offerings. While the requirement for animal sacrifices has been abolished by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ once for all, we who live under the New Covenant are still called to give offerings to the Lord, and the principle that obedience is better than sacrifice therefore still applies. At the same time, giving to the Lord is itself an act of obedience, and it is possible to be disobedient in the way we give to the Lord, even as we outwardly “obey” His commands to give. So how does the principle that “obedience is better than sacrifice” apply to our giving today? Most importantly, our giving ought to flow from lives that are first given over to the Lord. God does not so much desire our gifts as He desires us, and our offerings to Him are meaningful only insofar as they come out of hearts that love Him and desire to obey Him. If our hearts are not right towards Him, our offerings are meaningless. This thought is expressed in numerous Scripture passages such as Isaiah 1:11-17 or Amos 5:21-24, in which God tells the Israelites that their offerings are meaningless and that He has no pleasure in them – in fact that He despises them and will not accept them, because of the Israelites’ evil deeds. In the New Testament, the Pharisees were so diligent with their giving that they even tithed their herbs and spices; yet Jesus condemned them for neglecting “the more important matters of the law – justice, mercy, and faithfulness.” (Matthew 23:23) As Jesus pointed out, they certainly should have been diligent about their giving, but there were other matters of greater importance that they had neglected; and so they were condemned rather than praised. This isn’t to say that we should stop bringing offerings to the Lord if our lives are not right with Him. Rather, we should repent and turn from wickedness, seeking His forgiveness and restoration, so that our offerings might be pleasing to Him. That’s because although God commanded sacrifices be made to Him, His desire was not for the sacrifice, but for the person offering it. Sacrifices and offerings were never intended to be a means to gain favor or merit with the Lord, but rather a reminder of our sinfulness and of our total dependence on Him (Hebrews 10:1-4), and thus, a reflection of hearts that are seeking after the Lord in repentance, in faith, and in thankfulness for His gracious provision of all things. As King David prayed after committing adultery with Bathsheba, “You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” (Psalm 51:16-17). Only after David had repented and received God’s forgiveness could he say, “Then there will be righteous sacrifices, whole burnt offerings to delight you; then bulls will be offered on your altar.” (Psalm 51:19). To the disrespectful and rebellious remnant of Israel in the prophet Malachi’s day, God likewise said, “‘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… and I will accept no offering from your hands.’” (Malachi 1:10) And yet, Malachi looked forward to a day when the Lord would send His messenger to purify His people, so that they would once again offer acceptable offerings to Him. Of this messenger, Malachi writes: “He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the LORD will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness, and the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to the LORD, as in days gone by, as in former years.” (Malachi 3:3-4) This messenger of whom Malachi spoke was none other than Jesus Christ, “who gave Himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for Himself a people that are his very own” (Titus 2:14). In fulfillment of Malachi’s prophecy, we have become “a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 2:5b) Through Christ’s righteousness, we are enabled to present to the Lord “offerings in righteousness” that are acceptable to Him. And yet, the requirement that our offerings should come from holy lives does not change, as was illustrated forcefully by the example of Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:1-11). In a time when others in the church were selling properties and bringing the money to the apostles to help meet the needs of the poor in their midst (Acts 4:34-37), Ananias and Sapphira also sold some property, but lied about the price they had received, so that they could keep part of the money for themselves and appear to be more generous than they really were. Because of their lie, not only was their offering unacceptable, but the Lord struck them both dead. In contrast, the Macedonian Christians for were commended for their giving, because their giving reflected lives that were first of all given over to the Lord. The apostle Paul writes of these believers, “And they did not do as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us in keeping with God’s will” (2 Corinthians 8:5). The Macedonian Christians desired to be completely obedient to the Lord, and their giving arose naturally and spontaneously out of their complete devotion to the Lord. (To be continued) Chinese Translation: 奉献中的顺服(一) |
