Giving God The Leftovers

There is a really strange passage in Leviticus 21 having to do with the holiness of the priests and then in chapter 22 about the type of sacrifices that were acceptable to God.

Essentially, a person who has any physical defect was not allowed to enter the Holy of Holies and offer sacrifices, though they could eat the holy things set aside for the priests and their families.

The same held true to sacrifices. If an animal was blind, blemished, or otherwise marred physically, it could not be offered.

Surely this was not solely to paint a picture of God's holiness, though I suppose this could picture that Jesus, our High Priest, was completely without sin when He entered the heavenly Holy of Holies to offer a sacrifice for our sins.

But if that was the sole reason for the picture the why not also rule out the mentally ill? What about someone with cancer or some other internal disease?

Without doing an entire exposition on the matter I just wanted to make one point. Especially with the sacrifices, the Israelites could have been tempted to pick out the "less than marketable" animals and said "here, this one I can't sell for much so let's give it to God."

God won't have that. He wants the best; He wants the first; He wants the thing that is most precious to us, not the leftovers. It's about our dedication to Him, our honor for Him, and our reliance on Him. If we give God those things of our life that we don't care much about, then it means we hold back those areas that mean a lot to us.

For instance: maybe you are an expert electrician. You make a lot of money doing that work. Then a poor widow down the street has an electrical problem. You have no trouble praying for the need, but when it comes time to fixing it you want to charge because, after all, you are a "professional."

Instead, give God the things that you do well or that you consider "good" about you and let Him govern and control you. It doesn't mean you won't ever get paid for what you do, but let God have it all and then provide what you need.

Pastor Tom