Raw Versus Prepared Sacrifices

Scripture: When anyone offers a grain offering to the Lord, his offering shall be of fine flour. ... And if you bring as an offering a grain offering baked in the oven, it shall be unleavened cakes of fine flour mixed with oil, or unleavened wafers anointed with oil. Leviticus 2:1,4

Observation: The grain offering ... isn't grain. The choices for the grain offering involve either the delivery of fine flour mixed with oil, or of baked bread. In all cases, a portion of it is burned on the alter, and the rest is for the priests.

There is then a significant difference in the nature of a burnt offering versus a grain offering. For a burnt offering, a live animal is brought to be sacrificed. It is then killed, prepared, and placed on the alter, all by the priests and right there before God. However, with a grain offering, the giver does all the prep work at home, away from the priests and from the tabernacle. The work itself may be partial - the grinding of grain into flour only - or complete (baking it). In the larger type of work, it may be completed in several different ways ... baked as bread, dried as wafers, fried in a pan. The results of that work are then brought forward for a portion to be sacrificed.

Application: I have 'offerings' I just give to God, which are primarily my tithe. I give money, with no intent to further manage or control how God will use it. That money might be used to ... buy a new vacuum for the church, allow a pastor to buy someone a coffee during a counseling session, pay a drummer's stipend, fly in a guest speaker, fund repairs for a lawn mower ... who knows! I give the money "raw" without form or purpose.

I have other 'offerings' that are more prepared. Sometimes this is money given for a purpose, like when we run a campaign for new livestream equipment. Mostly, such prepared offerings are in the form of my time, like sacrificing extra time on Sunday to deliver the FPU class, or host an Alpha table, or help with Christmas lights. These are efforts that will result in God's work being done, and for which I am giving to help bring about, but not in a random way. I can decide a bit how I engage in this sacrifice, and the degree to which I do so.

There are times I have thought that all the sacrifices in Leviticus were a burden placed on God's people for them to show their commitment to and love of God. However, they also provide flexibility. They give God's people choices about how to serve the Lord, and the degree to which they want to be hands-on in that service. They can bring an animal and leave, or work a harvest, grind grain, kneed dough, sweat over a hot oven, and give the results of that work away.

I have the same choice in how I serve the Lord, and I love being able to do both.

Prayer: Lord, thank you for the blessings you always return when I give to you in any manner. I feel closer to you when I can engage in your work, and I know you have blessed my general giving. That you seek our engagement with you, when you could simply demand it, is amazing. Amen.