89 verses later …
Sorry, I couldn’t
resist.
Reading and Receiving Gifts
I wonder if that
simple sentiment captures your attitude when reading this text. I know it did mine. It is one thing to read a book that is
interesting and exciting. But within
these 89 verses are 12 paragraphs that with the exception of the name of the
leader and the tribe that the leader is from these paragraphs are completely
identical. They give the same gift, day
after day. I confess that it felt a bit
monotonous to read. I wonder if you were
like me and found yourself skipping along the text just checking to make sure
that the paragraph that you were reading was the same as the four that had come
before it, knowing that it would also be the same as the 7 that would come
after it.
I wonder how God felt
receiving the identical gifts. I’m
willing to bet that He did not tire of the monotony as I tired merely of
reading it. That’s the greatness of
God. God does not tire of good things as
we do. An earnest gift brought before
God is treasured, valued, and remembered.
It doesn’t matter if it is the same gift as yesterday. What is important is not the scope of the
gift but the genuineness of the faith and person who offers the gift.
For the record, this
principle works gloriously in reverse.
When the people are in the Promised Land and they are bringing glorious
gifts but have no spiritual motivation God does not receive their gifts. The
glory and the splendor are nothing compared to the heart within. See Hosea 6:6 or Psalm 51:16-17.
Pondering My Response to 89 Verses
So I am left to
ponder a few things. First, shame on me
for tiring of reading about the repetitive and meaningful gifts to the
Lord. Shame on me for tiring of the same
Kyrie sung every Sunday, or the same group that meets weekly, or the same Bible
I pick up and read every day. Shame on
me for tiring of the things that sustain my faith.
Second, it makes me
wonder about the religious practices in which I am involved. Is God receiving religious practices that are
genuinely offered – or is He sitting through the repetitive worship that is not
genuine? We know full well from this
passage that God doesn’t tires of honest repetitive practice. But we also know from later in the prophets
that God does indeed tire of meaningless worship. So, which is it for me – or for you? Are we honestly giving God a worship of which
He will never tire or are we wearing Him down with a worship of which He is
already tired? There is nothing wrong
with worship of any kind – so long as it is truly God-centered and erupting out
of our faith in Him.
Recently I’ve come
across a really neat teaching. Ritual
leads to religion, discipline leads to discipleship. Even the Pharisees of Jesus’ day prove this
point. They were doing a great number of
spiritual practices, but their lives weren’t changing! Jesus’ disciples pick up a few spiritual
disciplines from their mentor and their lives change drastically!
Unity
There is another
thing to be said here. With the same
gift being brought forth by each tribe, there was a clear focus on unity. They weren’t interested in outdoing each
other. They weren’t interested in
competition or to see who could offer up the best gift to God.
Their faith led them
to unity in worship. They may have all
had their differences, but when it was time to worship God they worshipped Him
first and foremost in a way that was pleasing to God. And I think that is also significant. How many times do we want to worship in a way
that is pleasing to us? How many times
do we demand worship experiences that are building in spirituality so that the ones
we have this year make the ones we had 10 years ago seem like an immature
spirituality? That is what we want.
How often do we
approach the idea of worship as something that God wants? Does the form and shape of our worship really
matter – so long as it is pleasing to God?
Which is more important – the fact that our worship is pleasing to God
or that it is pleasing to us?
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