Theological
Commentary: Click Here
Today, there
was a little snippet at the end of the passage that caught my eye. It is the rule for a person who lives too far
away to come and make sacrifices at the temple.
How are they to go and demonstrate before the Lord?
They are to
go to the temple, but notice how long.
They are to go once every three years!
We are not talking about a great deal of sacrifice here. Once every three years a person is to go and
make sacrifices before the Lord. They
don’t need to go weekly, monthly, or even yearly. What this tells me is that God is a God of
relationship more than observance. He
would rather us do right and live rightly where we live than have our focus on
making trips to come and fulfill our obligation before Him. I’ll write more on this at the end.
Did you see
how the people are to go, when they do come once every three years? They are to take whatever offering they
should give to the Lord and convert it into money. They are to then bring the money to the place
of the Lord because it is easier to carry.
Then, once they get to the Lord’s house, they are to convert that money
into things to offer before the Lord. Naturally
these are things that the Lord has already said He accepts: oxen, goats, wine,
grains, etc. But there are two things
here that caught my eye. First, the
people are free to buy whatever their heart desires. Second, they are to buy it and celebrate
before the Lord. This is not a begrudging
sacrifice where one loathingly gives a part of what they have. This is a time of coming and celebrating
before God and with God’s people about the great things that God has done in
our lives.
As I
indicated above, let me return back to the topic of obligation. Now that we see the issue of sacrifices is
not to be a burden but only a journey once every three years, what is the
people’s obligation between those three years?
Moses tells the people that they are not to forget the Levite. They are not to neglect the sojourner. They are not to neglect the orphan. They are not to neglect the widow. Again, this tells me that God is more
interested in our relationship with Him and how we care for the defenseless
around us than He is concerned with our obligatory sacrifices. He is far more concerned about the status of
our heart and our community than the offering going into His coffers.
That’s a
really neat perspective to find, especially in the Old Testament. So often we think of ancient religions as
appeasing the gods and doing obligatory sacrifices to keep them happy – or at
least keep them from being angry. That
is not at all what we see here. God is showing
us, clear back as early as the time of Moses, that He sees the way we care for
others as a part of our sacrifice for Him.
If we want to make Him happy, it isn’t about making some sacrifice or
giving some monstrous donation. Making
Him happy is about showing love and grace and mercy to those who cannot protect
or provide for themselves and who have no legitimate inheritance among us.
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