Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. (Romans 12:1-2)
The components of offering a sacrifice were;
- The altar
- The sacrifice; and
- The fuel.
Offering sacrifice is to God not to ourselves. He set the rules about what pleases Him. Let us examine each component and see God’s expectation of us. Flashback to the instructions for setting up the altar in Exodus 20:24-26, it says:
Make an altar of earth for me and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, your sheep and goats and your cattle. Wherever I cause my name to be honored, I will come to you and bless you. If you make an altar of stones for me, do not build it with dressed stones, for you will defile it if you use a tool on it. And do not go up to my altar on steps, or your private parts may be exposed.
The altar was to be made out of uncut stone. Back in the days, rock art was considered aesthetic to beautify a rather dull functional artefact. It was natural for men to want to go the extra mile and use human wisdom to beautify any work of stones. But before Moses could ask the stone cutters (Joshua by the way was a stone cutter) to add art to the altar, God told him, not so fast. Keep it simple. Don’t defile my altar with your tools.
What of the sacrifice? Exodus 12 says that the sacrifices must be without blemish, set apart four days before and that no bone of it should be broken. The scripture in Romans also talks about holy and pleasing sacrifices. There was an elaborate selection and preparation of the sacrifice prior to placing it on the fire. While to Moses and the rest, sacrifice of any animal would have sufficed and possibly human wisdom of slaughtering and doing a barbecue (perhaps having marinated the meat overnight) God’s design was different.
Lastly, the fire. When Elijah challenged the prophets of Baal at Mount Carmel, he called on the fire from on high having prepared the sacrifice just like God would have been pleased. God responded by coming in a fiery form and consumed the sacrifices.
Many of us are going about life, placing ourselves on the altar but God is not pleased with our sacrifices and they lie on the altar unconsumed, possibly rotting and bringing a pungent smell. Just like God was tired with the sacrifices offering during the days of Isaiah (Isaiah 1:11), maybe He is asking the same question today, "What makes you think I want all your sacrifices?" says the LORD
The altar is our God ordained destiny, a reference point where we place our lives for God to subject our minds our spirits to the fire from on high so that we can be pleasing to Him in our daily living. Some of us have modified the altar, pimping it with worldly wisdom, defiling it with man-made tools to make it gisty, to give it a swag, to give it an umph. Our dreams and aspirations are shaped and directed by the world and we imagine God would rubber stamp and consume the sacrifice when we offer to Him for endorsement.
God requires obedience more than the sacrifice itself. Mere acts of worship that completely disregard His command and instruction are no different from the prophets of Baal. The sacrifices are not to God. They are to self and other gods. In the end frustrations come in and the flesh on the altar rots even for the world that was the object of attention to detest it.
To not conform to the patterns of this world requires total not partial obedience to God’s call about offering acceptable sacrifices to Him. Altar that doesn’t have worldly inscriptions, a lamb without blemish, set apart and without a broken bone and an approach to the altar with humility not exposing our nakedness (pride, arrogance etc) in our worship.
Remember our lives are being passed through the fire daily (1 Corinthians 3:13-15). At the end of the fiery experience, what will remain?
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