Offerings
Why did God spend so much time with the details of offerings? Dr. J. Vernon McGee tells us in his writings on Numbers Chapters 28 and 29. Personally I always found the Book of Numbers to be the most boring book in the Bible. After my discovery of Dr. McGee's writings I have come to the conclusion that Numbers is one of the most important and interesting books. Read excerpts from McGee's writings given below and draw your own conclusion . . .
Why did God spend so much time with the details of offerings? Very candidly, it is rather tedious. This is especially true in our day when we do not offer bloody sacrifices. And it must have been tedious for them (the Israelites) also. I marvel at how meticulous things had to be for the offering unto God. Why is there so much detail? The reason is so wonderful that I wouldn't want you to miss it for anything in the world. It is actually the preciousness of Christ that is brought to our attention here- in fact, the abiding preciousness of Christ.
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LAW OF THE OFFERINGS
Num 28:1-2
1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
2 Command the children of Israel, and say unto them, My offering, and my bread for my sacrifices made by fire, for a sweet savour unto me, shall ye observe to offer unto me in their due season.
(KJV)
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Notice the emphasis- "My offering . . . my bread . . . my
sacrifice . . . unto me." You recall from the Book of
Leviticus that there were two kinds of offerings. Of the five offerings,
three of them were sweet savor offerings; two of them were non-sweet
offerings. The sweet savor offerings represent the person of
Christ; the non-sweet offerings speak of the work of Christ in redemption
for you and me. Now here God is talking about sweet savor offerings, and
He calls them My offerings. These offerings represent not what
Christ has done for us, or our thoughts of Him, but they speak of what God
thinks of Him.
Now what does this mean to you and me? We hear a lot today about worship and worship services. But how much is true worship in our services? How much is just aimless activity? Real worship is when we think God's thoughts after Him. This sweet savor offering which God speaks of as My offering, My bread, My sacrifice, represents what God thinks of Christ. God is satisfied with what Christ did for you and me on the cross. What about you? Are you satisfied with what Christ did for you on the Cross? Are you resting in that today? His invitation is "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matt. 11:28). Have you brought your burden of sin to Him and received Him as your Savior? Are you satisfied with who He is? If He is not the Son of God, then what He did is absolutely meaningless. True worship is a recognition of who He is and adoration of His Person. In other words, it is thinking God's thoughts after after Him.
All of the details speak of our Savior and how wonderful He is. He is a sweet savor offering; that is who He is. He is the non-sweet savor offering; that is what He did. He was made sin for us, He who knew no sin. I am the sinner, but He died in my stead so that I might be made the righteousness of God in Him. He took my place down here and He has given me His place up there. If you are saved today, you have as much right in heaven as Christ has. Did you know that? You have His right to be there, and if you don't have His right, then you have no business there- in fact, you won't be there. We are accepted in the Beloved. That is the basis on which God receives us. If you are in Him, you just can't improve on that at all. How wonderful this is.
The above excerpt is from "Thru the Bible with J. Vernon McGee"; Thru The Bible Radio, Pasadena, California; Vol. 1, pages 521,522.
God's words became very exciting to me when I discovered Dr. J. Vernon McGee's five volume set of "Thru the Bible" books. His down to earth approach to the Bible worked for me.. I was approaching Bible study from a scholarly viewpoint, which I found boring. As I began to read Dr. McGee's messages I discovered that the Bible was "Shoe Leather". It was where the rubber meets the road. It is something that I can use and reap results from today. The stories recorded in the Bible became very exciting, they contained wisdom for living in the world as it is.
I admit that I started reading Dr. McGee's work out of curiosity. I was trying to see what he was trying to gain by all the effort it must have taken to generate such a vast work. I looked to see what organizations he was trying to foster. As I kept on looking I was more mystified. I finally decided that he was honest when he stated that he disassociated himself with all organizations such that he could teach the entire word of God to the entire world. I also came to a deep appreciation of his ability to show various opinions of others and not take sides. He merely points out the various possibilities. It became very refreshing to read words from someone with no axes to grind and no goals to achieve save one, and that being to present God's words in a practical manner.
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