A Wristwatch And Blood Sacrifices

Having survived Florida’s six or eight days of winter, Ginny and I contemplate Spring gardening. This past weekend we did not actually do any gardening, but we sat out in the yard and planed what we may do.

And we drove to the nursery/hardware store to buy chlorine for the pool, gas for the lawnmower, birdseed, etc.

On our way, we attempted to return a watch.

A few weeks after Christmas, as we walked to Dave’s Diner, we’d found a wristwatch near the entrance of a closed store, an area where they load and unload goods. Put it in my pocket intending to locate the owner and return it. Every time I’d go by that business, the place would be closed or I would not have the watch with me.

Forgot about it.

In my effort to read through the Bible this year, I’ve often fallen asleep over Leviticus—all those laws and arcane descriptions work better than sleeping pills. But Monday this passage perked me up:

And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, If a soul sin, and commit a trespass against the LORD, … Or have found that which was lost… then it shall be, because he hath sinned, and is guilty, that he shall restore that … lost thing which he found,… and give it unto him to whom it appertaineth, in the day of his trespass offering. And he shall bring his trespass offering unto the LORD, a ram without blemish out of the flock…, for a trespass offering .. and it shall be forgiven him for any thing of all that he hath done in trespassing therein.

I remembered that watch I’d found.

So Ginny and I made a special side trip to the place we found it and sought the manager who made several phone calls to customers and employees trying to locate the owner.

No body had lost the watch.

Apparently it’s mine to keep.

But this non-incident got me to thinking about law and sacrifice.

Most of the Levitical laws relate to decent things decent people do. Common sense things like returning lost property and respecting boundaries, the sort of thing you’d want people to do to you.

Other laws, I frankly wonder about—do I really need God Almighty to tell me not to eat a buzzard?

That’s one law (about the only one).I have faithfully kept

But then I come to the rules involving sacrifice. I see a certain beauty there. as Leviticus describes an intricate dance of movement around the blazing altar in the Tabernacle. The killing of animals. The pouring of blood. The burning of meat.

Sacrifices included burnt offerings and sin offerings and peace offerings and heave offerings and drink offerings and wave offerings and meal offerings and thanksgiving offerings.

Joyous, but serious, business.

I see a difference in attitude between myself and those ancient worshipers. When I offer something to the Lord, usually money, I want to see a concrete result. I like to think my gift is going to a specific purpose such as fixing the church air conditioner, buying a new van, feeding starving children, finding a cure for breast cancer—I look for a tangible benefit for my offering.

In contrast, the worshipers in Leviticus looked for the intangible. They brought something extremely valuable to them such as the best bull in the herd or the best lamb in their flock and saw it cut apart and utterly burned on the altar. Every bit gone up in smoke. A sweet savor unto the Lord.

They offered their most valuable because they valued God as magnificent, glorious, exalted, beautiful, precious, invisible, intangible, worthy.

And those ancient worshipers approached the Lord knowing that blood had been shed.

In many churches today Christian worshipers chant, “Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us, therefore let us keep the feast”.

My friend Wes constructed a huge (ping-pong table sized) model of the Tabernacle which he uses in teaching Bible lessons. He said the sacrificial system was didactical in that it taught worshipers about the holiness of God and their own place before Him.

The Law acted as a tutor to bring us to Christ.

No one keeps the whole law.

I suspect that most folks act like I do: I try to be a nice guy, I try to be a nice guy—and I try not to get caught when I’m not.

Holiness requires more.

God never said, “Be ye nice”.

He said, “Ye shall be holy: for I the LORD your God am holy”.

Leviticus even provides sacrifices for people who sinned but didn’t realize it at the time. Our sins differ according to our individual tastes; but just as embezzlers, robbers, rapists, and horse thieves are collectively labeled criminals, so collectively we all fall under the heading of sinners.

But here is the wonder:

“The love of God is commended toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us”.

Not with the blood of bulls and goats and lambs, but the Lamb of God offered up Himself for us and because He is “the Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world” and because He rose from the tomb, the sacrifice of Christ is sufficient for all mankind, for all sin, for all time, and for all eternity.

Makes sense to me.

St. Paul told the Ephesians, “By grace are ye saved through faith, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast”.

And when someone asked Jesus about working for God, He said, “This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent”.

But, you know what? I find it easier to return a wristwatch I don’t really need, than to trust the Lord Christ. For me action is easier than belief. When I take action, I feel I’m in control; on the other hand, when I trust Christ, I must voluntarily relinquish control to Him.

You know what that means?

While in action, I have never eaten a buzzard; in belief, often I have to eat crow.