Honoring God
In coming out of Campmeeting, my heart remains full, humbled, and hopeful in experiencing prayers fulfilled and understanding that “we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip” (Hebrews 2:1). And so, my prayers remain with the congregations tasked with the watering and exhortation of the new grafts. May the Lord bless your efforts and may “the things of earth grow strangely dim” as we run this race together.
"Ye said also, Behold, what a weariness is it! and ye have snuffed at it, saith the LORD of hosts; and ye brought that which was torn, and the lame, and the sick; thus ye brought an offering: should I accept this of your hand? saith the LORD." (Malachi 1:13)
Malachi, several hundred years before the dawning of Christ, brought an important message to the Israelites. The Israelites had long presented sacrifices before the Lord and, just as humans often do, they began to grow weary of giving up the best; so the creation began to offer their Creator the basest of their flock. As it seemed the Israelites tried to check the boxes in a way that they gave up nothing, Malachi brought a message to the Israelites asking, “where is mine honour?” (Mal. 1:6). It has been my experience that the longer we are sanctified, the more God asks, “where is mine honour?” and I believe that the Word begs that we be introspective as we strive to leave our all on the altar for every step. The way that we react to God’s request for an aspect of our life to be sacrificed seems to follow the pattern of our relationship with Him. I believe that if we strive to love God in completeness then we can, as Paul,
count all things “but dung, that I may win Christ” (Philippians 3:8).
Now the question is, biblically, what do we do after we lay something down? The answer is the same both when we sacrifice the “old man” to become sanctified and when we feel that there is something weighing us down that God has revealed is hindering our relationship with Him. The answer dates back to the common practice of the Old Testament- it gets burnt. The sacrifice is first killed then burnt (Leviticus 1), and when the sacrifice is properly treated it’s gone with no chance of returning. This is the physical pattern to model our spiritual lives after. If God has worked with us to make a sacrifice and take something out of our life, there should be finality to the sacrifice, and we should understand that God has reason to ask such of you. “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power…” (Revelation 4:11). There are two common issues that people seem to run into with this. One being as Malachi stated, the people bring the “torn, and the lame, and the sick.” When God asks for a sacrifice of us, do we bring Him that which He asked for- our best? A piece of our best?
When we are God’s, do we withhold the sacrifice He is so worthy of? Malachi actually addressed this sort of behavior as robbing God (Malachi 3:8). The other being that when we lay down our sacrifice, do we burn it as intended or do we leave ourselves an “out.” Much like the worldly prenuptial agreement, when we make a commitment with thought of breaking it, this is no commitment at all but rather a lack of trust.
I believe that today and every day God is asking people “where is mine honour?” I pray that we always take the sacrifice of the Lord in a serious light. Let us “remember Lot’s wife” (Luke 17:32) and as we turn towards the Lord may we remember: "Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it." (Malachi 3:10 ).
Bro Jake Rothfuss
