Why Study the Offerings? (Part 2)

In the first part ofthis introduction to God's offertory system, I briefly mentioned that the sacrifice of Jesus was much more than just an offering for sin. Meditating on this aspect of God's law reveals the depth of meaning that God has poured into the work that Jesus Christ accomplished on our behalf as well as the work that we ourselves do! Last time, I asked a question that I failed to address: is the sacrifice of Jesus Christ the entire substance of God's system of offerings as it relates to the New Covenant? 

For those in the Church of God, you may recognize that we use the word "offering" to refer to the money that we give on God's Holy Days. But have we considered the full biblical context of what an "offering" is in the New Covenant? A review of the New Testament scriptures about offerings reveals that the apostles deeply understood God's offertory system, and we will readily see that we cannot hope to grasp the apostles' meaning without studying that system for ourselves. 

The New Covenant is Full of Offerings!

Would you be surprised to hear that there are several references to sacrifices and offerings which are part of the New Covenant other than that of Jesus Christ? As if seeking to understand the depth of His sacrifice weren't already enough reason to study the offertory system,  it turns out that we are called on to give offerings as part of our service to God today - and I'm talking about things much more important than the money we give on the Holy Days.

In Philippians 2:17, Paul  referred to himself as a "drink offering" being "poured out on the sacrifice and service of your faith." He echoed these words in 2 Timothy 4:6, showing that this was an important point for Paul that was on his mind frequently! What did he mean when he said that their faith was a sacrifice? If Paul had left it at that, we might be inclined to gloss over this statement as a very straightforward metaphor without much meaning, since the word "sacrifice" seems so general. However, Paul went further, saying that he was "poured out like a drink offering" - with these words, we can no longer conclude that the connection to God's offertory system was only made in passing! Rather, I believe it was referenced with purpose to spur us on to greater understanding. What symbolism is contained in the sacrifices in order to say that our faith is a sacrifice? What exactly was a drink offering, and what point was Paul making? If mere superficial answers to these questions were sufficient, then why, when we look at the offerings in Leviticus 1-7, did God present us with such an intricate system? 

In Philippians 4:18, Paul referred to a physical gift from the Philippian church as "a sweet-smelling aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well pleasing to God." Last time I pointed out in Ephesians 5:2 that the sacrifice of Christ was also described as "a sweet-smelling aroma to God." I do not believe that Paul would use this comparison just to make his writing sound prettier! Through these fleeting mentions, we are given a glimpse into the understanding that he had about the significance of God's offertory system, and it again begs further study: what exactly made an offering "acceptable" or "sweet-smelling?" Read Leviticus 1 and see whether the answer is simple or whether it merits further meditation!

There are more examples of how our works go up before God as offerings under the New Covenant:

Therefore by Him [Jesus] let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. But do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.    (Hebrews 13:15-16)

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.    (Romans 12:1) 

Coming to Him as a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also, as living stones, are being built into a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.     (1 Peter 2:4-5)

The language of sacrifices and offerings in these passages is not superficial! It is intended to add value and meaning to the ideas being expressed. That value and meaning is something we should desire, and it can only be unraveled by studying and meditating on the physical laws that God instituted "as a shadow and copy of the heavenly things" (Hebrews 8:5).  Perhaps the most important and overlooked reality of the offerings, as I will endeavor to explain, is that not every sacrifice and offering was an atonement for sin. It is by this key realization that the above New Testament passages begin to take on their intended meaning, and also that the fullness of Christ's work is revealed.

The Perfectness of God's Work

As a final thought, I'd like to share the words of someone else who has studied these offerings in God's law. I've only just started reading a short book entitled "The Law of the Offering" by Andrew Jukes, an English theologian from the late 1800s. I'm still in the introduction to it as of this writing, and I can't personally vouch for the content of the entire book, but I found my own feelings on this topic expressed much more beautifully by him than I could have done myself: 

"And as in nature those wonders which the microscope presents to us, though it may be but in an insect’s wing or a drop of water, give us at a glance a sense of the perfectness of God’s work, such as we might not receive even from a view of the boundless heavens, testifying with a voice not to be misunderstood, how wondrous is the Hand that formed them, with whom nothing is too insignificant to be perfected: so His Word, in its more neglected portions, in those passages which we have perhaps thought of comparatively little value, shews the same perfectness. The finishing of the emblems in the Types is by the same hand that finished redemption; the one was, if you please, His great work, the other His small one; but both are His work, and both perfect. "

My intent in this series is to place the microscope on the system of offerings that God divinely instituted for our learning, as the apostles have guided us to do by their repeated allusions to it.