So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.
Romans 12:1-2 The Message
The word evokes images of pain and suffering. Bloody animals at the altar, things taken that we did not want to let go of. Nothing that we would want to go through or do on our own.
Yet for the Jewish people sacrifice was a regular occurrence that was not only necessary but looked forward to. Without sacrifice there would be no forgiveness, no redemption, no getting closer to God. It was engrained in their minds.
Yet for the Jewish people sacrifice was a regular occurrence that was not only necessary but looked forward to. Without sacrifice there would be no forgiveness, no redemption, no getting closer to God. It was engrained in their minds.
Purposes of QorbanotContrary to popular belief, the purpose of qorbanot is not simply to obtain forgiveness from sin. Although many qorbanot have the effect of expiating sins, there are many other purposes for bringing qorbanot, and the expiatory effect is often incidental, and is subject to significant limitations.The purposes of qorbanot are much the same as the purposes of prayer: we bring qorbanot to praise G-d, to become closer to Him, to express thanks to G-d, love or gratitude. We bring qorbanot to celebrate holidays and festivals. Others are used to cleanse a person of ritual impurity (which does not necessarily have anything to do with sin: childbirth causes such impurity, but is certainly not a sin). And yes, many qorbanot, like many prayers, are brought for purposes of atonement.The atoning aspect of qorbanot is limited. For the most part, qorbanot only expiate unintentional sins, that is, sins committed because a person forgot that this thing was a sin. No atonement is needed for violations committed under duress or through lack of knowledge, and for the most part, qorbanot cannot atone for a malicious, deliberate sin. In addition, qorbanot have no expiating effect unless the person making the offering sincerely repents his or her actions before making the offering, and makes restitution to any person who was harmed by the violation.
The Jewish sacrifice was mainly to get closer to God, not simply for the forgiveness of sins. It was therefore something that they looked forward to.
Romans 12:1-2 exhort us to take our everyday life and place it before God. Every day life.
Every
Day
Life
What does it look like? Get up in the morning and thank God for another day. As you get up give Him today, as you drink your coffee thank Him for coffee beans, as your kids leave for school, leave them in His hands..... You get the idea.
Every
Day
Life
Give it a try, become a living sacrifice, get closer to the maker of this world. I promise you will not regret it.
What are some things that can be a living sacrifice pleasing to God? Share with us!
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