God’s Word always amazes me! Here, we have a chapter with 89 verses crammed full of repetition. Verses 12-73 repeat the same thing 12 times. The twelve tribes of Israel are bringing gifts and offerings to the Levites to help with their work and the dedication of the altar. They all bring the same thing. Repitious! How is this amazing? What is there to see besides carts, silver platters, basins, gold incense containers, goats, bulls, rams, and lambs? While reading through this repetition, a verse from the New Testament came to mind!
And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. (Romans 12:1, NLT)
As believers, God is not looking for our inanimate objects, such as carts, platters, basins, and containers. Instead, the Apostle Paul asks us all to bring the same gift and offer it to God. What is this gift? Our bodies! And not as dead sacrifices like the goats, bulls, rams, and lambs Israel gave, but as living sacrifices! Wow, this is strange talk! What does it all mean?
Simply put, we live life through our bodies. For example, we do that through our bodies when we talk to each other. When we help a stranger, we help through our bodies. A living sacrifice is offering our life and body to God for His use and purpose!
Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God. (Romans 6:13, NLT)
There is a life-altering truth in front of us! As believers, we are no longer enslaved to serving sin with our bodies because Jesus has broken the power of sin on the cross! We now have the choice to offer ourselves to God, to serve Him through our bodies! Sin leads to death; God is life. To really live life, let’s offer ourselves to God daily and in every way!
Today’s reading: Numbers 7 | Tomorrow’s reading: Numbers 8-10