Wednesday, November 30, 2011

The Sacrifice of Thanksgiving

As we came up to thanksgiving this year, i wanted to take some time to get into scripture and see what it offered on thanksgiving. We first find it in the book of Leviticus chapter 7, in what it describes as "the law of the sacrifice of peace offerings."

I wanted to look at this passage of scripture Leviticus 7:11-15.
One of the first things that stands out to me is that it is called the "sacrifice of thanksgiving," which to me means that giving thanks can sometimes be a sacrifice. You will not always fell like it but you can do it.
In Leviticus the sacrifice of thanksgiving was not a separate offering but was kind of like a peace offering. For us today we can see how this peace offering was made by Christ for us so that we could be with the Father. Also we can picture the inner peace that we can have through Christ. This peace is like what Philippians 4:7 speaks of, a peace that passes all understanding.

We have to have this peace in order to truly be thankful. If we gripe and complain we worry about what we want, we will forget what He has given us. When you complain you can not have the true peace of Christ.

Next we see that the offering of thanksgiving is a multiple offering. In the old testament we see it made with unleavened cakes, wafers, and other cakes of fine flour. These different types of bread were not offered as options but were commanded to be offered together. This for us let us know there are many different ways to give thanks. You can do it through your giving but also by serving others, there are many ways to give thanks. How many can you come up with?

This next one i like, God made an unusual requirement for this sacrifice. He commanded "Besides the cakes, he shall offer for his offering leavened bread with the sacrifice of thanksgiving" (verse 13). Leaven (which means it has yeast in it), you will find many times in scripture and is always representing something negative, false, impure, or sinful. So how can something negative be part of the thank offering? Well......we have to give God thanks for ALL things. That includes the bad things as well as the good. We don't always know what God has in store for us, we just have to trust Him and realize He knows whats best for us.

Romans 8:28 "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose."

Give thanks in ALL things

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