What do We Sacrifice?

          Sorry for being away from this for a few days.  No excuses.  Today I read several passages getting caught up to where I should be, but Psalms 50 stuck out to me in all my readings, along with the message last night at church about sacrificial giving.  In the times when the Psalms were written sacrificial giving had a whole different meaning then.  They offered up burnt offerings of their best livestock and crops.  If you have never dealt with farming it might be a little harder to understand what it is to give up the best of the best of your livestock, something that is part of your livelihood and security for the future.

          We are also called to give sacrificial offerings to God today.  We have no livestock or crops as they did back then, but our livelihood is our income from the work we do.  So why would we give this up to God?  After all God says that He does not need this.

Psalm 50:9 I have no need of a bull from your stall
or of goats from your pens, 

Psalm 50:10 for every animal of the forest is mine,
and the cattle on a thousand hills. 

Psalm 50:11 I know every bird in the mountains,
and the creatures of the field are mine. 

Psalm 50:12 If I were hungry I would not tell you,
for the world is mine, and all that is in it. 

Psalm 50:13 Do I eat the flesh of bulls
or drink the blood of goats? 

          Just the same way God does not need our money that we sacrifice in place of livestock or crops.  So the question remains, why does God want us to sacrifice?  The answer comes in the next two verses.

Psalm 50:14 “Sacrifice thank offerings to God,
fulfill your vows to the Most High, 

Psalm 50:15 and call on me in the day of trouble;
I will deliver you, and you will honor me.” 

          The sacrifices we make are not for God, but for ourselves.  We honor Him in our sacrifices, but ultimately God is having us do this for our own good.  If He wanted it all He could just take it and there would be absolutely nothing we could do about it.  

          So when we go to make a sacrificial offering are we giving the best of the best, the first of our fruits or are we just giving that which we can do without and will not really miss once it is gone?  Are we giving some of our lame livestock that is going to do us no good anyway?

Psalm 50:22 “Consider this, you who forget God,
or I will tear you to pieces, with no one to rescue: 

Psalm 50:23 Those who sacrifice thank offerings honor me,
and to the blameless I will show my salvation.” 

          Kind of a rough way to close this out, but then again I am not the one who said this.  We have to look at our hearts and what we are sacrificing here or do we sacrifice at all?  This has to be a question we ask ourselves every time we put money in the offering plate or fill out that tithe check.  Where is my heart in this?