Our Sacrifice

Psalm 141:1-2 O Lord, I call upon You; hasten to me!
Give ear to my voice when I call to You!
² May my prayer be counted as incense before You;
The lifting up of my hands as the evening offering.

My father was Armenian, and when I was a little girl, we sometimes went to the Armenian Orthodox Church for services. My favorite part of the service was when the priests would go around the church with their censers, or “poorvar”, spreading the aroma of the incense around the church. We called that incense “khoong”, a mixture of frankincense and myrrh. The “khoong” represents both the presence of God and the prayers of believers rising up to God. The structure of the “poorvar” has significance: the body is held by 3 chains which represent the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and the fourth chain that holds them together represents the unity between the three. The 12 bells represent the 12 apostles, and they ring as the “poorvar” is swung to release the incense. In general, the “poorvar” represents our hearts, the “khoong” our prayers, and the fire burning the incense our love towards God. When I think about my prayers rising up towards God, or that I am the “scent of Christ” to God, (2 Corinthians 2:15) I think about and smell “khoong”.

In Revelation 2:4, Jesus says to the church at Ephesus: ^“But I have this against you, that you have left your first love.” He had a lot of praise for everything that they did, but He had a problem with how they carried it out, with the state of their heart. They had lost their original passion for the things of the Lord. What they did looked good, but the passion they had had withered, and Jesus did not like that. Even in the Old Testament, when God gave the people of Israel laws that they had to follow, He still looked at their hearts. In Micah 6:6-8, God puts into perspective for the people of Israel how He sees things:

“With what shall I come to the Lord
And bow myself before the God on high?
Shall I come to Him with burnt offerings,
With yearling calves?
⁷ Does the Lord take delight in thousands of rams,
In ten thousand rivers of oil?
Shall I present my firstborn for my rebellious acts,
The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
⁸ He has told you, O man, what is good;
And what does the Lord require of you
But to do justice, to love kindness,
And to walk humbly with your God?”

That’s the heart that He wants us to have, one that is just and kind, and humble before the Lord. All the sacrifices in the world don’t matter to God if you have allowed the world to harden your heart, or if your heart is proud. God wants you, not your physical sacrifices: if God made the entire earth, would He really need a burnt offering or any other kind of sacrifice? He could have gotten that for Himself; all man was doing in the sacrifice was offering back to God what He had given in the first place. You and your heart are the sacrifices that God is seeking.

God reiterates His desire in Hosea 6:6: ⁶ For I desire and delight in dutiful steadfast love and goodness, not sacrifice, and the knowledge of and acquaintance with God more than burnt offerings. (Amplified, Classic) The idea that my God would delight in anything that I did is amazing! Makes me want to try harder, like a child who tries to please their Daddy. He adds in here that He also wants a relationship with His people, to build intimacy with them so that they will know Him.

In the Old Testament, God’s people could not approach Him without having the priests as intercessors. It was the priests who mediated the sacrifices made to God, and who could approach Him. It’s kind of hard to get to know someone when there is a wall separating you, yet that is what God desired with His people. When Jesus Christ came and died for us, besides giving us salvation, He also gave us access to God. Hebrews 10:19: “Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus,”. And Ephesians 2:14 tells us that this access is equally granted to both Jews and Gentiles (non-Jews): ^“For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall,”. Gentiles did not have the same access in the temple as the Jews did; they had to remain in the outskirts. But Christ changed all that: those who believe on Him have equal access to God. Hebrews 13:15-16 tells us: “¹⁵ Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name. ¹⁶ And do not neglect doing good and sharing, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.” None of us needs a priest to mediate for us: it is “through Him [Jesus Christ]” that we “offer up a sacrifice of praise to God” which is what God has always desired from His people. Jesus is the way through which believers can offer that sacrifice that pleases God.

Mind blowing…the Creator of the universe, God Almighty, wants a relationship with you and I! He loves us so much that He made a way for us to do that – through faith in Jesus Christ, the Light of the world, who did all the work for us. All we have to do is believe. There are things we can do to strengthen our relationship with God, but there is nothing we can do that gives us more access: Jesus has given us all the access we will ever need. And what should we do with that access? Offer up sacrifices of praise to Him; offer Him our hearts, our love, our praise and our worship. And then after we have done that, we should “not neglect doing good and sharing”. That’s the sacrifice that pleases God. He wants you first, and then out of that will flow good acts of kindness. May you bring a sacrifice that delights your God, and may you be the scent of Christ to God! God bless you!