In ancient Israel, bread was the staple part of the average person’s diet. In some ways grain, more than gold or silver, was therefore what people depended on for their sustenance. To bring an offering of your grain, therefore, was to offer to God a part of what sustained your life. That is the significance of the grain offering. It was a way of giving thanks to God for his provision and, in the same instant, it was a declaration of faith in God as provider. In fact, it is clear from the psalms, that expressing thanks to God was never just a verbal activity. It always involved giving back to God a portion of what he provided, as God says in Psalm 50:23: “Those who sacrifice thank offerings honour me.” The psalmist exhorts us in Psalm 96 saying: “Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; bring an offering and come into his courts.” This wasn’t an idea that died out with the Old Covenant temple system. The practice of responding to God with offerings is something we see continuing in the early church. Paul, for example, thanks the church in Philippi for their gifts to him in prison saying: “They are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God.” Whenever you give generously to support the work of God and bless others you are honouring God above all. When was the last time you sacrificed something to support God’s work or simply to bless another person? I don’t mean giving something you could spare, but giving something that felt like a sacrifice? Respond to God’s generosity by being generous to others.
Think about how you can be generous in response to God.
Read Leviticus 2
