May 14 - The Place of Sacrifice

Read today’s texts first: 1 Chronicles 22-24; 1 Thessalonians 3

MAXIMize YOUR DAY
The very humility God requires of us
comes natural to Him. 

It took almost 1000 years from the early beginnings of God’s people, Israel, before they finally built Him a temple. It seems the very humility God requires of us comes natural to Him. The Creator of all that we see, on earth and in the heavens, has every reason to be proud and demanding. Yet He waited and waited, content to live in a tent with no fixed address. He waited until His people were settled peacefully in the land He promised them. He also waited until King David had built a spectacular palace for himself first.

The temples built by pagan nations for their false gods were far more opulent than his tent. Yet there was no hint of one-upmanship, no concerns about how other nations would judge Israel’s God. Their God was very different from man-made myths and idols. Greater than man’s sacrifices to God were His sacrifices for us! That’s the theme of the story behind Solomon’s Temple, starting with Abraham.

The location of the Temple Mount was Mt. Zion, located in Moriah, the very place where Abraham prepared to sacrifice his only begotten son, Isaac. While he climbed that hill with Isaac, Abraham said, God will provide Himself a lamb (Gen. 22:8 - I love the messianic reference in that wording). We read yesterday that this was the same place where David built an altar to stop the plague he caused with his senseless census. When Araunah wanted to donate his threshing floor, David said, No, I insist on paying you for it. I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing (2 Sam. 24:24).

Ironically, as David gathered the materials for his son to use in building the Temple, it wasn’t just from his resources. Gold, silver, iron, bronze, stone and cedar logs came from all over, including the surrounding nations who served other gods (22:2-4;14-16). This massive project was a foreshadowing of the much greater cost paid by God Himself when He fulfilled Abraham’s promise: God did provide Himself as the perfect sacrifice on Mt. Calvary, a short but arduous walk from Mt. Zion.

“Lord, You no longer live in a temple made by human hands (Matt. 14:58). We are now Your temple (1 Cor. 6:19). The only response to the sacrifice You made for us is this: Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise - the fruit of lips that confess his name” (Heb. 13:15).