Altar Call
Let my prayer be counted as incense before you, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice! Psalm 141:2 ESV
Sacrifice – Come and worship the King! Surrender your vanities, burn your insolence, abandon your bias.[1] But do not think that you will go away unscathed. Do not imagine His holiness will not burn you. Remember who you are before Him. “We lay all of our forces before him. The word is but the altar. We do not sacrifice. We are the sacrifice.”[2]
Paul’s expression “living sacrifice” is an oxymoron. There are no living sacrifices. Sacrifices die on the altar! Paul’s expression describes the situation when an animal was offered to the priest, accepted and then discovered to have some defect. It could not be returned since the priest already accepted it, but it could not be sacrificed since it was not spotless. The rest of its natural life was spent within the Temple flock, a “living” sacrifice. Paul tells us we are the same – accepted but spotted. We experience the same result – the rest of our lives in the service of the King of the Temple, set apart for Him.
David senses the same pattern. Is David’s prayer and lifting his hands literally the equivalent of the evening sacrifice? Of course not! The evening sacrifice still happened on the day David wrote these words. Praying and lifting hands does not eliminate the sacrificial requirement. But that is not what David asks. He asks that this personal abandonment of pride, bias, vanity, arrogance and rebellion be acceptable as if it were a living sacrifice.
The Hebrew is minha, probably from a root that means give or gift. What matters most in Scripture is the connection between the sacrifice and the heart of the one offering the gift. Compliance without devotion means nothing but stink. As David’s poem suggests, no physical sacrifice can be an efficacious atonement without a “living” sacrifice behind it. David is not suggesting that his prayer removes the need for sacrifice. He is only asking that God accept his prayer and his rituals with the same regard that he has for the sacrifice. Such seems obvious.
There is, however, another not so obvious implication. Prayer is a form of sacrifice. When we come to the Lord in prayer, we are effectively offering ourselves as if we were on the altar. That gives prayer an entirely different direction. Does the sacrificial lamb ask for assistance or direction? Does the slaughtered bull petition for favors? Prayer as sacrifice means submission and capitulation, acceptance and consent. Above all, prayer as sacrifice implies obedience. When our prayers become living sacrifices, we stop asking and start listening. “My sheep know my voice” was never true for the ones who cannot stop talking.
Topical Index: prayer, sacrifice, minha, living sacrifice, Psalm 141:2
“My sheep know my voice” was never true for the ones who cannot stop talking.
Oh my goodness! How many of us know folks just like this? Folks who have all the answers and never close their lips long enough to breathe let alone hear others or allow others to speak. How can they claim devotion when they don’t listen.
How sad for them. A lesson for others.
I never thought about what Paul meant by a living sacrifice in this way. I greatly appreciate the picture here and see myself in it. I come to understand more and more that going to the Father in prayer and always asking for stuff is falling short. That seems to always be about my will and what I want rather than what the Father deems best.
I am learning to listen more and to accept that I cannot often see the bigger picture. I do not have to understand everything and that is becoming pretty okay with me!
Call me an oxymoran!
I’m still very much alive. But it sure ain’t the old me.
I willingly sacrificed that old life when Jesus met me and offered
me to share in His life! He gave me the clarity to see that I had
to sacrifice, yes die to, my old life that was completely separated
from Him and His ways of living.
What an awesome and mind-blowing personal revelation that was!
His “newness of life” is supremely revolutionary. And, as we all know,
it’s a process of true transformation. The old man dies hard!
I’m comforted by His Word that “I die daily”.
It doesn’t happen over night.
And, yes, in my new life I find myself lovingly convicted to pray.
It’s certainly not something I would do naturally, and so I always
remain amazed just how much I do. I recognize it as a true form of
sacrifice and a true part of my newness of life that is unceasingly
listening to and learning from that One true voice.
Paul says in Romans 12 that we “do not conform to this world but
be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove
what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”
So the payoff for this “living sacrice” is the oxymoron!
“Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good;
Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!” Ps 34:8
“It could not be returned since the priest already accepted it, but it could not be sacrificed since it was not spotless. The rest of its natural life was spent within the Temple flock, a “living” sacrifice. Paul tells us we are the same – accepted but spotted. We experience the same result –”
WOW. Oh how glorious it is for me spending the rest of my life in YHVH’s House! Praise Him that He gave Yeshua’s blood as THE ONE PERFECT SACRIFICE for me (tho the actions with regard to the torture and crucifixion He faced had no Temple sacrifice ritual to it at all). We’ll never understand how EVERYTHING works, but we can dance with joy as we bask in our God’s Love, blessings, protection, claim and WORD!
I never thought about Paul’s oxymoron, “a living sacrifice,” as an oxymoron UNTIL JUST THIS MINUTE. That sheds a whole new light on his message!
“I” die daily. And “crucifixion” is a long, slow and painful process!! But can we not (all) say this? “So long, self” ~ “I” (too) have been crucified with Christ. ~ Friend, when He died- “I” died. I identify with Him in His death. Not only were my sins placed upon Him who knew no sin, but my “self” (and selfish ways!) as well.
Now, as to temptation. What “advantage” does a “dead man” have over one who is still “alive and kickin’?” Yo, “dead man” do you want to (?) Or “hey!”, dead man.. – I’m talkin’ to you!- why are you not hearing me? Uhh.. “because I’m dead?” Dead to “self”- (but) alive *in Christ.”
Are you listening? Here are black letters on a white background: (it is written!)
~ For you (who are now His) have died, and your life is now hidden with the Messiah in God ~
(Colossians 3.3)
Are these “my” words? Am I “making this up as I go along?” No! Not, at all.
Read them again, perhaps for the first time.. “you are dead!!” (This, is a “good thing.”)
~ “I” have been crucified with Christ, nevertheless (thankful for this word!) “I” (now) live.. yet NOT “I” but Christ! ~ (Galatians 2.20)
May we continue ? (Very well then, let’s travel on “together”..)
~ And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me ~ (Galatians 2.21)
Is there more? lol!- So MUCH MORE!!
Have you discovered the “much more” of Christ? Are you still listening? ~ For of (who?).. For of Him and through Him and for Him are ALL things! ~ And?…
~ to Him be glory forever! ~ Amen!
“It could not be returned since the priest already accepted it, but it could not be sacrificed since it was not spotless. The rest of its natural life was spent within the Temple flock, a “living” sacrifice. Paul tells us we are the same – accepted but spotted. We experience the same result – the rest of our lives in the service of the King of the Temple, set apart for Him.”
Wow, I don’t think I have ever really thought about that. I know I won’t ever read the first part of Romans 12 the same. Thanks again Skip for changing my understanding and my paradigm. It sure stretches me sometimes but I know it is good for me. Shabbat Shalom!!!
‘the ones who cannot stop talking’ – from my coaching experience some of these folk have to talk to control the situation. It may be too scary to listen and learn something new or be asked a question that may reveal something of who they really are.
Thank you Skip for the quality of what you write on what is now my daily challenge.
Just a thought with all your travels should you have a ‘tropical index’ as well as a ‘topical index’ – sorry Skip, I couldnt resist it !! Peter