[It is] a continual burnt offering, which was ordained in mount Sinai for a sweet savour, a sacrifice made by fire unto the LORD. Numbers 28:6
January 23, 2003
We took the youth on a winter retreat and found I had some extra time for my own reflection. I've been reading the book of Numbers, and my Bible mentions in its side notes for Numbers 26 that the daily offerings were a form of praise and worship and outnumbered sin offerings 40 to 1! The verses describe these meat and grain offerings as a "sweet aroma" to the Lord.
I thought of what it feels like to walk past a pastry shop in a mall, to find that aroma floating over to me with a richness and sweetness that prompts me to take a shopping break and indulge in a satisfying pastry. This is the analogy for what our "praise offerings" do to God. That's what He "gets" out of our praise.
I'm not sure exactly how that 40 to 1 was calculated. I don't read from that particular Bible anymore. (It literally fell apart right in the Gospel of John.) To review it, I had to go digging in the bookshelf. I carried its pieces delicately and thumbed gingerly to the aforementioned side note:
Focusing on the regularity of these sacrifices in the community of the redeemed reveals how they were naturally and spontaneously interwoven into the fabric of life itself--morning and evening and special sacrifices...Believers are challenged to establish a regular and "appointed time" to focus upon the Lord...These timely and acceptable sacrifices are "a sweet aroma to the Lord" and our obedience--not the sacrifice itself--brings God pleasure (Ps. 40:6-8, Rom 12:1,2). "Regular burnt offerings" were not made for atonement but expressed praise and thanks. Animals sacrificed for this purpose outnumbered those sacrificed for sin offerings on a nearly 40 to 1 ratio, indicating the importance of praise in Hebrew worship. (Thomas Nelson, Woman's Study Bible, 1995, p.268)Sin offerings are important. We all know Jesus tasted death as the ultimate one...but how often do we focus on the significance of praise offerings?
How highly do I prioritize praise? Do I do it for You or for my own pleasure? Does it tend to give way to the "weightier" demands of sin confession and petition or even intercession? Should it?
Those questions beg this one: what do my prayer-time ratios say about my pre-occupation with my own needs and interests over simple awe at the wonder of my God? Are there too many "important" things going on for me to allot much time to that? I know there have been times when I've felt Your revealed presence. The majesty of Your aura is so powerful then that I don't notice myself at all, and once or twice it has been so magnificent I felt as if I could live in that moment forever. Can I access that wonder again by giving more of myself to praise? Can I rouse myself to that at will? And if I do...what might the result be?
Then Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And the LORD smelled a soothing aroma. Then the LORD said in His heart, “I will never again curse the ground for man’s sake, although the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done.
“While the earth remains,
Seedtime and harvest,
Cold
and heat,
Winter and summer,And day and night
Shall not cease.”
Gen 8:20-22
Have I ever really processed that a human could make a praise offering so soothing to God that He would be inspired to make a "while the earth remains..."promise in reponse? No, I'd say not. I need to review how I'm rationing my prayer offerings in the areas of praise, petition, and confession. I don't think I need to take a stop watch into my prayer closet, but I do think that "40 to 1" should be saying something to me.
Let my prayer be set forth before thee [as] incense; [and] the lifting up of my hands [as] the evening sacrifice...Psalm 141:2
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