"To Obey is Better than Sacrifice"

I recently began reading through the Bible again. When I've finished, this will make the fourth time I have read it through. I'm not saying this to brag. Four times is not nearly enough. Any professing Christian should be constantly immersed in the Word. And I've not been in it nearly enough in the past few years.

My approach to the task this time is to tackle the books that are hardest for me first. I began with Leviticus. I am now reading Numbers. I'm sure that when I'm done with Numbers, I'll probably move on to the minor prophets.

Anyway, yesterday I read Numbers 7. In this passage (which is 89 verses long), each of the princes of the tribes of Israel presents the following sacrifice:
One silver charger and one silver bowl, both filled with fine flour & oil
One golden spoon full of incense
One young bullock
One young ram
One lamb of the first year (for a burnt offering)
One kid of the goats
Two oxen
Five rams
Five male goats
Five lambs of the first year (for a peace offering)

Seems like a lot, doesn't it? It really gets to be a lot when you consider that this was done 12 times. Well, the magnitude of the offering is what really struck me about the passage. Granted, these gifts represented whole tribes. But can we ever really measure how much God is worthy of?

While I was reading this, I pictured each one of the princes standing before the tabernacle with all that livestock and his spoon full of incense and silver bowl and charger. These sacrifices were a major undertaking--a big deal. Sacrifice was the means by which the people of Israel had access to relationship to God.

What do we know of sacrifice today? We think that the 10% we put in the offering plate is a sacrifice. However, if we had to bring a sheep or a goat with us to church every week, how many of us would still go? It is because Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice for us that we no longer have to worry about such things. But God still wants a sacrifice from the believer. God wants us to sacrifice our will. This is a harder thing to do than to bring a young he-goat of the first year. We are so attached to having control over our lives, we must make a conscious effort to give God the reigns.

That is exactly what God expects though. He wants us to follow His leading and trust Him and really give Him our whole selves. Isn't that what Jesus meant when he said that the greatest commandment is to "love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind." God wants it all.

But God is worthy of it all. All the money and livestock in the world can't make up for the sacrifice He made for us. And the fact is, it belongs to Him anyway. God won't force us to love Him, though He has the power to. But through sacrificing our will and being obedient to Him, our love for Him cannot help but grow.