What is sacrifice?

What is sacrifice?

It bothered me for years. I was a reasonably successful Adventist businessman when one day I was sitting in church and heard the preacher talk about sacrifice, and I suddenly realized that with two cars, a couple of boats, a trailer, a nice home in which to live, and a deep-freeze full of food, I knew absolutely zero about sacrifice.

And so while my wife was fixing lunch that Sabbath day, I said to her all of a sudden, "Why don't we sell everything that we have, put it in the cause, and get the work finished] If heaven is as good as we say it is, what are we doing down here?

And she turned and said, "What brought that on?"

"Well," I said, "I was just listening to the pastor talk about sacrifice today, and I don't know anything about .sacrifice. Do you?"

I think if there had been a concerted effort for everybody to "sell everything and put it in the cause and get the work finished and get out of here," I probably would have joined that group. Still, I couldn't see why 1 should get rid of mine and everybody else keep theirs.

I took the word sacrifice and tucked it back in that little notch that we have in our IBM machines that God gave us for brains, and every time I heard it I didn't understand it, so I didn't worry about it.

I'm very certain that the devil wants everyone with a nice house and a good car and an extra suit of clothes in the closet to have a guilty feeling, because one of the most puzzling problems that faces the average Christian is the relationship between prosperity and sacrifice. The problem is that man exercises his God-given rights; he uses his talents and his time; and he becomes prosperous. Then he is constantly bombarded with sermons and articles on the subject of sacrifice. There are some very strange results. He may give liberally (but still feel guilty because he doesn't understand the word sacrifice). He may reject sacrifice entirely, because he dreads poverty. He may resent deeply that giving to the church means sacrificing all the things that he has scrimped and worked and saved for all his life. Or he may regard sacrifice as being limited to the giving of material things, a very serious result.

Is sacrifice giving?

The text that everyone knows so very thoroughly comes from Psalm 50:5. You've seen it show up on pledge cards, commitment forms, covenant forms. It gives the graphic picture of Jesus coming in the clouds of heaven and He calls to His saints, and He says, "Gather my saints together unto me; those who have made a covenant with me by sacrifice." It simply infers that if you make a large commitment or if you donate a piece of property, you can become a part of this vast throng, and you'll be ready to hear this great call.

If it is correct that sacrifice means the giving of things, then a total sacrifice would mean a zero balance. In other words, we would give everything that we have. Wouldn't this place us in an interesting position? Having absolutely nothing, we would be totally worthless to ourselves, to our families, to our church, to the cause. As a matter of fact, we would be a burden upon the world, because we would be on relief.

Likewise, our testing period would come to an end, because we're told that God tests us here with materials things. In other words, we are handling perishable things so that He can decide whether we are capable of handling imperishable things. God can't take another chance. Selfishness is where it all began, and God can't take selfish persons to heaven, not with pearly gates, golden streets. They'd have jackhammers all over the place!

If sacrifice means the giving of things, then Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Daniel, and many other people did not make a covenant by sacrifice, because they all died very wealthy men. Still they were all counted worthy of eternal life.

Is sacrifice trading?

We turn to another definition. One man says that sacrifice means trading. In other words, we trade things to the Lord for things that He would give us. We trade Him perishable things and He trades us imperishable things. False religions by the score are based upon the idea that you can buy your way into heaven. But what are we going to do about Psalm 50:12, in which God says, "the world is mine, and the fulness thereof"? "The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the Lord" (Haggai 2:8). What are we going to use for trading materials

I learned about trading at a very early age. I lived out in the country, and on the farm we didn't have much to amuse ourselves. But we did have one thing that I miss to this day. We had a day called "trading day." I don't know who started it. It was something that just happened. Every boy had a box that he kept under the bed or in the closet. He kept all his treasures there—a jackknife with a broken blade, a watch that didn't run, extra marbles (not your best shooter, but the extra ones)— anything that he could collect went into the box. And then someday, somebody would start trading. Our parents simply gave up. The cornfields were neglected and the cows had to take care of themselves that day, because we went back and forth all over the community. It was fantastic!

This particular day somebody started it. I caught the fever, and it didn't take long. I got my box out, and away we went. My cousin had a magnifying glass. I had never had one. It was a really good one. It had two different magnifications; you put them together. I had to have it, that's all there was to it!

So I asked him, "What do you want for it, Karl?"

Well, he looked over my treasures, and he didn't see anything that he wanted. I offered him the whole box. No, that wasn't what he wanted. Well, what did he want? When he told me, I didn't even know who had one. (What it was, I've forgotten.) So I went to trading, and I made some terrific deals that day. I traded and traded until it was almost time for the sun to go down, and finally I had what Karl wanted. I went home the most ecstatic boy in the whole area. I had two weeks of pure, unadulterated joy. A whole new world opened up before me. Why, 1 even caught a poor, hapless fly and gave him a real close inspection.

And then came that fatal day when my mother sent me over to an aunt's house to get something. While I was waiting for it, my uncle came in. I was sitting there studying the back of nay hand with the magnifying glass. My uncle looked over and asked, "What do you have?"

"I have a magnifying glass."

"Can I see it?" I handed it to him. He looked at it carefully and asked, "Where did you get it?"

"From Karl."

"That isn't Karl's, it's mine." And I saw my beloved magnifying glass disappear into my uncle's pocket. I swore that from that day to this, whenever I would trade with someone, I would be sure first that he owns what he's trading!

Sacrifice and covenant

Don't you think that God would be as particular as I? Let's look at Psalm 50:5 again. It says, "Gather my saints together, those who have made a covenant with me by sacrifice." It doesn't say those who have sacrificed. It's talking about a covenant. What is a covenant? A covenant is an agreement between two persons, or a group of persons, to do or not to do certain things.

With Abraham, God said, "I'll make you a great nation. You will be like the sands of the seashore. I'll give you a land grant. I'll be your God and you can belong to Me." Abraham was extremely rich, but God didn't ask him for his money. He asked him for his dedication. That was all.

Then one day the Lord said to Abra ham, "I want your boy." If He had said, "Abraham, I'll make you a deal: either give Me all your money or give Me the boy," which would Abraham have chosen? The boy! He was his greatest possession. But God didn't give him any choice. After that agonizing trip to Mount Moriah, after the angel stayed his hand when he was about to plunge that dagger into the quivering flesh of his only son, God said, "Now I know Abraham's heart in that he has not withheld his son, his only son, from Me." If sacrifice meant the giving of things, he would have had to kill Isaac. But God accepted the fact that he was willing. I believe that this test only proved the genuineness of Abraham's acceptance of the covenant. God already knew he could pass it. Now Abraham knew he could pass the test

Although God owns everything, there is one thing over which He exercises no control, none at all—our choices and our wills. I believe that God had no choice except to put the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden, because the devil had accused Him of being a dictator, of forcing people to worship Him and to love Him. When He placed the tree there before the whole universe, they knew that the devil was a liar, because God's kingdom is based upon the foundation of love. And love demands freedom of choice. It's that simple. You can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving.

David understood this beautifully. He had just stained his illustrious career with a foul blot of adultery and murder, and now his friend Nathan the prophet came in. Nathan said, "We have a problem."

David asked, "What is it?"

"You know the big, wealthy sheep owner down the road—the fellow that owns thousands and thousands of sheep? Well, right across the road from him is an old man, and he lives in a house there all by himself. One day they gave him a lamb. It didn't have any mother, and that old mart took it and nourished that little lamb like it was his own. He kept it right in the house with him."

David was interested, "Yes, go on." "Well, the big sheepman had some guests come in and he was going to serve lamb for dinner. Guess whose lamb he took?"

David rose right up off the throne and said it should be the rich man's life for the life of the lamb. And then he saw the long finger of the prophet and heard him saying, "You're the man."

Suddenly David saw the enormity of his sin. He saw what he had really done. And so in Psalm 51 he pours out his heart, saying, "Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me" (verse 10). He was pleading with God for forgiveness because he saw how terrible sin is.

Verse 16 says, "For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering." If Nathan had said, "The Lord has decreed that you give 10,000 lambs," David would have said, "Gladly, how about 20,000?"

A contrite heart

But God desireth not sacrifice. "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise" (verse 17).

What's he talking about—a broken spirit, a broken heart?

Granddad was a cowboy and worked on a ranch near LaGrande. One time he and some of the other cowboys were away out over against the foothills when they saw standing on the hill a tremendous black stallion, the most beautiful horse that they had ever seen. They rode closer, and he stood there with his head held high. Then finally with a snort he kicked his heels and took off, a herd of mares with him. The cowboys said they had never seen anything like it, so when they came back to the ranch, they told the boss about this magnificent black horse.

The boss rode out with them one day to this area. When he saw him, he said, "Get him, that's going to be my horse."

After a lot of trouble they finally trapped this black stallion. He screamed, kicked, and bucked, but at last they managed to get four ropes on him, a cowboy at each corner, and get him back to the ranch.

Now somebody had to ride him. They drew straws, because every cowboy wanted to get on that horse. The first fellow got on. They cut the stallion loose, and he left that cowboy up in the air with no visible means of support! Numbers two, three, four, five—the whole outfit tried. Nobody could stay on that horse.

The boss started offering money, and when he got up to two months' wages, my granddad decided he had to have that money. He had a plan in mind. He simply got on and put his spurs underneath the cinch (that's the belly band that holds the saddle on). Now he couldn't get off, and he had a shot-loaded cord in his hands so he could pop the horse between the ears in case he came over backwards. On the third jump he wished his boots would come off! And when he got through and the horse ran away, Granddad was bleeding from his ears and his nose. He was in bed for a couple of weeks. I guess it didn't hurt him, for he lived until he was 92.

What did this horse have in common with us? A wild, ungovernable spirit, totally useless to man. He wanted to do his own thing, to go with the breeze. Our hearts are exactly like that—wild and ungovernable. The only sacrifice that we could give to God would be to give these wild, ungovernable hearts to Him. "A broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise." He won't refuse that.

Jeremiah said the heart was wicked above all things, desperately wicked (see Jer. 17:9). At the close of his life Paul could say, "I have fought a good fight" (2 Tim. 4:7). What was he talking about? Fighting the Romans? The Jews? His false brethren? Who was Paul fighting? He was fighting himself!

Isn't this your greatest battle? The greatest battle we have is with self. It isn't easy, this battle with self, this wild, ungovernable heart. This is all we have to sacrifice.

Sacrifice is using

If we consider sacrifice from a different frame of reference I think it will be clear. Rather than to think of giving or trading, why not think of using? This would be completely compatible with God the owner, man the manager or the agent. As agents we would be constantly receiving, constantly dispensing—drawing on the inexhaustible resources of Heaven. We would be directed in our business by the principles God has given in His Word, by a knowledge of need, by the impression the Holy Spirit could bring to us. And under these conditions we could belong to the firm of the universe. This knowledge and awareness of our stewardship relation to God would keep us from pride of owner ship, for pride of ownership leads to self-dependence, and self-dependence leads inevitably to self-destruction.

God doesn't want us to self-destruct. He doesn't want us to feel guilty about our possessions, because our possessions are what stewardship is all about. It's not in possessing; it's in claiming ownership. Look at sacrifice in its broadest sense.

In Los Angeles the police picked up a boy for armed robbery. His parents were called. They had the normal reactions— embarrassment, irritation, and anger. They were embarrassed to be in the police station in the first place. They were embarrassed to think what their friends might say. They were also embarrassed because they were sure their names would be in the paper. They were irritated because it had disrupted their plans for the evening. They were angry at their son for subjecting them to this indignity, and they were angry at themselves. They blamed each other for what had happened. When they confronted their boy, he sullenly looked at the floor as he received a dual tirade.

Finally, his mother asked him, "Why, Freddy, why? We gave you everything. Anytime you said you wanted anything there wasn't a solitary thing that we didn't get for you. We gave you everything. What more could we have done? If you wanted something, why didn't you ask for it? All you had to do was ask. You didn't have to steal."

Freddy sat there for a long moment and finally he looked up. "Do you really want to know?

"Sure, you gave me everything—too much. But when I wanted Dad to play ball with me, he said, 'Sorry, Freddy, I'm too busy. You know how it is. Here's a buck. Why don't you go down to the malt shop? OK, son? OK?' When I wanted you to stay home, Mom, and just be with me, you said, 'I'm sorry, Freddy, I've got a bridge date.' Or 'Your Dad and I have a dinner date with friends. You do understand, don't you? Here, why don't you take this money? I hear there's a new show down at the Paramount that's really terrific.' Sure, I understood. I was in the way. I didn't want money. I didn't want things. What I wanted was you. I needed you.*."

You see, there are some things for which money is no substitute at all.

I wonder how it is with God if sometimes we slip Him an extra $5 or $10 or $20, and we say, "You know, God, I'm really busy, and I'm sure You know how it is. You worked down here. You know what business is like. You understand, don't You? Don't You?"

What we really need to understand is the nature of our covenant with God, our willingness to relinquish all of us—time, talent, our whole lives. That's what sacrifice is all about.

Remember that if Jesus could have given things for our salvation, He could have given the whole universe or made two more. But it cost Him His life. And that's what it will cost us. Because that's the only thing we really possess.