Why does the Lord our God require us to make offerings? Almost every church or ministry on planet earth tells us to make offerings without clarifications as to the purpose of those offerings. We are told to pay the tithe, freewill offerings, this-and-that and told that God requires them. He requires them for what purpose?
sundayword BY PROSPER TINGINI
The biblical archives as contained in the Bible can assist us to get to the bottom of this matter. It is a fact that the earliest humans depended on fruits, crops and animals (meat) to survive. Therefore, their offerings could most likely only be made from the three. Their wealth was also measured in the value of ownership of these. At one time in the distant past the Lord our God was very much angered by the sins of mankind, such that He decided to wipe out the human race from the planet, save for Noah and his sons. Before He sent floods to punish humanity, He instructed Noah to build an Ark to store and save each kind of animal, male and female (Genesis 6:11-22). By so doing, God was not only saving the animals, but wanted to also provide wealth to Noah from which he could then feed his family and offer the blood of animals to Him. This is confirmed in Genesis 9: 3-5 which reads; “Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you; and as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. Only you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. For your life blood I will surely require a reckoning, of every beast I will require it and of man”. God was thus instituting the sacrifice of the blood of animals and of man (Jesus for Christians). The ritual of giving blood as an offering from animal wealth to God started here.
God went on to fully explain the significance of the blood offering many times over. In one of the explanations, Leviticus 17: 11, God says; “For the life of flesh is in the blood; and have given it for you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement, by reason of the life”. What this means is that because life is carried in the blood, and God is the owner of life, then the blood that is in the flesh belongs to Him. It should then be given back to Him to wash away our sins (atonement). It became the first type of human offering to God.
Christians should desist from condemning any types of offering related to killing of animals for the sake of blood offerings. Jesus Christ, the patriarch and symbol of Christianity, sacrificed his own blood for the forgiveness of human sins. Jesus died in order to fulfil this type of offering. He offered his own life (blood) as a sacrifice, for the blood “of man”. It should be noted that God prohibits the sacrifice of human blood as an offering, as declared by Him in Deuteronomy 18:10 which reads; “There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering”. Therefore, for the purpose of fulfilling the requirement for the ‘blood of man’, He then sent His own Son, Jesus Christ. His death became the human sacrifice for the atonement of our sins, thus wiping out that need for human sacrifices among mankind.
Let us also look at the origins of the offerings of the firstlings. Exodus 22: 30 quotes God instructing mankind; “The first-born of your sons you shall give to me. You shall do likewise with your oxen and with your sheep; seven days it shall be with its mother; on the eight day you shall give it to me”. Of the firstlings, God clearly explains the origins of those types of offerings. In the fourth book of Moses, Numbers 8: 17-18, He tells us of the reason through the people of Israel, “For all the first born among the people are mine, both of man and of beast; on the day I slew all the first born in the land of Egypt I consecrated them for myself, and I have taken the Levites instead of all the first among the people of Israel”. So instead of slaying first born children of humans, He then replaced them with the priests who would in turn serve him on full-time basis. By surrendering their lives to be in full service to the Lord our God, the priests, as messengers of God, have taken the place of the first born. Jesus Christ also acted both as the first born as well as teacher of the word of God, and as the messenger of the Lord our God. Jesus physically underwent the ritual of the offering of the first born son. Luke 2: 22-24 confirms this, “And when the time came for their purification (Jesus’ mother) according to the law of Moses, they brought him to the Lord (as is written in the law of the Lord, ‘Every male that opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord’ and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the law of the Lord, ‘a pair of turtle doves, or two young pigeons’”.
The sacrifice of pigeons offered for Jesus to God takes us to another form of offering, the thanksgiving offering as an offering meant to give thanks to the Lord our God for any blessing received. Children are blessings, hence people should offer thanks to God for that blessing. In the past, people’s wealth was measured in cattle, sheep, goats, fowls or pigeons. For that reason people would make offerings from the livestock, flock or birds. Nowadays we have numerous other forms of wealth thus people can now make offerings from different kinds of sources including money (cash). Wealth is also a blessing hence the firstlings of any kind of accrued wealth should be a holy offering to God, also as a thanksgiving. What to do with the firstlings of animals is fully explained in Deuteronomy 15: 19-20; “All the firstling males that are born of your herd and flock you shall consecrate to the Lord your God; you shall not do work with the firstlings of your herd, nor shear the firstling of your flock. You shall eat it, you and your household, before the Lord your God year by year at the place which the Lord will choose”. What a nice way to offer to the Lord, a way which provides us with a feast and food every year.
It is obvious that our God requires the first of almost everything that belongs to man. It is then evident that He requires that we put Him first in everything we do and of everything we offer from our wealth. He wants to be the first to be given the firsts of all the riches we accrue. We should put him in the frontline all the time. All the firsts of our blessings should be given to Him first. It is a prerequisite. Even of what we reap of the crops from the fields, He commands, “The first of the first fruits of your ground you shall bring it to the house of the Lord your God”, (Exodus 23: 19). On fruits yields, He also commanded; “When you come into the land and plant all kinds of trees for food, then you shall count them as forbidden. Three years it shall be forbidden to you, it must not be eaten. And in the fourth year all their fruit shall be holy, an offering of praise to the Lord. But in the fifth year you may eat of their fruit, that they may yield more richly for you. I am the Lord your God (Leviticus 19: 23-25). Offerings are a must. In addition, we have to place God in everything we do, to honour Him of our wealth, business incomes, salaries and wages we should first give the first portion to God first before we use whatever we accrue.
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Prosper Tingini compiled a book titled, God’s Constitution for Mankind — The Laws and Commandments. His contact details are 0771 260 195 or email: [email protected].
