When our daughter Casey was in FFA, the chapter had a lottery system for picking a goat or a steer to raise and show. You wanted an early pick, because, well, not all goats and steers are the same. Casey would draw a number to see the order in which she would pick her animal. Then Casey and I would go and look at the goats. To be honest, I have spent more time with sheep than goats. But, I would look with her and say, “Now that is the goat to beat all goats, the very best.” Sometimes I was right, and sometimes I was wrong. I should definitely focus on sheep.
Imagine an Israelite looking at his herd at the time of offering and asking, “What is good enough for God?” Moses answered, “Only the very best.” Again and again the law requires that offerings made to God should be “without defect.” In other words, the Israelites were never to give God the leftovers of their flock. Some sheep were inferior to others. Likewise bulls and goats. When the sick and lame were offered in Malachi’s day, he said, “Try offering those to your governor.” You wouldn’t use them to pay taxes, so you pawn them off on God?
Paul wrote to the believers in Rome that they were to offer their bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, as their act of spiritual worship. Like the Israelites of old, we know that we offer God the very best of our lives. We do not bring him our leftovers. But why would the Israelites at their festivals and the Christians in the first and twenty-first centuries give God the “pick of the litter”? How do we know God deserves our very best? Because when it came time for God to make an offering for our sins on cross, he chose the spotless lamb of God, without defect, Jesus. Jesus had never once sinned. So he became the sinless sacrifice for us. He remains the very best. He deserves our very best. Let’s give it to him in worship this week.
