You shall not offer anything that has a blemish, for it will not be acceptable for you.
Lev 22:20
The past week or so of my daily reading has been spent in Leviticus, the book outlining the requirements of the priesthood, the offerings, feast days, acceptable worship and more. The overwhelming themes in the book revolve around God's holiness, and by extension, the need for His people to be holy
A phrase that is repeated often regarding the myriad sacrifices that are brought to the Lord is that they must be "without blemish". Over and over we're told that the animals offered to God must be without defect, perfect examples of their species. God knows us well; if it weren't for that requirement, we would be tempted to bring the weak, sickly and disfigured as our offerings. It seems to me there are several things we can learn from this requirement that sacrifices be without blemish.
God is holy; He is worthy of the best we have to offer. After all, everything we have and are comes from Him in the first place; the least we can do is offer back to Him the best of what He has given us.
God's standard is perfection; nothing less will do. The perfection of the sacrifices demanded under the Old Testament sacrificial system prefigure the perfection of the offering of Christ for our sin.
When we give God the best, we can trust Him to take care of the rest. Animal husbandry would tell you that continually sacrificing the best of the herds before they have time to breed would eventually weaken the entire herd as the disfigured, weak and sick passed on their genes. But God sees to it that when we sacrifice our best, we are blessed in return.
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