Our Best Offerings

One of the principles taught in the book of Malachi that caught my attention this week was the importance of giving the Lord our best offerings (Malachi 1). The Come, Follow Me manual asks us to ponder the question "why does the Lord ask us to give Him our best offerings?" I thought about this for a few days and after a lot of study and thought on this question, I think one answer could be that by offering our best to the Lord, we are mirroring the sacrifice He gave to us. God gave us His Best in sending and sacrificing His firstborn Son, Jesus Christ, to be the Savior for all of His children. By offering our best to the Lord, we are modeling God-like behavior and honoring the sacrifice of His only-begotten Son.

As you continue to read into chapter three, Malachi reminds the Israelites of the important principle of paying their tithes. In connection with the principle of "giving the Lord our best" I asked myself the question "how do we give the Lord our best when we pay our tithing?" After much thought and study the idea came to me that if the Lord originally asked the Israelites to sacrifice the "firstlings of their flocks" (Moses 5) and the "firstfruits" of their harvest (Leviticus 2), then it seems we should follow that same pattern and give the first portion of our paychecks to the Lord as our tithing sacrifice.

Returning back to Malachi 1, I love the self-reflective question the Lord poses to the Israelites with regard to the "lame and sick" offerings they were bringing to sacrifice. He says "offer it now unto thy governor; will he be pleased with thee?" (1:8) Another good question to ask ourselves is who/what represents the "governor" in our lives that we mistakenly give our finest offerings to, and by so doing, end up giving our "lame" offerings to God?

What kind of sacrifices are we making for the Lord? Are we sacrificing our time, talents and efforts in order to strengthen our relationship with Him and build His kingdom? Sacrifice is hard! It's giving up something we really cherish and value for something else that is more important. Sacrificing for the Lord shows our faith in Him and that He sent His son to earth, to give His life for us and show us how to live so that we can one day return and live with Him again someday.