A Whole Burnt Offering

The practice called “Corban” refers to gifts the Jews dedicated to God. Under the law of Corban, an offering was not to be withheld even if it was something needed to support one’s parents, but in later times the Jews came to abuse this law.

In Mark 7:11 Jesus told them that when they did not want to care for their parents, they excused themselves by saying their goods were Corban and so they had nothing to give their parents, and that this was not right. Anyone who said they had given an offering to God thought themselves released from responsibility for their parents, but such conduct is a wicked sin that does not accord with God’s will. Jesus was rebuking hearts that twisted God’s law to their own ends. Not fully understanding the meaning of the law, they abused a law God had made to enrich the bonds between God and people and between one person and another, and to give life; in doing so they laid bare a greed that would not even care for their own parents.

Today, too, there are churchgoers who give offerings in order to be blessed by God. Though they have enough to share, such people say they have nothing to give the poor because they have already given their money to God. Sharing becomes true love when we set aside something we ourselves need and give it away. True love should awaken gratitude in the one who is given it; only when that person grows is the love we gave real love.

But they look to share out of the offerings meant for God rather than out of what is theirs, and so they never have anything to spare. Whenever they want to do some good, they reach for the money they owe God, the offering or the tithe; no wonder nothing they do brings them joy. To save from what I and my family would spend, and to share that, is to put God’s love into practice, and that is God’s deep intention.

Outwardly, there is no telling apart the person who understands what God truly means and acts on it from the person who acts out of religious habit, for both take part eagerly in worship and ritual, however formal they may be. But the person who has grasped the truth and strives to live by the word and the person who has only zeal without the word come to opposite ends: one to life, the other to death. The Pharisees pursued nothing but outward show and in the end committed the sin of rejecting Jesus. That is why it matters so much to know the truth and live by faith.

Until now churches have made their people cling to the forms of worship rather than to the word, and have led them with the weight on an outward faith. Those who have practiced their faith this way have grown indifferent to the truth and settled into ignorance of the word. As time went on, that outward religion hardened people’s hearts, until they no longer knew what the spiritual freedom of the truth even is. And to keep from stepping outside the mold of faith they have learned and known until now, they commit the sin of persecuting those who live by the truth. The more zeal such people show, the emptier and more hollow their hearts will feel.

When we fully grasp God’s will within the truth, we can know true freedom, and we can endure any hardship through the word. We must understand that whoever shuts God’s law and word inside human thinking and turns them into empty ritual will in the end receive nothing but death.

In this life, whether by our own choosing or not, we all meet both hardship and prosperity. But even if people go through the same hardship and enjoy the same prosperity, those of mature faith leap over hardship easily by faith and grow humbler still in prosperity, so their lives remain steady through it all. Abinadab understood God’s deep purpose in having the ark made, and he set Eleazar apart as holy; only those who know God’s will in this way can receive life. For twenty years they kept the ark that everyone else was afraid to come near, and what they enjoyed was not God’s wrath but his grace.

In 1 Samuel 7:3 Samuel told the whole house of Israel that if they truly wanted to return to Yahweh, they must first put away the foreign gods from among them; if they served God alone, he would deliver them out of the hand of the Philistines. Samuel knew for certain what kind of children God loves. His point was that they must first put away the foreign gods, then turn their hearts toward Yahweh and serve him only, and they would have God’s help. He taught them that if Israel would only live by this word, God would count the Philistines who harassed them as his own enemies and drive them back. Even if the decision is hard, I hope you too will cast off by faith whatever idols you have served, knowingly or unknowingly, and serve God alone. If you look at life through faith alone, you will find the strength to overcome problems that have stayed locked as if behind iron bars, and the people who have hounded you.

Samuel’s urging Israel to put away their idols suggests how tirelessly he labored to show the way of faith to a people who had left God and were heading toward the world. But the people had no interest in what Samuel said, and since it was not what they were after, they would not follow him. This is how hard it is for people to give up their own thinking, their pride, and their righteousness. It was hard because, though Samuel was passing on the word he had heard from God himself, they moved only as their own needs dictated and never fully obeyed.

The ark had been in Abinadab’s house for twenty years, and when Israel saw that, far from meeting disaster, that household was being blessed, they at last wanted to return to Yahweh. Samuel told all Israel to gather at Mizpah. The people who gathered there drew water and poured it out before Yahweh; they fasted and repented, saying, “We have sinned against Yahweh.” Only after Israel repented did they obey Samuel’s words, and only then could Samuel lead them. However fully Samuel understood God’s will, preaching the word was of no use as long as the people who needed to hear it shut their ears. So when it comes to the word, the one who hears matters as much as the one who preaches.

John 7:37-38

37Now on the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink! 38He who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, from within him will flow rivers of living water.”

The rivers of living water are the Holy Spirit, whom those who receive Jesus will be given. Jesus spoke these words as he watched people draw water from the pool of Siloam during the Feast of Tabernacles and pour it out at the temple, and his point was that keeping the feast as an outward act means nothing. Only when we grasp the meaning for which the Feast of Tabernacles was given, and through that understanding hope for the kingdom Christ will bring to completion, and are filled with the Holy Spirit, can we see who holds the authority to forgive sins. That is what these words are telling us.

The Holy Spirit is the Spirit who knows even the depths of God, so if we only strive to live by the word, we can receive his great help. Israel fasted and repented in an effort to turn back, but without depending on the Holy Spirit no one can walk the right path.

Matthew 9:14-15

14Then John’s disciples came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples don’t fast?” 15Jesus said to them, “Can the friends of the bridegroom mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.

John’s disciples came to Jesus and asked why they and the Pharisees fasted, but his disciples did not. Jesus answered that while the bridegroom is with them, the friends of the bridegroom are at a joyful occasion and have no need to fast; but once the bridegroom is taken away, they will fast as a matter of course. Here he was giving a spiritual answer to people whose only interest lay in the flesh. The words that Jesus the bridegroom proclaims are food for the spirit, and since this was the time to feed on them eagerly, his disciples could not fast. But once Jesus had borne the cross, he would ascend to heaven, and they would no longer hear the word of truth from him directly; then, naturally, they would fast. In this way he showed them what true fasting means.

The people of Israel, by contrast, fasted out of a desire for worldly wealth and glory that had nothing to do with God. Because there was no truth in their fasting, Jesus showed them how mistaken it was. If believers fast for the sake of earthly possessions, they will grow weak in spirit; their own righteousness will grow strong as a result, and with the word of truth never engraved on the tablet of their hearts, they will not be able to live wisely. It is a sad thing when a believer cannot stand on the rock. Those whose hearts have been seared will in the end boast of fasting done for the flesh, and God will not accept such fasting however often they do it.

The disciples who, while they were with Jesus, fasted from the world and fed on the word of truth, and John’s disciples, who ate the food of the flesh and fasted from the truth, were poles apart spiritually. John’s disciples did not even know to whom their fasting was really offered, yet they challenged Jesus, demanding to know why his disciples did not fast. The scene shows plainly how foolish human beings are. Jesus spoke here in the image of a wedding feast, but those whose spiritual eyes and ears are closed hear the truth without understanding it. Let us fast whenever the flesh tries to rule the spirit, since it is only when we fast rightly that God fills us with spiritual authority.

Hearing that the people had gathered with Samuel at Mizpah, the Philistines attacked. When word came that the Philistines were coming, the people begged Samuel not to stop crying out to Yahweh their God to save them from the hand of the Philistines. Samuel’s first act then was to offer a lamb as a whole burnt offering to Yahweh and to pray earnestly. God accepted the lamb as a burnt offering and caused the Philistines to be routed. God surely receives the repentance and prayers of his people. But he receives that repentance and those prayers only through the sacrifice of the Lamb. However much sinners may repent and pray, it is all an empty act, like beating the air. That is why all of us pray in the name of the Lord.

When Israel saw God drive back the Philistines, they took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen, saying that God had helped them this far, and they called it Ebenezer. Once Israel stood firm in faith, the Philistines never attacked them again, and the hand of Yahweh gave peace to every city all the days of Samuel. In this battle Israel had nothing on its side to make victory possible. They won because Yahweh accepted their hearts as they poured out water, fasted, and repented, and because he accepted the lamb Samuel offered. This is the faith you must hold on to. The world’s battles can be won only when Yahweh is at work, and only when the lamb is offered first can we receive God’s help. The lamb you are to offer God is none other than Jesus Christ.

Israel would have learned how futile, how utterly futile, it is to leave God and live for the world. To put away idols and serve Yahweh alone is to cast off the human righteousness by which we have lived until now, leaning on our own thoughts, pride, and ability rather than on God. Not only people in general but even believers fail to trust God completely. Of course, when trouble comes they surrender without condition, like the people of Israel; but once they can breathe a little easier, they put their own righteousness on display again. The corrupt human heart makes God play only a supporting part in its life and never yields him the master’s place. Such evil thoughts are themselves idols, which is why we must throw them all away and obey God with complete faith. Filled with the Holy Spirit and held fast by God, we must fast from all the world’s righteousness and feed on the truth.

For a people striving like this to leave the world behind, Samuel took a lamb, offered it as a burnt offering, and prayed earnestly. Now all Israel’s enemies had become God’s enemies. God himself would take on every overwhelming foe like the Philistines, and he himself would declare the war. When Israel repented, God recovered all the land that had been taken and gave it back to them. He also caused them to make peace with the Amorites and to live in security, and Samuel governed all Israel, going on circuit to Bethel, Gilgal, and Mizpah.

Do you see clearly now what kind of faith receives God’s help? As the name Ebenezer declares, “Yahweh helped us until now”: it was because Yahweh was with them that they could drive back an enemy like the Philistines. God is your Ebenezer. Had Israel lived by the law, perhaps a nation called Philistia would never have existed for them at all. It was evil human greed and pride that made them leave God and made them thirst like a parched land.

As Samuel urged, I hope you will serve the Lord alone with all your heart. May you trust God with all your strength, so that your children can follow you in faith with every step you take.

May you always live in God’s grace, repenting, praying, and praising him. I bless you in the name of Jesus Christ.

1 Samuel 8:1-3,18-22

1When Samuel was old, he made his sons judges over Israel. 2Now the name of his firstborn was Joel; and the name of his second, Abijah. They were judges in Beersheba. 3His sons didn’t walk in his ways, but turned away after dishonest gain, took bribes, and perverted justice. 18You will cry out in that day because of your king whom you will have chosen for yourselves; and Yahweh will not answer you in that day.” 19But the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel; and they said, “No; but we will have a king over us, 20that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles.” 21Samuel heard all the words of the people, and he rehearsed them in the ears of Yahweh. 22Yahweh said to Samuel, “Listen to their voice, and make them a king.” Samuel said to the men of Israel, “Everyone go to your own city.”