"...an offering by fire of a soothing aroma to the LORD"
Lev 1:9, 13, 17; 2:2, 9, 12; 3:5, 16; 4:31... etc
Sometimes when we approach a passage for study and teaching, a certain word or phrase shines so brightly for us that we can't help but key in on it. This week's portion, Lev 1:1-6:7, contained such a phrase for me, as you can see above. Tomorrow morning, Echo's kids will explore what it means to offer God a "soothing aroma" sacrifice today, particularly in light of Christ's fulfillment of the blood atonement for sin. I'm really looking forward to teaching that lesson!
Right now, however, I'm pondering the phrase itself... "soothing aroma." For you Hebrew fans, it's reyach nichoach... the first time we see it in Scripture is in Genesis 8:21, when Noah offers a sacrifice from among the animals on the ark after the flood.
Did you pick up on that? God had just saved these animals from the flood. What was Noah thinking? It ocurred to me that this sacrifice was no ordinary "hey thanks for saving me, God" sacrifice.
First, of course, let's note that there were 7 pairs of each clean animal, compared with the 2 pairs of each unclean animal. It seems God had provided extra animals for a purpose. Did He tell Noah to offer them? I don't know. But I wonder... when we're given extra of anything... money, time, etc... what do we do with it? I know what I typically do... I cry "BONUS!" and delight myself in the treat. I'm being challenged right now by Noah's sacrifice... to examine the "extras" in my life for perhaps a purpose other than my own pleasure.
Huh. That's a fresh revelation, folks... I wasn't planning to type that at all.
Sweet! Talk about bonuses...
Okay, here's where I was heading before that Holy Spirit sidetrack. Noah's sacrifice was made in faith... and I daresay, in hope and love as well. Faith, that God would multiply the remaining animals... hope, that the sacrifice would please Him... and love, that highest love, laying down your life for our Best Friend.
Eh, there it is again... laying down my own life, my own pleasure... Okay, Lord, I give up, I'm not going to try to make the point I was going to make when I started this post! Here You go, it's all Yours...
When we lay our own pleasure down for His, He is delighted, and it's a pleasing aroma for Him. The joy we experience is richer, deeper. It's different to be sure... it never will be that delight that we tend to pursue here in the natural... it's an acquired taste.
Look again at the Hebrew for a moment... reyach nichoach...
Reyach: scent, fragrance, from RUACH ... breath, spirit.
Ah... BREATH. This aroma is something He breathes in. God inhales? Apparently so. He inhales the scent of our burning flesh, our lives pressed (but not crushed), our bodies as living sacrifices. And what does this do for Him? It's a reyach nichoach...
Nichoach: soothing, restfulness, from the same as Noah's name. It delights Him, it is soothing, evoking restfulness for Him.
Dare I go here? Eh, sure, let's go, permission or no from any human readers, if there are any...
He rests in US, in our sacrifice, the sacrifice that follows Christ's example. He rests on the seventh Day, after Man's day is set aside. HIS rest, the rest we long to enter, is found in our laying down our lives, wrapping up OUR day, our "me" time.
"Take my yoke upon you... and you will find rest for your souls..."
Rest... ah, we know another Hebrew word for that don't we? Sure...
SHABBAT.... SHABBAT SHALOM, dear Echo. Cling to His hand, pursue His terribly beautiful face, and may you find yourself surrounded by His fire as He finds you an acceptible, yet living, sacrifice...
Inhale. Exhale. Breathe, Papa... breathe us in, breathe in us...
No comments:
Post a Comment