Repulsive Leftovers
(Malachi 1:8)
If you’ve ever had a teenage son, you’ll know this answer. When a
teenage boy gets home from school, what’s the first question he asks?
"What’s for DINNER?" Now one of our boys’ unfavorite answers to that
question was that dreaded "L" word - leftovers! That was especially
scary after Thanksgiving, when we found it seemed like that turkey would
never end. Now leftovers aren’t too many people’s first choice for a
meal. And the longer they’ve been left over, the more unsatisfying that
choice becomes. I know I’ve never been to a restaurant who offered an
item called "leftovers" on today’s specials, or anywhere on the menu for
that matter. Let’s face it. They’re second best - at best.
No one gets very excited about leftovers - including God. But when God
asks many of us, "What are you giving Me?," our most honest answer would
be, "Leftovers." In our word for today from the word of God, God is
telling His ancient people that they are showing contempt for Him, and
these are people who are doing a lot of religious things! He says they
are disrespecting Him by bringing Him defiled offerings. He explains in
Malachi 1:8ff. Remember, God called for the sacrifice of only an
unblemished, perfect animal.
Here's what He says: "When you bring blind animals for sacrifice, is
that not wrong? When you sacrifice crippled or diseased animals, is that
not wrong? . . . With such offerings from your hands, will God accept
you? . . . Oh, that one of you would shut the temple doors, so that you
would not light useless fires on your altar! I am not pleased with you,
says the Lord Almighty, and I will accept no offerings from your hands."
Imagine God saying, "Forget all your church meetings! All your Christian
activities are useless. Close the church! Keep your offerings! You’re
wasting your time - I’m not accepting what you’re giving." Man! That is
God’s reaction when His children offer Him the leftovers of their lives.
His people in Malachi’s day said, "Giving God this perfect animal is
such a waste. I can get good money for an animal like that. I’ll just
give the Lord this blind one or this crippled one- I don’t need them. I
can’t do much with those." And God says, "I’d rather have nothing than
what you don’t really need anyway - your leftovers."
Remember the day the religious leaders in Jerusalem were throwing their
big offerings in the pot with great fanfare? Remember the only gift
Jesus said impressed Him? The gift of a poor widow who quietly gave
everything she had. It doesn’t matter to Jesus how much you give - it
seems to be how much you have left that matters to Him. One recent study
shows that the giving of American Christians- the percentage of their
income given to the work of God - has dropped by ONE-THIRD in the last
30 years! The trend seems to be to spend more on ourselves and to give
less to our Lord. I can’t imagine He is any more pleased with us than He
was with His children in Malachi’s day.
God calls on His children to give the "firstfruits" to Him. To a farmer,
that meant real faith giving. Before he knew what kind of harvest he'd
ultimately have, he brought to God right off the top. Now it’s
interesting to note that many Christian ministries say that one-fourth
to one-third of their total income for the year comes in during
December, especially as people are thinking about their income tax
deductions. Could it be that some of us are waiting until AFTER the
harvest to see what we can "afford" to give to the Lord - our
"LASTfruits?" See, it's the gift of FAITH that pleases God. A gift that
involves little risk and little sacrifice is not a gift that means much
to a God who sacrificed His one and only Son for us.
Our spiritual words and activities may not be the best measure of our
relationship with God. It's often the sacrificial giving of our finances
that most accurately shows how much we really love Him. Not how much you
give, but how much you have left. Not leftovers. Because your Lord says,
in Numbers 18:29, "You must present as the Lord’s portion the best and
holiest part of everything given to you."
