Blemished Sacrifices

The book of Malachi begins sweet enough... "I have loved you" says the LORD. What a blessing to receive that kind word from God... "I have loved you". But sometimes love requires that truth be spoken and discipline be administered and so God transitions from His reassurance to His rebuke.
The people of Israel had become disillusioned with the progress of the return, restoration and rebuilding of their nation. Because they weren't satisfied with the progress being made, they began to turn away from God. They decided that if God wasn't going to give them His best, they would withhold their best from Him. Sort of a quid pro qo. If God wasn't going to do things the way they wanted them done, then they wouldn't do things the way He wanted them done. (sounds like a recipe for disaster to me)
God chastises them for their conduct in four areas; 1. Blemished sacrifices, 2. Lack of teaching about Him, 3. Marrying those outside the kingdom and 4. Rampant divorce. To put is simply, the people were not offering their best, they weren't being taught God's law, they were marrying people that would lead them astray and they were breaking the covenant of marriage and destroying the family. (thankfully, this is not a problem today)
Over the next few days, we will look a little deeper at each of these four areas of unfaithfulness. Today, blemished sacrifices. The people were bringing their blind, crippled or diseased animals to offer to God in sacrifice. His requirements were that the animals offered to him would be their best, without blemish; but because God had not "come through" in the way that they wanted Him to, they withheld their best. (Take the time here to read Malachi 1:6-14)
I really like God's response; He makes things so clear for us..."Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you?” says the LORD Almighty."  (v 8) He breaks it down in a way that they could not misunderstand; "hey, do you think your ruler down there would accept this kind of offering?” Then He brings out the big guns...."Oh, that one of you would shut the temple doors, so that you would not light useless fires on my altar! I am not pleased with you,” says the LORD Almighty, and I will accept no offering from your hands". Just shut the doors of the church building and stop your worthless worship.
You get the idea... bringing God anything but our best is a problem. Under the new covenant that Christ established, the sacrifice of animals was done away with because Jesus sacrifice was perfect, once for all. So what are we to do? What do we offer now? Thankfully God continues to speak clearly.... "Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship." (Romans 12:1) No more blemished sacrifices, no more lambs with broken legs or disease; God calls on us to offer ourselves as living sacrifices. We are to live lives that honor Him, serve Him. We are to be "holy and pleasing" to Him! All that we are and all that we have and all that we will become, we are to place on the alter as a "living sacrifice" to Him. Anything less is a "blemished sacrifice" and we know how He feels about those.
May each of us determine to evaluate the offering that we have placed on the alter before our God. Have we given Him our everything and is our everything being lived out in such a way that brings him glory and honor? Think about it. God bless.