Without Spot of Blemish

DEVOTION

MALACHI

WITHOUT SPOT OF BLEMISH

Mal 1:10-14

10 "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. 11 My name will be great among the nations, from the rising to the setting of the sun. In every place incense and pure offerings will be brought to my name, because my name will be great among the nations," says the LORD Almighty. 12 "But you profane it by saying of the Lord's table, 'It is defiled,' and of its food, 'It is contemptible.' 13 And you say, 'What a burden!' and you sniff at it contemptuously," says the LORD Almighty. "When you bring injured, crippled or diseased animals and offer them as sacrifices, should I accept them from your hands?" says the LORD. 14 "Cursed is the cheat who has an acceptable male in his flock and vows to give it, but then sacrifices a blemished animal to the Lord. For I am a great king," says the LORD Almighty, "and my name is to be feared among the nations.

NIV

We continue with the warning about being a cheat. The Lord knows all things, and he knows full well those who bring their blemished animals as their sacrifice have acceptable animals in their flock and what is worse, have vowed to bring the acceptable ones. They should have known better to vow anything to the Lord. Why does a man think he can outsmart the Lord? Or is it that man thinks more highly of himself then he should. Did that actually think they could build a better flock by ridding themselves of the blemished animals, and then use them as an offering to the Lord? God deserved the best of their flock and if they have offered their best, he would have blessed them beyond measure.  His name will be great among the nations, from the rising to the setting of the sun. Although it would seem those words of his have not fully happened. There are still nations today who profane his name. There are still people in our nation who profane his name. We have to make sure that he is great among us or within us. Once again, it is about bringing our best, bringing our “A” game to the Lord. Anything else would be cheating Him. Even if we brought our “B+” game it would not be the best we have, it would be blemished in some way. But what does our very best look like? How can we tell we are giving our all, our very best in all that we do? We know we cannot ever be good enough to qualify for our inheritance in the saints. We know we can never be good enough to gain eternal life. But once we have accepted Jesus, God's very best, as our Lord and Savior, he is then due our very best. It is not that it is a repayment, for we know we cannot ever repay the price He paid for our salvation. We cannot buy it, earn it, our pay it back. But, again it comes back to offering our bodies, or efforts, our abilities, our gifts or talents, as living sacrifices, which is our act of spiritual worship. Of course, this also depends on the fact that all the nations know we are God’s people. Certainly, by now the children of Israel have been seen by other nations. Other nations have witnessed their history. They have been living in the best land, but also have been taken into captivity and rescued many times by the Lord and brought back to that land he promised to Abraham. Other nations have been to Jerusalem and have seen the great temple of the Lord. What we have to know is that as we witness to people, not so much about Jesus, but that we are Christians, that we believe in Jesus, we then have this great target on our back, or our rather our life. People are watching us, to see how we live as Christians. That means we live our very best, we give our all at work, for we are told to work as to on the Lord. We do not cheat our employers by slacking off one bit, which is giving them our “B+” work effort. His name will be great among our hearts. As Joshua once told the people of Israel that they should choose this very day, but as for him and his household they will serve the Lord. How can we serve the Lord with anything but our very best? How can we cheat him by bringing anything that is blemished? Christ is in us and we are in Christ, therefore we are holy and blameless in the sight of God. We are acceptable because of Jesus being in us. So then we still offer our very best, we offer ourselves as living sacrifices, without spot or blemish. In doing so we fear or revere the Lord.