Spotless Offerings (Leviticus 3:1)

If his offering is a sacrifice of peace offering, if he offers an animal from the herd, male or female, he shall offer it without blemish before the Lord.
—Leviticus 3:1

So this is another theme we see throughout Leviticus when it comes to offerings presented before God: they must be without blemish. Basically, if you were an Israelite, you would not take—or could not take—an animal that was sick or had serious defects and think, “Okay, I’ll sacrifice that. I’ll save the best for myself and offer the worst to God since it’s not very helpful to me.” No.

You needed to give an offering that was without blemish—essentially perfect. There were multiple purposes behind that, but consider at least two of them.

Leviticus 3:1 pictures worship expressed through our best offerings.

First, God was teaching his people to offer him their best, not their leftovers. In light of this word from God, we should ask ourselves: Am I giving God my best in every area of life?

This includes our money. Tithes were offered first—off the top—as firstfruits. From the very beginning, this practice said, “God, I give my first and my best to you, not my leftovers.” The same applies to our time with the Lord. Are we giving him the best time during the day, or the worst time—when we are most prone to distraction, most tired, or least energetic? Let’s give him our best time.

So, as Leviticus 3:1 says, we want to make sure God receives our best in every way, not our leftovers.

Leviticus 3:1 points us to Jesus as the sinless substitute.

Second, the offering had to be without blemish because, in order to be a sacrifice that covered sin, it needed to be perfect. This requirement foreshadows the need for a perfect sacrifice in Jesus.

Think about it: the only way Jesus could offer his life as a sacrifice for our sins is if he himself were not a sinner—if he had no sin. If he were a sinner like us, he would have his own sin to pay for. He would not be able to pay the price for ours.

What makes Jesus uniquely able to be a sacrifice for our sins is that he is without blemish. There is no sin in him. Unlike anyone else in the history of the world, he never once sinned against God. As a result, he alone is able to be the sacrifice for sinners like you and me.

This verse calls us to give God our best, not our leftovers.

So we pray:

Lord Jesus, we praise you for your sinlessness. We praise you for your purity and holiness. We praise you that you are completely without blemish. And we confess that we are all—every one of us—full of blemishes. We have all sinned against you, O God.

Lord, we praise you for sending your Son, Jesus. We praise you, Jesus, for being the perfect, sinless sacrifice for us so that we might be forgiven and cleansed of all our sins. In the language of 2 Corinthians 5, you made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Thank you, Jesus, for making that possible in our lives.

And based on your grace, your mercy, and your holiness, O God, we pray that you would help us offer you our best. May we never be content to give you leftovers or just a little here or there. Convict us in any way—whether with our money or anything else—where we are giving you leftovers.

Help us offer our best—our lives and every part of them—to you in holiness: from the way we use our money, to the way we use our time, to the way we use the gifts you have given us.

A Prayer for the Makrani People

O God, use our lives for the spread of your glory and the spread of the gospel in the world. Today we pray for the Makrani people of Pakistan—117,000 people who have little to no knowledge of the gospel, essentially 0 percent.

God, we pray that the Makrani in Pakistan would be reached with the gospel. Help us give whatever you are calling us to give so that they—and thousands of other people groups like them—might be reached with the gospel.

God, help us not to give our leftovers to the spread of your glory in the world.

O God, help us live in light of the pattern you established with these offerings in Leviticus 3.

We pray all this in Jesus’ name—in the name of our sinless, spotless, without-blemish sacrifice.

In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.