Like the grain offering of the morning, and like its drink offering, you shall offer it as a food offering, with a pleasing aroma to the Lord.
– Numbers 28:8
So this section in Numbers describes all kinds of different offerings that God’s people would give in worship to God. And the phrase I want to hone in on and lead us to pray according to is at the end of verse eight, here, where this food offering is described as having a pleasing aroma to the Lord.
Numbers 28:8 encourages us to reflect on what it means to be a holy sacrifice.
I want a picture of worship that before God is like an aroma that brings pleasure to God, that really does describe the essence of true worship. True worship is offering that which is pleasing to God, honoring to God, and glorifying to God. And here in Numbers, it’s a list of all kinds of different offerings.
But I think about Romans 12 when I picture this pleasing aroma to God. When Paul writes,
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
– Romans 12:1–2
And this is where Numbers 28:8 and these offerings that we don’t give in the same way today are such a helpful picture for us. Because yes, we don’t give the food offering and the drink offering in the same way we give our bodies as an offering to God in a way that would be pleasing to him.
But I just want to encourage you to think about your life today in this way. What would it look like to live all day today as an offering that is pleasing to God? What would it look like today for our thoughts to be a pleasing aroma to God? For our desires to be a pleasing aroma to God? For our words all day long today, to be a pleasing aroma to God? Our actions, and our interactions with other people, that they would be like an aroma that is pleasing to God?
Numbers 28:8 reminds us that true worship is living in a way that honors God.
Oh God, we pray for this in our lives today. We want to worship you with every single thing we do today. God, we pray that you would help us to think in ways that are pleasing to you today, to desire that which is pleasing to you. God, we pray that our every word would be pleasing to you. That you would guard our lips, our mouths, and our fingers as we’re texting or sending messages, that it would all be a pleasing aroma to you.
God, we pray that the decisions we make today, actions we take, and interactions we have… Lord help us to interact with other people today in ways that are pleasing to you. God, we want our lives to be a sacrifice and offering before you today, holy and acceptable to you, pleasing to you God, we pray that it’d be so by your mercy, just like Romans 12 says, Jesus, we praise you for your love for us, for your ultimate sacrifice and dying on the cross for us, rising from the dead so that we can have new life, a life lived that is pleasing to God.
Yes, God, may it be so in us today. Help us to live by the power of your Spirit in us in a way that is pleasing to you so that our temples, our bodies, would be an aroma that glorifies you, honoring you, exalting you, making you known in the world around us. God, we pray that you would use our lives today to shine your light, and show your character to others around us that would be pleasing to you and would be attractive in the sense of drawing people to you. God, we pray for this around the world.
Prayer for the Mallah Mewat Bhoi People
I think about this people group we’re praying for today, the Mallah Mewat Bhoi people of India. A Hindu people group, 700,000 of them worshiping all kinds of different gods as they work. Many of them along the Ganges River and how this river is worshiped as divine God. We pray that the Mallah Mewat Bhoi people of India would be reached with the good news of your love, Jesus, your salvation. So that they might be saved from their sins, restored a relationship with you to live in ways that are pleasing to you, That their lives instead of being offered to the worship of all kinds of false gods, that their lives would be offered in the worship of you, the one true God, and they would find life in worshiping you as the one true God.
God, we pray that for them. As we pray for each of our lives today, help us to be living sacrifices, holy and acceptable, pleasing to you and all that we do. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.
David Platt serves as a Lead Pastor for McLean Bible Church. He is also the Founder of Radical, an organization that makes Jesus known among the nations.
David received his B.A. from the University of Georgia and M.Div., Th.M., and Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Some of his published works include Radical, Radical Together, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Don’t Hold Back, and How to Read the Bible.
He lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area with his wife and children.
