Jeremiah 7 – Pastor Mac Daily DEVO

Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, and eat the flesh. Jeremiah 7:21 – The previous book we studied together was Leviticus. In Leviticus we learned God’s commands about how He wanted all the different sacrifices to be handled, including the burnt offerings. While most all the other offerings allowed the giver and the priests to enjoy a portion of the sacrificed food after it had been cooked on the altar, burnt offerings were meant to be fully consumed on the altar. These offerings were for the Lord alone. So what’s up with the Lord saying here in Jeremiah that the people offering burnt offerings should eat the meat when it was commanded earlier in scripture not to? The reason is because God saw the heart behind the offerings. Israel wasn’t following God at this time; they just were giving ritual offerings with the hopes to blind God from seeing the sin they were doing. These burnt offerings weren’t given out of a desire to make right their wrongs or seeking closeness with God, Isreal at this time cared nothing for ceremonial cleanliness. God then, seeing this sort of heart, told the people to just eat the meat of the offering for was worthless to Him. An offering given with a wrong heart is no offering at all to the Lord. This lesson ought to cause us to evaluate the heart behind our offerings to the Lord. For if we are going to church for the wrong reasons, God would likely say don’t go. If we are giving money to the church just to make God bless us, then God would say don’t give. Church attendance, offerings, prayer, and holy deeds, if done with the wrong heart, are not pleasing to the Lord and is then just a wasted effort for the giver. Find that change of heart so the offerings we give are pleasing to the sight of the Lord. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 3236

Question To Ponder: Why do you think our heart behind our offerings is so important to God?

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