Numbers 15:6-12: a reflection

6“‘For a ram, you shall prepare for a meal offering two tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with the third part of a hin of oil; 7and for the drink offering you shall offer the third part of a hin of wine, of a pleasant aroma to the LORD. 8When you prepare a bull for a burnt offering or for a sacrifice, to accomplish a vow, or for peace offerings to the LORD, 9then he shall offer with the bull a meal offering of three tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with half a hin of oil; 10and you shall offer for the drink offering half a hin of wine, for an offering made by fire, of a pleasant aroma to the LORD. 11Thus it shall be done for each bull, for each ram, for each of the male lambs, or of the young goats. 12According to the number that you shall prepare, so you shall do to everyone according to their number.

This is a table of measurements, so much fine flour, so much oil, so much wine to accompany each sacrifice, scaled to whether you brought a lamb, a ram, or a bull. It is easy to skim as mere ritual bookkeeping. But notice what these accompaniments were: flour, oil, and wine, the ordinary staples of daily life, the bread on the table, the oil for cooking and light, the wine of an ordinary meal.

So the sacrifice was never offered alone. It was surrounded by the everyday fruits of human labor, the produce of field and vineyard and olive press, brought and given to God along with it. Worship, in this arrangement, was woven from the ordinary stuff of life. The things people grew and pressed and ate were carried to the altar and offered up.

There is something in that for how we think about giving God our worship. It is not confined to special, set-apart religious things; it includes the ordinary fruits of our daily work, offered back to him. The bread you earn, the ordinary produce of your labor and your days, can be brought to God as part of your worship, given rather than merely consumed. And it was to be given with care, in due measure, not carelessly. Offer God not only your spiritual moments but the ordinary fruit of your life, carefully and gladly.

Lord, worship includes the ordinary fruit of my labor, the daily bread and produce of my life, offered back to you. Teach me to give you not only my set-apart religious moments but the ordinary stuff of my days, carefully and gladly, as worship.