Leviticus 22:14-25: a reflection

14“‘If a man eats something holy unwittingly, then he shall add the fifth part of its value to it, and shall give the holy thing to the priest. 15The priests shall not profane the holy things of the children of Israel, which they offer to the LORD, 16and so cause them to bear the iniquity that brings guilt when they eat their holy things; for I am the LORD who sanctifies them.’” 17The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 18“Speak to Aaron, and to his sons, and to all the children of Israel, and say to them, ‘Whoever is of the house of Israel, or of the foreigners in Israel, who offers his offering, whether it is any of their vows or any of their free will offerings, which they offer to the LORD for a burnt offering: 19that you may be accepted, you shall offer a male without defect, of the bulls, of the sheep, or of the goats. 20But you shall not offer whatever has a defect, for it shall not be acceptable for you. 21Whoever offers a sacrifice of peace offerings to the LORD to accomplish a vow, or for a free will offering of the herd or of the flock, it shall be perfect to be accepted. It shall have no defect. 22You shall not offer what is blind, is injured, is maimed, has a wart, is festering, or has a running sore to the LORD, nor make an offering by fire of them on the altar to the LORD. 23Either a bull or a lamb that has any deformity or lacking in his parts, that you may offer for a free will offering; but for a vow it shall not be accepted. 24You must not offer to the LORD that which has its testicles bruised, crushed, broken, or cut. You must not do this in your land. 25You must not offer any of these as the bread of your God from the hand of a foreigner, because their corruption is in them. There is a defect in them. They shall not be accepted for you.’”

This law about offerings is insistent on one point: what you bring to God must be without defect. You shall not offer anything blind, or injured, or maimed, or diseased; it must be perfect to be accepted. The animal given to God was to be the sound, whole, valuable one, not the sickly, damaged one the owner would not miss anyway. God would not accept the leftover, the second-rate, the thing given because it was worthless to keep.

Notice what that guards against. It is easy to give God what costs us little, the leftover time, the spare change, the energy that remains after everything else has had its pick, the defective animal we were glad to be rid of. The law refuses that. What is offered to God is to be the best, the unblemished, the thing of real value, precisely because he is worthy of our best and not our leftovers. An offering that costs us nothing honors him little.

That searches how we give to God, of our resources, our time, our attention, our love. Do we bring him the first and best, or the tired remainder no one else wanted? And behind the requirement stands a deeper truth: the only truly unblemished offering ever made was Christ himself, the Lamb without defect, offered for us. We could never bring the perfect offering; he became it. Receive that grace, and let it move you to give God not your leftovers but your best.

Lord, you are worthy of my best, not my defective leftovers, the tired remainder after everything else has had its pick. Where I have given you what costs me little, forgive me, and help me bring you the first and best of my resources, time, and love. Thank you that Christ, the unblemished Lamb, became the perfect offering I could never bring.