Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Leviticus 2:2-3

2 And he shall bring it to Aaron’s sons the priests: and he shall take thereout his handful of the flour thereof, and of the oil thereof, with all the frankincense thereof; and the priest shall burn the memorial of it upon the altar, to be an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the Lord:

3 And the remnant of the meat offering shall be Aaron’s and his sons’: it is a thing most holy of the offerings of the Lord made by fire.

It may be strange to see this referred to as a “meat” offering, when no meat is involved in it. This confusing naming scheme is due to the differences in 17th century English, where “meat” was used to describe any solid food, as opposed to drink or soup. More modern translations tend to render this as a “grain” or “meal” offering.

This offering could be provided as a baked bread, or as its raw ingredients. Today’s verses describe the raw ingredient version, featuring flour, oil, and frankincense. All of these ingredients would have been accessible to the Israelites, even the poor ones. Of all of the ingredients, frankincense would have had the highest cost, but not unattainably so.

Flour would have been seen as a symbol for life, or the body, and oil as a symbol for the spirit. Frankincense, with its pleasant aroma, was typically seen as a symbol for prayer, such as when it was used on the incense altar. Thus, their combined offering would represent the whole person, body, mind, and spirit, connected to God, expressing gratitude for the blessings that had been given.

SacrificeEligible oblationStepsExplanation
Meat OfferingFlour, oil, frankincenseGiving gratitude for blessings
Separate ingredients burned on altarBody, spirit, and prayer uniting in gratitude

Full table.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Service to Others- Matthew 7:12, James 1:27

Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.

Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

COMMENTARY

I remember one winter, years ago, my church’s youth group decided to put together a bundle of gifts for a family that could not afford them. We went to the store and bought nice toys and clothes off a list, honestly nicer things than I would receive myself for Christmas. Then we went to the little home of the family where a couple kids about our age took the gifts, saw that we were done delivering things to them, and quickly closed the door.
I felt quite disappointed. It had none of the gratitude and love I had always heard of in Christmas stories.
Frankly, I think we do people a disservice by how we over-glamorize service. None of the stories you hear prepare you for the fact that sometimes you might not get told thank you. We don’t ever mention that the person you help might establish a manipulative relationship to try and get more things from you. We never warn that your effort to do good might backfire and cause more harm.
None of which is to say that service is a bad thing. It’s just that if all I hear is how wonderful the experience is going to be for me personally, then my primary motivation is likely going to be for myself.

Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them
Visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction
Notice that neither of these scriptures give any expectation for what will follow your act of service. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Full stop. No promise that they’ll respond in kind. Visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction. Full stop. Doesn’t matter if they appreciate it. Doesn’t matter if your effort had a meaningful impact or not. Just do unto others. Just visit the afflicted.
Though it seems ridiculously obvious, I believe a lot of us struggle to instill this one core principle of service: it is about others, not ourselves. Yes we often receive good feeling from doing it…but sometimes we don’t. And when we don’t, that’s fine, that does not mean that we failed. The true purpose of service, to do unto others, has still been fulfilled.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Commandments and Personal Revelation- Life Examples

I mentioned yesterday that even if we agree that a commandment is a commandment there still can be a variety of opinions on how exactly one should follow that commandment. Take for example the question of how to keep the Sabbath Day holy. I always believed that that meant not going to the store then, because that would make other people work during the Lord’s Day.
It was a nice and tidy solution, but then it became more muddled with the advent of online shopping. Is it wrong to make a computer algorithm process my purchase on the Sabbath? Is just accruing a charge on my credit card breaking the Sabbath?
And even if I decide to not make online purchases on the Sabbath, packages that I am waiting for are still going to be processed through packing facilities and transported on shipping containers on that day. It’s unavoidable.
Does keeping the Sabbath require that I just abstain from online shopping entirely? Or am I just overthinking things and shouldn’t even worry about it? Where should the line be drawn?

This brings me to a memory where I was attending a Sunday School lesson and a similar quandary emerged. We were discussing the commandment to give to the poor and the question was raised whether we should give money to panhandlers or not.
Some of those present said they refused to do that, because they feared their contribution would just be used to purchase drugs or alcohol. Their charity would actually be enabling harmful behavior. They suggested that people buy food for panhandlers instead.
Others said they tried buying food and had it rejected, in which case they had just wasted their money and no one was benefited at all. They suggested it was better to volunteer at halfway-homes and soup kitchens where one knew that the needy were receiving real nourishment.
Still others said it wasn’t for us to judge how the panhandlers were using our money. Just give to them, and whether they use it for good things or not is on their own heads.
There were so many different opinions, and all of them had valid points. As the class discussed this we slowly uncovered what I believe was a gospel truth. Our conclusion was that the commandment was to “Give to the Poor.” If Brother Jones examines his conscience and counsels with God and decides that means he should give money to panhandlers then that is fine. If Sister Stevens examines her conscience and counsels with God and decides she would rather volunteer at a soup kitchen then that is fine too.
So long as you are doing something and your conscience is truly content with it, then you are keeping the commandment. You do not need to be concerned that someone else’s method of commandment-keeping is different from your own, we all have our own song to sing.

This, then, is commandments combined with personal revelation, and this makes the commandment become more alive! The law has now been made personal, not general. Now you have your way of giving to the poor, and your way of keeping the Sabbath, and your way of nourishing your body. Now you have ownership of your own faithfulness.

Posted on by Abe Austin

The Differences Between Knowing, Doing, and Becoming- Matthew 19:16-22

And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?
And he said unto him…if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.
He saith unto him, Which?
Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet?
Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.
But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions.

COMMENTARY

…if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments
I suggested yesterday that the act of becoming is more important than the act of doing, indeed the rest of this scriptural recounting bears that out. But I do not mean to suggest that doing good is not important. Frankly no one will become a Christ-like person without doing Christ-like actions. The process generally is one does first, and in so doing gradually becomes. Hence in this moment Christ begins by asking for the doing of good, and already promises blessings for meeting that call.

All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet?
And yet this young man still feels that something is missing in life. He’s been checking everything off the list but still isn’t satisfied. I appreciate his honesty. It doesn’t seem that he came to boast, to have Jesus validate his perfection. It seems he authentically wanted to know what the next level of discipleship entailed.

Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor
Note the wording here. Jesus does not say “if thou wilt do perfectly,” he says “if thou wilt be perfect.” And while I still believe there is a reward for those that keep the commandments merely as a rite of duty, Jesus is teaching that there is a greater reward for those which become something more.

But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions.
But in this moment the young man isn’t willing to face that sacrifice. The more I think about it the more I am certain Jesus knew that giving away riches would test that man to the breaking point, which is exactly why that was called for. Because since it wasn’t in that man’s heart naturally to let go of his possessions, it was only going to occur by there being a change of heart. If giving to the poor would have been easy to the man, then Jesus would have asked him to do something else that was hard instead.

Summary
I think of my own life, and there are some commandments which are easy for me to keep and some which are hard. Take for example the commandment inherent in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20: that my body is a temple and I must treat it as sacred.
Now there are multiple facets of this commandment. Partaking in illicit drugs has personally never been a temptation for me, but for a very long time I did not give my body any exercise, nor the healthy food that it deserves.
And so when God came to prick my conscience it was not to abstain from illicit drugs, I would be able to consent to that with absolutely no change of my heart whatsoever. No, instead He pricked my heart about the exercising and eating healthy food, because He knew that was only ever going to happen with a real change of heart.
Just so you know, I’d say he’s gotten about a 50% change out of me so far. I still struggle with the food aspect, but I’m not done working on my heart and certainly neither is He!