Selected Sunday Scriptures- #116

Our faith is one of sacrifice. We can see this as early as Genesis, when our father in faith Abraham was called by God:

Now the Lord said to Abram, âGo from your country and your kindred and your fatherâs house to the land that I will show you. ^2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. ^3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who curses you I will curse; and by you all the families of the earth shall bless themselves.â

^4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. ^5 And Abram took Sarâ²ai his wife, and Lot his brotherâs son, and all their possessions which they had gathered, and the persons that they had gotten in Haran; and they set forth to go to the land of Canaan. When they had come to the land of Canaan, ^6 Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. ^7 Then the Lord appeared to Abram, and said, âTo your descendants I will give this land.â So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. ^8 Thence he removed to the mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; and there he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord. ^9 And Abram journeyed on, still going toward the Negeb.

(Genesis 12:1-9)

When God called Abraham (then Abram), Abraham was required to sacrifice the security and assurance he had in his native land. This was a dangerous journey, but Abraham made it all the same.

We can see sacrifice later in the Old Testament when the Israelites were required to render unto God the first fruits of the land:

âWhen you come into the land which the Lord your God gives you for an inheritance, and have taken possession of it, and live in it, ^2 you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you harvest from your land that the Lord your God gives you, and you shall put it in a basket, and you shall go to the place which the Lord your God will choose, to make his name to dwell there. ^3 And you shall go to the priest who is in office at that time, and say to him, âI declare this day to the Lord your God that I have come into the land which the Lord swore to our fathers to give us.â ^4 Then the priest shall take the basket from your hand, and set it down before the altar of the Lord your God.

^5 âAnd you shall make response before the Lord your God, âA wandering Aramean was my father; and he went down into Egypt and sojourned there, few in number; and there he became a nation, great, mighty, and populous. ^6 And the Egyptians treated us harshly, and afflicted us, and laid upon us hard bondage. ^7 Then we cried to the Lord the God of our fathers, and the Lord heard our voice, and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression; ^8 and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great terror, with signs and wonders; ^9 and he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. ^10 And behold, now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground, which thou, O Lord, hast given me.â And you shall set it down before the Lord your God, and worship before the Lord your God; ^11 and you shall rejoice in all the good which the Lord your God has given to you and to your house, you, and the Levite, and the sojourner who is among you.

(Deuteronomy 26:1-11)

There is a cost to all that we do. I know I have said this before (in this series no less), but it bears repeating. There is a great cost to being a Christian. We shouldn’t embark on this journey if we aren’t willing to pay that cost. That cost will require great sacrifice of us. Jesus told us as much:

^25 Now great multitudes accompanied him; and he turned and said to them, ^26 âIf any one comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. ^27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me, cannot be my disciple. ^28 For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? ^29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, ^30 saying, âThis man began to build, and was not able to finish.â ^31 Or what king, going to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and take counsel whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? ^32 And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends an embassy and asks terms of peace. ^33 So therefore, whoever of you does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.

(Luke 14:25-33)

God must come first, everything else afterwards. If we cannot pay the costs associated with that, better to not even start down this path at all.

[This post was inspired, in part, by Deep Strength’s recent posts on suffering/sacrifice, found here and here.]