“Sacrifice” is biblical word for work and the result produced by the hands of the worker. Work is something most people are somehow aware of and mostly do for the reason of their own interest, heart’s desire or pleasure. But the view od work which counts is God’s. In other words, what God sees as “acceptable sacrifice” is what men usually call “success”. When the work of our hands is successful, that is what the ancient Israelites would call “the blessing”.
What does it need to happen so that the work of our hands gets successful or “blessed” ? This fascinating topic has been intriguing me for years and as always, answers came with difficulties. I have had a hard time relating the book of Leviticus to today’s information age. This book deals with procedures of preparing the animals and flour to be offered on the altar of God in the “tent of meeting” (tabernacle). The book of Leviticus is in fact the set of checklists for bringing the right sacrifice to God (doing the right type of work) and how to perform the sacrifice (steps needed so that the sacrifice gets accepted). You may look at it as being the cook-book, in a very demanding kitchen. If something went wrong in the execution of the recipe, customers simply got burnt to death. Not because God wants them to, but because they neglected to bring the right sacrifice or they brought it in a wrong way. If you think about it with the pinch of the salt of wisdom, it may sound like this: picking the wrong job and staying in it, will make the person burn with misery, together with all the close people around. Let’s take a look at very simple biblical example, which also is common in our times:
“Tarshish did business with you because of your great wealth of every kind; silver, iron, tin, and lead they exchanged for your wares.” (Ezekiel 27,12 ESV)
This verse means that the ancient wealthy island-city of Tyre in today’s Lebanon was involved in trade and served as a huge supermarket for all kinds of goods, which were shipped from all over the world and in this example from today’s Spain (Tarshish). People of Tyre were what the Bible calls “gentiles” and they worshiped idols. But even as such, they understood that somehow, they need to perform some work in order to have result in life. That’s why they produced goods, which they exchanged for other necessities:
“From Beth-togarmah they exchanged horses, war horses, and mules for your wares.” (Ezekiel 27,14 ESV)
“The men of Dedan traded with you. Many coastlands were your own special markets; they brought you in payment ivory tusks and ebony.” (Ezekiel 27,15 ESV)
“Syria did business with you because of your abundant goods; they exchanged for your wares emeralds, purple, embroidered work, fine linen, coral, and ruby.” (Ezekiel 27,16 ESV)
“Judah and the land of Israel traded with you; they exchanged for your merchandise wheat of Minnith, meal, honey, oil, and balm.” (Ezekiel 27,17 ESV)
“Damascus was your customer because of the abundance of your goods, because of the abundance of all kinds of wealth, because of the wine of Helbon and white wool.” (Ezekiel 27,18 ESV)
“and casks of wine from Uzal they exchanged for your wares; wrought iron, cassia, and calamus were bartered for your merchandise.” (Ezekiel 27,19 ESV)
“Dedan traded with you in saddlecloths for riding.” (Ezekiel 27,20 ESV)
“Arabia and all the princes of Kedar were your favored dealers in lambs, rams, and goats; in these they did business with you.” (Ezekiel 27,21 ESV)
“The traders of Sheba and Raamah traded with you; they exchanged for your wares the best of all kinds of spices and all precious stones and gold.” (Ezekiel 27,22 ESV)
“In your market these traded with you in choice garments, in clothes of blue and embroidered work, and in carpets of colored material, bound with cords and made secure.” (Ezekiel 27,24 ESV)
To summarize: clothing, carpets, spices, meat, iron, honey, oil, balms, ruby, ivory, horses. That’s what people were making then and can today be translated as: designer clothing, luxury apartments, choice food, fast cars. All of that stuff went to supermarkets (called “emporium”) and was traded – sold. However appealing, having all that wealth is not the end of the story. The story of Tyre ends not in hopeful but in tragic way. In order to protect their wealth, they distanced themselves from the coast and on the city-island they build walls 46 meters (150 ft) high, supported by the fleet and mercenary troops to devote the people fully to the commerce:
“Men of Persia, Lydia and Put served as soldiers in your army. They hung their shields and helmets on your walls, bringing you splendor.” (Ezekiel 27,10 NIV)
Tyre’s trading network spread across the entire Mediterranean:
“Your rowers have brought you out into the high seas. ” (Ezekiel 27,26 NIV)
In other words, city of Tyre “had it all” in terms of worldly values: money, merchandise, skills, security. But still, this is what God says about them and what in fact happened:
“Everything is lost–your riches and wares, your sailors and pilots, your ship builders, merchants, and warriors. On the day of your ruin, everyone on board sinks into the depths of the sea.” (Ezekiel 27,27 NLT)
How could high walls be breached ? How could fine warriors be defeated ? It seems not to be the point since God does not look at wealth at all:
“The righteous will see and fear; they will laugh at you, saying
Here now is the man who did not make God his stronghold but trusted in his great wealth and grew strong by destroying others!” (Psalm 52,6-7 NIV)
Needless to say, Alexander the Great approached Tyre on his mission to conquer the east. Tyre sent him the emissaries who “ascertained him of good relations” but Alexander did not stop at just being friendly but asked if he may perform the religious rite (“the sacrifice”) in Tyre’s temple. This was a polite way of telling them they should surrender the city. Tyrians trusted their high walls and in fact executed Alexander’s envoys and threw their bodies off their high walls.
Alexander’s siege of Tyre is very well known historical fact: he built the mole to gain the artillery access from mainland and blocked the city with his and his allies’ fleet. Tyre’s walls were breached and population sold as slaves. Tyre’s false god “Melqart” received the bloodiest sacrifice from Alexander himself: all Tyre’s military men were crucified.
That is how wrong sacrifices, presented to false gods end: death or slavery of the worshipers:
“Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: ‘Because you people have brought to mind your guilt by your open rebellion, revealing your sins in all that you do–because you have done this, you will be taken captive.” (Ezekiel 21,24 NIV)
However, Bible offers solid solutions since the book of Leviticus clearly spells what work should be done and how. Consider this:
“If any native Israelite sacrifices a bull or a lamb or a goat anywhere inside or outside the camp
instead of bringing it to the entrance of the Tabernacle to present it as an offering to the LORD, that person will be as guilty as a murderer. Such a person has shed blood and will be cut off from the community.”(Leviticus 17,3-4 NLT)
So, first thing to know about work is not to do the wrong one. Obviously criminals do wrong things, but in the above verse God equals wrong sacrifice in the wrong place to be nothing less than – murder. Why ? Because offering the sacrifice of labor (work) to anything else than God Himself, be it working for the motivation of money, or some other wrong motivation of heart, is in fact the offering to the evil one and Jesus calls the evil one – murderer from the beginning. Thus, in the eyes of God, working for the sake of salary or any of those Tyrian goodies: designer clothing, luxury apartments, choice food, fast cars, in fact means bringing the wrong sacrifice in the wrong place. And this is the consequence:
“Say to them: ‘Any Israelite or any foreigner residing among them who offers a burnt offering or sacrifice
and does not bring it to the entrance to the tent of meeting to sacrifice it to the LORD must be cut off from the people of Israel.” (Leviticus 17,8-9 NIV)
And to do the sacrifice the right way, this is to be done:
“The purpose of this rule is to stop the Israelites from sacrificing animals in the open fields. It will ensure that they bring their sacrifices to the priest at the entrance of the Tabernacle, so he can present them to the LORD as peace offerings.
Then the priest will be able to splatter the blood against the LORD’s altar at the entrance of the Tabernacle, and he will burn the fat as a pleasing aroma to the LORD. (Leviticus 17,5-6 NLT)
In other words, for sacrifice (work) to be successful, it must be brought to God through His priest Christ. Put simply: one is to work for Christ and none else. You might consider the following career options, somehow invisible in the world of mammon:
helping the missionaries raise money with your skills
keeping books and doing accounting for the church
witnessing for Christ among people who do not know Him yet
setting up the ministry of your heart’s desire from scratch
And Jesus puts it in His own words like this:
“When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” “Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.”” (John 21,15 NIV)
“Work hard to enter the narrow door to God’s Kingdom, for many will try to enter but will fail.” (Luke 13,24 NLT)
“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.” (Matthew 7,24 NIV)
TBV Today's Bosnian Version Bible translation 