An Acceptable Offering

If you have your Bibles, get them out.

We're going to go to a few different places.

Deuteronomy chapter 15.

We're going to go to Leviticus chapter 22.

We're going to Malachi chapter 1.

Let me just get into this thing where this concept of lame offering, when he said, don't bring me a lame offering, I'll tell you where this is coming from.

God is going to tell the Israelites, God sets up a structure.

He's very clear on what he's looking for from us.

In the Old Testament, he's going to be speaking to the Israelites and they're to bring offerings.

They're to bring offerings throughout the year, sometimes once a year, sometimes multiple times throughout the year.

And he's going to tell them not only what to bring, but how they're to bring it.

And he's going to actually describe that there are some offerings that you're going to bring that are acceptable, but there are other offerings you're going to bring that aren't acceptable.

And he's going to distinguish between these two.

Deuteronomy chapter 15, he just says this, verse 19.

Set apart for the Lord your God every firstborn male of your herds and flocks.

Do not put the firstborn of your cows to work and do not shear the firstborn of your sheep.

Each year you and your family are to eat them in the presence of the Lord your God at the place he will choose.

So he's going to introduce this concept that God wants your first.

God's going to say, listen, what I want is your first.

That firstborn, it's mine.

First fruit's mine.

He said, listen, I want your first.

And then he's going to go into the second part, which is I want your best.

And he says this.

If an animal has a defect, is lame or blind, or has any serious flaw, you must not sacrifice it to the Lord your God.