Daily Devotion for March 20, 2024

 

Devotion:

For an audio version of this devotion, click here.

Read Numbers 18:25-29.

Being created in the image of God, we are created with a longing to be in relationship with God. The words which have described this relationship throughout the centuries are: “to be in communion with God or to be in covenant with God.” We can rest in the assurance that God is the covenant-making initiator. God reaches faithfully and mercifully toward humanity with sacrificial love to restore us to be forgiven and reunited to God’s own heart and will. God loves us enough to call us to be faithful to our part of this covenant relationship as well.

Numbers, chapters 18-19 are described in the commentaries as “the priestly writer’s” guidelines for approaching God. The guidelines are the response to the Israelites' fear of perishing in the presence of “Yahweh,” one of their names of God. One of the commitments God instructed is that they themselves, The Levites must tithe. A tithe was an offering of ten percent of their own wages.

Sacrificial giving was at the core of the covenant between God and the Children of Israel. Verse 29 is a good theme statement for their part in that covenant. “You must present as the Lord’s portion the best and holiest part of everything given to you.” This applied to the “first-fruits of grain, wine, and oil, any devoted thing, and the firstborn of clean animals.

Although we no longer bring the first fruits or the firstborn of clean animals, how we use and share what we have matters to God. This covenant of sacrificial love demonstrated by sacrificial giving from God to the people and from the people unto God is the theme of all of scripture. It is a holy mystery, but it is the way of God’s faithfulness unto the people and God’s call for the people to be faithful, too.

Personal Worship Option:

John Wesley and the early Methodists practiced generosity as a necessary and indispensable aspect of discipleship, essential for the maturing of the soul and the work of the church. He taught them to “Gain all you can, save all you can, and give all you can.” Lord open our hearts to live giving all that we can. Amen.