Daily Devotions
Genesis
"Give unto the Lord the glory due to His name; Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness." Psalm 29:2
Text: Genesis 15:1-21
IMPORTANT LESSONS CONCERNING WORSHIP
We have read of how Abram raised up altars to worship God (Cf. Genesis 12:8; 13:18). However, we are not informed as to how those attempts of worship were conducted. In the following text, we read of how God personally instructed Abram concerning the worship that he was to offer.
“So He said to him, ‘Bring Me a three-year-old heifer,
a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram,
a turtle dove, and a young pigeon.'”GENESIS 15:9
1. Symbolic Animal Sacrifice
Does God delight in animal sacrifices? A text in Psalm 40 suggests otherwise.
“Sacrifices and offering You did not desire;
My ears You have opened.
Burnt offering and sin offering You did not require.”PSALM 40:6
Why then did God ask Abram to slaughter a number of animals with reference to worship? The sacrifice on animals had symbolic value! The death of the animals demonstrated the principle of atonement that God wanted to teach Abram!
2. The Principle of Atonement
Abram needed to appreciate afresh about the holy nature of God! He needed to learn in greater depth the principle of atonement through the death of the sacrificial animals. The shed blood of the sacrificial animals illustrates the principle of atonement. (Jesus best exemplifies the meaning of the principle of atonement). Without atonement a sinful human being cannot in fact, speak of coming into the Presence of a Holy God!
ABRAM’S UNDERSTANDING OF GOD’S INSTRUCTION
Did Abram understand this lesson? The answer is best seen in the following text.
“Then he brought all these to Him and cut them in two,
down the middle, and placed each piece opposite the other;
but he did not cut the birds in two. But when the vultures
came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.”GENESIS 15:10-11
Abram’s full compliance indicated that he understood what God was trying to teach him! The Lord did not fault him concerning his previous attempts to worship Him. However, it was now time for him to be more fully instructed concerning the kind of worship that God accepted!
As the vultures descended on the carcasses (naturally so), Abram made sure that they were driven away! Worship of God was in progress! Abram learned a number of deep lessons concerning true worship that day!