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An Offering Far Too Small

Sunday, January 19, 2025
Pastor Jojo Ma

 

1 Hear what the LORD says: Arise, plead your case before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice. 2 Hear, you mountains, the indictment of the LORD, and you enduring foundations of the earth, for the LORD has an indictment against his people, and he will contend with Israel. 3 O my people, what have I done to you? How have I wearied you? Answer me! 4 For I brought you up from the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery, and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. 5 O my people, remember what Balak king of Moab devised, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him, and what happened from Shittim to Gilgal, that you may know the saving acts of the LORD. 6 With what shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? 7 Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? 8 He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

One big way to neglect a marriage is to take each other for granted.

I.          The Lord’s Complaint [vv1-5]
II.        The Peoples’ Comeback [vv6-7]
III.       The Lord’s Conclusion [v8]

I.         The Lord’s Complaint [vv1-5]
1 Hear what the LORD says: Arise, plead your case before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice. 2 Hear, you mountains, the indictment of the LORD, and you enduring foundations of the earth, for the LORD has an indictment against his people, and he will contend with Israel. 3 O my people, what have I done to you? How have I wearied you? Answer me!

Deut 4:26 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today.

2 for the LORD has an indictment against his people.

David Prior: “The language here is personal and passionate...like a husband pleading with his wife...This is the plea of a loving God, whose heart has been broken by His peoples’ rejection of Him.”

J.I. Packer, Knowing God: “You sum up the whole of New Testament religion if you describe it as the knowledge of God as one’s holy Father. If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God’s child, and having God as his Father. If this is not the thought that prompts and controls his worship and prayers and his whole outlook on life, it means that he does not understand Christianity very well at all.”

3 O my people, what have I done to you? How have I wearied you? Answer me!

4 For I brought you up from the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery, and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.

This is a big lesson for us today also: We must always remember God’s saving work in Christ in the gospel.

What God wants for His people is to turn to Him in grateful worship.

Dale Ralph Davis: “Yahweh’s redemption does not expire by some sell-by date.”

II.        The Peoples’ Comeback [vv6-7]
6 With what shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? 7 Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?

The Lord wanted her heart, her life, her devoted love, as a husband would want from his wife. Remember, this is a personal, family covenant relationship.

III.      The Lord’s Conclusion [v8]
8 He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

Walk humbly, walk carefully, with Him. Don’t think much of yourself, think much of Him!

As redeemed, having experienced His love already, we respond with our hearts and our devotion. And this is reflected in a life that does justice, loves kindness, and walks humbly with our God and Savior Jesus Christ.

“Were the whole realm of nature mine, that were an offering far too small. Love so amazing, so divine, demands my life, my soul, my all.”