Daily Thanksgiving: A Sacrifice of Praise
Do you want to be near to God – aware of His presence? As we draw near to Him, there is one thing we are instructed to do: enter His gates with thanksgiving!
Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.
For the LORD is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations.
Psalm 100:4-5
I have days when I’m awestruck at the goodness of God. With every breath I cannot help but express my deep gratitude to God – for eyes that see, hands that feel, a nose that smells, ears that hear all of nature worship Him! Every now and then, I stumble on an entire day when I can do nothing but continually thank God for His faithfulness and His blessings.
However, this is the exception. I’m a type-A perfectionist. By nature, my mind zeroes in on the flaws in life. I may have worked tirelessly on a project and completed it with excellence – 99.9% perfect. But all I can see is the .1% that’s imperfect. It doesn’t matter what I’m viewing – a work of art or a freshly made up bed. My mind’s eye immediately (and only) sees the flaws! So when I wake up every morning, my fleshly nature zeroes in on all that is wrong with my world. That makes me, by nature, a complainer. It takes discipline for me to give thanks.
I imagine even non-perfectionists struggle to offer God a sacrifice of thanks and praise. Doing so is contrary to our natural man. Yet it is the means by which we draw near to God.
Scripture doesn’t say, “Enter his courts with complaining.” (Ouch!) No, we enter His presence giving Him thanks and praise! This is something we are instructed to do continually. Why?
Old Testament Sacrifice
Under the Old Covenant, Israel held an annual day of atonement. On this day, the people were cleansed from all the sins that had accumulated during the past year. The atonement was accomplished through a priestly sacrifice.
Two young goats (often called “calves”) were taken to the gate of the tabernacle and presented to the high priest as a sacrifice. One of the goats, chosen by lot, was to be the blood sacrifice. A scarlet cloth was wrapped around its neck to mark it for sacrificing. The other goat was designated as a scapegoat and kept outside the holy place.
The first goat was taken to the altar and slain. Its blood was collected in a bowl. The priest took the blood into the holy of holies. There he presented it with incense. As the incense burned, it filled the holy of holies with smoke representing the presence of God. Then the priest sprinkled the blood on the mercy seat once, and in front of it seven times.
Outside, every person in the camp lay prostrate. No one saw this as it happened. Yet the ritual meant that atonement was being made for their sins. Their transgressions for the whole year were being forgiven.
The next part of the ceremony was visible – an illustrated sermon for every Israelite to see.
The high priest emerged from the holy place and laid both his hands on the head of the remaining scapegoat. (The Hebrew word for “scapegoat” means “removal.”) The priest’s act of laying hands on the scapegoat symbolized the transferring of all the people’s sins to the head of the animal:
“And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness. And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited: and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness” (Leviticus 16:21-22).
As the priest laid hands on the scapegoat, he confessed the sins of the whole camp. He essentially prayed: “Lord, place my sins and the sins of the people on the head of this goat. Now, depart!”
The fit man then put a leash on the scapegoat and led him out of the camp. The people of Israel stood watching and rejoicing as the scapegoat was led away. It was an illustrated sermon that everyone could understand: “Not only are our sins forgiven – but they are taken away from our midst!”
The people knew that as that goat was led out of their midst, he would never be seen again. And neither would the Lord remember their sins. A mighty shout went up from the camp!
New Testament Sacrifice
This is a beautiful picture of what Jesus Christ does for us. Both of the goats represent Jesus – the lamb who was slain for us, and the one who takes away the sins of the world:
- “Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted” (Isaiah 53:4).
- “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed” (1 Peter 2:24).
Like the fit man who led away the goats, Jesus has buried our sins in a place “not inhabited”: “…thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea” (Micah 7:19).
We live in a day when our high priest, Jesus, has already presented the sacrifice of his own blood to the father, to make atonement for our sins. Christ has wiped out all our transgressions, never to be remembered against us. So, for us, the work of atonement is finished.
The Sacrifice of Praise and Thanksgiving
Like the Israelites, we also are to come into the Lord’s courts with thanksgiving and praise, as Psalm 100 says. And we are to bring with us two “goats”:
“Take with you words, and turn to the Lord: say unto him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously: so will we render the calves of our lips” (Hosea 14:2).
The word “calves” symbolizes our lips – our words. The full meaning of this phrase in Hebrew is: “We will offer young bullocks, even our lips.”
Our offering of thanksgiving is to be made with the two goats we bring – an offering of our lips, or voices.
When we come into God’s presence, we are to bring words of thanksgiving. We are to speak and sing out our praises to Him.
We no longer bring God sacrifices of blood for atonement. Instead, we are to bring him a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving from our lips:
“By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name” (Hebrews 13:15).
What more fitting season to put this into practice than Thanksgiving!
“Let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare his works with rejoicing” (Psalm 107:22).
“Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms” (Psalm 95:2).
“I will offer to You the sacrifice of thanksgiving and will call on the name of the Lord.” (Psalm 116:17).
Question: Have you offered God a sacrifice of praise today?
