A Spurgeon Snapshot
2 “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When any one of you brings an offering to the Lord, you shall bring your offering of livestock from the herd or from the flock.
3 “If his offering is a burnt offering from the herd, he shall offer a male without blemish. He shall bring it to the entrance of the tent of meeting, that he may be accepted before the Lord. 4 He shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him. (Leviticus 1:2-4)
Through the Bible: Leviticus 1-4
How does your church collect offerings? Are there “joy boxes” boxes on the back wall, or in the lobby? Are there kiosks and QR codes and “text to give” slides on the pre-worship scroll? Do you pass the plate?
What is your attitude when you make your offering? Joyful? Thankful? Begrudging?Cheerful? Our church has a competition between boys and girls during Vacation Bible School. Kids come down and drop their coins into either a pink bucket or a blue bucket. Whichever is heaviest at the end of the week gets some kind of reward (they keep wanting me to shave my head, but that’s a non-starter). You’ve never seen a more cheerful bunch of givers!
Here’s the big question: When you thought about your attitude during the offering, did “repentance” or “confession” come to mind? Probably not. We don’t typically connect repentance to the weekly tithes and offerings we give to our church.
But maybe we should.
I had always imagined every offering brought to the temple as being presented to the priest, who would then slaughter the animal. But in Leviticus 1, the priests’ were responsible to splatter the blood on the altar, skin the animal, prepare the fire, arrange the wood, and place the offered animal on the altar. (see Lev. 1: 5b-7) The one bringing the offering did everything else. He laid his hand on the head of the offering. He raised the knife. He slaughtered the bull.
In his commentary on Leviticus 1, Charles Spurgeon wrote,
He who laid his hand on the head of the offering made confession of sin. I do not care what offering it was that was brought by a believing Israelite–there was always a mention of sin in it, either implied or expressed. If we would have [Christ] to be our atonement, whom God has appointed to be His sacrifice, we must come to Him confessing our sin. Our grasp of Jesus must be the grasp of one who is consciously guilty...
The believer who brought the bull did as good as say, “I cannot, by myself, keep the law of God or make atonement for my past breaches of the commandments… Therefore I bring this sacrifice because I cannot become acceptable without it.”
Also, when someone brought his [sacrifice] and put his hand on it, knowing that the poor creature must die, he thus acknowledged that he, himself, deserved death.
Spurgeon Study Bible note on Leviticus 1:4
Now, we must understand that there was a difference in the Law between the tithe and the offering. Only the sin offerings were for making atonement. And we also know that Christ Himself made full and final atonement for our sin through His death on the Cross. I am so thankful that we no longer slaughter a bull as the offering we bring! For one thing that would definitely change the way we did our offering for VBS.
Nevertheless, I think we lose something when we separate confession of sin from bringing an offering. I confess (see what I did there?) that while I love the convenience of online giving and having my offering automatically withdrawn from my bank account every month, I rarely if ever confess my sin when I text to give.
How about you? The next time they pass the plates (or whatever they do at your church), use that time to reflect on your sin and your need for a sacrifice. Maybe you should pray this prayer as the music is playing:
Father, I give this offering because You gave Your son to pay for my sins. You laid Your hand on His head so I could take hold of His hand. Forgive me all the things I have done to dishonor that sacrifice, and accept this offering from a repentant heart. Amen.
One of my favorite study Bibles is The Spurgeon Study Bible, available from Lifeway, Christianbook.com, and Amazon. All of the study notes are quotes from Charles Spurgeon’s sermons and writing. For more on Charles Spurgeon, click here.
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