An – How to Make an Offering to God

How to Make an Offering to God

As Richard Phillips relates in his commentary on First Samuel, Hannah provides an outstanding example in her attitude of gratitude, faithfulness, and generosity, in her spiritual partnership with Elkanah, her husband, and in her zeal to offer her son to God’s service. Recognizing the unique features of her calling and service, we also realize that every believer is called to give to the Lord and serve in the cause of His Gospel. So how do we go about offering our gifts and services to ADONAI? Hannah models three principles: she acknowledged that what she offered came from the Lord and rightly belonged to Him; her offering involved considerable preparation and effort; she presented herself and her offering not in light of her own merits, but on the basis of God’s mercy and grace.

First, what Hannah offered to God had come from Him in the first place. When Hannah brought young Samuel to ‘Eli, the high priest, she told him, “O my lord, as sure as you live, my lord, I am the woman who stood here near you, praying to ADONAI. I prayed for this child, and ADONAI has granted the request I asked of Him” (First Samuel 1:26-27). The only reason Hannah had something valuable to offer the LORD was that God had given her the treasure in the first place. Paul rightly asks: Who has given a gift [to God] that He might be repaid (Romans 11:35). Anything we might give to ADONAI is something that He made and enabled us to possess, including our talents, our wealth, and even our lives. This was the logic in the first fruits offerings of Isra’el’s worship (see the commentary on Leviticus, to see link click Ea – Resheet/First Fruits), just as it provided the logic in the tithes offered today: the first portion is brought to the Lord to show that the whole of what we are, and have, comes from and belongs to Him.

Understanding that everything belongs to God in the first place will greatly restrain our pride, which is always a temptation to those making offerings to ADONAI. Do you devote your mind to studying God’s Word? This is only appropriate, since your intellect was given to you by YHVH. Do you offer your tithe to the Lord? It was Ha’Shem who gave you the ability and the opportunity to earn your money, so it is only fitting that you acknowledge His right to it. We are not performing some extraordinary and praiseworthy service when we obey God’s Word, and live as ADONAI calls us to do, offering our talents, time, and money to Him. As Paul reminded the Corinthians, “What do you have that you didn’t receive as a gift? And since in fact it was a gift which you neither deserved or earned, why do you boast as if it weren’t (see the commentary on First Corinthians Ax – A Faulty View of the God’s Gifts)? None of us can truly claim to be rendering to God a true profit on His investment in us; the truth is that all that our Lord may gain through our work is merely the fruit of His own gifting and labor, coupled with many failures and sins for Him to forgive.

Second, a truly significant offering to God usually requires much preparation and effort. When Hannah brought Samuel to live with ‘Eli in Shiloh (see Ae – The Tabernacle at Shiloh), she had invested a great deal of effort in the boy. She did not bring him until he would be able to stay without being a burden to the high priest. She said to her husband, “As soon as the child has been weaned, then I will bring him, so that he can appear before ADONAI and live there forever” (First Samuel 1:22). According to Second Maccabees 7:27, Jewish children were breast-fed for three or four years. It is hard to imagine how Hannah could have safely left Samuel until he was no longer a toddler, which means that she carefully prepared him during the vital first few years for the vow she had made.

The need for preparation extends to all kinds of offerings we make to God. If a person believes they are called into the ministry, years of training are not a pointless hindrance, but a vital time of preparation. Those devoting themselves to long-term missionary service need to gain the proper skills, learn languages, and raise financial support. The preparation is an essential part of the service they offer. Likewise, believers desiring to be faithful in tithing will often need to prepare by removing debts and simplifying their lifestyle. This only makes the offering to ADONAI more valuable and precious to Him. In fact, a good deal of any meaningful offering to YHVH will consist of preparing to give: undertaking evangelism training so as to be able to communicate the gospel effectively; biblical study to be effective parents; even the organization and forethought that is essential to any fruitful ministry of intercessory prayer. Mature and serious believers, like Hannah, realize that few things of real value can be offered to God without extensive preparation and effort.

Third, it is absolutely essential that believers realize that any offering we make to God can be brought only on the basis of His mercy and grace. This was the purpose for at least one of the bulls Hannah brought; to offer a blood sacrifice for the sins of her and Samuel. First, they slaughtered the bull and then they brought the child to ‘Eli (First Samuel 1:25). Since they remembered that even to approach YHVH required a purification of their sins; how much more would be required for whatever service they offered Him? However we may praise Hannah’s offering of Samuel, she knew that even her best motives required purifying through atoning blood, as did the son she was offering the LORD.⁴⁶

The Scottish Presbyterian minister William Blaikie (1820 to 1899), in his commentary on First Samuel, advises all who come with an offering to God to “remember how unworthy you are to stand before Him. Remember how stained your garments are with sin and worldliness, how distracted your heart is with other thoughts and feelings, how poor the service is you are capable of rendering.” How then can we ever give to the Lord? The answer is found in the purifying blood of Messiah. Blaikie says, “When you give yourselves to Him, or ask to be allowed to take your place among His servants, seek as you do so to be sprinkled with the blood of purification.⁴⁷

The Good News is that not only must we come to ADONAI through the atoning blood of Messiah, but however bad we are (or have been), believers are always accepted by YHVH through the blood. While it is necessary that we come to Ha’Shem by Messiah’s blood, it is also certain that we will be received by Messiah’s grace. The apostle John stated that the blood of His Son Yeshua purifies us from all sin (First John 1:7). Therefore, when we come to the LORD, presenting our gifts for His service, we come only through the merit and blood of our Savior, Yeshua Messiah, and we come certain of God’s acceptance, favor, and spiritual enabling. As Paul put it, Messiah has even accepted sinners like us to be adopted into His eternal family, to participate in the work of His glorious Kingdom, and to share in the inheritance of His people in the light (Colossians 1:12).⁴⁸