Article November 24, 1973 Issue

How Acceptable Is Our Gratitude Offering?

LAURA C. PLEMING

In the primitive communities portrayed in the Old Testament, sacrifice was performed so that the suppliant, or the entire community, could affirm or restore unity with God. Gifts were brought to the altar in hope of God's mercy and forgiveness and in gratitude to Him for His goodness.

The elemental concept of the gratitude offering was that all flesh—animal and human—and all the earth, as well as its products, belonged to God because He created them. Hence gratitude, or thanksgiving, was a covenant obligation: men owed prescribed offerings to God.

Since God created all, everything was holy to Him. The standard of proper sacrifice or offering to Him was to render that which was most prized by men: the firstfruits. Thus, in giving back to God what it held most precious, mankind was returning to God what preeminently belonged to Him. Spiritually understood against this background, the story of Cain and his brother Abel brings much illumination.^{See Gen. 4:1—16;}

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Article

Dominion over Death