“Are you making sacrifices for Jehovah?” (10 min.)
¿Qué entiende usted por la palabra sacrificio? Seguir un diccionario, dice que es el esfuerzo, pena, acción o trabajo que una persona se impone a sí misma por conseguir o merecer algo o para beneficiar a alguien. Por lo que escuchamos en esta definición podemos decir que es algo voluntario y, por supuesto, para beneficiar a otra persona. Y de eso es lo que vamos a hablar en esta sección de Tesoros de la Biblia: «¿Está haciendo sacrificios por Jehová?».
In ancient Israel there were obligatory sacrifices and there were voluntary sacrifices. The obligatory ones were imposed by Jehovah. He had the right to do it. The volunteer, many did it because they were grateful to Jehovah and were motivated to show that gratitude. But another point that the definition of sacrifice said is: effort, action, work. That is to say, it was something that it would cost us to do voluntarily in favor of another.
Sometimes, this sacrifice means putting aside our tastes. And here we are going to go into detail on what happened to King David. He had to go to Jehovah to request that he be merciful to the people, to stop a scourge that was responsible, King David. Well, he had suggested what he should do.
LET'S READ: 2 Samuel 24:18.
18 Later Gad went in to David on that day and said to him, “Go up, set up an altar for Jehovah in the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.”
This man named Gad. He was a man of visions, a prophet, the one who gave the suggestion to King David to build an altar as soon as possible to beg Jehovah to stop this scourge that David had been responsible for, since he had carried out a census that was not authorized to do so. He suggests that he build an altar in a place that did not belong to David. It was owned by a Jebusite.
That property had to get it. Now as king it was very easy to do it. What's more, when David went to get that property and talk to Arauna.
LET'S READ: 2 Samuel 24:21,23.
21 Then Araunah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?” To which David said: "To buy you the threshing floor in order to build an altar to Jehovah, so that the scourge of upon the people may be stayed." 22 But Araunah said to David, “Take her, my lord the king, and offer whatever is good in his eyes. See there the cattle for the burnt offering and the threshing and tackle of the cattle for firewood. 23 All this Araunah, O king, gives in effect to the king.” And Araunah further said to the king: "May the Lord your God be pleased with you."
Because of what we just read. For David, everything was resolved. He had the field for free. He had the animals to offer as a sacrifice to Jehovah completely free of charge. David was the king. Who was going to deny him? However, do you think doing that would be a sacrifice? We return to the definition of this word effort, for action or work. But here there was no effort from David beyond requesting the field. There was no penalty or cost to him.
Thinking a little about our case, when we want to do something in favor of Jehovah, the sacrifice must cost us. It must be demanding. We cannot simply take things easy, saying that all life is easy in our service to Jehovah. Should it really cost us to do what we're doing?
We can all make sacrifices for Jehovah. Moreover, if we think about it, how much would you pay to have life and not only life, but eternal life? Not everything in life is easy, but eternal life certainly requires the greatest effort on our part if we want to achieve it. It is true, Jehovah is not charging her. Jehovah is undeservedly giving each of us this opportunity. And don't you think that to get something so good you also need to give something good to Jehovah on our part?
LET'S READ: 2 Samuel 24:24,25.
24 However, the king said to Araunah: “No, but without fail I will buy it from you for a price; and I will not offer to Jehovah my God burnt sacrifices without cost.” Therefore, David bought the threshing floor and the cattle for fifty shekels of silver. 25 And David proceeded to build there an altar to Jehovah and to offer burnt sacrifices and communion sacrifices, and Jehovah began to allow himself to be prayed for in favor of the land, so that the scourge of upon Israel was stayed.
He rejected this generous offer from Arauna. He paid $110 for this piece of land where the altar would be. But according to 1 Chronicles 21:25, it is said that he paid $77,000 for all the land, which was later built on the temple for Jehovah. He cost her. It was a real effort on his part to put up all that money, but it was a sacrifice to Jehovah. And of course, to stop the scourge on this town.
So, like David, the next time we do something for Jehovah, are we really trying to do it? Or are we doing something that we have left over, that does not harm us at all, in our physical effort, in our joy, in some things that we would like? Are we making sacrifices for Jehovah? A very good question that we want to ask the next time we want to do something in Kingdom service.
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