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God wants that which we've given Him and not something else. We know of
young people who have offered themselves for full-time service unto the
Lord, even for the foreign mission field, who later have exchanged that
vow for one of working and giving part of their earnings to support
missions. We know of a young man who vowed to the Lord to sell his
vehicle and give the money realized to a specific purpose. Later, he
changed his mind, kept the vehicle and paid his vow in another way.
Little does that young man realize that that vehicle now belongs to the
Lord.
God takes all that is offered to Him. How often, in a few hours it may be, our dedication is forgotten, and our money, for example, is spent without any reference to God. But has God forgotten? Oh, no! He has written across every coin, "Holiness unto the Lord, though men and women indulge with impunity in the awful sin of misappropriation. Alas, for this playing at dedication! It's a travesty on our Christian life, and dishonoring to God. It's an insult to the Son and a grief to the blessed Spirit. It makes hypocrites of the men and women who indulge in it. We forget that all our dealings with God are for eternity!
Let us stop trifling with God and let our Christian leaders enforce upon the minds of God's people the solemnity of vows made unto the Lord. If we appropriate to our own usage what should be for the service of God, we're guilty of embezzlement, and there's no stealing so mean or so bad as stealing from God. As F.B. Meyer has finely stated, "One of our commonest experiences is the handling of money. And nothing will sooner show whether our consecration be a reality or a sham nor will anything serve more quickly to accentuate and enforce the life of consecration than to spend our money daily beneath the sway of those principles which it is so easy to enunciate and so difficult to practice."
Let it be clearly understood that a fixed proportion of a Christian's income should, in any case, be considered the Lord's due to be paid over as a matter of honesty, apart from free-will offerings or thank offerings. How often a Christian, who makes no calculation, and never renders the tithe (much less the added fifth of the ordinary Israelitish Jew), will put down a gift to God's work as a thank offering!"
This last chapter of Leviticus is God's loving provision of singular, extraordinary vows to the Lord. This chapter is only for "second mile" Christians, for those who go beyond the usual tithe. Love always gives of that which costs her. An alabaster box of ointment costs more than a few pence!
Hear what David says, "Neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the Lord my God of that which doth cost me nothing" (2 Sam. 24:24).
There are too many "Achans" in the camp, hiding the silver and the gold which ought to be devoted wholly to the Lord. And the army of the Lord, which ought to be conquering the world for Christ, is held back from many victories and kept lying in defeat, for the sheer lack of holy, consecrated and zealous stewardship on the part of those whom Christ has purchased with His own blood. Were Christians purged of selfishness and the sin of covetousness, the Church of God on earth would march across the world with conquering power!
Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse and prove me now!
This is copyrighted material from James Stewart's book Come O Breath!, available from Revival Literature, PO Box 6068, Asheville, NC 28816.
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