It may be that the last couple of years has prevented us from doing it as we would like to, but to worship and serve the LORD can be a wonderful experience!
On Sunday morning we saw from Ezra ch 3 the remnant of God’s Old Testament people assembling together in Jerusalem to rebuild the wrecked altar and start again worshipping the LORD as He prescribed. They re-established the daily sacrifices and brought sacrifices for sin: seeking His forgiveness. One of their very first acts was celebrate their equivalent of ‘Harvest’ and wholeheartedly give thanks to the LORD for His gracious provision. It involved them living in makeshift ‘tents’ and dozens of sacrifices.
On the one hand such a celebration – in the midst of chaos – seems almost ridiculous! Yet the clear desire of everyone involved was to say ‘Thank you!’ to the LORD for what they had, especially as they looked back to where they’d come from. They rejoiced together in even their limited access to the LORD whom they recognised as worthy of such worship and with the daily sacrifice they kept on saying ‘Thank -you’!
Even though they wouldn’t have fully understood it, the New Testament is clear that everything they did was pointing forward to THE rescue plan of sending the Lord Jesus to bring people from ALL nations back to God to know and love and worship Him.
We too said thank you to the LORD for Harvest last Sunday, and as we benefit from the coming of the Lord Jesus and His sacrifice for sin, we can keep on saying ‘thank you’ with a daily sacrifice of praise: thanking Him for who He is and what He’s done, and daily seeking to serve Him while encouraging others to do the same.
Spencer Shaw