I Don’t Need Your Bull!

If you have ever been involved in raising cattle or showing cattle, you know that the bulls are the rulers of their domain (or so they think). You can watch a bull as he walks across the field or the pen and see pretty quickly that he is convinced that he is all that. In addition, he can get a little testy when another male of the species dares to encroach on his domain. The posturing between two bulls in the adjacent pens can be quite entertaining. It brings to mind the title of a play – “Much Ado About Nothing.”

Psalm 50 (NIV)  ⁷ "Hear, O my people, and I will speak,
       O Israel, and I will testify against you:
       I am God, your God.

 ⁸ I do not rebuke you for your sacrifices
       or your burnt offerings, which are ever before me.

 ⁹ I have no need of a bull from your stall
       or of goats from your pens,

 ¹⁰ for every animal of the forest is mine,
       and the cattle on a thousand hills.

 ¹¹ I know every bird in the mountains,
       and the creatures of the field are mine.

 ¹² If I were hungry I would not tell you,
       for the world is mine, and all that is in it.

 ¹³ Do I eat the flesh of bulls
       or drink the blood of goats?

 ¹⁴ Sacrifice thank offerings to God,
       fulfill your vows to the Most High,

 ¹⁵ and call upon me in the day of trouble;
       I will deliver you, and you will honor me."

Pardon the long Scripture passage, but it seems necessary to get the point God has shown me this morning. It is judgment time and God is getting ready to hold court. However, this court is a little different because the judge and the prosecuting attorney are one in the same. God has a problem with His people and He is going to be both Judge and prosecutor in the case. He starts off by saying that He has nothing against the sacrifices of His people. Why? Because these sacrifices show obedience. However, He has no need of the animals that they are bringing for sin and atonement offerings. The strutting bulls that they bring to be killed are symbolic of the attitude of the people bringing these offerings – all show and no go.

God is saying to the Israelites, “I don’t need you to bring me these animals. I already own everything that is on, over, or under the earth by virtue of the fact that I created them. Do you think that I would call on you if I were hungry? Is there any food that you could provide that could possibly measure up to the banquet I could set in front of Me with just a single word?” In other words God is telling them that nothing they own interests Him.

What then does God want? In verse 14 He tells us. “Sacrifice thank offerings to God; fulfill your vows to the Most High.” Two things God looks for in a sacrifice – our thanksgiving and our obedience. Praise Him for what He has done and follow through on what we are to do. When you look at it that way, it sounds pretty simple. So, why does God have to tell us this? He reminds us because we tend to take the easy way out. We would rather see an innocent animal sacrificed than give God a part of ourselves. Luckily for us, Jesus didn’t feel the same way. He was willing to be obedient even unto death and He offered up praise and thanksgiving right up to the cross. Maybe we should give God what He asks for and stop trying to hide behind a bunch of bull.

We serve an awesome God!!!!!