Counting the Cost.
It Will Be Repaid.

Sacrifice

Not a loan...

Back in the old days people would make a trip to Jerusalem and sacrifice a lamb to God. This was before Jesus died on the cross as our sacrifice.

I have been thinking about the cost of our missionary adventure, the "sacrifice". I have been thinking about how crazy it was to think that my "sacrifice" would be repaid when we returned from the mission field.

That would be like a guy packing up his whole family, taking a lamb and making the long trip to Jerusalem to sacrifice that lamb. When he got back home that lamb is not going to be waiting in the yard. He would be crazy to think he went up to Jerusalem, gave the lamb to the priest who killed it, then when he got back home it was waiting for him at the gate.

A sacrifice is a sacrifice, not a loan. It is given up, with the expectation that it is given up. Not loaned. That is why it is called a sacrifice.

So what if a guy had two sheep (male and female) and one lamb. It was time to go to Jerusalem so he took that one lamb with him. He would have been thinking that he can't really afford to sacrifice this lamb but he'll have another in a few months and his family would get by somehow. So he decided to take the lamb and use it for the sacrifice in Jerusalem. (There were provisions for poor people in the sacrifice, but let's suppose this guy decides to go for it because of his great love for God.)

He gets to Jerusalem, gives the lamb to the priest and eventually returns home to find that both his sheep have died while he was gone. What does the guy think? How do you reconcile something like that in your mind? You know God knew what was going to happen. You also know God will take care of you, but it is going to be very, very tough on your family.

There is a huge temptation to get bitter, to decide God has turned His back on you. It is tempting to think that God doesn't really like you anymore. It is one thing to sacrifice something that you think you can gain back somehow. But sacrificing something that you can't get back... that you can't re-earn, can't work to replace, sacrificing something that you can never get back no matter what you do, That's a true sacrifice.

That is a price, a level of sacrifice we are unprepared for.