| Our hands are
important parts of our individual personalities. Some people
have larger hands than others. If Aaron's hands were small,
whatever he could hold in them would be his sweet incense
offering within the vail: so God ordained.
This sweet incense was a
fragrant perfume upon the burning coals of the censer, made up
according to the Lord's direction ‘after the art of the
apothecary, tempered together, pure and holy’, Exod. 30. 35.
It was for the Lord alone, and speaks to us of that worship
which came with the prayers of the saints, and ascended up
before God, Rev. 8. 4. The children of Israel were forbidden to
make it unto themselves, but it was to be ‘holy for the Lord’,
Exod. 30. 37. Nor was it to be used to bring pleasure to
themselves in the exercise of divine worship; it must all be for
the Lord, Exod. 30. 38. The worship we bring to the Lord with
our hands, large or small, full of sweet incense, is pleasing to
Him, according to His Own divine principle, that it is ‘accepted
according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath
not’, 2 Cor. 8. 12. But the Lord wants us to fill our hands.
The ‘filling of the hands’
is one of the terms used to denote consecration to God, see Exod.
28. 41 margin, and other references there. It is one aspect of
our consecration today. Here it is the worship of God that is
before us. We all bring our individual appreciations of our
Lord's worth before God the Father. What delight He has in Him!
‘But the
high mysteries of Thy Name,
An angel's grasp transcend;
The Father only (glorious claim!)
The Son can comprehend’.
Josiah Condor
Other scriptures teach us how
we may bring our ‘hands full’ for the Lord, expressing what
we are each able to bring to Him. Different levels of
appreciating the merits of our Lord's sacrifice are expressed
typically. If a man’s hand could not reach to the sufficiency
of a lamb for his trespass offering, or a woman's hand could not
find the sufficiency of a lamb for the offering for her
purification after childbirth, or the hand of a cleansed leper
failed to reach for the prescribed offerings in the day of his
cleansing, then ‘such as they were able to get’ was
acceptable to the Lord, see Lev. 5. 7, 11; 12. 48; 14. 21, 30,
31, and the marginal notes in each case. Mary, the mother of our
Lord, availed herself of this gracious provision, for she was
poor, Luke 2. 24. God never makes impossible demands, but ‘loves
a cheerful giver’, 2 Cor. 9. 7, even those who give themselves
and what they have, ‘in a great trial of affliction and
deeppoverty’, 2 Cor. 8. 2.
That which the saints of
Macedonia contributed – however small or large it might have
been as viewed by others – is referred to as ‘the riches of
their liberality‘, ‘beyond their power’, ‘their
forwardness’, a ‘grace’, see 2 Cor. 8, 2, 3, 8, 19. God
bestows upon our unworthy offerings His divine approval. The
poor widow’s mites cast into the treasury were noticed and
commented upon by the Lord Jesus Christ. In His sight she had
contributed ‘more than they all’, Luke 21. 3. It was all she
had. Her ‘handful’ might have been small indeed compared to
the rich men’s gifts, but He treasured it. This is the
essential thing, whether it be our gifts, our generosity to
others, or our appreciation of what the Lord has done and what
He is worth in our worship. That poor widow is an example to us
still.
‘Jesus, we
ne'er can pay
The debt we owe Thy love,
Yet tell us how we may
Our gratitude approve,
Our hearts, our all
To Thee we give,
The gift though small do Thou receive’.
Samuel Stennett
|
