The Muslim community has just completed the season of Ramadan. It is a time where they sacrifice daily by doing without food or drink from sun up until sun down. The strictest Muslim will even refrain from swallowing their saliva. Their purpose is to show sacrifice to Allah and to ask him to give them dreams and visions. My heart breaks because their acts are ernest, but they are giving an empty sacrifice because it will never get them into right standing with God. It is no different than what we read in Micah 6:6 “With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?
7 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
with ten thousands of rivers of oil?
Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”
8 He has told you, O man, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God.”
Jesus is the only sacrifice needed for our salvation. He alone could fulfill the obligation for our sin. We as believers fast and pray out of thanksgiving for what God did for us through the death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus. We practice walking in justice, loving kindness and love as an outward sign of what He did on the inside through forgiveness of sin. Our sacrifices are gifts of praise to the One who gave all for us. Oh that Israel would have humbled themselves before Him. Oh that men and women today would do the same. May we be willing to sacrifice not out of obligation or to earn our way to heaven, but as a supreme gift of praise to the One who gave all for us.