Neither the word <em>missions</em> nor the word <em>missionary</em> is found in the Bible. Yet, it is difficult to read through Acts or Paul’s epistles without seeing its practice on every page. Mission comes from the Latin word missio and means a sending or sending away. A mission is defined as a sending out with authority to perform a special duty.
Certainly, the Lord enabled Nehemiah and the Jews to complete the walls of Jerusalem. However, the leadership of Nehemiah was critical from the human viewpoint. The enemies of the wall threw everything imaginable at him, but he would not turn from the cause at hand. How much we should learn from Nehemiah’s example!
The Levitical sacrificial system had five separate and distinct offerings that could be made to the Lord.
After the record of the miraculous birth of Samuel in chapter one and the praiseful prayer of Hannah in chapter two (1 Samuel 2:1-10), we are introduced to the spiritual famine of this time – which is still the time of the judges.
Although the burnt offering is a picture of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, it is also a picture of the believer who gives himself unto the Lord. In this message, we will look at this second way of understanding the meaning of the burnt offering. We are to give ourselves entirely and without reserve to God.
