God Does Not Accept Your Leftovers Text: Leviticus 22:17-25
Introduction: The Grammar of Acceptable Worship
We live in an age that believes worship is primarily about self-expression. The modern evangelical impulse, in its desperate quest to be relevant, has made the worshiper the audience and God the performer, who is then graded on how well He made us feel. We come to church, and we expect to be catered to, to be entertained, to have our needs met. We approach God on our own terms, with our own definitions of what is fitting. And if we decide to give something to God, our time, our money, our attention, we believe that the gesture itself is what counts. We think God should be grateful for whatever we deign to give Him.
This entire mindset is a flat-out rebellion against the holiness of God. It is a rejection of the Creator/creature distinction. It is the sin of Cain, who thought he could define what constituted an acceptable offering. It is the sin of Nadab and Abihu, who thought they could innovate in the presence of the Holy One. And it is the sin that the prophet Malachi confronted head-on when the people of Israel were bringing their garbage to the altar. "When you offer blind animals in sacrifice, is that not evil? And when you offer those that are lame or sick, is that not evil? Present that to your governor; will he accept you or show you favor? says the LORD of hosts" (Malachi 1:8).
The book of Leviticus is God's grammar book for worship. It teaches us the syntax of holiness. It is not a collection of arbitrary rules designed to make life difficult for ancient pastoralists. It is a series of object lessons, written in the blood of bulls and goats, that teach us about the nature of God, the nature of sin, and the nature of true atonement. These laws concerning blemished sacrifices are not outdated ritualistic fussiness. They are a foundational revelation of the character of God and a prophetic anticipation of the work of Christ. God is not interested in your leftovers. He does not want your cast-offs. He demands and deserves your best, and this passage in Leviticus 22 tells us precisely why.
To worship God acceptably is to worship Him on His terms, not ours. And His terms are established right here. The offering must be perfect because it points to a perfect Savior, and it is offered to a perfect God. To offer God a blemished thing is to insult His holiness and to trample on the grace that provides a way of approach in the first place.
The Text
Then Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, "Speak to Aaron and to his sons and to all the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘Any man of the house of Israel or of the sojourners in Israel who brings near his offering, whether it is any of their votive or any of their freewill offerings, which they bring near to Yahweh for a burnt offering, for you to be accepted, it must be a male without blemish from the cattle, the sheep, or the goats. Whatever has a defect, you shall not bring it near, for it will not be accepted for you. And when a man brings a sacrifice of peace offerings near to Yahweh to fulfill a special vow or for a freewill offering, of the herd or of the flock, it must be without blemish to be accepted; there shall be no defect in it. Those that are blind or fractured or maimed or have a running sore or eczema or scabs, you shall not bring near to Yahweh nor make of them an offering by fire on the altar to Yahweh. Now in respect to an ox or a lamb which has an overgrown or stunted member, you may offer it for a freewill offering, but for a votive offering it will not be accepted. Also anything with its testicles bruised or crushed or torn or cut, you shall not bring near to Yahweh, and you shall not do thus in your land, nor shall you bring near any such thing from the hand of a foreigner for offering as the food of your God; for their corruption is in them, they have a defect; they shall not be accepted for you.’ ”
(Leviticus 22:17-25 LSB)
The Unyielding Standard of Perfection (vv. 17-21)
The Lord begins by establishing a universal principle that applies to everyone in the covenant community, both native-born Israelites and the sojourners living among them.
"for you to be accepted, it must be a male without blemish from the cattle, the sheep, or the goats. Whatever has a defect, you shall not bring it near, for it will not be accepted for you...it must be without blemish to be accepted; there shall be no defect in it." (Leviticus 22:19-21)
The central issue here is acceptance. The worshiper wants to be accepted by God. But God makes it clear that the acceptance of the worshiper is tied directly to the quality of the offering. The word for "without blemish" is the Hebrew word tamim. It means complete, whole, sound, perfect. It is not about cosmetic perfection but about integrity and wholeness. The animal must be the best of the flock, the one a shepherd would select to continue his line, the one that represents the highest value.
Why this insistence on perfection? First, it reflects the character of the one to whom the offering is made. God is Himself tamim. He is perfect, holy, and without any defect. To bring a defective offering to a perfect God is a profound insult. It communicates that you believe God is worthy only of your scraps. It is an act of contempt. As Malachi argued, you would not dare give such a gift to your earthly governor. How much more offensive is it to present it to the King of the universe?
Second, this requirement teaches the worshiper that worship is costly. True worship costs you something. David understood this when he refused to accept the threshing floor of Araunah for free. He said, "No, but I will buy it from you for a price. I will not offer burnt offerings to the LORD my God that cost me nothing" (2 Samuel 24:24). Giving God your lame animal is not a sacrifice; it's garbage disposal. It costs you nothing. In fact, it benefits you by getting a useless animal off your hands. This is not worship; it is utilitarian hypocrisy.
Third, and most importantly, the unblemished animal was a type, a foreshadowing, of the Lord Jesus Christ. The entire sacrificial system was a divinely ordained picture book pointing to the one true sacrifice that could actually take away sin. The Apostle Peter says we were redeemed, "not with perishable things such as silver or gold... but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot" (1 Peter 1:18-19). Every time an Israelite brought a perfect lamb to the altar, it was a prophecy of the coming Lamb of God who would be utterly perfect, sinless, and whole. A blemished sacrifice would have ruined the picture. It would have prophesied a blemished savior, which is to say, no savior at all. An imperfect substitute cannot stand in the place of sinful man. Only perfection can atone for imperfection.
A Catalogue of Unacceptability (vv. 22-25)
Lest there be any confusion, the Lord provides a specific, graphic list of what constitutes a disqualifying defect.
"Those that are blind or fractured or maimed or have a running sore or eczema or scabs, you shall not bring near to Yahweh...Also anything with its testicles bruised or crushed or torn or cut, you shall not bring near to Yahweh..." (Leviticus 22:22, 24 LSB)
This is not an exhaustive list, but it is representative. It covers defects from birth, from injury, and from disease. Blindness, broken bones, mutilation, skin diseases, all of these render an animal unfit for the altar. The prohibition against offering a castrated animal is particularly significant. The wholeness and integrity of the animal, especially its reproductive capacity, symbolized life and fruitfulness. A damaged or castrated animal was a picture of brokenness and death, the very things the sacrifice was meant to atone for. You cannot atone for brokenness with more brokenness.
Notice the one, very limited exception. An animal with a limb that is "overgrown or stunted" could be offered as a freewill offering, but not to fulfill a vow (v. 23). A vow was a solemn, binding promise to God, and required the absolute best. A freewill offering was more spontaneous. This small allowance shows that God is not an arbitrary tyrant, but it also reinforces the main principle by highlighting the exception. Even in this, the standard for what is required is not lowered.
The passage concludes by extending this prohibition to animals received from foreigners (v. 25). This was not about ethnic prejudice; it was about theological integrity. The standard of holiness applies to God's altar, regardless of the source of the sacrifice. God will not lower His standards to accommodate pagan ignorance or Israelite convenience. The reason is stated plainly: "for their corruption is in them, they have a defect; they shall not be accepted for you." The defect in the animal represents corruption. It represents the stain of the fall. To bring that which is a picture of corruption as a means of dealing with your own corruption is a fool's errand. It is an exercise in futility.
The Blemished Worshiper and the Perfect Sacrifice
So what is the point for us? We are not under the Mosaic ceremonial law. We do not bring bulls and goats to an altar. As the book of Hebrews tells us again and again, Christ has come as the great high priest and has offered one sacrifice for sins for all time (Hebrews 10:12). So, do these laws have anything to say to us?
They have everything to say to us. The fundamental principle has not changed one bit. God still demands perfection. The ground of our acceptance before God is still a perfect, unblemished sacrifice. The difference is that we do not provide it. God does.
The central problem of the Old Testament system was that blemished worshipers were bringing (supposedly) unblemished animals. But we are all spiritually blind, fractured, maimed, and diseased. Our righteousness is as a filthy rag. Our very best efforts are shot through with the corruption of sin. If the ground of our acceptance were our own performance, our own offerings, our own spiritual sacrifices, then we would all be rejected. We have nothing tamim to bring. All our sheep are lame.
This is why the Gospel is such glorious news. God, knowing that we could never provide the perfect sacrifice required, provided it Himself in the person of His Son. Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God, without blemish and without spot. He was perfect in His conception, perfect in His life, perfect in His obedience, and perfect in His substitutionary death. He is the one and only offering that is truly "accepted for you."
Offering Our Lives as Living Sacrifices
Because Christ, our perfect sacrifice, has been offered and accepted on our behalf, we are now free to offer our own sacrifices to God. But these are not sacrifices of atonement. They are sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving. The Apostle Paul exhorts us, "I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship" (Romans 12:1).
How can our blemished bodies be offered as a "holy and acceptable" sacrifice? It is only because we are "in Christ." We are washed in His blood. We are clothed in His righteousness. God accepts us, not because we are perfect, but because we are united by faith to the One who is. Our imperfect offerings of praise, service, and obedience are made acceptable as they pass through the hands of our perfect High Priest.
But this does not give us a license to be lazy or to offer God our leftovers. The principle of bringing our best still applies. Because we have been bought with such a high price, we are now called to glorify God with our best. We are to give Him the best of our time, not the scraps left over after work and entertainment. We are to give Him the firstfruits of our income, not the pocket change we have left at the end of the month. We are to give Him the strength of our youth, the wisdom of our age, the sharpness of our minds, and the passion of our hearts.
We do this not in order to be accepted, but because we have been accepted. We do it not out of slavish fear, but out of grateful love. The Levitical worshiper brought his best lamb, hoping for acceptance. The Christian worshiper, having already received acceptance through the Lamb of God, joyfully brings his whole life and lays it on the altar as a thank offering.
"Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God." (Hebrews 13:15-16 LSB)
This is the logic of the new covenant. God does not demand a perfect animal from you. He demands your whole life. And He gives you the grace to offer it. Stop trying to get by with giving God your lame and your sick. Stop treating the worship of the Holy One as a casual afterthought. Look to the perfect Lamb who was slain for you, and then, in the power of His Spirit, give Him everything you are and everything you have. For such sacrifices, offered in the name of the Son, are truly pleasing to the Father.