Offer the Sacrifice of Your Lips

Daily Devotional – Friday, November 3, 2023
Take words with you, and return to the LORD. Say to Him, “Take away all iniquity. Receive us graciously, for we will offer the sacrifices of our lips.
Hosea 14:2 (NKJV)

In the ancient sacrificial system, a sinner would make an offering to obtain forgiveness. Bullocks, rams, and goats were among the most sacrificed animals. The richer the person, the more costly the sacrifice he was likely to offer.

Offer the Fruit of the Lips

It is within this context that God addresses His wayward people, saying, “O Israel, return to the LORD your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity. Take words with you, and return to the LORD. Say to Him, “Take away all iniquity. Receive us graciously, for we will offer the sacrifices of our lips.”” (Hosea 14:1-2)

God is wooing back His people, but they must first acknowledge their sins. In returning to the Lord, though, they need not bring animals to offer as sacrifices. Instead, God wants them to come with words or statements of confession.

Render the Calves of Our Lips

The Lord wants His people to admit their guilt and request forgiveness for restoration to happen. In addition, they will offer sacrifices of their lips (literally, the calves of their lips). In essence, by confessing, petitioning, interceding, praising, and worshipping, these sinners will be offering sacrifices to God.

God is pleased, not with outward sacrifices, but with the breaking down of hearts through the influence of the Holy Spirit. The penitent heart seeks God more. Its prayers and praises are genuine because it realizes its need for God.

Why You Should Offer the Sacrifice of Your Lips

Kind David understood that God is after the repentant soul, not animals or silver and gold, and wrote, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. A broken and a contrite heart—these, O God, You will not despise.” (Psalms 51:17). It is this kind of heart that can offer the sacrifices of its lips, which God will accept.

What sacrifices are you offering God today? Your money and other material possessions will not suffice. No amount of working for God with a polluted heart will work for you. What God is asking for is a total commitment to Him. That way, when you approach His throne in worship and praise, He will consider these acts the sacrifices of your lips.

Prayer
Dear God, take away all my sins. Receive me graciously and accept the sacrifices of my lips.