Be a Drink Offering

Paul told Timothy (in 2 Timothy 4:6) that he was being poured out like a drink offering. The first time we see it in the Bible was in Genesis 35 when Jacob is honoring God right after God promises Jacob that the promise he had given Jacob's father and grandfather would be handed down through him - that "a nation and a community of nations will come from you." Jacob builds a stone pillar and he pours out a drink offering on it.

In the Jewish tradition, a drink offering was wine that was offered to God as part of a sacrifice in the temple. They would take wine and instead of drinking it, pour it out onto the ground around the altar. I can imagine a someone seeing the wine being prepared and then poured out onto the ground thinking either the wine was bad or someone was crazy.

When we use our logic alone, it would make sense that we use the wine as it is generally used, to drink. But God works outside this world and asks us things that might not make sense - doesn't fit the mold. He asks us to take something that is not particularly special and make it special, only because he says it is special. And the wine wasn't a 'special' wine. They didn't use just the right wine with the right bouquet like a "Jerusalem Claret 0025" - they used plain table wine.

God asks us to be offerings - sacrifices - poured out for Him. Not used as we think we should, but as God asks. It won't make logical sense from the world's viewpoint - it might not even make sense from our viewpoint. But God can take the ordinary and make it extraordinary if only we let Him.