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Sirach 45:14 "His sacrifices shall be wholly burned twice a day continuously."

 

Sirach is speaking of Aaron, exalted by God through Moses as the first high priest (Sirach 45:6). God stressed to Moses and Aaron the importance of ritualistic sacrifices, which is why the Jews treat them as so important throughout the Bible. But when Jesus came, He became the sacrifice, the final one, so we are not meant to sacrifice ritualistically anymore (Hebrews 10:4-10).

 

Change happens in our faith when God deems it time. This happens rarely, but it does happen. It is not that God changes His mind, or that He changes, but that in His eternal mind, He knows what we must do to prepare for the big things He has planned. The coming of the Savior was the biggest thing, so God got His people ready for it over centuries by having them offer sacrifices. Through these rituals, they came to understand the idea of putting their sins on a sacrificial offering, the importance of blood and how it carries life, and the giving back to God the best of what we have, as He has given the best to and for us. When Jesus offered His Body and Blood as a sacrifice for all of us, He perfected and fulfilled all of those lessons, taking the place of the ritual sacrifices. What could those sacrifices possibly be worth anymore? 

 

Now our sacrifices come in our daily lives, and we merge them with Jesus', offering everything to the Father just as He did. Sirach could not have known of any of this, to him the commandment of God was for the high priest to offer sacrifices twice a day, and he knew it would always be so because God had commanded it. Man could not change this, it would have been wrong for him to try, but God could and did in the most astounding way.

 

There are times when God changes things for us. They are not changes for Him, who is eternal and knows all eternally, but they can feel difficult for us when we are not ready to accept that He is "doing something new" in time. The best thing to do is trust Him completely, and do what He says ("Do whatever He tells you", as Mary instructs (John 2:5)). He will see us through all times of apparent change, and we can be assured He is leading us to something astounding!