"Burned Entirely"

Leviticus 6.22b-23 NASU

“By a permanent ordinance it [the grain offering] shall be entirely offered up in smoke to the LORD. So every grain offering of the priest shall be burned entirely. It shall not be eaten.”
  
Some sacrificial offerings of the Israelites were placed on the altar, cooked with fire, and eaten by the priests. Not so with the priestly grain offering. It was completely reduced to ash, “entirely offered up in smoke,” and “burned entirely.” Nothing left. Just smoke and ash disappearing in the wind.

This is a picture of all of humanity. We are all grain offerings before the Lord. The apostle Paul challenged readers to “present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God” (Romans 12.1). James said, “You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away” (James 4.14). Jesus compared all human life to a lowly grain of wheat:

“Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, 

it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain. 

He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life 

in this world will keep it for eternal life.”

John 12.24-25 NKJV

We are meant to be used up.  We should wear out, not rust out. I am a “grain offering” and will one day be “entirely offered up in smoke to the LORD.” I hope my eulogy reads something like this:

He burned with desire to serve Jesus Christ. He burned brightly and he burned hot. When his life on earth was done, he burned out. God used him up and brought him home. He “burned entirely” until the end and that was the end of Dave on earth.