God is wise and generous: For the Lord is the one who repays, and he will repay you sevenfold. Ben Sira 35:13
In ancient times, offerings and holocausts were common to present before God. For example, the Book of Job relates that this character, a rich man, offered holocausts to God as purification rites (Job 1:1-5) for his sons. The First Book of Kings also relates that when the temple of Jerusalem was finished, King Solomon offered sacrifices to God: "Solomon offered a sacrifice of fellowship offerings to the LORD: twenty-two thousand cattle and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep and goats. So the king and all the Israelites dedicated the temple of the LORD" 1 Kings 8:63.
This is why the master of wisdom Ben Sira dedicated part of his book to explain what the duties of man before the religious authorities meant in his time:
"Do not appear before the Lord empty-handed,
for all that you offer is in fulfillment of the precepts" Ben Sira 35:6-7.
And Ben Sira also recalled with this the importance of presenting oneself with a pure heart before God, because God is wise and rejects bad intentions, as happened with Cain when this character in the Book of Genesis presented his offering to the creator. Although what the commandments prescribe is important, before this is the spiritual gift of fear of God (constancy, firmness, devotion, equanimity, and stability), because as the sapiential books explain: "Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man", Ecclesiastes 12:13. That is to say, the precepts and commands must be applied under the common sense that the fear of God provides, this is the ultimate spiritual meaning of the covenant with God.
And Ben Sira continued with his spiritual teaching and remembered that God is not only wise but also a generous being who knows how to reward righteous men according to their devotion:
"Give to the Most High as he has given to you,
generously, according to your means.
For the Lord is the one who repays,
and he will repay you sevenfold" Ben Sira 35:12-13.
For Ben Sira, wisdom was not only a theoretical science but also a science with a profound practical implication for the practitioners of the law of Moses, because in wisdom there is also the correct worship of the creator of all things.
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