The Hitchhiker’s Guide (23)
“What are your many sacrifices to Me?” says the Lord. “I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fattened cattle; and I take no pleasure in the blood of bulls, lambs, or goats.” Isaiah 1:11 NASB
I have had enough – The Hebrew word (śābēaʿ) has two connotations. The first is about being satiated, satisfied and fully nourished. Thus, it describes the function of manna, the care of the Lord, the bounty and blessings He bestows. But there is a second arena.
While the uses cited above are more or less positive, others have negative connotations. Sometimes one is full of the wrong things. In these instances the word is used censoriously to denote excess. The Psalmist’s soul is full of troubles (Ps 88:3 [H 4]), and the people have had their fill of contempt and scoffing (Ps 123:3). Sinners are rightfully filled with shame (Lam 3:30). Jeremiah (cf. Jer 9:18) is filled with bitterness (Lam 3:15); yet it is good for a man to be filled with shame so that he may trust in the Lord (Hab 2:16) and the Lord will gorge the beasts with Pharaoh (Ezk 32:4).
The Lord is weary of unrighteous offerings (Isa 1:11) and guests are like fish—after three days they stink (Prov 25:17).[1]
The grammar of this verb is a qatal (perfect). That means God’s statement is a finished action. He’s made up His mind. These kinds of sacrifices stink! There’s no debate about it. What we have to know is why they are so offensive to God. And it doesn’t take much to find out. The reason God is so disgusted with these supposed acts of worship is because the people practiced religion without transformation. Stone’s comment suffices: “Instead of undergoing the transformation that leads to the true path of uprightness on the way toward God, we substitute worship of an external projection that does not require a change in our very being.”[2] In other words, just like the Israelites who substituted the blood of bulls and goats for real obedience from the heart, we use rosaries, sermons, hymns, attendance badges, and statements of faith. In fact, we might even worship “the Book,” the rituals, the traditions, or favorite prayers or verses rather than the God revealed in those things. We produce icons and idols instead of living transformations. And we call it “worship.” The outside of the cup is clean, but it counts for nothing if the inside is molding from all the unwashed debris.
What is worship? That’s the question behind God’s statement in Isaiah. Is it practiced rituals? Declarations? Creeds? The “elements” of the sacraments? Is it doing what the religious community expects? You need to answer! The consequences are severe. “Though you abundantly pray, I do not listen” (Isaiah 1:15). What is the remedy? “Learn to do good, seek justice. Make the oppressed happy. Defend the orphan . . .” (Isaiah 1:17). It seems that worship has little to do with what happens in a religious assembly. The prophet is focused on social involvement, not pews and pulpits. Worship is what you do for others. Sounds like Luzzatto’s claim about our infinite debt to serve.
Step 23: Learn to worship . . . all over again.
Topical Index: śābēaʿ, satisfied, satiated, worship, religion, Isaiah 1:11
[1] Waltke, B. K. (1999). 2231 שָׂבֵַע. R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (electronic ed., pp. 869–870). Chicago: Moody Press.
[2] Ira F. Stone, in Moses Hayyim Luzzatto, Mesillat Yesharim: The Path of the Upright, p. 133.
“Instead of undergoing the transformation that leads to the true path of uprightness on the way toward God, we substitute worship of an external projection that does not require a change in our very being.”
Indeed, this is the very nature of fallen mankind, and from that nature there is no possible proceeding to the the nature of man that was lost through Adam’s transgression—apart from the triune work of redemption—and that found only by faith in the faithfulness of Christ’s specific sacrificial work in that redemption. Only the person, Jesus Christ, is the true image (in which Adam was formed “from the material of earth”) who is the very image mankind was intended to bear as the principle of life in creation.
That is why man must undergo a “new creation” by which that principle of life is both restored in man and through which he is redeemed. This is the divine work of redemption, and it can never enter a person’s experience apart from that whole triune recreation of man that effects mankind’s redemption. Indeed, there is no other way to experience that principle of life… although there be many deceptive counterfeits of it… even as wolves that in appearance persuade us that they are sheep!
“Be sober; be on the alert. Your adversary the devil walks around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.” (1 Peter 5:8)
“And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.” (Luke 18:19)
“…an hour is coming—and now is here—when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for indeed the Father seeks such people to be his worshipers. God is spirit, and the ones who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:23-24)