Sacrifice
To do righteousness and justice is desired by the Lord more than sacrifice. Proverbs 21:3 NASB
Righteousness and justice – Jewish religion in the Old Testament (yes, I know that’s a Christian denotation) is all about sacrifice, right? At least that’s what most of us were taught (along with the classification “Old” Testament). And sacrifices—all that killing and blood and guts—well, that’s ancient stuff, not the way we worship now. We have sanctified worship. Singing, passing the offering plate, sermons, prayers—all antiseptically controlled, especially in these days. Why, we don’t even let death look like death at funerals. It’s like going to a wax museum. After all, the real person is in Heaven with Jesus. Sorry, I got sidetracked. Back to sacrifices.
Leviticus is at the heart of Torah. It’s full of sacrifices. All kinds. Then there’s Passover. More killing. And during the time of the Temples? Daily slaughter. Blood—lots of it. Finally, Abraham. God tells him to kill his own son. Are you kidding? It sure seems as if the entire Jewish faith is based on religious sacrifice. Thank God Jesus showed up! Now we don’t have to go through that horrible stuff anymore. Now we have grace. Martin Luther showed us that better way.
Oh, except for just this one small thing. Apparently God desires righteousness and justice—not blood and carcasses. Apparently we didn’t have to wait for Jesus to correct our thinking. Apparently we were told from the beginning that sacrifice wasn’t about appeasing an angry God and it wasn’t about “forgiveness in the blood.” Maybe it was necessary in order for us to see the importance of righteousness and justice. Maybe we were just too self-occupied to understand that the God of the entire Bible was really interested in something else, and He needed to get our attention in a very tactile way.
So, what is it that God desires more than sacrifice? The words in Hebrew are familiar. ṣĕdāqâ and mišpāṭ. Conformity to the moral standard and the proper exercise of governing. Actually, when you think about it, this is exactly what’s wrapped up in the story of the Garden. Man is put in the Garden to govern it, that is, to exercise supervision according to God’s intention, and he is to do this with just one moral imperative in mind—that thing about eating. So, I suppose we could say that righteousness and justice were the very first things God intended and desired. It’s never changed. And we haven’t changed much either. That’s probably why we feel expelled.
Today we have a lot of rules and regulations. Yes, I know, Torah isn’t rules and regulations. It’s instructions for how to live with ṣĕdāqâ and mišpāṭ. But it often feels like rules and regulations, and I suspect it feels that way because we are just like that man in the Garden, still not able to bend our wills to the one simple instruction. We’re on the outside looking in, wishing that we could have all the Garden bliss but still not willing to live according to ṣĕdāqâ and mišpāṭ. And that’s why we need sacrifice. In the end, it has nothing to do with dead animals. It has to do with resistant hearts. Sacrifice is about acknowledging that we struggle with ṣĕdāqâ and mišpāṭ. When we fail, there is a way back. Oh, and just to be clear, most of the sacrifices were about joyfully honoring God’s blessings. I guess ol’ Martin forgot that, but he seemed a little preoccupied with bad stuff rather than joy.
Topical Index: sacrifice, Proverbs 21:3
