Thursday: When God Does Not Delight in Sacrifices
Daily Lesson for Thursday 21st of March 2024
Read Psalms 40:6-8, Psalms 50:7-23, and Psalms 51:16-19. What important issue do these texts address? Why does God not delight in the sacrifices that He prescribed in His Word (Exodus 20:24)?
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Like the prophets, the psalmists decry various misuses of worship. Their main point in these verses is not the Lord’s aversion to Israel’s sacrifices and festivals but the reasons for such repugnance: the fatal distance between worship and spirituality.
God is not rebuking His people for their sacrifices and burnt offerings but for their wickedness and acts of injustice that they had done in their personal lives (Psalms 50:8,17-21). The Psalms are not preaching against sacrifice and worship but against vain sacrifice and empty worship, demonstrated in the unrighteousness of these worshipers.
When the unity between the outward expression of worship and the correct inner motivation for worship falls apart, rituals usually become more important in and of themselves than does the actual experience of drawing close to God. That is, the forms of worship become an end in themselves as opposed to the God whom those rituals are supposed to point to and to reveal.
Read John 4:23-24. What point is Jesus making here that fits exactly with what the psalms for today are warning about?
Sacrifices alone are not enough. What good were these sacrifices if the hearts of those offering them were not filled with repentance, faith, and a sorrow for sin? Only when accompanied by repentance and sincere thanksgiving could the sacrifices of bulls please God as “sacrifices of righteousness” (Psalms 51:19, see also Psalms 50:14). Jesus, quoting Isaiah, expressed it like this: “These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me” (Matthew 15:8, NKJV). The problems the psalmists saw were the same problems that Jesus encountered with some of the people, especially the leaders, during His earthly ministry.
How can we make sure that we, as Adventists, with all this light and knowledge, don’t fall into the trap of thinking that merely knowing truth and going through the rituals of the truth is enough?
we as christians we should set ourselves fully before God in an heart.but not just pretending that we know the truth but no fruits we are bearing out
I thank the Lord.
1 Samuel 15:22 OBEDIENCE IS BETTER THAN SACRIFICE…
What God wants from us is – total submission of our spirit, soul, and body to Him along with total obedience to His will. As the title of the church hymn … “TRUST AND OBEY,” so is the secret of Job and Joseph how they survived great afflictions in life.
To unveil the true character of the Creator, the same Who gave us life (and the same Who provides us with this PRESENT), He offered Himself to die for humanity’s transgressions. There is no more significant example of Love in the Universe. That’s why He needs no more sacrifices but worship and devotion. Not because He is self-centered, but because He left the most magnificent center to die for His creatures, the Throne of everlasting power, to be humble to death, a death of shame!