What Makes
Ineffective
Religion? (Part 2)
Pastor Bill Farrow
Isaiah 1:11-12
11 “To what purpose
is the multitude of your sacrifices to Me?”
Says the LORD.
“I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams
And the fat of fed cattle.
I do not delight in the blood of bulls,
Or of lambs or goats.
12 “When you come
to appear before Me,
Who has required this from your hand,
To trample My courts?
I am full - I am satiated. The word is usually applied to food and drink, denoting satisfaction, or satiety. It is used here with great force, denoting that their offerings had been so numerous and so incessant, that God was satiated with them. It means that he was weary, tired, disgusted with them. Thus, in Job 7:4: ‘I am full - of tossings to and fro unto the dawning of the day.’ Prov. 25:17:
Withdraw thy foot from thy neighbor’s house,
Lest he be weary (Hebrew full) of thee, and hate thee.
Fat … - They were required to offer, not the lame, or the diseased (Deut. 15:21; 17:1; Lev. 23:12; Mal. 1:7-8); and God admits here that they had externally complied with this requirement. The fat was burned on the altar. They had offered the best of their cattle, and that cattle was fat and well fed – it was good cattle! Yet, still, it was insufficient!
I delight not - That is; I delight; not in them when offered without the heart; or I delight not in them in comparison with works of righteousness; (see Amos 5:21-24; Ps. 4:9-13; 51:16-19). Ultimately, there can be not delight in any human work, but rather, all of this is to direct us to the righteousness of Christ as the only sufficient source of standing before a holy and demanding God! All that they offered was of good quality and vast number. They had offered it with zeal and with fervor; and yet – not only was God was not ultimately pleased to accept their offering – He took no pleasure in it whatsoever! All because it was offered on the wrong basis – it was on a works basis in an attempt to win God’s favor by doing works to obligate Him to bless. This was (and is) unacceptable. God deals with His people graciously – and no other basis is acceptable of efficacious with Him.
ISAIAH 1:12
When you come to appear before me - The temple was in Jerusalem, and was regarded as the habitation, or dwelling-place, of the God of Israel. Particularly, the most holy place of the temple was deemed the place of his sacred abode. The Shekinah – from a word meaning “to dwell” - the visible symbol of his presence, rested on the cover of the ark, and from this place he was accustomed to commune with his people, and to give responses to their requests. Hence, ‘to appear before God,’ Hebrew ‘to be seen before my face,’ means to appear in his temple as a worshipper. The phrase occurs in this sense in the following places: (Exo. 34:23-24; Deut. 31:11; 1 Sam. 1:22; Ps. 42:3).
Who hath required this - The Jews were required to appear there to worship God Exo. 23:17; Deut. 16:16; but it was not required that they should appear with that spirit and temper. A similar sentiment is expressed in Ps. 50:16.
At your hand - From you. The emphasis in this expression is to be laid on your. ‘Who has asked it of you?’ It was indeed the duty of the humble, and the sincere, to tread those courts, but who had required such hypocrites as they were to do it? God sought the offerings of pure worshippers, not those of the hypocritical and the profane.
To tread my courts - The courts of the temple were the different areas or open spaces which surrounded it. None entered the temple itself but the priests. The people worshipped God in the courts assigned them around the temple. In one of those courts was the altar of burnt-offerings; and the sacrifices were all made there; (see Matt. 21:12). To tread his courts was an expression therefore, equivalent to, to worship. To tread the courts of the Lord here, has the idea of profanation. Who has required you to tread those courts with this hollow, heartless service? It is often used in the sense of treading down, or trampling on, (2 Kings 7:17-20; Dan. 8:7-10; Isa. 63:3-16).