Stop Your Religion! (Part 2)

Pastor Bill Farrow

Isaiah 1:13-14

13  Bring no more futile sacrifices;
Incense is an abomination to Me.
The New Moons, the Sabbaths, and the calling of assemblies—
I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting.

14  Your New Moons and your appointed feasts
My soul hates;
They are a trouble to Me,
 I am weary of bearing them. 

ISAIAH 1:14

Your appointed feasts - That is, your assemblies convened on regular set times – The word is from the Hebrew word meaning: to fix, to appoint. This word is applied in the Scriptures only to the Sabbath, Passover, Pentecost, Day of Atonement, and Feast of Tabernacles. It is applied to those festivals, because they were fixed by law to certain periods of the year. This verse is a very impressive repetition of the former, as if the soul was full of the subject, and disposed to dwell upon it.

My soul hateth - I hate. Ps. 11:5. The nouns soul, and spirit, are often used to denote the person himself, and are to be construed as “I.” Thus, Isa. 26:9: ‘With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early;’ that is, ‘I myself seek thee; I myself do desire thee.’ So the phrase, ‘deliver my soul,’ -  that is, deliver me, (Ps. 22:20; 84:3; 86:13-14); that thy soul may bless me, (Gen. 27:19); his soul shall dwell at ease, (Ps. 25:13; compare Num. 11:6; Lev. 16:29; Isa. 55:2-3; Job. 16:4). So the word spirit: ‘Thy watchfulness hath preserved my spirit’ - Job 10:12; (compare Ps. 31:6; 1 Kings 21:5). The expression here is emphatic, denoting cordial hatred.  Again we see the concept that what should have brought pleasure to God and blessing to the one offering it rather brings pain to God, and judgment to the offerer.  It is a profound thing for us to see that God hates a thing.  Not just in an abstract sense that He hates sin in the general sense – but in an active and very intensely personal sense.  The hypocrisy of Israel was more than just abstractly objectionable to Him, but was a real and very personal offense to Him.  That is no small matter – rather it is one that should be of great concern to any thinking person!  God is not someone that one would care to be casual about having upset with them!

They are a trouble - In Deut. 1:12, this word denotes a burden, an oppressive lead that produces weariness in bearing it. It is a strong expression, denoting that their acts of hypocrisy and sin had become so numerous, that they became a heavy, oppressive lead.

I am weary to bear them - This is language which is taken from the act of carrying a burden until a man becomes weary and faint. So, in accordance with human conceptions, God represents himself as burdened with their vain oblations, and evil conduct. There could be no more impressive statement of the evil effects of sin, than that even Omnipotence was exhausted as with a heavy, oppressive burden. The point here being that God has borne them for a long period of time, and secondly, that He does not intend to bear them for much longer, but is at an end of His patience or willingness to bear them.