Sacrificing Like Sodom – Isaiah 1:10-15
From Isaiah 1 (New King James Version) – 10 Hear the words of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom; give year to the law of our God, people of Gomorrah: 11 "to what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to Me?" Says the Lord. "I have had enough 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? 13 bring no more futile sacrifices; incense is an abomination to Me. The New Moons, the Sabbath, and the calling of assemblies – I cannot endure the 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. 15 when you spread out your hands, I will hide My eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood.
In the movie School Ties, David Greene is a Jewish, working-class kid on scholarship. He opts for athletic excellence even at the expense of faith observance, although he tries to do both and cram in a day of sanctifying separation into a few minutes as the date expires. A mentor in this WASPish environment confronts him.
Duplicity and confrontation are as ageless as Isaiah 1. God's covenant people have tried thoroughly to be His and yet blend into the culture, in Isaiah 1:10, He calls rulers of Sodom. They get sarcastic congratulations for having succeeded. They, separate by their heritage, are one with sodomy.
Like David Greene, they include ceremony without allowing faith to change them. God is disgusted. Given that the besetting sin of the neighborhood, actual, biblical sodomy according to Ezekiel 16:49, was a failure to give of her abundance to strengthen the hand of the poor, God is excellent at math, among other attributes. He cares less where the small representative offerings go when the bulk of that with which Israel has been blessed goes toward self-indulgence instead of affirming those made in His image. This reeking hypocrisy spoils the offerings. It even spoils the meetings convened to give them.
Ours, then, is to confess likewise before we move on. What we give, or the religious rituals we otherwise perform, is too often rendered as a distraction from who we really are. Like Israel here, our everyday interactions tell more about our true worship, or our idols. God calls out our sodomy in order that we might repent, and show that changed heart by ministering to people in need as unto Him. Only then will the God Isaiah already celebrates for taking notice of his ministry turn His eyes toward us and celebrate with us.
In the movie School Ties, David Greene is a Jewish, working-class kid on scholarship. He opts for athletic excellence even at the expense of faith observance, although he tries to do both and cram in a day of sanctifying separation into a few minutes as the date expires. A mentor in this WASPish environment confronts him.
Duplicity and confrontation are as ageless as Isaiah 1. God's covenant people have tried thoroughly to be His and yet blend into the culture, in Isaiah 1:10, He calls rulers of Sodom. They get sarcastic congratulations for having succeeded. They, separate by their heritage, are one with sodomy.
Like David Greene, they include ceremony without allowing faith to change them. God is disgusted. Given that the besetting sin of the neighborhood, actual, biblical sodomy according to Ezekiel 16:49, was a failure to give of her abundance to strengthen the hand of the poor, God is excellent at math, among other attributes. He cares less where the small representative offerings go when the bulk of that with which Israel has been blessed goes toward self-indulgence instead of affirming those made in His image. This reeking hypocrisy spoils the offerings. It even spoils the meetings convened to give them.
Ours, then, is to confess likewise before we move on. What we give, or the religious rituals we otherwise perform, is too often rendered as a distraction from who we really are. Like Israel here, our everyday interactions tell more about our true worship, or our idols. God calls out our sodomy in order that we might repent, and show that changed heart by ministering to people in need as unto Him. Only then will the God Isaiah already celebrates for taking notice of his ministry turn His eyes toward us and celebrate with us.
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