Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom; listen to the instruction of our God, you people of Gomorrah!
“The multitude of your sacrifices—what are they to me?” says the Lord. “I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals; I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats. When you come to appear before me, who has asked this of you, this trampling of my courts? Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me. New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations—I cannot bear your worthless assemblies. Your New Moon feasts and your appointed festivals I hate with all my being. They have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands in prayer, I hide my eyes from you; even when you offer many prayers, I am not listening.
Wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight; stop doing wrong. Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.
“Come now, let us settle the matter,” says the Lord. "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool. If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the good things of the land; but if you resist and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword.” For the mouth of the Lord has spoken. - Isaiah 1:10-20
The religion of Isaiah's time was the religion of self-service. It had all of the trappings of religion: a god, a temple, sacrifices, festivals, worship services and holy days. Everyone gathered together, said the right words, used the correct names of god, made the proper gestures, sang the right songs and said the right prayers and brought the right offerings, but the god who they really worshiped as themselves. The temple was an edifice built for the worship of their own well-being. It must have distressed God to see people coming into a place that he had established, only to see them give their hearts and allegiance to such a pitiful deity.
What should the one who really wants to find God do? They have to realize how much attention that their so-called worship of God has been worship of themselves and how weak and narcissistic and bad it is. It is like the one who realizes that the house where they have spent their life savings and committed to a 30-year mortgage only to realize it was a shack built on a nuclear waste site. Or the one who gets the car of their dreams and pledges to monthly payments only to find that underneath the flashy paint job is a chassis built of rust. How pitiful.
One test of our hearts is to learn why we do the things that we call good. Are they oriented toward God really? Be suspicious of our own motives. Do things for people who really give nothing back. Once we delight in that, we are still serving to be served.
No comments:
Post a Comment