Tag: Rituals

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Isaiah- Week 1- Day 5

On By Ben JenningsIn DevotionalLeave a comment

Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.

Isa 1:18-20

Explanation:
God had been making an argument. The people were putting their faith in performing rituals while being blatantly disobedient in every other area of their lives. What was the point of the rituals in the first place?

We know that God justified those who believed in Him. They were justified because of their faith. Their faith was demonstrated through obedience to the rituals and ceremonies that God required of them. The shedding of blood through the sacrifices God demanded were a picture of the coming sacrifice of Jesus, God’s Son, for the sin of the whole world.
God had been calling out the children of Israel because of their disobedience to his commands throughout their lives, and then their ritualistic adherence to the ceremonial law. Their lifestyle outside of their obedience to the rituals demonstrated their lack of faith in God. They may have had faith in the ritual, but they did not have faith in God.
So God says to them, “let us reason together.” He’s asking them to think about what He has said. If they were obedient to him and sought to obey him, every part of their lives and their faith would justify them. He depicts this transformation from dirty to clean with a very visual picture. Though their sins were as scarlet and crimson to white as snow or wool.
He then tells them that there will be blessing with obedience. If they would obey they will have his favor. But if they disobeyed they would be “devoured by the sword.” So the question he had for them could be phrased this way: “Do you want blessing and life, or do you want wrath and death?

Application:
There is a similar application for us today. True saving faith always results in works. James said it this way.

Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.

James 2:17-18

These people were thinking that empty ritualism and religious activity would make them right with God. The problem was their hypocritical living revealed their lack of faith in the true God. It is important for us to examine our faith as well. Do we serve God out of sheer tradition? Have we truly repented of our sin and trusted in Christ alone for our salvation? Is there evidence of our faith in God exhibited in our works, or are we content to practice our religion on Sunday and deny Him by our life the other six and a half days a week?

Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

Philippians 2:12

And like the audience of this first chapter, this is a matter of life and death for us. We will all face eternity, and at that point the genuineness of our faith in Christ is the only thing that will matter.

Response:
• If you haven’t truly trusted in Christ as Savior, know that though your sins be as scarlet they can be as white as snow! Trust in Christ today!
• If you do know Christ as your Savior, has your worship in any way become ritualistic and dispassionate? What do you need to do for that to change?

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Stop! Empty Rituals (part 2) Isaiah- Week 1- Day 3

On By Ben JenningsIn DevotionalLeave a comment

Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them. And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.

Isaiah 1:13-15

Explanation:
In the first few verses of this week’s passage we saw God calling out the behavior of the people of Jerusalem and Judea. Let us gain some understanding by answering three questions from these verses.

  1. What religious acts they were doing?
    In short they were doing “empty rituals.” Let’s list the words that describe them:
    • “oblations”
    • “incense”
    • “new moons and sabbaths”
    • “the calling of assemblies”
    • “the solemn meeting”
    • “new moons”
    • “appointed feasts”
    • “spread forth your hands”
    • “make many prayers”

Instead of describing what exactly each of the expressions describe, it is enough to know that it describes their participation in the ceremonial laws prescribed in the Torah, the first five books of the Bible.

  1. How did God see their religious expressions?
    God describes their participation as hypocritical and offensive to Him. Notice the terms describing his view of their religioucity.
    • “vain”- empty and meaningless
    • “abomination”- detestable
    • “I cannot away with”
    • “iniquity”- sin
    • “hateth”
    • “trouble”
    • “weary to bear them”
    • “hide my eyes”- He didn’t even want to look at what they were doing.
    • “I will not hear”- He was not listening or considering the worship they were offering.

Why did he see them this way?
God gives the answer for his view of their worship when he said “your hands are full of blood.” God would not accept their worship because of their participation in a lifestyle characterized by sin and injustice. Their lifestyle outside of their religious practice disqualified their worship.

Application:
Scripturally prescribed practices are not the problem. We ought to assemble with our church family for corporate worship and study of the Word of God. We ought to baptize and partake of the Lord’s Supper. Hypocrisy and injustice are the problem. When we live a life that does not show faith in God through our obedience in every part of life it damages our attempts at genuine worship. Paul warned the Corinthian church about this when he spoke about the coming to the “Lord’s table.” Notice his instruction in 1 Corinthians:

Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.

1Co 11:27-29

We ought to worship God in the way that He has called us to worship Him. We must do it with a right heart and life that matches the worship that we offer.

Response:
• Are you offering God honorable worship?
• Is there any way you are participating in injustice?

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Empty Rituals- Isaiah- Week 1- Day 2

On By Ben JenningsIn DevotionalLeave a comment

To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats. When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts?

Isaiah 1:11-12

Explanation:
We can understand what is going on in these verses by asking a series of 4 questions.

  1. Who is being questioned?
    If you examine the previous verses, you find that the people of Jerusalem and Judea are in view. God is the one questioning them through His prophet Isaiah. He had referred to them as Sodom and Gomorrah in verse 10. He had told them to listen and obey.
  2. What were they doing?
    While they were living in a way that made God call them Sodom and Gomorrah, they were still practicing religious ritual. They were making offerings to God. What were they offering? The verses reference sacrifices, burnt offerings, and the “fat of fed beasts.” These were all in keeping with the ceremonial law that God prescribed in the Torah. The problem was not with their ritual in and of itself. In that part they were somewhat obedient. The problem was that they were living as if God was okay with immorality and then performing these rituals out of tradition, habit, or some other motivation.
  3. What did God ask?
    God asks them two questions that revealed the emptiness of their rituals. He said, “to what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to me?” The right answer would have been to worship the Lord and atone for their sins. The other question he asked was “who hath required this at your hand?” The right answer would have been, “You, God!” But the problem was they were doing this without being worried about worship. They obviously did not care about their own sins. They weren’t doing these offerings to please God. They were doing them without the proper heart and motivation for doing them. God was not the object of their worship, nor the audience to which they focused in doing these rituals.
  4. What was God’s response?
    Look at God’s response. ” I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he-goats.” It’s as if God was saying I don’t need your dead carcasses, your burnt offerings, or the blood of your animals without your heart and obedience. Doing this ritual without the right heart attitude behind it is empty, and is an abomination. It means nothing. It was offensive to God.

Application:
God is not just interested in what we do. He is also interested in why we do it. This was expressed by Samuel to King Saul earlier in the Old Testament. Notice what he said.

And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.

1 Samuel 15:22

Is it wrong to sing our praise to the Lord, to preach, to teach, to give our offerings, to take communion, to baptize, to read scripture or to memorize scripture? Is it wrong to pray? Of course not. It is wrong if we do not participate in these spiritual disciplines. The problem comes when we do those things out of tradition alone. The problem is when we have unrepented sin in our lives and practice these things by “going through the motions” without our hearts being right in doing them.

Response:
Is unconfessed and unforsaken sin making your practice of spiritual disciplines empty and ritualistic? Confess that sin today!