Isaiah 1

In this first chapter of Isaiah, God reveals Himself as someone who has little interest in religious traditions: “‘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.’” (vs 11-14)

Whenever I read that passage, I always chuckle, because when God says, “Who has asked this of you?” I always think, Duh. You did. God asked them to bring all those sacrifices to the temple… or did He? Was it the sacrifice He was after or the people? Well, this chapter leaves little doubt that God has never been after blood and burnt offerings. He is after us.

And what He has to offer us now is the same thing He had to offer to Israel of old—a relationship with Himself: “Come now, and let us reason together, says 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.” (vs 18) God wants to reason with us, but that can only happen when we are willing to drop the religious tradition and pretense and get real with Him.

You see, God devised the sacrificial system as a way of helping His people bring their sin problem to Him. But, instead of coming to Him to get help and healing for their sin, they turned the sacrificial system into an idol and began using it as a way to manipulate and control God. God wanted to reason with His people, but all they wanted was a recipe for getting what they wanted out of God.

We may be familiar with the concept by now, but we ought to take a moment to consider how incredible it is that we serve a God who is more interested in what He can give to us than what He can get out of us. Instead of requiring His people to serve Him, God is desperate to have the opportunity to serve His people—an opportunity that can only be fruitful when His people approach Him in willingness, honesty, and humility.

In short, we have to be real.

Today, God still invites us to reason with Him. Though He is the almighty, everlasting God, what He offers us isn’t just offered because He is “bigger” than us and has the right to dictate whatever terms please Him. God’s plans for us and His requests of us are reasonable. His way of doing things represents the smartest and best way to live. Doing things His way leads to abundant life. Not doing things His way leads to… well, walk outside and take a look around.

The reason God hates hypocrisy is because it walls us off from Him. If we are saying and doing things just because we think they are the things God “wants” us to say or do, we are in no frame of mind to actually pay attention to God. If we’re too busy trying to manipulate Him, we won’t have much time to “reason together.”

God doesn’t want our religious traditions, our sacrifices, or our worship. He wants us!