Introduction
Worship is a hearty, spiritual expression of the
believer’s adoration and love to God, in word and in deed, as a result of the
redemptive act accomplished in Christ. Man’s words and deeds (for instance,
material sacrifices) are valuable to God only in the light of a redeemed, contrite
and holy heart. God thus looks for a true worshiper who will worship Him in
Spirit and Truth (John 4:23-24). In this article, you are going to encounter
Jehovah’s preconditions for proper worship. The article takes an
exegetical approach which includes: an historical background, contextual
analysis, and contemporary application of biblical passages. The article also
presents a concise summary and conclusion.
Historical Background of Isaiah 1:10-20
Isaiah 1:10-20 was birthed in circumstances of
total rebellion of Israel
and its leaders against the Lord’s demonstrated love and care (1:1-9). God had
done all that was sufficient to prove His love and care to Israel, but Israel was quite unwilling to
perceive it. God compared Israel’s understanding capacity with that of brute
animals, and His conclusion was that animals had better understanding than His
people (v. 3)! In this context, Israel
had forsaken God, like Sodom and Gomorrah, and had
embraced void rituals of worship which God detested. God saw total depravity
that inevitably pointed to imminent judgment. He saw foreign nations devastate Israel and
that; only a handful remnant was left on account of His enduring mercies (v.
9).
Contextual Analysis of Isaiah 1:10-20
The prophetic oracle of Isaiah begins at this
juncture with the call for attention directed at both rulers and the people of Judah.
Isaiah employed Sodom and Gomorrah to metaphorically describe the morally and
spiritually depraved leaders and the people of Judah contrary to what God had
actually expected them to be and to do in terms of genuine spiritual worship in
the context of the Law of Moses (v. 10). Traditionally, the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah
was viewed as a classic example of punishment resulting from the abrogation or
even suspension of a covenant with a deity – in this case, with Yahweh
(Botterweck et al 1999, 163; cf. Tenney and Douglas 1987, 952). In this case,
Judah had become spiritually polluted to the extent that Isaiah employed the
two cities in which sexual license, human hubris and transgression against
hospitality were commonplace as an alarm to call Judah back to repentance in
order to escape impending judgment (cf. Gen. 14:2; 19:1-25).
Verses 11-15 reveal God’s abhorrence of
hypocritical worship underpinned by legalistic animal sacrifices and offerings
that did not align with true spirituality. Judah had willfully embarked on
rebellion against God and yet she bragged about being an authentic worshiper of
Jehovah as evidenced by the massiveness of her sacrifices. In this context, God
was never moved by the abundance of sacrifices; rather, He sought a reverential
and penitential heart that trembled in His presence (v. 11a, 12). God strongly
attacked the form of religion and thus demanded the content of it that gave
meaning to all the exteriors of religion; He wanted integration between the
form of religion and its ethical content (cf. Motyer 1993, 45). It is indeed a
human tendency to think that God can easily be lured by what we give and show
on the outside, as we deliberately forget the fact that we are simply stewards
of what we temporarily “own” and “give” in this life. All that we have belongs
to Him (Ps. 50:7-12). And that God looks on the heart (1 Sam. 16:7).
Isaiah’s indictment on rebellion was thus not a contradiction to God’s own law on the
worship rituals that He Himself had ordained for Judah, rather the point was to
remind worshipers that the instituted religion was meant to touch and transform
human hearts so that they were able to revere God, that is, the purity of the
heart was to precede the offerings, sacrifices and the appointed festivals and
convocations, themselves being the shadow of God’s redemptive plan to be
fulfilled in due time in Christ (Isa. 53; Heb. 10:5). In this context,
appearing in the presence of God (His courts, v. 12) without true heart of
worship amounted to trampling, profaning, the Lord’s true intent of the instituted
Jewish religion (v. 13a).
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