The 22nd Sunday after Pentecost in Series B provides us with three readings: Isaiah 1:10-18; 2 Thessalonians 1:1-12 and Luke 19:1-10. The passage selected as the sermon text is Isaiah 1:13, “Bring no more futiles sacrifices; incense is an abomination to Me.”
What a reversal of God’s will, is it not? During the days of Moses, the Lord God delighted in the sacrifices and the smell of incense. Now it appears that He has changed His mind and no longer appreciates either sacrifices or incense. What change in God took place leading to such a statement? But the Bible is clear that God never changes. We need to look elsewhere to find the reason of this apparent change of attitude on the part of God. Of course, there is only one place to look and that is to human beings.
Perhaps this will be helpful. A neighbor of yours brings you a cake as a token of friendship and respect. You accept the cake with appreciation and wonder why he owuld do such a thing. But before he leaves, he asks whether you would loan him your second car for about a week or two because his needs repairs. Your attitude toward him now changes because you see more clearly the ulterior motive he had to bring you a cake. It was not that he liked you so much; rather, he wanted your car and this was a way of motivating you to loan him the vehicle. He was being manipulative.
In the same way, the people of Israel had lost their first love. They no longer offered sacrifices and burned incense with the proper understanding why God had established such a ceremonial law. Instead, they now did sacrifices and burned incense to placate or appease what they considered to be an angry god. But the true God of Scripture is not a god of justice giving you what you deserve but rather the God of mercy (not giving you what you deserve) and the God of grace (giving you what you don’t deserve).
As an act of self-righteousness many of God’s people had left hope of a Messiah Who would shower them with salvation and instead turned to sacrifices and burning of incense as a means to merit one’s way into God’s favor. The only hope of salvation is once again found when the will of God is followed by a willing heart that is not motivated by self-salvation but by a response of having been totally saved by God Himself. As God says in verse 18, “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow, though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”
Name:Tom Baker