God's Real Target in Both Testaments Is Too Simple for Us to Comprehend

 

Image of Bible open to 1 Sam. 15:22 by author and ChatGPT

Listen to the whispers in the Hebrew Bible, to the shouts in the New Testament

The challenge

Change is hard for individuals, especially baked-in beliefs and traditions we have followed our entire lives … beliefs our pastors, rabbis, politicians, neighbors, grandparents, and ancestors obeyed. Major societal changes require a war, a famine, a plague, or a metaphorical earthquake of some kind to make them happen.

Moses certainly wasn’t the first lawgiver. The museums of Europe display stelae (standing stones with engraved writing) with law codes that predate Moses. The introduction to the law code of Hammurabi claims that the gods chose him as king to keep the strong from oppressing the weak. Moses drew from those early traditions when he wrote his own. The most famous example is the concept of an eye for an eye. The idea was to match the punishment to the crime to forestall the kind of escalation that leads to generational feuds or even war.

In the Torah (the first five books of the Old Testament), there are said to be 613 laws. Some are still followed by the devout even today, but many would require a priesthood, a temple, and a very large basin for the letting of blood. Animal sacrifice with today’s population would be a smelly, insect-ridden affair that would make the priests gag on their own butchery. However, once the tradition became the written Word of God through Moses, it was almost impossible to convince the people of Israel that the genuine target of God’s heart was elsewhere.

The apostle Paul called such rules “basic principles” (NKJV) or “elemental forces of this world” (NIV) in Colossians 2:20-22,

²⁰ Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations— ²¹ “Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle,” ²² which all concern things which perish with the using—according to the commandments and doctrines of men?

I like the NIV translation for 2:20 because the word “elemental” reminds me of elementary school, which we attend when we are children. But at some point, we are expected to graduate to higher learning and understanding.

Jesus refuted the belief that eating or touching the wrong thing can make one “unclean.” Mark 7:14-22,

¹⁴ When He had called all the multitude to Himself, He said to them, “Hear Me, everyone, and understand: ¹⁵ There is nothing that enters a man from outside which can defile him; but the things which come out of him, those are the things that defile a man. ¹⁶ If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear!”

¹⁷ When He had entered a house away from the crowd, His disciples asked Him concerning the parable. ¹⁸ So He said to them, “Are you thus without understanding also? Do you not perceive that whatever enters a man from outside cannot defile him, ¹⁹ because it does not enter his heart but his stomach, and is eliminated, thus purifying all foods?” ²⁰ And He said, “What comes out of a man, that defiles a man. ²¹ For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, ²² thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. ²³ All these evil things come from within and defile a man.” 

The Davidic perspective

The prophet Samuel was one of the first to express the priority of obedience over animal sacrifice, the very core of the Law of Moses. 1 Sam. 15:22,

So Samuel said:

Has 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 heed than the fat of rams. 

King David understood. In a prophetic, Messianic hymn, he expressed the concept that Israel’s God didn’t really require sacrifice, especially in light of continuous sins among the leadership and community. Psalm 40:6-8,

⁶ Sacrifice and offering You did not desire;
My ears You have opened.
Burnt offering and sin offering You did not require.

⁷ Then I said, “Behold, I come;
In the scroll of the book it is written of me.
⁸ I delight to do Your will, O my God,
And Your law is within my heart.”

 And again in Psalm 51:16-19,

¹⁶ For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it;
You do not delight in burnt offering.

¹⁷The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit,
A broken and a contrite heart—
These, O God, You will not despise.

¹⁸ Do good in Your good pleasure to Zion;
Build the walls of Jerusalem.
¹⁹ Then You shall be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness,
With burnt offering and whole burnt offering;
Then they shall offer bulls on Your altar.

Psalm 69:30-33,

³⁰ I will praise the name of God with a song,
And will magnify Him with thanksgiving.

³¹ This also shall please the Lord better than an ox or bull,
Which has horns and hooves.
³² The humble shall see this and be glad;
And you who seek God, your hearts shall live.
³³ For the Lord hears the poor,
And does not despise His prisoners.

Understand, David had many enemies, and the sentiments above, which were sung before the ark of the covenant, pitched at that time in a tent in the center of Jerusalem (the Temple had not yet been built), would have caused a howl of rejection among the more conservative priests. Sacrificial rules are finite and easy to understand. Everyone does it, from the poorest to the wealthiest. It establishes order in society and assures the priests that their place, their stature, and their influence will never be questioned.

David’s songs propose a subjective relationship with an invisible deity, making it seem as if Moses’s commandments were oriented around human thinking and not spiritual reality. The worshipper might well ask, did Moses miss the heart of God in writing his law code? Some of the priests and Levites would consider King David a dangerous heretic worthy of stoning.

The prophetic perspective

But David had a spiritual court of priests, scribes, and prophets that agreed with him. The prophets also had a lot to say about animal sacrifice. Listen to Isaiah in 1:10-17,

¹⁰ Hear the word of the Lord,
You rulers of Sodom;
Give ear to the law of our God,
You people of Gomorrah:

¹¹ “To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to Me?”
Says the Lord.
“I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams
And the fat of fed cattle.
I do not delight in the blood of bulls,
Or of lambs or goats.

¹² “When you come to appear before Me,
Who has required this from your hand,
To trample My courts?
¹³ Bring no more futile sacrifices;
Incense is an abomination to Me.
The New Moons, the Sabbaths, and the calling of assemblies—
I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting.
¹⁴ Your New Moons and your appointed feasts
My soul hates;
They are a trouble to Me,
I am weary of bearing them.
¹⁵ When you spread out your hands,
I will hide My eyes from you;
Even though you make many prayers,
I will not hear.
Your hands are full of blood.

¹⁶ “Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean;
Put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes.
Cease to do evil,
¹⁷ Learn to do good;
Seek justice,
Rebuke the oppressor;
Defend the fatherless,
Plead for the widow. 

Jeremiah was as radical as King David. In 3:14-20 he predicted that the ark of the covenant, the centerpiece of the animal sacrifice system, would disappear, would not be found, would not be remade, and would not be missed. This would be a future application of faith that would include the Gentile nations. God’s shepherds would not inherit their appointments, but would be chosen for their spiritual qualities. This will be a time of relationship rather than rules. God wants to be called Father.

If that didn’t get the attention of the priests, how about Jer. 7:22, 23? The NIV reads,

²² For when I brought your ancestors out of Egypt and spoke to them, I did not just give them commands about burnt offerings and sacrifices, ²³ but I gave them this command: Obey me, and I will be your God and you will be my people. Walk in obedience to all I command you, that it may go well with you.

Notice the word “just.” In other translations like the NKJV and the Hebrew itself, the word is not in the text. It seems to aver that God did not speak to the Hebrews in the wilderness about animal sacrifice, but about obedience. So far in Jeremiah’s young life, it’s no surprise that conspirators threw him into a pit.

But wait, there’s more! In chapter 31:29-33, Jeremiah predicts that God will abrogate the communal wilderness covenant and will replace it with something deeply sincere, spiritual, individual, and relational.

29 In those days they shall say no more:
‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes,
And the children’s teeth are set on edge.’
30 But every one shall die for his own iniquity; every man who eats the sour grapes, his teeth shall be set on edge.

31 “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah— 32 not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord. 33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.

This all sounds exalted and nice when you’re just reading it, but the conservative personality would respond that it’s all too amorphous. Conservatives need clear boundaries. Finite rules are comforting, but God was calling for something that cannot be measured except by Him alone.

As radical as Jeremiah sounds, he had prophetic backup. Amos 5:21-27,

            ²¹ “I hate, I despise your feast days,

And I do not savor your sacred assemblies.
²² Though you offer Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings,
I will not accept them,
Nor will I regard your fattened peace offerings.
²³ Take away from Me the noise of your songs,
For I will not hear the melody of your stringed instruments.
²⁴ But let justice run down like water,
And righteousness like a mighty stream.

²⁵ “Did you offer Me sacrifices and offerings
In the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel?
²⁶ You also carried Sikkuth your king
And Chiun, your idols,
The star of your gods,
Which you made for yourselves.
²⁷ Therefore I will send you into captivity beyond Damascus,”
Says the Lord, whose name is the God of hosts.

Is Amos accusing the Israelites of worshiping other gods while in the wilderness? While Moses was still alive? There’s more that could be pulled from that verse, but that may be for another post.

Let’s turn to Micah, who was excoriating both Northern Israel and Judah for corruption and oppression of the poor. Micah 6:6-8,

6 With what shall I come before the Lord,
And bow myself before the High God?
Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings,
With calves a year old?

⁷ Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
Ten thousand rivers of oil?
Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,
The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?

⁸ He has shown you, O man, what is good;
And what does the Lord require of you
But to do justly,
To love mercy,
And to walk humbly with your God?

Wrapping up

These negative prophetic declarations, which were proclaiming God’s judgment for grievous sins, make the Israelites seem like corrupt rebels given over to licentious living. That is far from true. Scattered amongst the above rebukes are many promises of restoration and assurances of love. The sons of Jacob were no different than any group living on the planet, Jew or Gentile, black or white, male or female. The kind of purity that God called for in the Hebrew Bible is exactly what Jesus affirmed when He was on Earth hundreds of years later.

It’s OK to have different theological perspectives. It’s not OK for religion and dogma to cause us to hate and abuse one another. Jesus never gave the church permission to legalize our faith to the point where we become cruel and self-righteous. No matter what dogma or denomination we ascribe to, without compassion for those who are disadvantaged or poor, our religion stinks, and Jesus will spit it out of his mouth.

One of the most consistent segments of the many near-death experiences posted on the internet is the revelation that our purpose is to learn to love. Love entails listening and forgiving. That’s the message behind the parable of the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25. What we do to others, we do to God, who created us all in his image.

So, what is the crown jewel of religion, the diamond amid all our layers of religion? Jesus revealed it in Matthew 22:37-40, referencing Leviticus 19:18,

³⁷ Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ ³⁸ This is the first and great commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ ⁴⁰ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

That is the ultimate message, the one so simple, we often miss it.

All Bible passages are pasted from biblegateway.com, New King James Version.

Check out my website, www.janetksmithpersonal.com, where you can read for free The Legacy: A Memoir of Personal Guidance and Korean War Sabotage.