Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 1:11
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.
11. sacrifices ] the general term for animal sacrifices; burnt-offerings, those entirely consumed on the altar; of the more ordinary kinds the deity received the fat and the blood.
I am full of] am sated with. The idea of sacrifice as the food of the gods seems to belong to the original conception of the rite, and lingered long in the popular consciousness even of Israel (Psa 50:13). See Robertson Smith, Religion of the Semites, p. 224 (Revised Ed.).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
To what purpose – lamah ly. What is it to me; or what profit or pleasure can I have in them? God here replies to an objection which might be urged by the Jews to the representation which had been made of their guilt. The objection would be, that they were strict in the duties of their religion, and that they even abounded in offering victims of sacrifice. God replies in this and the following verses, that all this would be of no use, and would meet with no acceptance, unless it were the offering of the heart. He demanded righteousness; and without that, all external offerings would be vain. The same sentiment often occurs in the Old Testament.
Hath Jehovah 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.
1Sa 15:22.
To what purpose shall frankincense be brought unto me from Sabah?
Or the rich aromatic reed from a far country?
Your burnt-offerings are not acceptable,
Nor your sacrifices pleasant unto me.
Jer 6:20. Blaney.
For I desired mercy and not sacrifice;
And the knowledge of God more than burnt-offerings.
Hos 6:6.
I hate, I despise your solemn feast days,
And I will not smell in your solemn assemblies;
Though ye offer me your burnt-offerings,
And your meat-offerings
I will not accept them;
Neither will I regard the thank-offerings of your fat beasts.
Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs;
For I will not hear the melody of thy viols.
But let judgment run down as waters,
And righteousness as a mighty stream.
Amo 5:21-24.
Is the multitude – There was no deficiency in the amount of offerings. It was admitted that they complied in this respect with the requirements of the law; and that they offered an abundance of sacrifices, so numerous as to be called a multitude – rob, a vast number. Hypocrites abound in outward religious observances just in proportion to their neglect of the spiritual requirements of Gods word; compare Mat 23:23.
Your sacrifices – zibecheykeb, from zabach, to slay; especially to slay for sacrifice. The word used here denotes any sacrifice which was made by blood; but is distinguished from the burnt-offering from the fat, that this was not entirely consumed. It is applied to the sin-offering, trespass-offering, thank-offering. The word also stands opposed to the offerings which were made without blood minchah. Any offering that consisted in an animal that was slain came under this general denomination of sacrifice, Exo 10:25; Lev 17:8; Num 15:5.
burnt-offerings – ‘oloth, from alah, to go up, ascend. It is applied to a sacrifice that was wholly consumed, or made to ascend on an altar. It corresponds to the Greek holokauston, that which is entirely consumed. Such offerings abounded among the Hebrews. The burnt-offering was wholly consumed on the altar, excepting the skin and the blood. The blood was sprinkled round the altar, and the other parts of the animal which was slain, were laid upon the altar and entirely burned; see Lev. 1. This was commonly a voluntary offering; and this shows their zeal to comply with the external forms of religion.
I am full – s’abaety, I am satiated. The word is usually applied to food and drink, denoting satisfaction, or satiety. It is used here with great force, denoting that their offerings had been so numerous and so incessant, that God was satiated with them. It means that he was weary, tired, disgusted with them. Thus, in Job 7:4 : I am full – s’abaety – of tossings to and fro unto the dawning of the day. Pro 25:17 :
Withdraw thy foot from thy neighbors house,
Lest he be weary (Hebrew full) of thee, and hate thee.
Fat … – They were required to offer, not the lame, or the diseased Deu 15:21; Deu 17:1; Lev 23:12; Mal 1:7-8; and God admits here that they had externally complied with this requirement. The fat was burned on the altar.
I delight not – That is; I delight; not in them when offered without the heart; or I delight not in them in comparison with works of righteousness; see Amo 5:21-24; Ps. 4:9-13; Psa 51:16-19.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Isa 1:11-15
To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto Me?
saith the Lord
Hypocrisy and partiality in religion
These words are not to be understood absolutely but comparatively, and with respect to the manners of these men. For–
I. GOD COULD NOT ABSOLUTELY REJECT SACRIFICES, because they were of His own appointing, as we are abundantly certified in the Books of Exodus and Leviticus. And they were instituted for very good put poses.
1. As federal rites between God and His people, that by eating of what was offered upon His altar they might profess their union and communion with Him, that they were of His family, He their Father, and they His children. And this is what made idolatry so odious to Him, and for which He declares Himself a jealous God, that when they sacrificed to idols they made the same acknowledgments to them.
2. Sacrifices were instituted to expiate sins of ignorance and trespasses of an inferior nature. It is true, St. Paul in his Epistle to the Hebrews affirms, that it was impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should purify the conscience, so as to wash away the guilt of sin, which only can be atoned for by the Lamb of God, slain from the foundation of the world. But yet they availed to the purifying of the flesh, and were accepted of God in lieu of temporal punishments.
3. Sacrifices were designed to teach men that without shedding of blood there could be no remission of sins. They were hereby led to consider that infinite justice properly required the life of the offender, but that infinite mercy accepted of a vicarious life.
4. Peace offerings, or sacrifices of gratitude were offered to God in hope of obtaining some favour, or as a thanksgiving for having received some signal mercy from Him.
5. Sacrifices were instituted for types and representatives of that final sacrifice of the Son of God in whom they all centred and were consummated. (Psa 40:6; Heb 10:5-6) He taketh away the first, that He may establish the second, i.e., the sacrifice of Himself; and consequently Paul calls the law our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, and Christ the end of the law, because it was ended in Him and by Him. In this sense it is that our Lord affirms that He came not to destroy the law and the prophets, but to fulfil them. He fulfilled the moral law by His perfect holiness and virtue, and the law of sacrifices by His death and passion. From all this I infer that God does not reject sacrifices as such, and therefore we must conclude that–
II. HIS AVERSION TO THEM WAS OCCASIONED BY THE ILL MANNERS OF THOSE THAT OFFERED THEM, who had no concern to accomplish the good ends which were intended by them, nor considered that by these sacraments they laid themselves under renewed obligations to be sensible of their own demerits, to repent and reform whatever they found amiss in their lives, and to abound in the love of God, and the fruits of His Holy Spirit. It appears from the characters of these men, especially in their latter and worst times, that they satisfied themselves with the opus operatum, the external duties of religion, and had no regard to the renovation of their hearts and minds. (W. Reading, M. A.)
Religiousness
The common mans commonest refuge from conscience. (Prof. G. A. Smith, D. D.)
Sin offensive to God
1. The Scripture for our understanding ascribes senses to God, and here we find every sense displeased with their sins.
(1) They were offensive to His tasting; for their burnt offerings of rams, with the fat of lambs, etc., He could not relish–they delighted Him not, they were sour to His palate.
(2) They were offensive to His smelling; for He tells them that their incense was an abomination unto Him–that precious perfume, which was made with so many sweet spices and pure frankincense (Exo 30:34-35), did stink in His nostrils, the scent thereof He could not abide.
(3) They were offensive to His feeling; for their new moons and appointed feasts were a burden unto Him, He was a weary to bear them. And though He be not weary of bearing the whole world, yet He is aweary of this burden; so heavy is it to His sense, that He complains He is pressed under it, as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves (Amo 2:13).
(4) They were offensive to His seeing; and therefore He tells them, though they spread forth their hands, He will hide His eyes. His pure eyes cannot behold evil, nor endure to look upon iniquity, and therefore He must turn away His face from them.
(5) They were offensive to His hearing; for when they make many prayers He will not hear. Their prayers were as jarring in His ears as if divers distracted musicians should play upon divers bad instruments so many several tunes at one time.
2. Neither were their sins only displeasing to His senses, but also grievous to His mind, and therefore He tells them, their new moons and appointed feasts His soul did hate; which is an emphatical speech, and an argument of Gods hearty detestation. (N. Rogers.)
Dissembled piety
Dissembled piety is double iniquity. (M. Henry.)
Moral whitewash
God is not mocked, and even man is not long imposed upon by a vain show of devotion. We once heard Father Taylor, a noted preacher to sailors in America, pray that men who thought themselves good, and were not, might be undeceived; and he cried, Lord, take off the whitewash! (D. Fraser, D. D.)
Religious hypocrisy: Dukes Orleans and Burgundy
On the 20 th of November 1407, the two cousins heard mass, and partook of the holy sacrament together at the church of the Augustins. Never was there a blacker instance of sacrilegious hypocrisy. At the very moment when he thus profaned the most solemn rite of Christianity, Jean sans Peur had deliberately doomed his enemy to a bloody and violent death. (Students France.)
Formal religion
Dickens describes how in Genoa he once witnessed a great fiesta on the hill behind the house, when the people alternately danced under tents in the open air and rushed to say a prayer or two in an adjoining church bright with red and gold and blue and sliver: so many minutes of dancing and of praying in regular turns of each. (H. O.Mackey.)
Inconsistency
Writing of Lorenzo de Medici, Mr. Howells says: After giving his whole mind and soul to the destruction of the last remnant of liberty, after pronouncing some fresh sentence of ruin or death, he entered the Platonic Academy, and ardently discussed virtue and the immortality of the soul; then sallying forth to mingle with the dissolute youth of the city, he sang his carnival songs, and abandoned himself to debauchery; returning home with Pulci and Politian, he recited verses and talked of poetry; and to each of these occupations he gave himself up as wholly as if it were the sole occupation of his life. (H. O. Mackey.)
Holiness becometh Thine house
When Ruskin was making explorations about Venice, in the Church of St. James, he discovered, engraved on a stone, these words, Around the temple let the merchants weights be true, his measures just, and his contracts without guile. (Sunday School Chronicle.)
The Paris Figaro mentions that a curious discovery was made recently when the famous robber gang of Papakoritzopoulo was broken up. In the pocket of this most notorious of European brigands was found a small Bible, neatly bound and wrapped in a clean, silk handkerchief, a prayer book, holy relics in tiny boxes, a cross, and other religious objects.
Inconsistency
The son of Sirach asks of him that washeth himself after the touching of a dead body, and then touches it again, what availeth his washing? So is it with a man that fasteth for his sins, and goeth again, and doeth the same: who will hear his prayer? or what doth his humbling profit him? (F. Jacox, B. A.)
Audacious hypocrisy
When Pope Hadrian II consented at last to admit Lothair to the holy communion he warned him, But if thou thinkest in thine heart to return to wallow in lust, beware of receiving this sacrament, lest thou provoke the terrible judgment of God. And the king shuddered, but did not draw back. (F. Jacox, B. A.)
Detestable worship
Dr. South says of him who, by hypothesis, comes to church with an ill intention, that he comes to Gods house upon the devils errand, and the whole act is thereby rendered evil and detestable before God. The prayers of a wicked man are by Jeremy Taylor likened to the breath of corrupted lungs: God turns away from such unwholesome breathings. (F. Jacox, B. A.)
Smuggler and preacher too
The letters of Robert Louis Stevenson tell an astonishing story of smuggling in the Shetlands. The revenue official had great trouble with a man known as Preaching Peter, who, whenever he returned with his spoils, sent round handbills to announce his coming, and went about the country preaching. After he had much prayed and much preached, he gave the benediction, and this was the signal for all who knew him to crowd round. How many gallons shall I give you? How many do you want? Such was the conversation; and so he sold his smuggled spirits and improved the peoples souls while he filled his own purse. Worship and wickedness:–A famous brigand in Sicily was constantly robbing and sometimes murdering. But he would never go forth on his expeditions without first kneeling at a little shrine in his cave, where he kept an image of the Virgin. (Christian Commonwealth.)
Pew holding
Emerson, in an essay, refers to what is called religion, but is, perhaps, pew holding.
A red-handed religionist
There is no name in Scottish history round which darker or grimmer or bloodier associations gather than the name of John Graham of Claverhouse. He hunted and harried the men of the Covenant. He shot some of them with his own hand. He brought misery and weeping, widowhood and orphanhood, to many a lowly and godly home. Yet he was scrupulous in the observance of all religious ordinances. Let me beware of this double life. (A. Smellie, M. A.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 11. To what purpose, c. – “What have I to do.”] The prophet Amos has expressed the same sentiments with great elegance: –
“I hate, I despise your feasts
And I will not delight in the odour of your
solemnities:
Though ye offer unto me burnt-offerings
And your meat-offerings, I will not accept:
Neither will I regard the peace-offerings of
your fatlings.
Take away from me the noise of your songs;
And the melody of your viols I will not hear.
But let judgment roll down like waters;
And righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Am 5:21-24.
So has Persius; see Sat. ii. v. 71-75: –
“Quin damus id Superis, de magna quod dare lanae,” c.
The two or three last pages of Plato’s Euthyphro contain the same idea. Sacrifices and prayers are not profitable to the offerer, nor acceptable to the gods, unless accompanied with an upright life.
Ver. 11. The fat of fed beasts, &c.] The fat and the blood are particularly mentioned, because these were in all sacrifices set apart to God. The fat was always burnt upon the altar, and the blood was partly sprinkled, differently on different occasions, and partly poured out at the bottom of the altar. See Le 4:5-7; Le 4:16-18; Le 4:25; Le 4:30; Le 4:34.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
To what purpose? they are vain and useless, being neither accepted by me, nor beneficial to you.
Unto me, who am a Spirit, and therefore cannot be satisfied with such carnal oblations, but expect to be worshipped in spirit and truth, and to have your hearts and lives, as well as, your bodies and sacrifices, presented unto me.
I am full of the burnt-offerings; I am glutted with them, and therefore loathe them.
The blood; he mentions the fat and blood, because these were in a peculiar manner reserved for God, Lev 3:15,16; 17:11, to intimate that even the best of their sacrifices were rejected by him.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
11. God does not here absolutelydisparage sacrifice, which is as old and universal as sin (Gen 3:21;Gen 4:4), and sin is almost as oldas the world; but sacrifice, unaccompanied with obedience of heartand life (1Sa 15:22; Psa 50:9-13;Psa 51:16-19; Hos 6:6).Positive precepts are only means; moral obedience isthe end. A foreshadowing of the gospel, when the One real sacrificewas to supersede all the shadowy ones, and “bring in everlastingrighteousness” (Psa 40:6;Psa 40:7; Dan 9:24-27;Heb 10:1-14).
fullto satiety; wearyof
burnt offeringsburntwhole, except the blood, which was sprinkled about the altar.
fatnot to be eaten byman, but burnt on the altar (Lev 3:4;Lev 3:5; Lev 3:11;Lev 3:17).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
To what purpose [is] the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord,…. These people, though they neglected the weightier matters of the law, and the more substantial duties of religion, as did the Scribes and Pharisees in Christ’s time,
Mt 23:23 yet were very diligent in the observance of the ceremonial law, and repeated their sacrifices almost without number, on which they placed all their trust and dependence; wherefore, to take off their confidence in these things, the Lord observes to them the unprofitableness of them; they could be of no avail to them, for they could not expiate their sins, or atone for them; and they could not be profitable to God, for he had no need of them; see Ps 50:10.
I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; to the loathing of them, and therefore would no more eat their flesh, and drink their blood, or accept of them in sacrifice,
Ps 50:13 “rams” were used for burnt offerings, Ex 29:18 Le 1:10 and the fat of any creature offered in sacrifice was burnt, and forbidden to be eaten by men, Le 1:8 Le 1:15
and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats: as he did in moral services, in acts of beneficence and mercy, and in sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving, 1Sa 15:22 Ho 6:6 much less did he delight in the sacrifices of these creatures, as offered by such wicked hands and without faith in the blood and sacrifice of Christ; and still less when these were superseded and abrogated by Christ; for this prophecy belongs to the times of the apostles, as appears from Isa 1:9 see Ps 40:6. The several creatures mentioned were used in sacrifice, and their blood was sprinkled round about the altar, Le 3:2 and before the vail, Le 4:6.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
11. To what purpose is he multitude of your sacrifices to me ? Isaiah now introduces God as speaking, for the purpose of making known his own meaning; for it belongs to a lawgiver not only to issue commands, but likewise to give a sound interpretation to the laws, that they may not be abused. Beyond all doubt, the former reproof was exceedingly unpalatable and oppressive to them; for what language expressive of stronger disapprobation or abhorrence could have been employed? They gloried in the name of Abraham, boasted that they were his children, and on this ground maintained a haughty demeanor. This is the reason why the Prophet arms himself with the authority of God against them; as if he had said, “Know that it is not with me but with God that you have to do.”
Next he explains the intention and design of God in demanding sacrifices; that he does so, not because he sets a high value on them, but in order that they may be aids to piety; and, consequently, that the Jews were greatly mistaken who made all their holiness to consist of those services. For they thought that they had performed their duty admirably well when they offered sacrifices of slain beasts; and when the prophets demanded something beyond this, they complained that they were treated harshly. Now the Lord says that he rejects and abhors them, which may appear to be excessive severity, for it was by him that they were appointed. But it ought to be observed that some of the commandments of God ought to be obeyed on their own account, while others of them have a remoter object. For instance, the law enjoins us to serve and worship God, and next enjoins us to do good to our neighbors. (Deu 6:5; Lev 19:18.) These things are in themselves acceptable to God, and are demanded on their own account. The case is different with ceremonies; for they are performances which are not demanded on their own account, but for a different reason. The same thing may be said of fasting;
For the kingdom of God does not consist in meat and drink; (Rom 14:17😉
and therefore fasting is directed to another object.
It follows, therefore, that ceremonies were not appointed in such a manner as if they were a satisfaction by which he should be appeased, but in order that by means of them the nation might be trained to godliness, and might make greater and greater progress in faith and in the pure worship of God. But hypocrites observe them with the most scrupulous care, as if the whole of religion turned on this point, and think that they are the most devout of all men, when they have long and anxiously wearied themselves in observing them. And that they may be thought more devout, they likewise add something of their own, and daily contrive new inventions, and most wickedly abuse the holy ordinances of God, by not keeping in view their true object. All their ceremonies, therefore, are nothing else than corruptions of the worship of God. For when their whole attention is given to the outward and naked performance, in what respect do their sacrifices differ from the sacrifices of the Gentiles, which, we know, were full of sacrilege, because they had no regard to a lawful end?
This is the reason why the Lord rejects those ceremonies, though they had been appointed by his authority, because the nation did not consider the object and purpose for which they were enjoined. The unceasing contest between the prophets and the nation was to tear off these masks, and to show that the Lord is not satisfied with merely outward worship, and cannot be appeased by ceremonies. In all places godly ministers have experience of the same kind of conflicts; for men always form their estimate of God from themselves, and think that he is satisfied with outward display, but cannot without the greatest difficulty be brought to offer to him the integrity of their heart.
All the perplexity of this passage will be easily removed by Jeremiah, who says,
When I redeemed your fathers out of Egypt, I did not order them to offer sacrifices to me; I only enjoined them to hear me and to keep my commandments. (Jer 7:22.)
For he shows that the observance of ceremonies depends wholly on the word, and that it is as idle and unprofitable to separate there from the word as it would be for the soul to be parted from the body. To this also belongs the argument in Psa 50:13, —
Will I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats? Offer to God thanksgiving, and pay thy vows to the Most High.
And in another passage the same Jeremiah says,
“
Trust not in words of falsehood, saying, The temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD are we. But rather excel in doing good, etc.” (Jer 7:4.)
The Prophet Micah likewise says, “Doth the LORD take pleasure in thousands of rams, or in ten thousand rivers of oil?” Immediately afterwards he adds,
“
I will show thee, O man, what is good, and what the LORD requireth from thee, namely, to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God.” (Mic 6:7.)
From these passages it is evident that the reason why ceremonies are condemned is, that they are separated from the word as from their soul. Hence we see how great is the blindness of men, who cannot be convinced that all the pains they take to worship God are of no advantage unless they flow from integrity of heart. Nor is this vice confined to the common people, but is found in almost all men; and in those who in their opinion excel all others. Hence springs the notion of the efficacy which belongs to the mere performance of the outward act — or, as they call it, the opus operatum — which Popish doctors have contrived, and which at the present day keeps a firm hold of the minds of many. Now here it is not man but God himself who speaks, and who pronounces, by an unchangeable decree, that all that men do is in vain offered for his acceptance, is empty and unprofitable, unless they call upon him with true faith.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
REJECTED SACRIFICES
Isa. 1:11. To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord.
Try to conceive what emotions would spring up in the breasts of the men to whom these words were first addressedmen who with most scrupulous care had fulfilled the requirements of a costly ceremonial worship, the respectable, the orthodox of their day. With what indignation they would rebuke the prophet, and how triumphantly they would remind him that all the sacrifices which they offered, and all the ceremonies they observed, were of divine appointment! And, doubtless, to their rebuke they would add a protestation that they had had a sincere delight in the services, which, they would not doubt, had come up as a sweet-smelling savour before the Lord. Both these allegations they might have made with truth, but the prophet would have dismissed them as irrelevant. What he denounced was not sacrifices, but certain sacrifices offered by particular individuals whose wickedness disqualified them for taking part in divine worship. To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices, &c.
But why should the wickedness of the worshippers cause the rejection of the worship, seeing that it is of divine appointment? Because
1. Sacrifices are in themselves worthless to God. He does not need, nor is He enriched by our offerings (Psa. 50:7-13).
2. Sacrifices were instituted merely to be expressions of and helps to human piety, and are worthless when there is no piety to be expressed or fostered by them. Outward worship is to religion just what a bank-note is to commerce; it is valuable only in so far as it is really representative of something beyond itself. The worship which does not really represent penitence, faith, and love in the worshipper is a falsehood, and is necessarily repulsive to the God of truth, and to the offerer of it is a deadly hurt. As the sunlight which develops life only hastens the putrefaction of the dead, so the very services which help to sanctify and ennoble the saintly may more completely disqualify the insincere for heaven.
3. Piety towards God is proved, not by costly sacrifices and stately ceremonies, even though pungent emotions are experienced by those who offer and take part in them, but by its pervasive influence on the character and the life. In family life love is proved by obedience; and to our Heavenly Father the protestations of reverence and love which are offered by men who live in disregard and defiance of His requirements are naturally and necessarily repulsive (1Sa. 15:22-23). No elaborateness or costliness of ceremonial worship can atone for the absence of godliness in the lives of the worshippers; sacrifices are no equivalents for sanctification; and by the love of sin in the soul of the pretended worshipper even a divinely-appointed ritual is rendered abhorrent to God.
Judaism and its ritual are now things of the past, but men still need to be reminded of the facts now pointed out. The men of our day, after committing during the week all the sins denounced in the prophecies of Isaiah, assemble in the sanctuary on the Sunday, and, because they enjoy its services, they imagine that they are well-pleasing to God, and will bring down His blessing on themselves. To-day, as of old, men need to be told plainly that public worship may be an abomination to God, and that, instead of making those who join in it more sure of heaven, it may, by confirming them in their self-delusion, make their eternal damnation more certain.
There is another side to all this. While the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, the prayer of the upright is His delight (Psa. 147:11; Psa. 50:23). Concerning the true worshippers, who worship the Father in spirit and in truth, it is declared that the Father seeketh such to worship Him. How wonderful, how astonishing is that! That GOD, whom angels, archangels, and all the shining hosts of heaven adore, should not merely condescend to accept the worship of men upon earth, but that He should seek such worship! Think much of that surprising and comforting assurance. It used to seem to me almost too wonderful to be true, but I believe and understand it now. I am helped to understand it almost every day; for almost every day my little girl steals away from her nursemaid. I hear her climbing laboriously up the stairs; it is an immense journey for her little legs; and then presently she knocks at my door, and calls me by my name. I am often busy when she comes; she interrupts me when it is not pleasant to be interrupted; but, notwithstanding, I rejoice that there is so much love for me in her heart that she thinks it worth while to climb up so far, just to see me for a moment and then be sent down again. So the marvellous seeketh is explained by the word that comes before it! The FATHER seeketh such to worship Him! When His children come, and knock at His door, and call, Abba, Father! He listens with a joy that only a father can understand.
His saints are precious in His sight;
He views His children with delight;
He sees their hope, He knows their fear,
And looks, and loves His image there.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
TRUE AND FALSE RELIGION
Isa. 1:11; Isa. 1:16-17. 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. Wash you, make you clear; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.
What was the business of the ancient prophet? Not merely to predict events. His chief work was to make men realise vividly the presence of God. Religions, in order to their permanence, require system. But religious systems, with their creeds, forms, and ceremonies, have an inevitable tendency to coldness and deadness. The prophet was sent to counteract this tendency. It was his mission to restore to great words their great meanings, to cause moral principles to reassert themselves as the lords of conscience and of willin a word, to prophesy on the dry bones of a decaying religion until there came upon them flesh and sinew, and there passed into them the breath of spiritual life. Such a mission was that of Isaiah. In his time religion was in a state of petrifaction, nay, rather of putrefaction. From this fact his prophetic message takes its keynote. It begins with an invective that reminds us of John the Baptist.
What was the condition of things that provoked his indignation? Not a lack of religious observances; there was a redundancy of them. That which caused a righteous anger to burn within him vehemently was their perversion of the sacrificial system in which they gloried, their dissociation of it from the moral law, to which God intended it to be only a supplement. It was given to teach men the hatefulness and the terrible consequences of sin, and the duty of consecration to God; but they separated it from the moral law, and allowed all its spiritual meaning to drop out of it. Instead of using it as a help to morality, they were making it the substitute for morality. Coming up red-handed from their murders, and reeking with their foul vices, they stood up before God, claiming His favour; for were they not sacrificing to Him, yea, in accordance with the regulations Himself had given? No wonder that a man with veracity in him and a love of righteousness should pour out upon such men and such offerings the whole wrath of his nature.
From this exposition take the following practical lessons
1. All forms of religion have a tendency to lose their original purity and freshness. As a stream, clear at its fountain-head, but turbid before it reaches the sea; as our planet, which physicists say was flung off at first from the sun a glowing mass of light and heat, has been cooling down ever since; so is it with religions and churches. As a rule, their history has been one of gathering accretions and of diminishing purity and power in proportion to their distance from their fountain-head. So was it with Judaism. So has it been with Christianity. Contrast Christianity as we have it in St. Pauls epistles, all aglow with fervour and love, and that of the time of Leo X., with its professed head and most of his court professed infidels, and the officials of the Church selling indulgences to sin for money! Luther lit the fire again; but Protestantism has had its illustrations of the same law. Witness the state of things in this country in the last century. In view of this fact let the Church pray for prophetic spirits who shall in each generation rekindle the dying fires; and, apart from the influence of specially-gifted men, let each Church betake itself continually to the Fountain-head of spiritual life.
2. False religiousness is worse than none at all. Isaiah says, not simply that such observances are of no avail with God, but that they are abominations to Him. We can see the reason. Such a religion as that which Isaiah denounced works harm to the individual and to the cause of godliness generally; to the individual, by inspiring him with a vain confidence; to the cause of godliness, by furnishing points for the shafts of ridicule, by which faith is killed in many hearts. It would be difficult to say who are the greatest promoters of infidelityprofessed atheists or hypocritical religionists.
3. It is a perilous thing to overlook the connection between impression and practice in religion. In Isa. 1:16-17, the prophet shows us what the true nexus between them is. Your ceremonies and observances will do you no good unless you practise the morality, the judgment, mercy, and love to which they point. Our power of receiving impressions is under a directly opposite law from our power of practice. The former steadily decreases by exercise, the latter as steadily increases. This is so in religion, as well as in other things. The impression produced upon the Jews by the sacrifices would decrease as they were repeated, unless by them they were led to practical righteousness, and their whole system would in time become utterly powerless as a moral incentive; just as, if a man is for a few mornings wilfully deaf to an alarum in his bedroom, it presently loses its power even to waken him. The same law will operate with us. The preaching of the gospel is intended to produce impression, and that again to lead to practice. If the latter does not follow at once, the chances are all against its ever following, because the impressions will become feebler with each repetition. A fact this for all hearers to ponder.
4. Religious observances and machinery of all kinds have their end in the development of character. This was so in Isaiahs time. It is so now. If their religious observances were not leading them to cease to do evil, and to learn to do well, but were hindering them from doing so, it were better for them to give them up. So our creeds, organisations, ministers, &c., are of use only as related to character. They are the scaffolding, character is the building; they are the tools, that the work. If no building is going on, this parade of scaffolding is an imposture, and had better be swept away.J. Brierley, B.A.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(11) To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices? . . .Isaiah carries on the great catena of prophetic utterances as to the conditions of acceptable worship (1Sa. 15:22; Psa. 40:6; Psa. 50:7-14; Psa. 51:16-17). In Hos. 6:6; Amo. 5:21-24; Mic. 6:6-8 we have the utterances of contemporary prophets, who may have exercised a direct influence on his teaching. The description points primarily, perhaps, to the reign of Uzziah, but may include that of Hezekiah. The account of the sacrifices agrees with 2Ch. 29:21-29.
Saith the Lord . . .Here, as in Isa. 1:18; Isa. 33:10; Isa. 41:21; Isa. 66:9, the prophet uses the future instead of the familiar past tense. This is what Jehovah will say, once and for ever.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Isa 1:11. To what purpose, &c. This is a strong remonstrance against the hypocritical services of the Jews; very plainly declaring to them, that all external services, administered with a bad heart, so far from pleasing, are detestable to God. See Pro 21:27. To whom, says Bishop Warburton, are these words addressed? to those who, besides their numerous irregularities, here reckoned up at large, delighted in groves and high places; for the denunciation is thus continued, They shall be ashamed of the oaks, &c. Isa 1:29. This shews that the Jews, notwithstanding their depravity, did not renounce their God when they descended to idolatry; but that their worst idolatry consisted in their mixing foreign worship with their own, or in worshipping the true God and idols together. God in these verses reproves the Jews respecting their sacrifices, their mere appearance before him, Isa 1:12 their gifts and incense, Isa 1:13 their fears and solemnities, Isa 1:13-14 and their prayers, Isa 1:15. And in the 16th and 17th verses he counsels them what to do; namely, to repent, and do works meet for repentance; setting forth in the 18th and 19th the happy effects of following that counsel, and in the 20th the bad effects of neglecting it. At the 18th verse we have the most ample declaration of the divine placability upon sincere repentance. Vitringa thinks that the words may refer in some degree to the sanguinary crimes of the Jews. See the last clause of the 15th verse.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Isa 1:11 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.
Ver. 11. To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices. ] All which, without faith and devotion, are no better than mere hypocrisy and illusion. It is, saith Oecolampadius, as if one should present his prince with many carts laden with dirt, or as if good meat well cooked should be brought to table by a nasty sloven, who hath been tumbling in a jakes. They are your sacrifices and not mine, and though many and costly, yet I abhor such sacrificing Sodomites as you are, neither shall you be a button the better for your pompous hecatomb a and holocausts. b Your devotions are placed more in the massy materiality than inward purity, and therefore rejected. Go ye and learn what that is, “I will have mercy, – so faith, repentance, new obedience, – and not sacrifice.” Mat 9:13 You stick in the bark, rest in the work done; your piety is potius in labris quam in fibris nata – a mere outside, shells, nut kernels, shows, and pageants, not heart workings, &c. Una Dei est, purum, gratissima victima, pectus.
Into full of the burnt offerings.
And of the fat of fed beasts.
I delight not in the blood of bullocks, &c.
a A great public sacrifice (properly of a hundred oxen) among the ancient Greeks and Romans, and hence extended to the religious sacrifices of other nations; a large number of animals offered or set apart for a sacrifice.
b A sacrifice wholly consumed by fire; a whole burnt offering.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
To what purpose, &c. Figure of speech Synathraesmos, in verses: Isa 1:11-15. Also Figure of speech Hypotyposis, for emphasis, in describing the hollowness of mere religious observances (as when Christ was on earth. Compare Joh 2:6, Joh 2:7 with Isa 14:16). Mat 15:3-8.
saith the LORD. The Hebrew fut. of ‘amar (= y’, omar), combined with a Divine title, is used thrice in the so-called “former “portion of Isaiah (Isa 1:11, Isa 1:18; Isa 33:10), and six times in the “latter” portion (Isa 40:1, Isa 40:25; Isa 41:21, Isa 41:21; Isa 66:9). Elsewhere only in Psa 12:6, while the past tense is frequently used (see App-92).
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
what purpose: Isa 66:3, 1Sa 15:22, Psa 50:8, Psa 51:16, Pro 15:8, Pro 21:27, Jer 6:20, Jer 7:21, Amo 5:21, Mic 6:7, Mat 9:13
he goats: Heb. great he-goats
Reciprocal: Exo 29:13 – all the fat Exo 29:18 – a burnt offering Lev 1:3 – a burnt Lev 7:18 – an abomination Lev 10:19 – should Lev 26:31 – I will not smell Num 7:27 – General Num 16:3 – all the Num 23:1 – seven altars Num 23:14 – built seven Num 29:17 – General 1Sa 4:3 – Let us 1Sa 20:24 – the king Psa 4:5 – Offer Psa 40:6 – Sacrifice Psa 50:16 – What Psa 94:20 – fellowship Pro 21:3 – General Isa 29:1 – add Isa 43:23 – honoured Isa 57:12 – General Isa 58:2 – they seek Isa 61:8 – I hate Jer 11:15 – to do Jer 14:12 – and when Hos 5:6 – they Hos 6:6 – I desired Hos 8:13 – but Hos 9:4 – neither Hag 2:14 – So is this people Zec 7:5 – did Mal 1:10 – I have Mal 2:13 – insomuch Mat 12:7 – I will Mar 12:33 – is more Rom 3:1 – advantage 1Ti 4:8 – bodily Heb 10:4 – not Heb 10:5 – Sacrifice Heb 10:11 – which
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Isa 1:11-12. To what purpose, &c., your sacrifices unto me? Who am a Spirit, and therefore cannot be satisfied with such carnal oblations, but expect to be worshipped in spirit and in truth, and to have your hearts and lives, as well as your bodies and sacrifices, presented unto me. I delight not in the blood, &c. He mentions the fat and blood, because these were, in a peculiar manner, reserved for God, to intimate that even the best of their sacrifices were rejected by him. The prophets often speak of the ceremonies of Mosess law as of no value, without that inward purity, and true spiritual worship, and devotedness to God, which were signified by them. This was a very proper method to prepare the minds of the Jews for the reception of the gospel, by which those ceremonies were to be abolished. When ye come to appear before me Upon the three solemn feasts, or upon other occasions. Who hath required this at your hand? The thing I commanded was not only, nor chiefly, that you should offer external sacrifices, but that you should do it with true repentance, with faith in my promises, and sincere resolutions of devoting yourselves to my service.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
1:11 To what purpose [is] the multitude of your sacrifices to me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I {s} delight not in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of male goats.
(s) Although God commanded these sacrifices for a time, as aids and exercises of their faith, yet because the people did not have faith or repentance, God detests them, Psa 50:13, Jer 6:20, Amo 5:22, Mic 6:7 .
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The Israelites tended to fall into a pattern of thinking that religious ritual and their pagan neighbors’ worship encouraged. They thought that going through the motions of worshipping God exactly as He specified satisfied Him. They forgot that God intended their ceremonies to be symbolic of their attitude toward Him. Their attitude to Him was more important than their flawless performance of worship rituals. Even their prayers would be ineffective if their attitude to God was not right (Isa 1:15). We have the same problem today. This passage repeats descriptions of the Israelites’ worship so often that the reader gets tired of them, just as God did. Hands full of bloodshed (Isa 1:15) is a figure of guilt for abusing others. [Note: Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Isaiah , 1:95.]