Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible
Isaiah 1:10-15
What God Has Against His People (Isaiah 1:10). God's Hatred of Any Outward Religion Which Is Not Matched By Inner Response.
In these verses Isaiah stresses that there is little benefit in continuing with outward forms of religion unless they also respond to its inner demands.
Analysis.
a Hear the word of Yahweh, you rulers of Sodom. Give ear to the instruction of our God, you people of Gomorrah (Isaiah 1:10).
b “To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to me?” Says Yahweh. “I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts” (Isaiah 1:11 a).
c “And I do not delight in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he-goats” (Isaiah 1:11 b).
d “When you come to appear before me, who has required this from you (‘at your hand'), to trample my courts?” (Isaiah 1:12).
e “Do not bring vain oblations any more” (Isaiah 1:13 a).
e “Incense is an abomination to me” (Isaiah 1:13 b).
d “New moon and sabbath, the calling of assemblies. I cannot endure iniquity and the solemn meeting” (Isaiah 1:13 c)
c “Your new moons and your appointed feasts, my soul hates” (Isaiah 1:14 a).
b “They are a trouble to me, I am weary to bear them. And when you spread forth your hands, I will hide my eyes from you” (Isaiah 1:14 a).
a Yes, when you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood.” (Isaiah 1:15 b).
This again from Isaiah 1:10 presents us with a chiasmus, with their description as Sodom and Gomorrah paralleling their not hearing and their hands being filled with blood (10 with 15b); their offerings in which He has no delight being paralleled with the feasts that He cannot abide (Isaiah 1:11 with Isaiah 1:14); their trampling of His courts being paralleled by the iniquity and the solemn meeting (Isaiah 1:12 with Isaiah 1:13 c), and the vain oblations being compared with the offering of incense unacceptably (Isaiah 1:13 a with Isaiah 1:13 b).
‘Hear the word of Yahweh, you rulers of Sodom.
Give ear to the instruction of our God, you people of Gomorrah.'
‘Hear the word of Yahweh.' Both rulers and people are called on to hear what Yahweh has to say. Taking the idea up from Isaiah 1:9 they are spoken of vividly as being like rulers of Sodom and like people of Gomorrah, cities renowned for their wickedness, cities which had already experienced judgment long before and had been totally wiped out (Genesis 19). There is an indication here of how God saw Jerusalem and Judah, and an implied threat as a result. If the rulers and the people do not hear, and if they continue to behave in the way that they do, they too will be utterly wiped out. Like all His judgments, this judgment is a morally based judgment. Its purpose is to win them back to the covenant. But if they will not hear, then destruction, similar to that which was inflicted on Sodom and Gomorrah, can only await them.
Other nations saw their gods as fickle and unreliable, acting on a whim or a preference, their behaviour totally unpredictable and thus requiring that they be manipulated or bribed. None of them saw their gods as deeply concerned about the morality of their people. But the prophets revealed that Yahweh, the true God was not like them. His behaviour towards His people was always morally based and consistent, and had only in mind the triumph of goodness and the people's final good. It stressed that only if they were morally true could God truly accept them as His people. That was to be their destiny, whatever refining fires would be required to make them so. And it also stressed that because He was holy He would have to eradicate sin and wickedness, and that that required, and would always result in, judgment unless they repented and became truly reconciled to Him.
“To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to me?”
Says Yahweh.
“I am full of the burnt offerings of rams,
And the fat of fed beasts,
And I do not delight in the blood of bullocks,
Or of lambs, or of he-goats.
When you come to appear before me,
Who has required this from you (‘at your hand'),
To trample my courts?
Do not bring vain oblations any more,
Incense is an abomination to me,
New moon and sabbath, the calling of assemblies.
I cannot endure iniquity and the solemn meeting.”
God declared that He now received no pleasure from their sacrifices and offerings. They were meaningless to Him, and unacceptable. He had had enough of them. This is not an indictment of the sacrificial system and feasts of Israel, but of its total present misuse. Samuel had said to Saul in a similar situation, “Has Yahweh as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as obeying the voice of Yahweh? Behold to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams” (1 Samuel 15:22), and Saul's failure had resulted in his final rejection by God.
Thus God is here stressing that without moral response and behaviour, without love for Him and obedience to His laws, all religious ordinances are in vain. Such do not work automatically. He is the God of the covenant, and within that covenant the offerings and sacrifices are ways of finding mercy and propitiation for sin in both personal and public responses towards God, and the feasts are a means of fellowship with God. But without responsive obedience to the covenant they are worthless. The God of the covenant demands full response to the covenant, and that includes primarily trust in Him and obedience to His requirements for living. Then the remainder too is acceptable and will achieve its purpose. But without that it is all nothing
‘To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to me?” says Yahweh. “I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts, and I do not delight in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he-goats.' Sacrifices and offerings were still being multiplied in the temple. The priests still went about their daily service. There was more than enough of it all. But their hearts were not in it. There was no loving response, no dedication. It had all become meaningless ritual (compare Ecclesiastes 5:1). It had become an automatic ritual, a routine without significance. So God was satiated with their hypocritical offerings. He had had enough of them. He no longer delighted in what they did. Woe betide us when God no longer delights in what we do and what we offer.
Especially poignant is the rejection of the blood. It was the shedding of blood, the life poured out, that made atonement (Leviticus 17:11). It was therefore that on which the people's hopes would have rested. But it no longer ‘delighted' God. It was no longer acceptable. It was therefore no longer effective. They achieved no atonement. Without response and obedience in their daily lives all their religious activity was dross. Without repentance there was no forgiveness.
For the similar views of other prophets see Amos 5:21; Hosea 6:6; Micah 6:6; Jeremiah 7:21. The prophets did not reject the ordinances of the Mosaic covenant, but they did stress their secondary importance to responsive obedience (trusting and obeying). Without the latter their ordinances were worse than useless. Their purpose was to establish a vibrant and living relationship with God, and a true means of atonement. Without responsive obedience they did neither.
‘When you came to appear before me, who has required this from you (‘at your hand'), to trample my courts?' Note that God still acknowledges at this point that the temple could be seen as His earthly dwellingplace, for He speaks of ‘My courts'. They have the great privilege of having His earthly dwellingplace among them. But His point is that they treat it lightly without due regard to Him. They forget that they are His courts that they are entering. Instead of being invitees, and treading lightly and discerningly with true regard, they are behaving like trespassers, trampling over everything without discernment. They treat it as their own. Was this really what they thought that God would accept of them?
‘Do not bring vain oblations any more, incense is an abomination to me, new moon and sabbath, the calling of assemblies - -. I cannot endure iniquity and the solemn meeting.' He no longer wants oblations that mean nothing. There is no point in offering incense when it is just a ritual to pander to God, and not a loving, responsive offering from the heart. It has by this become an abomination to Him, as also have the new moon celebrations, and the sabbath, and the calling together of His people at special times, for they are but automatic ritual while their hearts are elsewhere. It is all meaningless and fruitless.
‘I cannot endure iniquity and the solemn meeting.' The idea of a combination of iniquity and the solemn meeting with God are incompatible, and yet these people partake in both at the same time. It is the essence of hypocrisy. Even while they engage in the solemn required meetings ‘with God' they carry iniquity in their hearts, and even practise it, as though God did not see (compare 1 Corinthians 11:21). But they should recognise that their iniquity separates them from God (Isaiah 59:2). Thus the solemn meetings have become pointless. They are a meaningless act. He cannot even bear to be there, for they make Him sick. It is a sad day when God cannot bear to be at our church gatherings, and when we make Him sick (compare Revelation 3:16).
This phrase cuts into the theme which continues in Isaiah 1:14, and demonstrates how deeply God feels about it all. He is so moved that He has had to break in and point out that while there is iniquity present and undealt with, nothing that they do can please or satisfy Him or enable them to meet with Him, for He cannot bear it. Compare Jeremiah 7:11; Matthew 21:13.
“Your new moons and your appointed feasts,
My soul hates,
They are a trouble to me,
I am weary to bear them.
And when you spread forth your hands,
I will hide my eyes from you.
Yes, when you make many prayers,
I will not hear.
Your hands are full of blood.”
Here the positive aspect of approach to God is dealt with. They celebrate the new moon monthly, they gather at the appointed feasts. Outwardly all seems well. But God hates these feasts and their presence at them. He is troubled and disturbed by them. They distress Him. They weary Him. And He will thus not hear their prayers. He deliberately turns His eyes away. He refuses to hear them. And why? Because their hands are full of blood. They are disobeying His Instruction (His Law) in the covenant and going their own way. Not all actually commit murder, but all participate in what occurs without protest. They are satisfied with conditions as they are, and because they do not protest, they are thus participators in it. They are to blame for what they allow.
The main appointed feasts were those commanded in the Law; Passover and Unleavened Bread (Exodus 23:15; Leviticus 23:5; Exodus 12; Numbers 28:16; Deuteronomy 16:1), the Feast of Weeks (Harvest, Firstfruits - Exodus 23:16; Exodus 34:22; Numbers 28:26) and the Feast of Tabernacles or Ingathering (Exodus 23:16; Exodus 34:22; Leviticus 23:34; Deuteronomy 16:13). They were intended to be joyous feasts during which they rededicated themselves to the covenant and gave thanks for God's goodness to them as revealed in their harvests of lambs and kids, harvests of grain, fruit and vintage, while at the same time remembering how He had delivered them from bondage, and continually delivered them from sin as they brought their sacrifices of atonement.
But their feasts were no longer a joy to God. ‘My soul hates'. The expression indicates that He hated them with all the intensity of His being because they were an outward act with no inner meaning. They were a sham. During them their hearts were not turned towards Him and to His Instruction, but to their own sin and pleasure.
‘And when you spread forth your hands I will hide my eyes from you. Yes, when you make many prayers, I will not hear.' God would not, and will not, hear the prayers of those who are not committed towards Him. This applies as much today as it ever did. Instead of His face shining on them, His eyes will be hid from them. He will not hear. He will be deaf to their prayers.
Modern man has a glib view of prayer, assuming that God will listen to anyone. But Isaiah 59:2 explains that God does not hear those whose sins have separated them from Him, Psalms 66:18 tells us that if we regard iniquity in our hearts the Lord will not hear us, and Proverbs 28:9 (compare Proverbs 15:8; Proverbs 15:29; Proverbs 21:13) tells us that the prayers of one who turns away from God's instruction are an abomination. This is the Biblical view of prayer. The New Testament similarly requires the lifting up of ‘holy' hands (1 Timothy 2:8), and a true heart (Hebrews 10:22; James 4:3; 1 Peter 3:12). So all warn us that a man's heart must be right if his prayers are to be heard. It is not that he must be worthy and deserving. None are that. It is that he must be in a right relationship with God (and Jesus adds that he must have a forgiving heart - Matthew 6:15).
‘Your hands are full of blood (literally ‘bloods).' To have the hands full was to be dedicated to something. Thus these people are dedicated to the way of violence. They approve a leadership that resorts to violence, they benefit from violence, they make no complaint against it, they are ready to go on benefiting by it, and thus they partake in its guilt. This description parallels their description as Sodom and Gomorrah (Isaiah 1:11).