Divine Disgust – Worship without Righteousness
Divine Disgust – Worship Without Righteousness.
“Enough! How long will you defend the evil-doers? How long will show kindness to those who do wicked things? You’re here to defend the defenseless, to give justice to the weak and fatherless, to maintain the rights of the oppressed and needy. Your job is to rescue the powerless and stand up for them, to deliver them from all who exploit them!” (Psalm 82:2-4).
As we continue to grow in our relationship with God, we discover that we yearn to progress in loving what God loves and hating what God hates. If we are not growing in those two areas of God’s character, it’s doubtful we even have a relationship with God to begin with. Following the example of Jesus in the gospels, loving the sinner while hating the sin itself is crucial to our growing in the character of the Lord. If God finds certain behavior morally disgusting, but we find it acceptable, then we are not where we should be. It might be surprising to realize that God can have hate in His heart. We know that God is full of love, that He is in fact Love. But hate? That is a difficult concept to digest. But think about it more, and it starts to make sense. Like the Father He is, God loves us so much that He hates whatever might be destructive to us, whatever might come to harm us or our relationship to Him. God’s hatred for evil comes out of His eternal protective instinct. Another thing to think about… God is purely righteous, virtuous, filled with goodness through and through. Out of His goodness, He established a moral universe. Since the profoundly tragic fall of mankind, the overall moral universe remains, but immorality has to be dealt with and judged. Because of the way God created the world, there are rights and wrongs, the moral and immoral, the righteous and the unrighteous. God hates the wrongs. It’s no wonder the early Christians called them the ”deadly sins.” God wants to give us life, the evil one wants to give us death. God hates whatever might be deadly to us. God hates whatever in the world was not a part of His righteous plan for the world. Simply put, God’s hate comes out of His righteous love for us and His world. Yes, God hates. But He hates whatever is worth hating. God speaks plainly in His Word about what He loves and what He hates, about what God embraces and what He rejects. The category entitled “Divine Disgust” is intended to be a biblical catalogue of what God hates, what God finds abominable. Naturally, as we are becoming aware of what God hates, we will also learn what God loves. The truth is, if we are being transformed into the likeness of Jesus and thus the character of God, we show our fearful love of God by joining Him in hating what is evil. (Proverbs 8:13).
ABOMINATION: (Hebrew, “towebah”) = An activity that God considers morally disgusting; a detestable behavior; any action or attitude that is loathed with a passion by God; behavior that God has judged as spiritually abhorrent and unacceptable; something that God hates and finds deeply repugnant; something that is deeply offensive to God’s sensibilities; any action or attitude that God thinks is repulsive, revolting and utterly alien to God’s nature.
“I hate, I despise your religious feasts! I cannot stand your assemblies! Though you bring choice fellowship offerings, I will have no regard for them. Away with the noise of your songs!” (Amos 5:21-23).
On the one hand, Yahweh loved the Feasts and Sacred Assemblies seen in the Hebrew Bible… the fasting and feasting, the family celebrations, the remembrance of God’s saving deeds, the acknowledgment of God’s character, the focus on God’s truth. Of course God loved the Feasts! They were his ideas in the first place! “These are my appointed feasts, the appointed feasts of the LORD, which you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies.” (Lev. 23:2). The Jewish Feasts and Assemblies were opportunities to remember, to worship, to teach, to listen to the Word of the Lord, and speak of His care and presence. They were intended to cause believers to reenact sacred events, to confirm the Faith of the people of God. Celebrations like Sabbath, Passover, and Succoth filled a deep need to offer the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving and to be reminded of God’s actions on behalf of the believers. The people are spiritually fulfilled when they gain the habit of pointing to God as the supreme reference point in all of history.
But on the other hand, if these appointed spiritual activities become personally meaningless, if the words become empty, if the people are just going through the motions of faith, then the celebrations become repugnant to God, a stench in His nostrils, an abomination. And how can the LORD tell if the Feasts are not truly sacred but instead merely rote, useless and pointless? The answer according to the prophets… When the religious celebrations, whether in large groups or family settings, don’t result in a lifestyle of justice and mercy. If the biblical celebrations don’t result in a changed heart, in a transformed way of life that reflects the heart of God, then He says, Don’t bother! I hate your religious feasts if your faith style is empty and your lifestyle is unrighteous, if you don’t take seriously My priorities! Keeping the Law doesn’t necessarily translate to pleasing God. As Jesus told the Pharisees in Matthew 23:23, how ridiculous it is to observe the tiniest details of the Torah and at the same time ignore the weightier matters of justice, mercy and faithfulness.
So, then, taking the biblical prophets to heart: Judeo-Christian homes that love to explore the Jewish roots of the Faith and celebrate the Feasts and Holy Days of the Hebrew Bible need to also develop a family ethos of hospitality and reconciliation. Churches that highlight Christ’s fulfillment of the Feasts in the Hebrew Bible need to also engender hearts that are sensitive to the needs of others, and embrace biblical justice issues and compassion activities. Christ-centered schools that love to reenact the Jewish feasts as biblical history need also to develop student experiences that involve meaningful service projects and sacred field trips. In all three cases, home, church and school, honor codes and ritual experiences need to be tied to personal faith development and righteous character that reflect God’s eternal concern for justice, mercy and peace.
The prophet Malachi offers some choice words from the Lord regarding the priests who lead their pointless religious activities. Anyone who wonders if God takes this seriously, let’s look at a couple of passages from Malachi:
Malachi 2:3 – “I will throw dung on your faces, the dung of your festival sacrifices, and you shall be carried out to the manure pile outside the Temple.” The priests loved to celebrate empty and hypocritical religious feasts, which meant absolutely nothing to them in their priesthood role. The animal manure left behind after these feasts were done was taken outside the camp, outside the Temple, and burned. The Lord thought so little of their religious sacrifices that He thought maybe this image would cause them to reconsider their attitudes about God and the Mosaic system. How much lower can you get than having manure splattered on your face and clothing? Can there be a more forceful image of what it means to be unclean, impure, unworthy? And after the indignity of being covered in dung, to be thrown onto the dung pile? Hopefully the priests got the rather graphic message from the Lord.
Malachi 2:17 – “You have wearied Me with your words.” Sooner or later God gets tired of empty promises, or ignorant babbling, or insincere God-talk, or even pointless religious debates. Who knows, maybe we even sometimes weary God with our thoughtless prayers and meaningless discussions. Let our words, O God, be thoughtful, genuine, truthful, and loving. Keep us from foolish banter. May we never weary you with our words.
Notice the priorities of the Lord when it comes to biblical celebrations and sacred assemblies in these important passages:
Isaiah 58:3-7: “Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?’ Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers. Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife, and in striking each other with wicked fists. You cannot fast today and expect your voice to be heard on high. Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter – when you see the naked to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?”
Amos 5:21-24: “I hate, I despise your religious feasts. I cannot stand your assemblies. Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Though you bring choice fellowship offerings, I will have no regard for them. Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps. But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!
Jeremiah 7:2-8: “This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Reform your ways and your actions, and I will let you live in this place. Do not trust in deceptive words and say, ‘This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD!’ If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly, if you do not oppress the alien, the fatherless or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm, then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your forefathers for ever and ever. But look, you are trusting in deceptive words that are worthless.
Isaiah 1:11-17: The multitude of your sacrifices… What are they to me? says the Lord. I have more than enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fattened animals. I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats. When you appear before me, who has asked this of you, this trampling of my courts? Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me. New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations… I cannot bear your evil assemblies. Your festivals and your appointed feasts my soul hates. They have become a burden to me. I am weary of hearing them. When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from you; even if you offered many prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood. Wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight! Stop doing wrong; learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.”
“Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress, and refusing to let the world corrupt you.” (James 1:27).