⁶ “In whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You have taken no pleasure.”

Why would God say this? After all, didn’t He command His people Israel to make “whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin”? So why does it now say that He has “taken no pleasure” in them? Does God change His mind?

No! The reason for this terse statement is that God’s commands, carried out with wrong motives, create a stench to God. It is like putrefying, rotting meat. The act of sacrificing itself is not the intended goal, but rather the heart of repentance in the people. That is what was missing.

This is not just the NT perspective, for God made this clear back in the time of godly leadership in Israel. Remember, the writer of Hebrews is quoting a psalm written by David (Psalm 40:6-8). Perhaps David could so write because he was spiritually attuned to true righteousness. He extolled the law of the Lord (Psalm 119). God’s own estimation of him was that, “I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My heart, who will do all My will.” (Acts 13:22, alluding to 1 Sam 13:14). The heart of God in a man leads him to see clearly the spiritual reality behind empty ritualism—and it grieves him.

Unusual as he was, David was not unique. Under the godly influence of Isaiah the prophet, the assessment was no less acerbic: “ ‘What are your multiplied sacrifices to Me?’ says the Lord. ‘I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed cattle; and I take no pleasure in the blood of bulls, lambs or goats’ ” (Is 1:11). He goes on to say, “When you come to appear before Me, who requires of you this trampling of My courts? Bring your worthless offerings no longer, incense is an abomination to Me. New moon and Sabbath, the calling of assemblies— I cannot endure iniquity and the solemn assembly. I hate your new moon festivals and your appointed feasts, they have become a burden to Me; I am weary of bearing them” (Is 1:12–14).

God hates the superficial, He despised hypocrisy. The Jews, of all people, ought to know that. Christ delivered His harshest denunciation for people like that. Even today, people (spiritual or not) universally reserve the utmost vitriol for those who pass themselves off as righteous, but blatantly live unrighteously.

This is the bane of all who desire to live righteously, the humility of acknowledging that it is impossible to ever attain it through our human efforts. That is why God sent Jesus as a new High Priest, to offer a new kind of once-only sacrifice to provide a new kind of righteousness.

Lord, I confess my superficial attempts at righteousness. I humbly believe that Jesus provided the way for me, the perfect sacrifice that is pleasing to You.