OVERCOMING THE STUMBLING BLOCK
Man is destined to use his natural wisdom and intellect to understand God. Naturally, man therefore interprets the Bible literally. God’s solution to helping man understand spiritual matters is to first speak in natural terms that we do understand. This presents a challenge to those who want to understand God just like it is a challenge to God who chooses to use fallible humans to interpret and report what he says. This challenge is amplified greatly when he uses the terms and practices of natural religion, which he does not accept, to represent spiritual worship which he does accept. We find this principle most clearly in the Law of Moses and its many commandments regarding sacrifices, tithes and offerings.
God’s solution was borrow terms and practices common to religions of the day to represent spiritual concepts. These terms and practices were very familiar to Israel at the time because it had just left Egypt where it observed and even practiced Egyptian religion that employed physical sacrifices, tithes and offerings . So the Israelites knew immediately what God meant by these natural terms. These terms are not so familiar to most of us in these modern days, however, so it is useful to conduct a short review by looking at Origins of Religion and the following links:
To help Israel avoid the mistake of thinking that God actually wanted it to interpret what he said about sacrifices, tithes and offerings literally, he also made it very clear that he did not want his people to follow the religious customs of any religious nation. That was a warning and a clue that Israel should not introduce physical sacrifices, tithes and offerings in its worship of God. God symbolically refers to this kind of worship as flesh because it always involved use of the physical body (i.e. flesh). He also gives us many additional warnings about worship in the flesh (i.e. worship that involves use of the physical body). This same warning extends to all succeeding generations of those who claim to fear God, and says that they/we should not employ physical sacrifices, tithes and offerings in our worship and that we should not worship using our physical bodies. What God wants instead is spiritual worship.
God made it clear to Moses that he was to make everything according to the heavenly (i.e. spiritual) pattern, which God showed to Moses while he was on Mt. Sinai (i.e. the mountain of God where he writes the spiritual law on the hearts of men).
STUDY TIP: We have discussed this heavenly pattern in EARTHLY PATTERNS AND HEAVENLY PATTERNS
Moses heard the voice of God in spiritual words, but then he had to communicate them in human words to Israel and to us. God would have preferred to speak directly to the people of Israel with spiritual words, but they remained at a distance from God preferring to hear whatever God had to say to them through a human mediator (i.e. Moses). That was a big mistake for Israel, and it is still a big mistake for modern day Jews and Christians who prefer to listen to a Moses-like mediator (e.g. rabbi, pastor, etc.) rather than listen to God directly.
If Israel had chosen to listen to God’s voice, it would have understood that when God said to bring natural (i.e. animals, blood, drink grain, etc.) offerings, he was symbolically using these natural items to refer to spiritual offerings of a man’s heart. Since Israel chose to have Moses mediate between them and God, however, all they heard was to bring the natural offerings. Thus was born the practice of material tithes and offerings in Judaism and Christianity because they only understand the natural words of the Bible.
If Israel and Christians had listened to God’s voice, they would have understood the symbolic meaning of sacrifices and offerings in these scriptures:
Psalms 51:14-17: Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of thy deliverance. 15 O Lord, open thou my lips, and my mouth shall show forth thy praise. 16 For thou hast no delight in sacrifice; were I to give a burnt offering, thou wouldst not be pleased. 17 The sacrifices acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart O God, thou wilt not despise.
COMMENTARY: This is one of the best scriptures in the entire Bible for understanding what God means by sacrifice, and it could not be more clear. It says that the only sacrifices acceptable to God are a broken spirit and a broken and contrite heart. This is an example of scripture that must be taken literally because it provides understanding of the other scriptures that speak in symbolic terms.
Although the scripture mentions burnt offerings in particular, it is accurate to conclude that God’s rejection of burnt offerings can be extended to all kinds of physical offerings because verse 17 says that the sacrifices acceptable to God are a broken spirit and a broken and contrite heart. In other words, there are no other kinds of sacrifices, including any physical sacrifice (e.g. blood, money, grain, body, etc.) that is acceptable to God.
The first thing we recognize is that these kinds of sacrifices that are acceptable to God cannot be seen or touched or manipulated like must be done with burnt offerings and other kinds of physical sacrifices. Acceptable sacrifices and offerings have no physical presence or outward appearance. This includes money and going to church or synagogue, or baptism or circumcision which can all be seen. This is to be expected because we know that God does not look at appearances but looks at the heart. Since all Old/First Covenant religions, including Judaism and Christianity, are nothing more than a collection of traditions that are always conducted in view of other religionists, they are in the category of sacrifices and offerings that are unacceptable to God. Religious traditions are acceptable to the religionists who practice them, but not to God who looks at the heart which no one else can see.
The list of unacceptable sacrifices also includes any king of religious activity that is conducted using the physical body or religious objects or locations. Again, any religious activity that can be seen or directed by religious custom it is unacceptable — no matter what religious leaders might say and no matter how long it has been in practice as a religious custom. This is the essence of the Fourth Commandment and Repentance and Rest. God wants his people to rest, or cease, all religious activity which is commonly considered to be a kind of sacrifice or offering to God. And he wants that they should be free from bondage to religious laws and traditions. This includes singing, praying, worship, raising hands, kneeling, bowing, service to others, making pilgrimages, fasting, baptism, circumcision and so on. These are all Religious Traditions that have the appearance of righteousness but lack spiritual power. These are all Defiled Religion because they are unacceptable to God.
But know what is unacceptable to God is only part of the challenge. We must also understand the nature of a broken spirit and contrite heart.
Most people will have a hard time knowing if they have a broken spirit or a contrite heart because they are spiritual qualities that cannot be observed with natural eyes or ears. The evidence is found in the practice of Pure Religion and in abstaining from the practice of Religious Traditions and any form of organized religion including Commercial Religion.
Romans 12:1-21 Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
COMMENTARY: The command to present our bodies as a living sacrifice does not mean to present our literal bodies. It does mean, however, to sacrifice (e.g. put to death, end, terminate, finish, etc.) all religious work that we do with our physical bodies.
What we die to must include anything and everything associated with religion that can be accomplished or observed with natural, human senses. This includes religious activities done corporately and privately. Dying especially means ending our relationship with spiritual leaders (i.e. false prophets) from whom we have sought to learn about God instead of listening to God’s voice for ourselves.
Ending our physical worship and worship of other gods (i.e. false prophets) is considered by God to be an act of sacrificial worship. And it is a serious sacrifice because religion is an important part of the life of all religious people. All Old Testament scriptures that include any kind of blood offering symbolically anticipate the sacrificial end of religion for individuals. Essentially we put to death our religious life (i.e. we die a spiritual death) and are resurrected with a new spiritual life in which we hear God’s voice. We make the transition from Old/First Covenant religion to New Covenant disciples.
Ephesians 4:17-24: 17 So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord , that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, 18 being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; 19 and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. 20 But you did not learn Christ in this way, 21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus, 22 that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, 23 and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.
COMMENTARY: Old/First Covenant religionists are equated with Gentiles because all gentile nations practice religion. These are the nations of which God said “do not follow their customs. God has very unflattering opinions about Gentile religion here and says the same kinds of things elsewhere about Israel. Christians would do well to consider that whatever God says about these religions also applies to them because they practice the same kinds of religion — more or less.
Renewal of the mind and putting on the new self is what happens when we die to Old/First Covenant religion and come to new life in our New Covenant relationship with God. More than a change of mind, however, it is a miracle of a change of heart.