Worshipping the Lord Sacrificially
The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, but the prayer of the upright is acceptable to him.” (Proverbs 15:8, ESV)
In Genesis 4, we read the story of Cain and Abel, the two firstborn sons of Adam and Eve. As Cain and Abel grew, they offered their own sacrifices before the Lord; Cain offering the harvest of the fields and Abel offering the firstborn of His flock. Scripture says the Lord had a high regard for Abel’s sacrifice, and none for Cain’s, which angered Cain.
This led to a confrontation between Cain and God, where God addresses Cain about his heart. “Why are you so angry? And why do you look annoyed? If you do well [believing Me and doing what is acceptable and pleasing to Me], will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well [but ignore My instruction], sin crouches at your door; its desire is for you [to overpower you], but you must master it” (v 6b-7). This would lead the hostility in Cain’s heart to grow more unchecked to the point where he would kill Abel in cold blood, which brings further judgment from God onto Cain.
The quick, neat application of this scripture is that we need to approach God with a right and affectionate heart, offering God the best of what we have because we see the depth of our sin and the heights of His supremacy. That we offer Him anything at all because without it, there is no way to please Him.
And there is nothing wrong with that application. In fact, that’s exactly what Proverbs 15:8 is saying: that we can offer God the best of offerings and yet it means nothing if it is not done zealously and gratefully for Him and what He has done for us. But I think it’s important to maybe go a couple of steps further in this in order to fully understand it.
Cain’s heart was not right, and thus, his grain offering was rejected by God. Is that because grain offerings themselves were bad? Was God specifically looking for the blood of an animal to be spilt in order to accept the sacrifice? No, in fact, we see grain offerings made other times in scripture. The attitude in which Cain worshipped the Lord was completely incorrect to the point where God addressed him about his physical countenance and attitude.
Cain, having an obviously hardened heart over his and Abel’s sacrifices, would have been going through the motions of making sacrifices in order to outwardly seem righteous and yet having no worship or affection to the God he was making the sacrifice for.
Because of this, many would equivocate Cain’s sacrifice to an empty, religious act rather than a rite of worship unto a holy God. But in today’s vernacular there is a dichotomy between “religion” and “relationship” that has been made up by man. Many harp on their relationship with God, treating the idea of religion as something that is superficial and lacking. The truth is, just because we approach our faith in Christ as a relationship doesn’t mean that we don’t also fall into the routine of worshipping God so that man can see us doing the right things– all the while with a dry or angry heart.
That also doesn’t mean that the rites and rituals we do unto the Lord are empty, meaningless practices. In many ways, our traditions and our practices drive and illuminate the affections in which we worship the Lord in and refocus our attentions on God in order to adore Him better. In fact, we are commanded in God’s Word to maintain certain traditions and practices. Even though Abel’s sacrifice was perhaps not necessarily better than Cain’s– there is still the aspect that Abel’s blood sacrifice points forward to the Gospel, which shows Christ’s blood being used as a worthy substitute. And by that sacrificed blood, our sins are atoned and we are made pleasing before God through Christ alone.
Proverbs shows us that a wicked person can sacrifice the best offering to God that exists, and that person would still be an abomination to the Lord. He could give billions of dollars and offer the highest of luxuries to God, and yet with a wrong heart, that offering would be rejected by God.
And yet, a single prayer from an upright, obedient, and faithful believer gives God more delight and glory than the most impressive ritual you can think up. God cares about why we do what we do, just as much as He cares about how we do what we do. In Amos 5, we see the same premise: That Israel could offer offering after offering. They could follow every festival and feast and ritual with all the pomp and circumstance in their ability, but without a heart full of true devotion for the God they gathered for, it is not true worship the way that God intended it to be.
And for us, without the acknowledgement of Christ, no prayer or sacrifice would be enough to please God. If we truly believe that we cannot make ourselves right before God, then we already know that through Christ alone is our worship pleasing to the Father. Only Christ’s blood could pay the debt. Only His sacrifice makes us right before God.
We see this in Israel– in their failure to understand the covenant to which God invited them into and the salvation extended to them. We see this in the Pharisees, who upheld every holy day, feast, and sacrifice in the Law. And we see it in Cain, who God directly and personally warned of the sin crouching at his door if he did not master his contrariness. God rejected them all. Why would our self-involved offerings be accepted by God, with no acknowledgement of Christ and His power to save?
But that doesn’t mean that we should throw out all spiritual and religious rituals. It doesn’t mean that we should shun the practice that spurs ourselves to be moved to worship God in a right and meaningful way.
It just means that we should be ever vigilant in checking our hearts and our motives. If we are worshipping the Lord to be seen by man as more spiritual or more mystical or more devoted to God, then we need to seriously repent. If we are upholding a practice, whether we tout religion or relationship, we need to make sure that we are approaching that practice in reverence for the King and the God we wish to glorify.
It’s not the material that we lay at His feet. It’s that we draw near to Him with all worship and all honor to the One that deserves our all– seeing the depth of which we don’t deserve Him and yet the absolute gift He has given in that we get to come anyway.
