Sacrifice

1 Samuel 15:22 – But Samuel replied: “Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.

Psalm 40:6-7 – Sacrifice and offering you did not desire—but my ears you have opened—burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not require. Then I said, “Here I am, I have come—it is written about me in the scroll.

Hosea 6:6 – For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.

Amos 5:24-25 – But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream! “Did you bring me sacrifices and offerings forty years in the wilderness, people of Israel?

Micah 6:6,8 – With what shall I come before the Lord and bow down before the exalted God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?...He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

Psalm 51:17 – My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.

Isaiah 1:17 – Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.

Application:

• ·         Samuel does not suggest that sacrifice is unimportant but that it is acceptable only when brought with an attitude of obedience and devotion to the Lord.
• ·         Obedience is important, especially to God’s moral law—i.e., the ten basic commandments of His covenant.
• ·         “Here I am, I have come” probably refers to David’s commitment to the Lord at the time of his enthronement.
• ·         Sacrifice apart from faithfulness to the Lord’s will is wholly unacceptable to Him.
• ·         Israel’s right relationship with the Lord was never established primarily by sacrifices. It was above all based on obedience.
• ·         Micah does not deny the desirability of sacrifices but shows that it does no good to offer them without obedience.
• ·         “Act justly…love mercy” is the kind of obedience God expects from His covenant people.
• ·         What pleases God more than sacrifices is a humble heart that looks to Him when troubles crush and penitently pleads for mercy when sin has been committed.
• ·         Rulers were warned not to take advantage of the weak and often oppressed part of society.
• ·         As plant and animal life flourishes where there is water, so human life flourishes where there is justice and righteousness.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV