Jehovah Hates Hypocritcal Worship

As Isaiah contemplates his contemporaries, he is well aware that few have the disposition that Jehovah seeks in his worshipers.  For this reason, apostate Jerusalem deserves her impending judgment.  Note how Jehovah views worship taking place in her:   "the one slaughtering the bull is as one striking down a man.  The one sacrificing the sheep is as one breaking the neck of a dog.  The one offering up a gift-the blood of a pig!  The one presenting a memorial of frankincense is as one saying a blessing with uncanny words. They are also the ones that  have chosen their own ways, and in their, and their disgusting things their very soul has taken a delight." -Isaiah 66:3.

These words remind us of Jehovah's words recorded in the first chapter of Isaiah.  Jehovah there told his wayward people that their formal cats of worship not only failed to please  him but actually caused his righteous anger to intensify because the  worshipers were hypocritical. (Isaiah 1:11-17) Similarly, Jehovah now likens their offerings to heinous crimes. Their sacrificing a costly bull would no more appease Jehovah than would their murdering a human!  Other sacrifices are likened to the offering up of a dog or a pig, animals that are unclean under the Mosaic Law and certainly unfit for sacrifice.  (Leviticus 11:7, 27)  Does Jehovah allow such religious hypocrisy to go unpunished?

Jehovah now says:  "I myself, in turn, shall choose ways of ill-treating them; and the things frightful to them I shall bring upon them; for the reason that I called but here was no one answering; I spoke, but there were none that listened; and they kept on doing what was bad in my eyes, and the thing in which I took no delight they chose." (Isaiah 66:4)  Isaiah  is no doubt able to utter these words with heartfelt conviction.  For many years he has been Jehovah's instrument, 'calling' and 'speaking' to His people.  The prophet knows all too well that, by and large, no one has been listening. Because they have kept on doing bad, retribution is inevitable.  Jehovah will indeed choose their punishment and bring frightful events upon his apostate people.

Next time: Conclusion of Jehovah Hates Hypocritical Worship

From the Book Isaiah's Prophecy Light for all Mankind, Volume II, 2001