Offerings: Useless when not Accompanied by Genuine Piety
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1 Samuel 15:22
But Samuel declared: “Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obedience to His voice? Behold, obedience is better than sacrifice, and attentiveness is better than the fat of rams.
Psalm 40:6
Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but my ears You have opened. Burnt offerings and sin offerings You did not require.
Psalm 50:8–14
I do not rebuke you for your sacrifices, and your burnt offerings are ever before Me. / I have no need for a bull from your stall or goats from your pens, / for every beast of the forest is Mine—the cattle on a thousand hills.
Psalm 51:16, 17
For You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; You take no pleasure in burnt offerings. / The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.
Proverbs 21:3, 27
To do righteousness and justice is more desirable to the LORD than sacrifice. / The sacrifice of the wicked is detestable—how much more so when brought with ill intent!
Isaiah 1:11–14
“What good to Me is your multitude of sacrifices?” says the LORD. “I am full from the burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed cattle; I take no delight in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats. / When you come to appear before Me, who has required this of you—this trampling of My courts? / Bring your worthless offerings no more; your incense is detestable to Me—your New Moons, Sabbaths, and convocations. I cannot endure iniquity in a solemn assembly.
Isaiah 40:16
Lebanon is not sufficient for fuel, nor its animals enough for a burnt offering.
Isaiah 66:3
Whoever slaughters an ox is like one who slays a man; whoever sacrifices a lamb is like one who breaks a dog’s neck; whoever presents a grain offering is like one who offers pig’s blood; whoever offers frankincense is like one who blesses an idol. Indeed, they have chosen their own ways and delighted in their abominations.
Jeremiah 6:20
What use to Me is frankincense from Sheba or sweet cane from a distant land? Your burnt offerings are not acceptable; your sacrifices do not please Me.”
Jeremiah 7:21–23
This is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: Add your burnt offerings to your other sacrifices and eat the meat yourselves! / For when I brought your fathers out of the land of Egypt, I did not merely command them about burnt offerings and sacrifices, / but this is what I commanded them: Obey Me, and I will be your God, and you will be My people. You must walk in all the ways I have commanded you, so that it may go well with you.
Jeremiah 14:12
Although they may fast, I will not listen to their cry; although they may offer burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Instead, I will finish them off by sword and famine and plague.”
Hosea 6:6
For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.
Hosea 8:13
Though they offer sacrifices as gifts to Me, and though they eat the meat, the LORD does not accept them. Now He will remember their iniquity and punish their sins: They will return to Egypt.
Amos 5:21–24
“I hate, I despise your feasts! I cannot stand the stench of your solemn assemblies. / Even though you offer Me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; for your peace offerings of fattened cattle I will have no regard. / Take away from Me the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps.
Micah 6:6–8
With what shall I come before the LORD when I bow before the God on high? Should I come to Him with burnt offerings, with year-old calves? / Would the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I present my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? / He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you but to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?
Mark 12:33
and to love Him with all your heart and with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself, which is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”