“These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught. Therefore once more I will astound these people with wonder upon wonder; the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish.”
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I worked with a chaplain who was good at building programs. He was creative and energetic. He built an impressive marriage workshop program but...once the framework was built he moved on to something else. He wasn't interested in the actual hard work of running the program. The workshop looked great on paper but it was empty.
It died from lack of attention...
The chapter opens with a complaint against Ariel. Ariel means "Lion of God," that is, city rendered by God invincible. we understand Ariel to be the city of Jerusalem.
God complains that the people of Jerusalem go "year after year" cycling through their religious festivals...as thought it meant something. Yet, God says "I will besiege Ariel; she will mourn and lament, she will be to me like an altar hearth. I will encamp against you on all sides; I will encircle you with towers and set up my siege works against you".
Why would God be so hard on people who love their religious traditions? Because it was all a hollow act. They recited the liturgies with their lips but their hearts weren't in it. They constructed an impressive system of feast, festivals and sacrifices...as though the motions meant something. In the end, it was a hollow shell.
The rituals had become nothing more that "it's what we do". Remember, the people were supposed to place their hands on the sacrifice and identify with the death...acknowledging they deserved to die but God...in His grace would accept a lamb instead. How many time do you suppose the people laid their hand on the head of that lamb and made no connection?
Reminds me of many 21st Century churches. How many people receive communion...take the Body and Blood...and make no connection with the sacrifice, of Christ, for their sins?
But, God never disciplines without a purpose. In this case, He says "I will astound these people with wonder upon wonder; the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish.” In other words..."you think you're so smart? I'll show you smart!" God will show himself in such amazing ways that Judah will bow in humility and acknowledge the Holy One of Jacob.
You know, they could have done that without the punishment...
Live boldly out there today...
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