Isaiah 1:11 - The Purpose of Our Sacrifices
Isaiah 1:11 - To
what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? Saith the Lord; I am
full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight
not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats.
How are we worshiping the Lord in his holy temples? Have we received our own covenant promise? And what are we doing to obtain it?
In the beginning of Isaiah’s vision the Lord has declared
that though he has nourished his covenant children, we are “laden with iniquity”,
“corrupters”, and “evildoers” and have “forsaken the Lord”, that we will
“revolt more and more” and are “sick” from head to foot. He asks, “Why should
ye be stricken anymore” (Isaiah 1:5). Part of the answer comes in verses 11-15:
because of our temple or most holy worship ceremonies.
The Heart of Our Worship
“Hear the word of the Lord,” the prophet declares (verse 10). Then the
Lord asks, “To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me?”
Our most holy and spiritual worship is at question here. The Lord asks about
our temple and personal worship. This is one of the first accusations he offers
against his people and is one of the reasons why he is angry with us. Symbolically,
not only does Isaiah’s vision open with a declaration of our temple worship,
but it is also at the close of his vision in chapter 66. Our worship of the
Lord is crucial to our worship of the King, and to debase that worship is most
damning before God.
He grabs our attention by his blunt declaration, comparing
our leaders to Sodom and our people to Gomorrah. What have we done to earn such
appellations? Moses explains that “the men of Sodom becoming sinners and
exceedingly wicked before the Lord,” were judged by the Lord. “The Lord was
angry with them” (Genesis 13:11). And subsequently, he obliterated them with
fire from heaven. To compare us to Sodom and Gomorrah is to say the Lord is
warning that we are “becoming sinners and exceedingly wicked before the Lord.”
How fitting that the Lord first addresses the heart or core
of our worship center, the temple, which also parallels his statement that our
“heart is faint” or ill. If we have altered our worship in the temple by changing
the form or manner which the Lord established, we ultimately debase our true worship
of God; we distance ourselves from God and mix our wine with water (see Isaiah
1:22). Just as infection and disease in our bloodstream can be pumped throughout
our body by the heart, infecting the whole body, so also will infecting the
true manner of worship distort all other aspects of our relationship with God.
The Spirit of Elijah
Again, the Lord asks, “To what purpose is the multitude of
your sacrifices unto me?” In ancient days, the most holy worship was done at temples,
whether the traveling tabernacle of Moses, or the temple in Jerusalem build of stone.
This is where the animals were sacrificed, the bread was offered, and the
incense burned. Today, our worship in temples differs slightly, but it is still
the centerpiece of our worship. We have temples now throughout the world, and we
do an abundance of “sacrifices” or holy ordinances in those temples. Yet in all
the substantial work we do, the Lord still declared, “I am full of [your] burnt offerings.”
Does that mean the Lord does not want to so offer “sacrifices” to him? Of
course not. It is not the quantity or perhaps even the method of our sacrifice,
but it boils down to the intent of our hearts.
Ultimately, the Lord is suggesting that we perform more
ordinances and increase our temple attendance without increasing our righteous
purpose. So what is the purpose of our temple worship? In Moroni’s angelic
visitation to Joseph Smith, he quoted the prophet Malachi, who prophesied that
Elijah would return before the “coming of the great and dreadful day of the
Lord.” Joseph said, “He [Moroni] also quoted the next verse [Malachi 4:6]
differently [from the Bible]: And he shall plant in the hearts of the
children the promises made to the fathers, and the hearts of the children shall
turn to their fathers” (Joseph Smith History 1:38-39).
In our cultural interpretation of this scripture, we often
return to Malachi’s original statement (or at least that which was recorded in
the Bible), which states: “And he [Elijah] shall turn the heart of the fathers
to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers” (Malachi 4:6),
and believe it means that our temple ordinances done in behalf of our deceased
ancestors is the turning of our hearts to our fathers. And so we attempt to do
as many proxy ordinances as we can, hoping perhaps that quantity will balance out
the quality, lest the earth be “utterly wasted” when the Lord comes. Yet in our
zeal to do as many proxy ordinances as possible, we have somehow missed the key
word-links that suggest we should first gain the covenant promises of our ancient
fathers before trying to link those covenants to our immediate ancestors.
Note the difference in the two statements:
Joseph
Smith History 1:39
|
Malachi
4:6
|
And he shall plant in the hearts
of the children the promises made to the fathers, and the hearts of the
children shall turn to their fathers
|
And he shall turn the heart of
the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers
|
What Moroni stated is very clear: our hearts should turn to
our ancient ancestral fathers who actually received from God’s mouth everlasting
promises, or covenants, including Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and before that,
Adam, Seth, Enoch, Noah, and others. It is an ancestral birthright blessing
containing a promise of exaltation and eternal lives. The keys of this
priesthood power are held by the prophet Elijah, and it is not the power simply
to perform ordinances that have some vague promise to be sealed upon us in the
distant future, but to truly seal ourselves, our posterity, and our ancestors, by
the Holy Spirit of Promise to God and those ancestral fathers. Until we can
obtain that promise and link our own promise (i.e., everlasting covenant)
with that promise given to our ancient fathers, then performing the ordinances
for our immediate ancestral fathers will have no true sealing effect.
Our Temple Fervor
What has developed since the increase of temples being
built throughout the world is a scurry of activity in temple attendance and
family history research, which is a beautiful and wonderful form of worship.
However, if our zeal to unearth as many ancestors as possible outweighs our
understanding of the sealing and sacred nature of the temple, then we may be
tempted to start finding ancestors in the most obscure corners of the internet
who may be questionably related to us at best. How many times have well-intended
family history researchers made educated guesses, or more likely uneducated
guesses, accidentally linking people not related by blood to their family lines
and losing sight of Malachi’s promise? We have such fervor to do as many of
these ordinance for the deceased as possible, assuming this is what God wants, yet
ignorant that God is “full of [our] burnt offerings” and “weary to bear” our oblations.
Most recently, we rely not on valued research to find our
deceased ancestors, but numerous “names” generated by apps that supply months
of temple worship for people with whom we have no emotional or spiritual connection
and sometimes no relation. We have lost much of the intimate relationships
between ourselves and our ancestral dead and refer to our ancestors as “temple
names” or “temple cards”, and if we don’t have our own, we borrow someone
else’s ancestors’ “names”. And so, they become simply a name on a page. Our increase
in temple worship is increasingly at risk for selfish service in behalf of our
own ambition to increase attendance, either so we can feel better about
ourselves or be seen as actively attending the temple, rather than selfless
sacrifices in behalf of our ancestral dead. Unfortunately, our ancestral cards
become a gateway to enter the temple and perform more ordinances.
Using the Spirit of Elijah
How then shall the Spirit of Elijah be used? It is a
linking power between heaven and earth, and is intended not only to bind
ourselves to God, but bind our ancestors to ourselves, and thus also to God. Joseph
Smith said:
“Again the doctrin [sic] or sealing power of Elijah is
as follows[:] if you have power to seal on earth & in heaven then we should
be Crafty, the first thing you do go & seal on earth your sons &
daughters unto yourself, & yourself unto your fathers in eternal glory,
& go ahead and not go back, but use a little Craftiness & seal all you
can; & when you get to heaven tell your father that what you seal on earth
should be sealed in heaven[.] I will walk through the gate of heaven
and Claim what I seal & those that follow me & my Council [sic].”[1]
In Joseph’s view of this sealing power, it is not simply to
do an ordinance and check off a box on an ordinance card, but it is to
diligently seek for the power or spirit of Elijah and when you get it, seal
your family to yourself. This is the covenant promise which Elijah will reveal
with the priesthood keys that he still holds and will forever hold. Until we
can claim these blessing, the sealing of the Holy Spirit of Promise, we have no
promise of any lasting nature either for ourselves or for our dead. Is the
temple work then of no effect? No, it has great effect and power, and whether
we have obtained this power of Elijah or not, we can still do all we can in diligence
in our temple worship; but if we fail to keep our focus on obtaining for
ourselves the sealing of the Holy Spirit of Promise, we will have no right to
claim these ancestors in the life hereafter.
Worship with Our Hearts
What, then, is the purpose of our going to the temple or
worship of the Lord? Are we going to the temple to do ancestral work? Are we
going to the temple to worship God? Are we doing it with real intent? Though we
are seen worshiping, the Lord knows whether our hearts and intents are truly pure.
It is a matter of the condition of our heart, not the ratings on our ordinance
scorecards. The Lord has grown weary because we routinely worship, but not with
a heart single to God’s glory. “But thou hast not called upon me, O Jacob; but
thou hast been weary of me, O Israel. Thou hast not brought me the small cattle
of thy burnt offerings; neither hast thou honored me with thy sacrifices. I
have not caused thee to serve with an offering, nor wearied thee with incense.
Thou hast bought me no sweet cane with money, neither hast thou filled me with
the fat of thy sacrifices; but thou hast made me to serve with thy sins, thou
hast wearied me with thine iniquities” (Isaiah 43:22-24).
How ironic that in Isaiah’s first chapter the Lord is full
of and sick of our sacrifices, and yet in Isaiah chapter 43 he is saying that
we have not filled him with the fat of our sacrifices. The key is that we have
made him “to serve with [our] sins.” We have satiated him with our vain worship.
The Lord desires not that we should become routine and ritualistic, but that
when we worship, we should go to see the Lord and to worship him in purity. “Now
this Moses plainly taught to the children of Israel in the wilderness, and
sought diligently to sanctify his people that they might behold the face of
God; but they hardened their hearts and could not endure his presence,
therefore, the Lord, in his wrath, (for his anger was kindled against them,)
swore that they should not enter into his rest, while in the wilderness, which
rest is the fulness of his glory” (D&C 4:4 [84:23-24]; emphasis added).
How are we worshiping the Lord in his holy temples? Have we received our own covenant promise? And what are we doing to obtain it?
[1]
Ehat, Andrew, and Lyndon Cook, compilers and editors. The Words of Joseph Smith. Religious Studies Center Brigham Young
University, 1980.