Which other scriptures highlight God's supremacy over human rituals and sacrifices? Isaiah 40:16 — Starting Point “Lebanon is not sufficient for fuel, nor its animals enough for a burnt offering.” Other Scriptures Highlighting God’s Supremacy over Human Rituals and Sacrifices - Isaiah 1:11–17 — “What is the multitude of your sacrifices to Me?” says the LORD. “I am full of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed cattle; I have no desire for 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. New Moons, Sabbaths, and convocations—I cannot endure iniquity in a solemn assembly. I hate your New Moons and your appointed feasts; they have become a burden to Me; I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide My eyes from you; even though you multiply your prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are covered with blood. Wash and cleanse yourselves. Remove your evil deeds from My sight. Stop doing evil! Learn to do right; seek justice; correct the oppressor; defend the fatherless; plead the cause of the widow.” - 1 Samuel 15:22 — “But Samuel declared: ‘Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obedience to the voice of the LORD? Behold, obedience is better than sacrifice, and attentiveness is better than the fat of rams.’” - Psalm 40:6–8 — “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. I delight to do Your will, O my God; Your law is within my heart.’” - Psalm 50:8–15 — “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. I know every bird of the mountains, and the creatures of the field are Mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world is Mine, and the fullness thereof. Do I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats? Sacrifice a thank offering to God, and fulfill your vows to the Most High. Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor Me.” - 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 — “To do righteousness and justice is more desirable to the LORD than sacrifice.” - Hosea 6:6 — “For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.” - 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; nor will I regard the peace offerings of your fattened bulls. Take away from Me the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the melody of your harps. But let justice roll on like a river, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” - Micah 6:6–8 — “With what shall I come before the LORD when I bow before the exalted God? Shall I come to Him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Would the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I offer 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?” - Jeremiah 7:21–24 — “Thus says the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel: ‘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 speak with them or command them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices, but this is what I commanded them: “Obey My voice, 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.” Yet they did not listen or incline their ear, but walked in the stubbornness of their own evil hearts. They went backward and not forward.’” - Matthew 9:13 — “But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” - 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, is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” - Hebrews 10:4–10 — “Because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Therefore, when Christ came into the world, He said: ‘Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but a body You prepared for Me; in burnt offerings and sin offerings You took no delight.’ Then I said, ‘Here I am—it is written about Me in the scroll—I have come to do Your will, O God.’ In the passage above He says, ‘Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings You did not desire, nor did You delight in them’ (although they are offered according to the law). Then He adds, ‘Here I am, I have come to do Your will.’ He takes away the first to establish the second. And by that will, we have been sanctified through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” “Therefore let no one judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a feast, a New Moon, or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the body that casts it belongs to Christ.” - Hebrews 9:14 — “How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself unblemished to God, purify our consciences from works of death, so that we may serve the living God!” |
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