◄ 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."
Study Bible
What use to Me
This phrase indicates God's questioning of the value or purpose of the offerings being presented to Him. In the Hebrew context, the word "use" (Hebrew: מַה־לִּי, mah-li) suggests a sense of utility or benefit. God is challenging the people of Judah to consider the true worth of their religious rituals when their hearts are far from Him. This reflects a recurring biblical theme where God desires obedience and genuine devotion over mere ritualistic practices (1 Samuel 15:22).

is frankincense from Sheba
Frankincense was a valuable resin used in worship and was often imported from Sheba, a region known for its wealth and trade in spices. The mention of "Sheba" highlights the costliness and exotic nature of the offering. However, God is emphasizing that even the most precious gifts are meaningless if offered without true repentance and faith. This underscores the biblical principle that God values the heart's condition over material offerings (Isaiah 1:11-17).

or sweet cane from a distant land?
Sweet cane, or calamus, was another aromatic plant used in sacred anointing oils and incense. The phrase "from a distant land" suggests the effort and expense involved in acquiring such items. Yet, God is pointing out that the physical distance or rarity of the offering does not compensate for a lack of spiritual sincerity. This serves as a reminder that God is not impressed by external displays of piety but seeks a relationship with His people based on truth and integrity (Micah 6:6-8).

Your burnt offerings are not acceptable
Burnt offerings were central to Israelite worship, symbolizing atonement and dedication to God. The Hebrew word for "acceptable" (רָצוֹן, ratzon) implies pleasure or favor. Here, God declares that these offerings do not bring Him pleasure because they are offered without genuine repentance. This echoes the prophetic call for a return to heartfelt worship and justice, as seen in the messages of other prophets like Amos and Hosea (Amos 5:21-24).

your sacrifices do not please Me
Sacrifices were meant to be acts of worship and reconciliation with God. The Hebrew root for "please" (חָפֵץ, chafetz) conveys delight or desire. God's rejection of these sacrifices indicates that the people's religious activities are hollow and fail to meet His standards of righteousness. This serves as a powerful reminder that God desires a contrite heart and a life aligned with His will over empty rituals (Psalm 51:16-17).

Persons / Places / Events
1. Jeremiah
A prophet called by God to deliver messages of warning and judgment to the people of Judah. His ministry spanned the reigns of several kings and was marked by his deep emotional connection to his people and his unwavering commitment to God's truth.

2. Sheba
A region known for its wealth and trade, particularly in spices and incense. It is often associated with the Queen of Sheba, who visited King Solomon, bringing gifts of spices and gold.

3. Judah
The southern kingdom of Israel, which was facing imminent judgment due to its persistent idolatry and disobedience to God.

4. Frankincense and Sweet Cane
Valuable commodities used in religious rituals and offerings. They symbolize the external acts of worship that the people of Judah were performing.

5. Burnt Offerings and Sacrifices
Central elements of the Old Testament sacrificial system, intended to atone for sin and express devotion to God. However, in this context, they are rejected by God due to the insincerity of the worshipers.
Teaching Points
True Worship vs. Ritualistic Worship
God desires genuine worship that comes from a heart aligned with His will, rather than mere external rituals. Our worship should reflect a sincere relationship with God.

The Danger of Hypocrisy
Performing religious acts without true devotion is displeasing to God. We must examine our hearts to ensure our actions align with our faith.

The Importance of Obedience
Obedience to God's commands is more valuable than any material offering. Our lives should demonstrate our commitment to His Word.

God's Desire for Justice and Righteousness
God values justice and righteousness over ritualistic practices. We are called to live out these principles in our daily lives.

Self-Examination in Worship
Regularly assess your motives and attitudes in worship. Are you seeking to honor God, or are you merely going through the motions?
Bible Study Questions
1. How does the rejection of offerings in Jeremiah 6:20 challenge our understanding of worship today?

2. In what ways can we ensure that our worship is genuine and pleasing to God, rather than merely ritualistic?

3. How do the themes in Jeremiah 6:20 relate to the teachings of Jesus in the New Testament about worship and obedience?

4. What practical steps can we take to align our lives with God's desire for justice and righteousness?

5. How can we apply the lessons from Jeremiah 6:20 to our personal and communal worship practices?
Connections to Other Scriptures
Isaiah 1:11-17
This passage echoes the theme of God rejecting insincere worship. Isaiah emphasizes that God desires justice and righteousness over ritualistic offerings.

Amos 5:21-24
Amos also speaks against empty religious practices, highlighting that God values justice and righteousness over sacrifices and festivals.

Micah 6:6-8
Micah questions what offerings are pleasing to God, concluding that God requires justice, mercy, and humility rather than extravagant sacrifices.
Sermons
Abhorred SacrificesS. Conway Jeremiah 6:20
Ostentatiousness of HypocrisyJ. Trapp.Jeremiah 6:20
Sweet and Fragrant Things Made Abominable to GodD. Young Jeremiah 6:20
Waste WorshipW. B. Haynes.Jeremiah 6:20
The Reasonableness of the Divine JudgmentsA.F. Muir Jeremiah 6:18-20
God's Appeal for Vindication of His VengeanceS. Conway Jeremiah 6:18-30
People
Benjamin, Jeremiah
Places
Beth-haccherem, Jerusalem, Sheba, Tekoa, Zion
Topics
Acceptable, Acceptance, Afar, Beasts, Burned, Burnt, Burnt-offerings, Calamus, Cane, Distant, Frankincense, Incense, Offerings, Perfume, Please, Pleasing, Pleasure, Purpose, Sacrifices, Sheba, Spices, Sweet
Dictionary of Bible Themes
Jeremiah 6:20

     4402   plants
     5587   trade
     7386   incense

Jeremiah 6:19-20

     6603   acceptance, divine

Jeremiah 6:19-23

     8822   self-justification

Library
Stedfastness in the Old Paths.
"Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls."--Jer. vi. 16. Reverence for the old paths is a chief Christian duty. We look to the future indeed with hope; yet this need not stand in the way of our dwelling on the past days of the Church with affection and deference. This is the feeling of our own Church, as continually expressed in the Prayer Book;--not to slight what has gone before, …
John Henry Newman—Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VII

A Blast of the Trumpet against False Peace
The motive with these false prophets is an abominable one. Jeremiah tells us it was an evil covetousness. They preached smooth things because the people would have it so, because they thus brought grist to their own mill, and glory to their own names. Their design was abominable, and without doubt, their end shall be desperate--cast away with the refuse of mankind. These who professed to be the precious sons of God, comparable to fine gold, shall be esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 6: 1860

Whitefield -- the Method of Grace
George Whitefield, evangelist and leader of Calvinistic Methodists, who has been called the Demosthenes of the pulpit, was born at Gloucester, England, in 1714. He was an impassioned pulpit orator of the popular type, and his power over immense congregations was largely due to his histrionic talent and his exquisitely modulated voice, which has been described as "an organ, a flute, a harp, all in one," and which at times became stentorian. He had a most expressive face, and altho he squinted, in …
Grenville Kleiser—The world's great sermons, Volume 3

Reprobation.
In discussing this subject I shall endeavor to show, I. What the true doctrine of reprobation is not. 1. It is not that the ultimate end of God in the creation of any was their damnation. Neither reason nor revelation confirms, but both contradict the assumption, that God has created or can create any being for the purpose of rendering him miserable as an ultimate end. God is love, or he is benevolent, and cannot therefore will the misery of any being as an ultimate end, or for its own sake. It is …
Charles Grandison Finney—Systematic Theology

Prefatory Scripture Passages.
To the Law and to the Testimony; if they speak not according to this Word, it is because there is no light in them.-- Isa. viii. 20. Thus saith the Lord; Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls.--Jer. vi. 16. That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive. But …
G. H. Gerberding—The Way of Salvation in the Lutheran Church

Jesus Raises the Widow's Son.
(at Nain in Galilee.) ^C Luke VII. 11-17. ^c 11 And it came to pass soon afterwards [many ancient authorities read on the next day], that he went into a city called Nain; and his disciples went with him, and a great multitude. [We find that Jesus had been thronged with multitudes pretty continuously since the choosing of his twelve apostles. Nain lies on the northern slope of the mountain, which the Crusaders called Little Hermon, between twenty and twenty-five miles south of Capernaum, and about …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

Backsliding.
"I will heal their backsliding; I will love them freely: for Mine anger is turned away."--Hosea xiv. 4. There are two kinds of backsliders. Some have never been converted: they have gone through the form of joining a Christian community and claim to be backsliders; but they never have, if I may use the expression, "slid forward." They may talk of backsliding; but they have never really been born again. They need to be treated differently from real back-sliders--those who have been born of the incorruptible …
Dwight L. Moody—The Way to God and How to Find It

An Obscured vision
(Preached at the opening of the Winona Lake Bible Conference.) TEXT: "Where there is no vision, the people perish."--Proverbs 29:18. It is not altogether an easy matter to secure a text for such an occasion as this; not because the texts are so few in number but rather because they are so many, for one has only to turn over the pages of the Bible in the most casual way to find them facing him at every reading. Feeling the need of advice for such a time as this, I asked a number of my friends who …
J. Wilbur Chapman—And Judas Iscariot

Sin Charged Upon the Surety
All we like sheep have gone astray: we have turned every one to his own way, and the LORD hath laid upon Him the iniquity of us all. C omparisons, in the Scripture, are frequently to be understood with great limitation: perhaps, out of many circumstances, only one is justly applicable to the case. Thus, when our Lord says, Behold, I come as a thief (Revelation 16:15) , --common sense will fix the resemblance to a single point, that He will come suddenly, and unexpectedly. So when wandering sinners …
John Newton—Messiah Vol. 1

An Address to the Regenerate, Founded on the Preceding Discourses.
James I. 18. James I. 18. Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. I INTEND the words which I have now been reading, only as an introduction to that address to the sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty, with which I am now to conclude these lectures; and therefore shall not enter into any critical discussion, either of them, or of the context. I hope God has made the series of these discourses, in some measure, useful to those …
Philip Doddridge—Practical Discourses on Regeneration

Scriptures Showing the Sin and Danger of Joining with Wicked and Ungodly Men.
Scriptures Showing The Sin And Danger Of Joining With Wicked And Ungodly Men. When the Lord is punishing such a people against whom he hath a controversy, and a notable controversy, every one that is found shall be thrust through: and every one joined with them shall fall, Isa. xiii. 15. They partake in their judgment, not only because in a common calamity all shares, (as in Ezek. xxi. 3.) but chiefly because joined with and partakers with these whom God is pursuing; even as the strangers that join …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

How those who Fear Scourges and those who Contemn them are to be Admonished.
(Admonition 14.) Differently to be admonished are those who fear scourges, and on that account live innocently, and those who have grown so hard in wickedness as not to be corrected even by scourges. For those who fear scourges are to be told by no means to desire temporal goods as being of great account, seeing that bad men also have them, and by no means to shun present evils as intolerable, seeing they are not ignorant how for the most part good men also are touched by them. They are to be admonished …
Leo the Great—Writings of Leo the Great

Christian Meekness
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth Matthew 5:5 We are now got to the third step leading in the way to blessedness, Christian meekness. Blessed are the meek'. See how the Spirit of God adorns the hidden man of the heart, with multiplicity of graces! The workmanship of the Holy Ghost is not only curious, but various. It makes the heart meek, pure, peaceable etc. The graces therefore are compared to needlework, which is different and various in its flowers and colours (Psalm 45:14). …
Thomas Watson—The Beatitudes: An Exposition of Matthew 5:1-12

Jeremiah
The interest of the book of Jeremiah is unique. On the one hand, it is our most reliable and elaborate source for the long period of history which it covers; on the other, it presents us with prophecy in its most intensely human phase, manifesting itself through a strangely attractive personality that was subject to like doubts and passions with ourselves. At his call, in 626 B.C., he was young and inexperienced, i. 6, so that he cannot have been born earlier than 650. The political and religious …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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