“Your acts of worship
    are acts of sin:
Your sacrificial slaughter of the ox
    is no different from murdering the neighbor;
Your offerings for worship,
    no different from dumping pig’s blood on the altar;
Your presentation of memorial gifts,
    no different from honouring a no-god idol.
You choose self-serving worship,
    you delight in self-centred worship—disgusting!
Well, I choose to expose your nonsense
    and let you realize your worst fears,
Because when I invited you, you ignored me;
    when I spoke to you, you brushed me off.
You did the very things I exposed as evil,
    you chose what I hate.” (The Message).

If you have a building, however glorious (whether it’s the temple or a church), but the people in it do not humble themselves before God and His Word, what you end up with is ”self-serving worship” and ”self-centred worship”. It is a ”form of godliness” but lacking the ”power” (2 Tim.3:5). J.B. Phillips translates this verse: ”They will maintain a facade of “religion”, but their conduct will deny its validity. ” There is something here to steer clear of. Tom Hale says that God ‘detests purely ritualistic acts of worship. He adds that in God’s eyes, such acts are equivalent to brutality and idolatry; they are abominations.’ ‘Applied Old Testament Commentary’, pp.1072,1073.

Barry Webb comments that Isaiah ‘…was not against the temple, but against ecclesiasticism, that ugly distortion of true religion which inevitably reasserts itself where there is no recognition of the greatness of God or heartfelt contrition before him (1-2). ‘Isaiah’, p.247.

Prayer: Dear Lord, how we want to worship you with our whole hearts. Cleanse our services; purify the hearts of the worshippers. Deliver us from ritualism. Cause us to bring to you not only the offering of our lips, but also our lives. When you speak, enable us to hear and obey. Help us to bring to you Spirit-led worship, anchored in your truth. For your glory.