XPost: alt.christnet.christianlife, alt.religion.christian.east-orthodox   
   From: dr.who@biosphere.orb   
      
   Some would use this verses and others similar to it as if to mean that God   
   really didn't desire the Jews to follow the laws of blood sacrifices.   
      
   Isa 1:11   
      
   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.   
      
   However, a reading of these scriptures in context paints a far different   
   picture, as God Clearly spells out his will and his desires for his people.   
      
   Isa 1:12-20   
      
   12 When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to   
   tread my courts?   
      
   13 Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new   
   moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is   
   iniquity, even the solemn meeting.   
      
   14 Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a   
   trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them.   
      
   15 And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea,   
   when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.   
      
   16 Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before   
   mine eyes; cease to do evil;   
      
   17 Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the   
   fatherless, plead for the widow.   
      
   18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be   
   as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson,   
   they shall be as wool.   
      
   19 If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land:   
      
   20 But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the   
   mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.   
      
   Yes, this is the word of the Lord through Isaiah to all of us. The Lord said   
   he did not care for things done "for him" via the vain reasonings of men.   
   They did all the right things out of the vanities of their mind as their   
   hearts were not in it. So the did it because it was "traditional", it was   
   ordered, but they did not do it out of thankfulness of their hearts. They did   
   not follow out of Gratitude that the Lord had provided a way for them to   
   receive righteousness and its attendant blessings.   
      
   They did it to get by. To seem righteous before others, to be religiously   
   correct, even in all their sin and shame of that day the Lord was willing to   
   forgive and forget. To restore the peoples unto himself. But NOooooo, they   
   wanted their cake and to eat it too. So the allowed bitterness and resentment   
   to over ride their desires to serve the Lord.   
      
   This is pretty much true today as it was then. God of today has the same   
   desires as he did then, but now it is for all the world inclusive, if they   
   would but turn and worship him and none other.   
      
   Something to think about and consider as one follows their religious   
   holidays, feasts and fastings. Honoring the days, or weeks or months with   
   religious holidays and foods, yet it stems not from a strong desire to serve   
   the Lord, but grudgingly as a "fine Christian". The Lord should be our First   
   Love in priority, in actions as well. All the churches singing droll songs of   
   worship he has had his fill of, let us sing with a thankful, joyful, hearts   
   that have been redeemed.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)