Proverbs Experiment: Day Twenty-One

Sorry this is late, as Christmas gets closer and family come in, it's hard to carve out some time to do this...

Proverbs Chapter 21:

The Lord is more pleased when we do what is just and right than when we give him sacrifices.

I wonder if Solomon thought of this proverb while thinking about the guy who was king right before his father David. Saul was Israel's first king, and he did a ton of things wrong - but I believe the first recorded wrong thing is in 1 Samuel 13. Israel is at war with the Philistines, and Saul is getting anxious because only a priest was supposed to make sacrifices to God, but being the superstitious guy that he is, believes that only victory can come through offering sacrifices - so he goes ahead and does it himself.

Samuel finally arrives, and is obviously displeased that Saul decided not to wait for him. In fact, as a result of this first disobedience, Samuel tells Saul that God is going to take away his kingdom from him. It looks like God is rather serious about doing what is right and just over offering him sacrifices.

Now, obviously the meaning of this proverb changes a little bit for us in our time - we don't offer burnt offerings anymore, except at tailgate parties - but the idea still stands. God would rather have us do what is right, than to give our "sacrifice" of worship. Later on, in the books of Isaiah and Amos, God calls out his people, the Israelites, and tells them he actually hates their sacrifices, their burnt offerings - because on one hand they're supposedly doing these things for God, yet on the other hand they are depriving people in their land of justice and mercy. It reminds me of something I read in a Harper's magazine article, where the governor of Alabama was trying to make the state tax code fair, because the state tax was hurting poor families and helping rich families. The Christians of Alabama for the most part fought the tax change, because it meant that they would be taxed more - even though it wasn't that much more - and as a result the law was not passed. If I remember correctly, one of the Christian organizations who lobbied against this tax increase said something to the effect of: "the good Christians of Alabama are some of the most giving people in the nation, they just don't want it coming out of their pockets." Umm, okay.