My dear readers,

The Person is More Important than The Sacrifice!

Proverbs 15:8 “The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD: but the prayer of the upright is his delight.” (Antithetical parallelism)

Immolation for a cause that man thinks is right in his eyes has been a common practice throughout the ages in almost all societies. The views of such a devotion of giving up one’s life for what one thinks to be a just cause span from one of great admiration (often from those who also hold to the same cause) to great foolishness (often from those who do not understand or appreciate the cause). Seldom do we take into consideration the person’s character. The sacrificial act dominates the psyche of the person; one tends to only evaluate the actions rather than the inner motive of the person. When a person gives a large sum of money to build a hospital or an orphanage or a school, the act dominates and what the person is is often ignored. That the person is an adulterer or a malicious, merciless businessman is not taken into consideration at all. A monument or a plaque might even be made to commemorate his large donation. Thank God, this is not the case with God who is omniscient and knows the heart of man. His manner of judgment is clearly seen in Proverbs 15:8.

The Sacrifice of the Wicked – Referring to professing believers in particular, God reveals here that the sacrifice of the wicked person is an abomination to Him. A wicked person is actively a bad person. A believer makes mistakes sometimes but generally he seeks the glory of God in Christ. He repents when he sins. But the wicked person is one who deliberately does evil even in things pertaining to God. He has ulterior motives in what he does, even those things taught in Holy Scriptures that all believers ought to obey. He could even be a pastor or an elder who serves in a church but he does so with the purpose of self-aggrandisement or to fleece the flock. Such wicked persons are not born again in Christ. That is why their sacrifices (like sin-offering or burnt offering, etc.) are hateful to God.

The reason is that the Bible describes their sacrifices as an abomination. This is a serious sin to commit. The word “abomination” is also used by God to describe some very heinous sins. A few examples are: Leviticus 18:22 “Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.” Leviticus 18:19-21 “Also thou shalt not approach unto a woman to uncover her nakedness, as long as she is put apart for her uncleanness. 20 Moreover thou shalt not lie carnally with thy neighbour's wife, to defile thyself with her. 21 And thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Molech, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am the LORD.” Leviticus 18:23-29 “Neither shalt thou lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith: neither shall any woman stand before a beast to lie down thereto: it is confusion. 24 Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things: for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you: 25 And the land is defiled: therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants. 26 Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments, and shall not commit any of these abominations; neither any of your own nation, nor any stranger that sojourneth among you: 27 (For all these abominations have the men of the land done, which were before you, and the land is defiled;) 28 That the land spue not you out also, when ye defile it, as it spued out the nations that were before you. 29 For whosoever shall commit any of these abominations, even the souls that commit them shall be cut off from among their people.”  

Why does God rank the sin of the “sacrifice of the wicked” with such sins of the flesh? The sin of Proverbs 15:8a is a spiritual sin. The person calls himself a child of God and that is why he has brought before God a sacrifice. He masquerades as one who is religious and knows God, pretending to promote God’s holiness, thus deceiving the gullible into thinking that he is on God's side. But in reality he is a child of the devil destroying the truth and image of God by his hypocrisy and pretentious religious acts. He stumbles more sinners and God's people than the heinous sins mentioned above.

The Prayer of the Upright – In stark contrast is the child of God whom the LORD describes as one who brings delight, i.e. favour and pleasure, to Him. It is not that his sacrifices are not pleasing to the LORD but rather the LORD highlights the heart and soul of all sacrificers. He communes with God in prayer. He walks closely with his God and Saviour Jesus Christ. Since the LORD only hears the prayers of a righteous person, the LORD will surely accept not only the sacrifices but also the entire life of the righteous person. Sacrifices before the LORD is only acceptable to the LORD when it is brought by one whose life is righteous before the all knowing God. It is the life of the believer that the LORD accepts first before all his acts including the sacrifices that He commands all His people to obey. A superficial form of holiness before God that denies the power thereof, whereby the life of the worshipper is not transformed as evidence of a new life of holiness in Christ, is a mockery and an abomination to Him. A close walk with his heavenly Father will surely mean sacrifices given out of love for Christ and will always be done according to holy Scriptures. If God were to accept the sacrifices of the wicked, then He would be no better than the idols whose followers bear fruits of iniquities and wickedness. The thrice holy God will never accept the sacrifices of the wicked but only of the righteous.

     The solution to the wicked and being rejected as Proverbs 15:8b teaches us is to repent and return to the LORD. To pray without ceasing means to keep a continual communion with the LORD. Ask Him for help before all things are done no matter how trivial or how routine they have become in your daily life. The lesson is to have a nearness of God in your life. When things in your life happen, you would be aware of the LORD’s doing and hence His presence in your daily life. The prayers will turn into experiential realities that are priceless. A Testimony – “How much does a prayer weigh? The only man I ever knew who tried to weigh one still does not know.

     Once upon a time he thought he did. That was when he owned a little grocery store on the West side. It was the week before Christmas after the World War. A tired-looking woman came into the store and asked him for enough food to make up a Christmas dinner for her children. He asked her how much she could afford to spend.

     She answered, "My husband was killed in the war. I have nothing to offer but a little prayer."

     This man confesses that he was not very sentimental in those days. A grocery store could not be run like a bread line.

     So he said, "Write it on paper," and turned about his business.

     To his surprise, the woman plucked a piece of paper out of her bosom and handed it to him over the counter and said, "I did that during the night watching over my sick baby."

     The grocer took the paper before he could recover from his surprise, and then regretted having done so! For what would he do with it, what could he say?

     Then an idea suddenly came to him. He placed the paper, without even reading the prayer, on the weight side of his old-fashioned scales. He said, "We shall see how much food this is worth."

     To his astonishment the scale would not go down when he put a loaf of bread on the other side. To his confusion and embarrassment, it would not go down though he kept on adding food, anything he could lay his hands on quickly, because people were watching him.

     He tried to be gruff and he was making a bad job of it. His face got red and it made him angry to be flustered.

     So finally he said, "Well, that's all the scales will hold anyway. Here's a bag. You'll have to put it in yourself. I'm busy."

     With what sounded like a gasp or a little sob, she took the bag and started packing in the food, wiping her eyes on her sleeves every time her arm was free to do so. He tried not to look, but he could not help seeing that he had given her a pretty big bag and that it was not quite full. So he tossed a large cheese down the counter, but he did not say anything; nor did he see the timid smile of grateful understanding which glistened in her moist eyes at this final betrayal of the grocer's crusty exterior.

     When the woman had gone, he went to look at the scales, scratching his head and shaking it in puzzlement. Then he found the solution. The scales were broken.

     The grocer is an old man now. His hair is white. But he still scratches it in the same place and shakes it slowly back and forth with the same puzzled expression. He never saw the woman again. And, come to think of it, he had never seen her before either. Yet for the rest of his life he remembered her better than any other woman in the world and thought of her more often.

     He knew it had not been just his imagination, for he still had the slip of paper upon which the woman's prayer had been written: "Please, Lord, give us this day our daily bread." (Matthew 6:11) — The Lifeline" [Encyclopaedia of 15,000 Illustrations: Signs of the Times.]

Yours faithfully in the Saviour’s Service

Rev Dr Quek Suan Yew, Pastor