The Bible is a guidebook for serving God. From the first page to the last, it tells us how fallen humanity can serve the perfectly holy God and be accepted by Him. However, in the Old Testament we can read how, despite hearing God’s word, God’s own people repeatedly forgot how to serve Him and began to serve Him according to their own understanding.
But does it ultimately matter whether everything is done exactly right? Is God so finicky that, in order to be accepted by Him, a person needs a deep knowledge of theology and must be familiar with all the doctrinal nuances of Christianity?
God hates idolatry and false worship
In His Word, God forbids the worship of idols. Already in the first commandment, He warns:
“You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3).
It is often thought that idolatry consists only of serving Baal, Marduk, Zeus, or some other idol known from history instead of God or alongside Him. However, the Bible clearly shows that in God’s eyes serving Him in the wrong ways is just as bad as replacing Him with another god—and besides, it seems to have been quite common during the Old Testament period.
During the Israelites’ journey through the wilderness, Moses once stayed on Mount Sinai. The people got tired of waiting. So they asked Moses’ brother Aaron to make them a new god. Aaron cast a golden statue of a young bull, set up an altar in front of it, and said:
“Tomorrow there will be a festival to the Lord” (Exodus 32).
So the people celebrated a festival dedicated to the Lord in front of the golden bull. This was wrong. In reality, the bull represented an idol: in Egypt, the Apis bull had been worshipped, and in the land of Canaan, an idol named Baal was often associated with a bull.
Later, after King Solomon’s death, the united Kingdom of Israel split in two, and Jerusalem with its temples remained in the southern kingdom of Judah. At that time, Jeroboam, king of the northern kingdom of Israel, decided to build new shrines in Dan and Bethel so that they too could serve the Lord. He set up statues of bulls in the shrines and declared that they were gods who brought them out of Egypt (1 Kings 12:28).
The Old Testament also describes several instances in which many inhabitants of Israel and Judah worshiped the God of Israel in “the high places” instead of at the only permitted place of worship—the Temple in Jerusalem—and set up idols and Asherah poles there. Archaeologists have found evidence that the Semitic mother goddess Asherah was worshiped as the spouse of Yahweh, the God of Israel.
Idolatry, therefore, is not merely the worship of the specific idols mentioned by name, but also the worship of the God of the Bible in the wrong ways. At the same time that Aaron was building the golden bull, God gave Moses the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai. In the second commandment, God forbade people from worshiping images they had made themselves, as mentioned above.
By virtue of the same commandment, He also does not permit a person to construct their own conception of God and decide for themselves how He should be worshiped. Nevertheless, such things happened even in biblical times. The people of God’s own nation truly tested His patience. Just think: the same God who had given the people of Israel instructions on how to perform sacrificial rites for His own glory declared:
“Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me.” (Isa. 1:13)
Cain’s offering was wrong, Abel’s was right
Even as a child, I wondered about the Bible story in which Cain and Abel brought offerings to God. Cain offered the fruits of the ground, while Abel offered firstborn lambs and their fat. I didn’t understand why Cain’s offering was not acceptable to God, but the firstborn lambs Abel offered were.
There is a profound meaning in this story. First, Abel’s offering was exactly what God desired and what He later taught the patriarchs to sacrifice and, through Moses, the entire people. The sacrifice of a flawless firstborn lamb is a powerful metaphor for God’s Firstborn Lamb, Jesus Christ, who atones for humanity’s sins through His death.
God, however, did not accept Cain’s offering. Cain became very angry. Then the Lord asked Cain:
“Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door.” (Gen. 4:6-7)
Cain did not lift up his eyes to God and thus did not do what was right. He paid no heed to God’s advice, but thought he knew better what kind of offering God would accept. He offered God the fruits of his own labor. His offering was not the fruit of faith, like Abel’s, but of unbelief. This is also evident in his reaction when the All-Knowing God did not accept his offering. If Cain had had a living faith, he would have been worried and wanted to know where he had sinned against God. However, Cain did not react this way. He became angry when his offering was rejected.
Even today, many Bible readers serve God in the manner of Cain. They strive to avoid evil deeds and do as much good as possible. They pray, attend church, and get baptized. They donate money to charity and may even face persecution for speaking about Jesus. Often such people appear to be diligent servants of God and may become offended if their good deeds are underestimated. God, however, does not accept their efforts.
But why? Why did God say He hates people’s sacrifices, and why did He consider them useless? On what grounds is doing good useless, since the Bible teaches us to do good?
Presenting one’s own deeds before God is idolatry
A person who does good in order to be saved is presenting Cain’s offering before God. As Cain’s story taught us, a person can never be acceptable to God by striving to the best of their ability to avoid evil and do good. Never. Bringing one’s own deeds before God in the hope that He will appreciate them breaks the first commandment. A person who tries to earn God’s approval through their own deeds is guilty of idolatry.
“There is no one who does good, not even one.” (Psalm 14:3)
This does not mean that a person is incapable of helping their neighbor or doing good. Sure they are capable (Matt. 7:11), and it is also right that they do this—but by doing so, they do not earn God’s approval. The psalmist means that all people are sinners, that is, evildoers, and as such they cannot stand before God, no matter how much good they do. Man’s self-made righteousness is like dirty clothes before God (Isa. 64:6).
What, then, is the sacrifice that is acceptable to God? The answer is found in Psalm 51:
“You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.” (Psalm 51:16-17)
A person can bring only a plea for mercy before God. And such a plea can be brought only by a person who is aware of their sin. The evangelist John wrote:
“If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:8-9)
Jesus taught how to serve God properly
People once asked Jesus what kind of deeds are acceptable to God. Jesus replied:
“The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” (John 6:28-29)
One can only be accepted by God through true, living faith in Christ—a faith that a person has received through the forgiveness of their sins. Jesus knew that He was the only one who could please God through His deeds. He also knew that he would be sacrificed so that those who believe in him—people who consider themselves sinners—might share in his purity and thus escape the punishment of sin. That is why he stated that he had not come to call the righteous, but sinners, so that they might repent (Luke 5:31-32).
He also hoped that those who believed in him would not try to earn their salvation themselves, but he urged them only to believe in him as the atoner of sins. To Paul he said, “My grace is sufficient for you.” (2 Cor. 12:9) Clearly, Jesus also considered deeds without faith of heart to be idolatry. On several occasions he rebuked people who thought God would accept them because of their righteous deeds. An excellent example of this is the parable of the two men praying (Luke 18:9–14).
Jesus’ message was the same as God’s, who said he hates the empty sacrifices of hypocrites. Once, Jesus said to the Pharisees and teachers of the law:
“You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you: ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.’” (Matt. 15:7–9)
Obedience rather than deeds was also emphasized in Old Testament times. King Saul had disobeyed God and later tried to appease Him by promising to sacrifice to Him the livestock he had captured from his enemies. God, however, saw into his heart and said:
“To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams. For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry.” (1 Sam. 15:22-23)
Abel’s offering was acceptable to God because he believed
In many Christian churches, offerings are made to false gods. Instead of sermons and discussions focusing on how a person can have their sins forgiven and make a biblical repentance, the talk is of diaconal work, fundraising, prayer, healing the sick, and how much good each person has done. Outward matters have become more important than inward ones, and visible signs more important than faith in the heart.
Repeating Bible verses and praising God are often hypocritical worship without the Spirit. Like Cain, one person after another wants to define for themselves what kind of God they believe in and how the Bible should be interpreted. Many decide for themselves what is sin and what is acceptable for a Christian. They build their own righteousness and thus clothe themselves in the filthy garments described by Isaiah, which are unacceptable before God. Jesus asked:
“Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?” (Luke 6:46)
He also said:
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’” (Matt. 7:21-23)
Abel was a man of faith who did not present his offering as his own achievement. Instead, he wanted to use his offering to give thanks to God, who had blessed his flocks. Furthermore, he offered the sacrifice to give thanks for the coming Firstborn Lamb, Christ, who would take away his sins as well. Here we have a model of true worship. When a person has had their sins forgiven by God’s pure grace, their faith is manifested in acts of gratitude that God accepts.
Paul wrote to the Romans:
“…the people of Israel, who pursued the law as the way of righteousness, have not attained their goal. Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works…” “…they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. Since they did not know the righteousness of God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.” (Rom. 9:31–10:3)
God’s kingdom is still found on earth, and from there people are preaching people’s sins forgiven in the name and blood of Jesus. Seek this kingdom and believe your sins forgiven, and you will be saved!
“God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.” (2 Cor. 5:19-20)
Author: Kingdom of Peace
Image: iStock