Jeremiah 7-9

[wolfpurplemoon]

God does his best to remind the people that he had more rules than just the ones about sacrifices and burnt offerings. Apparently they went a bit far with the sacrifices and offered their children too.

God doesn't want to judge and punish his people but they left him no choice with their wickedness, what else could he possibly do?

You shouldn't boast about your wisdom or riches, but go ahead and boast that you understand God's ways and why he acts like he does. How about we don't do any boasting at all, that'd be nice.

Comments

[zteccc.livejournal.com]

You've somewhat made God's point in this section. God didn't simply want sacrifices that had no spirit of atonement behind them, no change of behavior. God wanted people to obey, not to sacrifice.

I'm not certain if you'd have preferred for the people to sacrifice something more personal to show they really meant it (a limb perhaps), but given the value of animals and the real cost it would have been to most people to sacrifice one, you can't say they didn't pay a penalty.

It appears that what you are really trying to say is that sacrifice, at all, whether of an animal or anything else, doesn't make sense as a method of atonement for sins. I'm interested in knowing what method for atonement of sins would be acceptable. After all, one cannot pay a fine directly to God, one cannot undo the sin, nor can one make themselves pure in any fashion. The sacrifice was an outward showing of a repentant heart. It had practical purposes, of feeding the priesthood, of sharing a meal (symbolically) with God, of exacting a fine for the sin. It also had the symbolic purpose of renewing a covenant with blood (a very common practice among people of the Middle East prior to the dark ages). Further it was a symbolic offering to God as a penitent act in the hopes that God would accept the offering and grant forgiveness (the Christian resolution of this is vastly simpler). Note as well that some sacrifices were not animals, but grain or other produce (especially if the repentant sinner was poor).

One could, I suspect, say that atonement is only in the heart of the sinner, and if the sinner repents, the there is nothing more needed. The problem with that would be that some sins are very visible to one's neighbors, sometimes even causing them harm. The sacrifice is a public acknowledgment of that sin and public statement of repentance. It involves a modicum of punishment for the sin as well as a ceremonial cleansing both of which are necessary when others are impacted by the sin.

In the end, the practice of sacrifice isn't really the point of this passage, the lack of obedience by the nation of Judah and their reliance on sacrifices as a way to cover them up is the real point. Whether or not you like the sacrifices or understand them, that was their law and custom, but higher in their law and custom was obedience of God's word, and they failed in the first part and tried to cover it up with sacrifices, much like an unrepentant child will say they are sorry and continue to do the very thing they apologized for.