Beware of the idolatry of service

Isaiah 43:22-24

22 “But you have not called upon Me, O Jacob;

And you have been weary of Me, O Israel.

23 You have not brought Me the sheep for your burnt offerings,

Nor have you honored Me with your sacrifices.

I have not caused you to serve with grain offerings,

Nor wearied you with incense.

24 You have bought Me no sweet cane with money,

Nor have you satisfied Me with the fat of your sacrifices;

But you have burdened Me with your sins,

You have wearied Me with your iniquities.

Some poignant adaptations from Alec Motyer’s devotional translation of Isaiah…

“Watch out for religion that does not reach God!  How many have fallen into the the tragedy of knowing the true God yet falling into fill-in-the-blank checklist-based business-like project-management task-oriented get-the-job-done false religion?  How many have approached their work and worship more like an engineering problem than a drawing near with an open heart sincerely?  

Questions we ought ask…

First, then, are we truly devoted to the God we worship so that the center of our religion is the longing to come to him (v. 22a), and to revel, unwearyingly, in what he has revealed about himself (vv. 22b)? The old Brethren practice of ‘the Gospel on Sunday night’ had much to commend it – constant refreshment in the great basic truths of which we should never tire is a mark of true religion. 

Second, then again, is our religious practice – our daily devotions in prayer and the Word of God, and our commitment to church fellowship and Sunday ‘services’ – a bondage to which we have ‘enslaved’ ourselves (v. 23), or is it an experienced liberation of spirit and a proved means of spiritual growth?

And, thirdly (v. 24), is there even the smallest feeling in our hearts that because we are so committed, God ‘owes us’; that we have managed to ‘put pressure on him’, twisted the divine arm, made him obligated, secured him as our ‘slave’ to do our bidding? There is a narrow dividing line between giving our all in devoted service to Jesus, and finding our all in devoted service as such.  Is it not for this reason that many ministers and elders find it hard to pass on their work to another generation?  They have lost that to which they were devoted; hanging on because they neither know who God is nor who they are without the title (reverend, elder, etc….) they have grown so used to thinking themselves to be.  We aged men must ask ourselves: who am I and what worth have I apart from the work I do and the titles others have bestowed upon me?

No wonder John exhorts us to keep ourselves from idols (1 John 5:21). The previous verse says, ‘The Son of God has come’! Nothing must replace or displace that central, basic, essential fact. 

Jesus alone is worthy, and our worthiness is only in Him.