Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Put your burnt offerings unto your sacrifices, and eat flesh. For I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices: But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you. But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward (Jeremiah 7:21-24).
God’s true heart’s desire from the beginning is that His people listen to His voice and obey His commandments. There are two things that will happen if we do that:
1. God will be our God and we will be His people.
The relationship between God and His people is marked by people listening to His voice and do all His commandments. If there are no signs like that, then God can not be called God and we can not be termed as His people.
God will be able to serve as our God if we listen to His voice and do all His commandments. We will be able to enjoy the privileges as His people if we listen to His voice and do all His commandments.
This is the concept of worship that God established from the beginning, but the old covenant replaced the original concept of worship decreed by God from the beginning and replace it with a homemade religious concepts derived from the hardness of their heart. They gave a lot of sacrifices, with hope that God was satisfied.
You can give a lot of sacrifices to God, but if you do not give him what He wants the most, you still can not satisfy His heart. Conversely, if you give Him just one thing He wants the most, you will satisfy His heart.
Worship must have a divine encounter element in it, worship must listen to His voice so that the people can hear His voice and live according to His voice. Do not ever replace the presence of God with an entertaining event and never replace the thundering voice of God with a thunderous noise of the offerings.
2. We will live in joy.
Replacing the original worship which God established from the beginning with our own designed service that is actually rooted in the hardness of our hearts that do not want to listen to His voice and do all His commandments will only bring curses in the life of the church and congregation.
But if we are fulfilling what God wanted from the beginning, it will bring tremendous happiness in the life of the church and congregation.
Thus saith the LORD, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; I am the LORD thy God which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go. O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea: Thy seed also had been as the sand, and the offspring of thy bowels like the gravel thereof; his name should not have been cut off nor destroyed from before me (Isaiah 48:17-19)
The Scripture says very clearly, if we listen to His voice and do all His commandments then we will have peace like a river that never dries. In any circumstances, peace will remain there.
And our happiness will continue to abound as the ocean waves that never stop. It means happiness will continue to exist and never stop, even to our grandchildren.
The cause why the God’s promise is not fulfilled in our lives is this: Because we have replaced the ordinances of the Lord with our own design.
BACK TO THE ORIGINAL FROM GOD!
NO MORE SUBSTITUTE!
And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams (I Samuel 15:22).
Also read: God or Gold?
