Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

But Samuel replied:
“Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices
    as much as in obeying the Lord?
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.
Because you have rejected the word of the Lord,
    he has rejected you as king.”

• 1 Samuel 15:22-23

Sacrifice and offering you did not desire—
    but my ears you have opened—
    burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not require.
Then I said, “Here I am, I have come—
    it is written about me in the scroll.
I desire to do your will, my God;
    your law is within my heart.”

• Psalm 40:6-8

To do what is right and just
    is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.

• Proverbs 21:3

For when I brought your ancestors out of Egypt and spoke to them, I did not just give them commands about burnt offerings and sacrifices, but I gave them this command: Obey me, and I will be your God and you will be my people. Walk in obedience to all I command you, that it may go well with you.

• Jeremiah 7:22-23

For I desire mercy, not sacrifice,
    and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.

• Hosea 6:6

“The French philosopher and historian Rene Girard writes and teaches across a wide range of subjects, from economics to literary criticism. He is best known for his theory of mimetic desire. In Deceit, Desire and the Novel (1961), Girard uses ancient mythology and modern fiction to show that human desire, as distinct from animal appetite, is always aroused by the desire of another. His study of the origins of violence, Violence and the Sacred (1972), goes further by arguing that this imitated desire leads to conflict and violence. Religion, Girard states, originated with the process of victimization or sacrifice that was used to quell the violence.”

• Sam Atkinson (senior editor), The Philosophy Book, Big Ideas Simply Explained

René Noël Théophile Girard (1923-2015) was a French historian, literary critic and philosopher in the tradition of philosophical anthropology.  The concept of his mimetic theory of desire is that we do not know what we should desire, so we mimic the desires of other people.

And he may have something there.  But, he never found the real object of desire or he would have abandoned his theories for a relationship with Jesus.

I read the second half of the quote and was offended by it.  I cannot remember which historian studied all the wars that are in the history books, and very few have anything to do with religion as the cause.  The people who shout that all wars have religion at the root have no data to stand on.  They are just mimicking Adolph Hitler who said if you shout loud enough and often enough, you can get the people to believe anything.

But the point is not good religion.  The point is knowing the source of your passion and the desire of your heart on a personal level.

Most people that sit in the pews in churches around the world are as Girard states, they are mimicking those around them, trying to capture the feeling of possibly maybe thinking that they know something.  But that something can only be known with a full surrender to God.  Yet, they fail to surrender.

When we surrender to Him, He enters us and gives us the understanding necessary to know why things had been done and how things will be done.

The animal sacrifices were never used to quell the violence.  Sacrifices were made to temporarily cover the sins of the people making the sacrifices.  There was no victimization.  People were punished in a just manner, painted with a broad stroke of Mercy.

If we are not quite right in the head and we anthropomorphize the animal being sacrificed, then we might think the animal was victimized, but we have a lot of people today that reject God’s Creation.  Only man had God breathe into His nostrils, and only man is made in the image of God.  I am thinking of having a burger today, or tostadas, or something else with meat in it.  We will live lavishly in the next life without killing animals for our food, but we are not there yet.

But to read the book of Leviticus without knowing why blood sacrifices have to be made, you can get the idea of victimization, violence, and mayhem.

But when we realize that we are sinners and Jesus Christ gave His life so that we could live, and have life abundantly, then we see the symbolism of those sacrifices.  We see the inadequacy of those sacrifices.

And as Samuel told Saul, God cares about obedience much more than sacrifice.  God cares about having a relationship with us.  We have the opportunity of having the Holy Spirit indwell us.  We need to grab onto that and really get to know God.

What set Moses and David apart from other Old Testament people?  Their face-to-face time with God.  It was real.  It was personal.

That is what God wants with us.  And when we get closer to that, we understand about blood being shed for our sins.  We understand what God was accomplishing from Genesis to Revelation.  And we are humbled by it all.

Jesus Christ did that for me.

If you like these Tuesday morning essays about philosophy and other “heavy topics,” but you think you missed a few, you can use this LINK. I have set up a page off the home page for links to these Tuesday morning posts. I will continue to modify the page as I add more.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.