I mean, this just so typical of humanity.
I tell my 8 year old son to put his toys away. He picks them up in the living room and drops them in the doorway to his room. Is that what I meant? No. Does he know that? Yes. Does he try to convince us both that he obeyed? Absolutely. Does he roll his eyes when he gets in trouble? You better believe it!
Over and over an over. Instruction. Some semblance of almost obeying, a slight acknowledgment that a request was made. Correction. Irritation at being corrected. How tedious!
God made his requirements very clear. He is God. He is to be given the very best. The flawless. That is both what makes it a sacrifice and what makes it worthy of God. Anything less is unsuitable, and only the best demonstrates the heart of worship that is the true objective. Because let’s be honest, there is nothing about the most perfect lamb to ever be born that is truly sufficient. There is no sacrifice that could be offered that is truly good enough. It is entirely about the heart of the supplicant, the heart of the people as they bow before the Lord.
And Israel is clearly not bowing before the Lord with a heart of worship.
Here, take our leftovers. Take the animals we don’t really want anyway. Take the ones that were already sacrificed to another god. Take the the least amount of effort we could possibly put in before we just stop entirely. And then we’ll complain that it isn’t enough. And when we called out, we’ll roll our eyes, impatient for the lecture to end so we can just go back to doing what we really want to anyway.
Oh, they are such whiny brats, but aren’t we all? Don’t we all fall into the habit of going through the motions, and don’t we all get irritated when someone reminds us that it isn’t even the motions that really matter, it is, in fact, the effort that we put in?
Sure, we don’t live our entire lives in that state (I hope). We have our good days, too. We throw our hearts and souls in our worship and we pursue the Lord as we should. Let’s just be honest, though. We get tired. We get distracted. So let us all be on guard against the eye-rolling at the very least. Let us be grateful for the reminders that call us back to intentional worship.