God Doesn’t Need Us: We Need Him: Exploring some of the Backwards Thinking Common to Many Religious and Non-Religious Alike
Many people think that we are doing God a “favor” by reading a religious text, doing good things, going to religious services, etc. It’s a box to check off.
It’s one of the top reasons why some people are very casually religious. They may want to be “religious enough to go to Heaven”. They may think that you need to be religious to go to Heaven, or they may be seeking to “prove” the validity of their conversion experience of being “born again” after praying a prayer of salvation.
It’s also one of the top reasons why some people who believe in God delay becoming religious. They plan to do it right before they die, in order to experience the “freedom” from “the shackles of religion” for most of their life.
In reality, that’s backwards thinking that can be harmful to us, reducing the possibility of us reaping the rewards of what these things are meant for: our own good. In reality, “freedom” apart from God is in a state of bondage that only God can help to set someone free from.
God Doesn’t Need Us
Romans 11:33
Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.
Micah 6:6-8: Our Ritual Obedience & Gifts (Even when Extremely Valuable) to God Don’t Really Give God Anything More than He Already Has, & Aren’t as Important as Justice, Kindness, & Humility
Micah 6: 6 “With what shall I come before the Lord,
and bow myself before God on high?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
with calves a year old?
7 Will the Lord be pleased with[a] thousands of rams,
with ten thousands of rivers of oil?
Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”
8 He has told you, O man, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,[b]
and to walk humbly with your God?
Zechariah 7: God Sees Through Ritual Obedience In the Absence of Justice & Mercy & the Presence of Oppression & Will Punish the Hypocritical
7 In the fourth year of King Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, which is Chislev. 2 Now the people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regem-melech and their men to entreat the favor of the Lord, 3 saying to the priests of the house of the Lord of hosts and the prophets, “Should I weep and abstain in the fifth month, as I have done for so many years?”
4 Then the word of the Lord of hosts came to me: 5 “Say to all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth month and in the seventh, for these seventy years, was it for me that you fasted? 6 And when you eat and when you drink, do you not eat for yourselves and drink for yourselves? 7 Were not these the words that the Lord proclaimed by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and prosperous, with her cities around her, and the South and the lowland were inhabited?’”
8 And the word of the Lord came to Zechariah, saying, 9 “Thus says the Lord of hosts, Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another, 10 do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor, and let none of you devise evil against another in your heart.” 11 But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder and stopped their ears that they might not hear.[a] 12 They made their hearts diamond-hard lest they should hear the law and the words that the Lord of hosts had sent by his Spirit through the former prophets. Therefore great anger came from the Lord of hosts. 13 “As I[b] called, and they would not hear, so they called, and I would not hear,” says the Lord of hosts, 14 “and I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations that they had not known. Thus the land they left was desolate, so that no one went to and fro, and the pleasant land was made desolate.”
Isaiah 1: 10-17 God Sees Through Ritual Obedience like Giving Sacrificially to God, Prayer & Church Attendance In the Absence of Justice & the Presence of Oppression of those Less Fortunate. 18-20 God will Bless You if You Repent & Turn from Your Ways
10 Hear the word of the Lord,
you rulers of Sodom!
Give ear to the teaching[b] of our God,
you people of Gomorrah!
11 “What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices?
says the Lord;
I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams
and the fat of well-fed beasts;
I do not delight in the blood of bulls,
or of lambs, or of goats.
12 “When you come to appear before me,
who has required of you
this trampling of my courts?
13 Bring no more vain offerings;
incense is an abomination to me.
New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations—
I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly.
14 Your new moons and your appointed feasts
my soul hates;
they have become a burden to me;
I am weary of bearing them.
15 When you spread out your hands,
I will hide my eyes from you;
even though you make many prayers,
I will not listen;
your hands are full of blood.
16 Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean;
remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes;
cease to do evil,
17 learn to do good;
seek justice,
correct oppression;
bring justice to the fatherless,
plead the widow’s cause.
18 “Come now, let us reason[c] together, says the Lord:
though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red like crimson,
they shall become like wool.
19 If you are willing and obedient,
you shall eat the good of the land;
20 but if you refuse and rebel,
you shall be eaten by the sword;
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
Isaiah 58: 1-7 God Sees Through Ritual Obedience & Desire to be Closer to God In the Absence of Justice, in the Presence of Oppression of Others, & in Failure to Sacrifice of What You Have for those in Need. 8-14 God will Bless You if You Turn from Your Ways & “pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted”
1 “Cry aloud; do not hold back;
lift up your voice like a trumpet;
declare to my people their transgression,
to the house of Jacob their sins.
2 Yet they seek me daily
and delight to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that did righteousness
and did not forsake the judgment of their God;
they ask of me righteous judgments;
they delight to draw near to God.
3 ‘Why have we fasted, and you see it not?
Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?’
Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure,[a]
and oppress all your workers.
4 Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight
and to hit with a wicked fist.
Fasting like yours this day
will not make your voice to be heard on high.
5 Is such the fast that I choose,
a day for a person to humble himself?
Is it to bow down his head like a reed,
and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him?
Will you call this a fast,
and a day acceptable to the Lord?
6 “Is not this the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of wickedness,
to undo the straps of the yoke,
to let the oppressed[b] go free,
and to break every yoke?
7 Is it not to share your bread with the hungry
and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover him,
and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?
8 Then shall your light break forth like the dawn,
and your healing shall spring up speedily;
your righteousness shall go before you;
the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.
9 Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer;
you shall cry, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’
If you take away the yoke from your midst,
the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness,
10 if you pour yourself out for the hungry
and satisfy the desire of the afflicted,
then shall your light rise in the darkness
and your gloom be as the noonday.
11 And the Lord will guide you continually
and satisfy your desire in scorched places
and make your bones strong;
and you shall be like a watered garden,
like a spring of water,
whose waters do not fail.
12 And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt;
you shall raise up the foundations of many generations;
you shall be called the repairer of the breach,
the restorer of streets to dwell in.
13 “If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath,
from doing your pleasure[c] on my holy day,
and call the Sabbath a delight
and the holy day of the Lord honorable;
if you honor it, not going your own ways,
or seeking your own pleasure,[d] or talking idly;[e]
14 then you shall take delight in the Lord,
and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth;[f]
I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father,
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
Matthew 23:23-26: Justice & Mercy are More Important than Strictly Following the Minutia of the Law in Other Matters & Failure to Do Justice & Mercy is a Big Deal, Demonstrating Hypocrisy
Matthew 23: 23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. 24 You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!
25 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26 You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.
So does all that mean that Gifts to God & ritual Obedience are not Meaningful & not Important? Is there Hope for Redemption if we have been Hypocritical?
Giving and sacrifice for God can absolutely be meaningful, as long as not given hypocritically and when given in a right spirit.
41 And he sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums. 42 And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny.[f] 43 And he called his disciples to him and said to them, “Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. 44 For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”
God cares more about the heart of people in giving & in other issues than man does.
1 Samuel 16:7 says regarding Samuel being confused about God’s choice of David as king when he was just a small shepard boy & when David was initially overlooked, “…the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.“
We see this aspect of things in Psalm 51, which king David wrote after being confronted in grave sin. King David, who had been a man after God’s own heart (but who no longer was at the time), had, in his pride and power, abused his position and done the unthinkable, committing adultery & having sex with one of his top soldier’s wives (a very good & noble man also) and then effectively murdering the soldier to cover it up before taking the woman as his wife.
After being confronted by a prophet of God, there were severe consequences for his sin. David was truly repentant. He wrote the following in Psalm 51:
To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.
51 Have mercy on me,[a] O God,
according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin!
3 For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me.
4 Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you may be justified in your words
and blameless in your judgment.
5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
and in sin did my mother conceive me.
6 Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being,
and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.
7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8 Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones that you have broken rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins,
and blot out all my iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right[b] spirit within me.
11 Cast me not away from your presence,
and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and uphold me with a willing spirit.
13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
and sinners will return to you.
14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God,
O God of my salvation,
and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.
15 O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth will declare your praise.
16 For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it;
you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
18 Do good to Zion in your good pleasure;
build up the walls of Jerusalem;
19 then will you delight in right sacrifices,
in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings;
then bulls will be offered on your altar.
Are Lavish Gifts a Waste?
The above mentioned passages in Micah, Zechariah, Isaiah, & Matthew don’t mean that extremely lavish gifts and ritual obedience aren’t important for people that God loves and it doesn’t mean that lavish gifts to God aren’t acceptable to God. Jesus’ acceptance of anointing before burial by a costly pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard is a prime example in John 12:1-6.
Judas, who is named as a disciple who disagrees with the lavish gift to Jesus in John 12:1-6, appears to be motivated in his betrayal of Jesus in part because he disagrees with Jesus’ stance on this issue. We see that in Matthew’s placement of Judas’ betrayal immediately after this incident in Matthew 26:6-16.
For reference, in the ancient world, chronological order of things is often not kept strictly, but instead, things were commonly ordered differently if it helped with meaning & understanding, as in this case.
“I know a great illustration of this point… A gorilla sits down at a piano. He experiences “freedom,” complete autonomy. He can strike any note in any order he likes, but his autonomy ensures he will make no music. Yet a concert pianist, bound by years of discipline and the limitations of a score, is wondrously free to make the most glorious music. The world likes gorilla-freedom, but the law of Christ sets us free to make life-music (Duane Litfin 16 of 38 from Spring 2003 Wheaton College magazine).”
Full sermon from the short clip at the top of the 3 videos:
A highly related topic to this one is the loving nature of God giving us His word, & the loving nature of God’s commands for us intended for our own good even at times when we don’t understand the why, like the data that has come out in the past 50 years on sex before marriage that gives us a much better understanding today than there was 100 years ago, but that the privilege of knowing God is the topic of another upcoming article.