Psalm 50:7-15 “Hear, my people, and I will speak. Israel, I will testify against you. I am God, your God. I don’t rebuke you for your sacrifices. Your burnt offerings are continually before me. I have no need for a bull from your stall, nor male goats from your pens. For every animal of the forest is mine, and the livestock on a thousand hills. I know all the birds of the mountains. The wild animals of the field are mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it. Will I eat the meat of bulls, or drink the blood of goats? Offer to God the sacrifice of thanksgiving. Pay your vows to the Most High. Call on me in the day of trouble. I will deliver you, and you will honor me.”

The Israelites were supposed to sacrifice. That wasn’t the problem. The problem was offering sacrifices as a means to an end. Offering sacrifices with improper motives. Offering sacrifices with impure hearts. Symbolically performing an action without meaning. Outwardly serving without inwardly loving.

Loving God is first and foremost. How can we expect Him to answer us if we don’t love Him?

Mark 12:30 “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. This is the first commandment.”

For additional worship: Love the Lord (Lincoln Brewster)