What does this mean?
Is 1:14 “My being hates your New Moons and your appointed times, they are a trouble to Me, I am weary of bearing them.
Were they a substitute for God's appointed times, or were they a very bad version of God's appointed times? Why is God "bearing" "Your" appointed times?
Hi visionary,
Often times it's tough to figure some position out on just the copy and paste of a single sentence. Many people do, however, fall into the error of such a practice. I'm not saying that's what you're doing here but just pointing out that such a method of understanding the Scriptures can be fraught with error.
So, having said that, let's look at the context of this statement. God is decrying to Isaiah what a trouble and a burden Israel has become to Him. He raised them up to be a holy and faithful people through which He would reveal His love and mercy and power and glory to the world, and they just continually and repeatedly stumbled and fell and seemed to just clearly not understand their purpose.
He begins this claim against His people: Hear me, you heavens! Listen, earth! For the LORD has spoken:
“I reared children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against me. He then continues with His complaint against them: The ox knows its master, the donkey its owner’s manger,
but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.” He continues:
Woe to the sinful nation, a people whose guilt is great, a brood of evildoers, children given to corruption! They have forsaken the LORD; they have spurned the Holy One of Israel and turned their backs on him. Why should you be beaten anymore? Why do you persist in rebellion? Your whole head is injured, your whole heart afflicted. From the sole of your foot to the top of your head there is no soundness— only wounds and welts and open sores, not cleansed or bandaged or soothed with olive oil. Your country is desolate, your cities burned with fire; your fields are being stripped by foreigners right before you, laid waste as when overthrown by strangers. Daughter Zion is left like a shelter in a vineyard, like a hut in a cucumber field, like a city under siege. Unless the LORD Almighty had left us some survivors, we would have become like Sodom, we would have been like Gomorrah. Hear the word of the LORD, you rulers of Sodom; listen to the instruction of our God, you people of Gomorrah!
So, now He has leveled His complaint against them and then tells them that their new moon festivals and sacrifices, in light of the attitude of their hearts, is worthless to Him. Their practice of faith had become a sort of revolving door of sin and forgiveness. Go out and sin and live wicked lives, but then be sure and bring in your sacrifice so that God will forgive you. Now, they likely, as a group, didn't see their living as being particularly sinful throughout the days between sacrifice and new moon festivals, but God obviously did. This is where we christians, still today, need to be careful that our practice is a true form of religion that is pleasing to God.
Example: Some fellowships offer communion every week. It's a part of the order of service each and every week and over time it just becomes something that takes up 10-15 minutes of the service. Everyone takes their cup and piece of bread and bows their head and listens to the leader pray and then, at the appointed time, drinks of the cup and eats the bread without really giving any thought in their individual heart as to just what exactly they are doing. It's just what comes before the offering part of the service and you do it. Then you stand up and sing a hymn or two and go on about the service. Now, I'm not saying that is the attitude of every heart in such a service, but it does become rote practice for many. This same manner of rote practice is apparently what had become of Israel's worship and offering and the use of the sacrificial system for the forgiveness of their sins.
So God tells them, "Look, your practice of sacrifice and sin and sacrifice and sin, ad nauseum, isn't what I'm asking of you. All that slaughtering of rams and bulls and sheep just to show yourselves going through the motions isn't what this is about. You guys don't understand!!"
Again, pulling out just one sentence restricts understanding. We read just before this passage of the new moon and festivals, this:
“The multitude of your sacrifices— what are they to me?” says the LORD. “I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals; I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats. When you come to appear before me, who has asked this of you, this trampling of my courts? Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me. New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations— I cannot bear your worthless assemblies.
So, it's not just about the new moon festivals and other of the half dozen or so festivals that God had instituted as a part of His desire from their worship. No! Not at all! God was tired of all of it! He was weary of watching them spill the blood of bulls, lambs and goats. He was sick and tired of their trampling of His courts. He was wearied by their burnt offering of rams and fattened animals. And, He was through putting up with their new moon and other festivals. Their Sabbath practices and assemblies.
Now, we can certainly do some in depth study of what 'bearing' means, but I think the intent should be clear. God was tired of putting up with it all. Just as we say that we can't 'bear' to look at some horrible disaster, I imagine that God is meaning the same thing hear. He was just sick and tired of looking down on all their wickedness and watching them trying to pass off some fake practice of religion thinking that they were doing the will of their God.
That's my two cent's worth.
BTW, I apologize if I have overstepped my place here. I came to this thread from the 'new threads' banner and didn't realize that I was in the Messianic Judaism threads until I'd written it all out. So, I'll leave it to anyone who cares to dismiss this thread if they'd rather because I'm not really qualified to post here. However, as all being believers in the Scriptures and the same Lord, I would hope that my unlawful input would at least be considered as just as worthy as anyone else's on this particular subject.
God bless you,
In Christ, ted