Thematic Bible




Thematic Bible



"Listen to what the LORD says, you rulers of Sodom, and pay attention to the teaching of our God, you people of Gomorrah! "How do your voluminous sacrifices benefit me?" the LORD is asking. "I've had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts. I don't enjoy the blood of bulls, lambs, or goats.



"Listen to what the LORD says, you rulers of Sodom, and pay attention to the teaching of our God, you people of Gomorrah! "How do your voluminous sacrifices benefit me?" the LORD is asking. "I've had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts. I don't enjoy the blood of bulls, lambs, or goats. "When you come to present yourselves in my presence, who has required you to trample on my courts? read more.
Stop bringing useless offerings! Incense is detestable to me, as are your New Moons, Sabbaths, and calling of convocations. I cannot stand iniquity within a solemn assembly. As for your New Moons and your appointed festivals, I abhor them. They've become a burden to me; I've grown weary of carrying that burden.


For where is the hope of the godless when he is eliminated; when God takes away his life? Will God hear his cry when distress overtakes him? Will he take delight in the Almighty? Will he call on God at all times?"


All the elders of Israel gathered together, and came to Samuel at Ramah. They told him, "Look, you're old, and your sons don't follow your example. So appoint a king to govern us like all the other nations." Samuel was displeased when they said, "Give us a king to govern us." So Samuel prayed to the LORD. read more.
The LORD told Samuel, "Listen to the people in all that they say to you. In fact, it's not you they have rejected, but rather they have rejected me from being their king. Like all the things they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this very day, they have forsaken me and followed other gods. They're also doing the same thing to you. Now, listen to them, but you are to clearly warn them and inform them about how the king who rules over them will operate." Samuel reported everything the LORD told him to the people who were asking him for a king. He said, "This is how the king who rules over you will operate: He will conscript your sons and assign them to his chariots. He will conscript them as his horsemen, and they'll run in front of his chariots. He will appoint his officers over thousands and officers over fifties some will plow his fields, reap his harvest, and craft his war implements and equipment for his chariots. He will take your daughters for perfumers, cooks, and bakers. He will take the best products of your fields, your vineyards, and your olive groves and give them to his servants. He will take a tenth of your seed and your vineyards and give it to his officers and servants. He will take your male and female servants, your best young men, and your donkeys to do his work. He will take a tenth of your flock, and you will become his servants. When all of this comes about, you will cry out because of your king whom you chose for yourselves, but the LORD won't answer you at that time."

"Listen to what the LORD says, you rulers of Sodom, and pay attention to the teaching of our God, you people of Gomorrah! "How do your voluminous sacrifices benefit me?" the LORD is asking. "I've had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts. I don't enjoy the blood of bulls, lambs, or goats. "When you come to present yourselves in my presence, who has required you to trample on my courts? read more.
Stop bringing useless offerings! Incense is detestable to me, as are your New Moons, Sabbaths, and calling of convocations. I cannot stand iniquity within a solemn assembly. As for your New Moons and your appointed festivals, I abhor them. They've become a burden to me; I've grown weary of carrying that burden. When you spread out your hands in prayer, I'll hide my eyes from you. Even though you pray repeatedly, I won't listen. Your hands are full of blood, your fingers drenched with iniquity."

"See, the LORD's hand is not too short to save, nor are his ears too dull to hear. Instead, your iniquities have been barriers between you and your God, and your sins have concealed his face from you so that he won't listen.

But they refused to pay attention, turned their backs, and stopped listening. They made their hearts hard like a diamond, to keep from obeying the Law and the messages that the LORD of the Heavenly Armies sent by his Spirit through the former prophets. Therefore, just as when I cried out and they would not listen, so also they will cry out, and I will not listen,' says the LORD of the Heavenly Armies.


"Listen to what the LORD says, you rulers of Sodom, and pay attention to the teaching of our God, you people of Gomorrah! "How do your voluminous sacrifices benefit me?" the LORD is asking. "I've had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts. I don't enjoy the blood of bulls, lambs, or goats. "When you come to present yourselves in my presence, who has required you to trample on my courts? read more.
Stop bringing useless offerings! Incense is detestable to me, as are your New Moons, Sabbaths, and calling of convocations. I cannot stand iniquity within a solemn assembly. As for your New Moons and your appointed festivals, I abhor them. They've become a burden to me; I've grown weary of carrying that burden. When you spread out your hands in prayer, I'll hide my eyes from you. Even though you pray repeatedly, I won't listen. Your hands are full of blood, your fingers drenched with iniquity."

"See, the LORD's hand is not too short to save, nor are his ears too dull to hear. Instead, your iniquities have been barriers between you and your God, and your sins have concealed his face from you so that he won't listen.

Then the LORD told Moses, "Look! You are about to join your ancestors. Afterwards, this people will rebel and commit prostitution with the foreign gods of the land that they are about to enter to possess. They will abandon me and break my covenant that I made with them. When that happens, my anger will burn against them, because they will have abandoned me. I'll hide my face from them, they will be consumed, and many evils and distresses will find them. When this happens, they will say, "These troubles have happened to us because God isn't among us.' I'll surely hide my face in that day on account of the evil that they will have done for they turned to other gods."

They sacrificed to demons not to the real God gods whom they didn't know, new neighbors who had recently appeared, whom your ancestors never feared. You neglected the Rock that fathered you; you abandoned God, who was awaiting your birth. The LORD saw it and became jealous, provoked by his sons and daughters. read more.
So he said: "Let me hide my face from them. I will observe what their end will be, because they are a perverted generation, children within whom there is no loyalty.

Since ancient times no one has heard, and no ear has perceived, and no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him. You come to the aid of those who gladly do what's right, To those who remember you in your ways. See, you were angry, and we sinned against them for a long time, but we will be saved. All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like a filthy rag; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind, our iniquities sweep us away. read more.
There is no one who calls on your name or rouses himself to take hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us, and have given us into the control of our iniquity.

This message from the LORD came to Jeremiah a second time while he was still confined in the courtyard of the guard: "This is what the LORD says who made the earth, the LORD who formed it in order to establish it whose name is the LORD "Call to me and I'll answer you, and will tell you about great and hidden things that you don't know.' read more.
For this is what the LORD God of Israel says about the houses of this city and the houses of the kings of Judah that were torn down to defend against the siege ramps and the sword, "The Chaldeans are coming to fight and to fill those houses with the dead bodies of the people that I've struck down in my anger and wrath, for I've hidden my face from this city because of all their wickedness.

The house of Israel will learn that I am the LORD their God from that day forward! The nations will also learn that because of Israel's sin the house of Israel went into captivity, since they were unfaithful in their behavior toward me. As a result, I hid my presence from them, turned them over to the control of their enemies, and they died by violence. It was because of their defilement and transgression that I treated them this way by hiding my presence from them.'"


"How do your voluminous sacrifices benefit me?" the LORD is asking. "I've had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts. I don't enjoy the blood of bulls, lambs, or goats. "When you come to present yourselves in my presence, who has required you to trample on my courts? Stop bringing useless offerings! Incense is detestable to me, as are your New Moons, Sabbaths, and calling of convocations. I cannot stand iniquity within a solemn assembly. read more.
As for your New Moons and your appointed festivals, I abhor them. They've become a burden to me; I've grown weary of carrying that burden. When you spread out your hands in prayer, I'll hide my eyes from you. Even though you pray repeatedly, I won't listen. Your hands are full of blood, your fingers drenched with iniquity."

"Why have we fasted,' they ask, "but you do not see? "Why have we humbled ourselves,' they ask, "but you take no notice?'" "Look! On your fast day you serve your own interest and oppress all your workers. "Look! You fast only for quarreling, and for fighting, and for hitting with wicked fists. You cannot fast as you do today and have your voice heard on high. "Is this the kind of fast that I have chosen, merely a day for a person to humble himself? Is it merely for bowing down one's head like a bulrush, for lying on sackcloth and ashes? Is this what you call a fast, an acceptable day to the LORD?



"Whoever slaughters an ox is just like one who kills a human being; whoever sacrifices a lamb is just like one who breaks a dog's neck; whoever makes a grain offering is just like one who offers pig's blood; and whoever makes a memorial offering of frankincense is just like one who blesses an idol. Yes, these have chosen their own ways, and they take delight in their contaminated actions.

"How do your voluminous sacrifices benefit me?" the LORD is asking. "I've had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts. I don't enjoy the blood of bulls, lambs, or goats.


You take no delight in sacrifices and offerings you have prepared my ears to listen you require no burnt offerings or sacrifices for sin.


This is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, the God of Israel, says: "Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat the meat. Indeed, when I brought your ancestors out of the land of Egypt, I didn't speak or command them about burnt offering and sacrifice, but I did give them this command: "Obey me and I'll be your God, and you will be my people. Walk in all the ways that I command you so it will go well for you.'

Lebanon would not provide enough fuel, nor are its animals enough for a burnt offering.



What good is frankincense that comes from Sheba to me, or sweet cane from a distant country? Your burnt offerings aren't acceptable, nor are your sacrifices pleasing to me."

"Whoever slaughters an ox is just like one who kills a human being; whoever sacrifices a lamb is just like one who breaks a dog's neck; whoever makes a grain offering is just like one who offers pig's blood; and whoever makes a memorial offering of frankincense is just like one who blesses an idol. Yes, these have chosen their own ways, and they take delight in their contaminated actions.

They offer me meat from the sacrifices of my offerings, and they eat from it, but the LORD does not accept them. He will now remember their transgression and pay them back for their sins; to Egypt they will return.

Although they fast, I won't listen to their cry, and although they offer burnt offerings and grain offerings, I won't accept them. Instead, I'll put an end to them with the sword, with famine, and with a plague."

Indeed, you do not delight in sacrifices, or I would give them, nor do you desire burnt offerings. True sacrifice to God is a broken spirit. A broken and chastened heart, God, you will not despise.


I do not rebuke you because of your sacrifices; indeed, your burnt offerings are continuously before me. I will no longer accept a sacrificial bull from your household; nor goats from your pens. Indeed, every animal of the forest is mine, even the cattle on a thousand hills. read more.
I know all the birds in the mountains; indeed, everything that moves in the field is mine. "If I were hungry, I would not tell you; for the world is mine along with everything in it. Why should I eat the flesh of oxen or drink the blood of goats? Offer to God a thanksgiving praise; pay your vows to the Most High.

What the wicked person sacrifices is detestable how much more when he offers it with vile motives!

"How do your voluminous sacrifices benefit me?" the LORD is asking. "I've had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts. I don't enjoy the blood of bulls, lambs, or goats. "When you come to present yourselves in my presence, who has required you to trample on my courts? Stop bringing useless offerings! Incense is detestable to me, as are your New Moons, Sabbaths, and calling of convocations. I cannot stand iniquity within a solemn assembly. read more.
As for your New Moons and your appointed festivals, I abhor them. They've become a burden to me; I've grown weary of carrying that burden.

"I hate I despise your festival days, and your solemn convocations stink. And if you send up burnt offerings to me as well as your grain offerings, I will not accept them, nor will I consider your peace offerings of fattened cattle. Spare me your noisy singing I will not listen to your musical instruments. read more.
"But let justice roll on like many waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing river.

How am I to present myself in the LORD's presence and bow in the presence of the High God? Should I present myself with burnt offerings, with year-old calves? Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, or with endless rivers of oil? Am I to give my firstborn to pay for my rebellion, the fruit of my body in exchange for my soul? He has made it clear to you, mortal man, what is good and what the LORD is requiring from you to act with justice, to treasure the LORD's gracious love, and to walk humbly in the company of your God.


This illustration for today indicates that the gifts and sacrifices being offered could not clear the conscience of a worshiper,

You take no delight in sacrifices and offerings you have prepared my ears to listen you require no burnt offerings or sacrifices for sin.



Indeed, you do not delight in sacrifices, or I would give them, nor do you desire burnt offerings. True sacrifice to God is a broken spirit. A broken and chastened heart, God, you will not despise.

"How do your voluminous sacrifices benefit me?" the LORD is asking. "I've had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts. I don't enjoy the blood of bulls, lambs, or goats.


If you had known what "I want mercy and not sacrifice' means, you would not have condemned the innocent,


If you have died with the Messiah to the basic principles of the world, why are you submitting to its decrees as though you still lived in the world? "Don't handle this! Don't taste or touch that!" All of these things will be destroyed as they are used, because they are based on human commands and teachings. read more.
These things have the appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion, humility, and harsh treatment of the body, but they have no value against self-indulgence.


For neither circumcision nor uncircumcision matters. Rather, what matters is being a new creation.

He rendered the Law inoperative, along with its commandments and regulations, thus creating in himself one new humanity from the two, thereby making peace,

having erased the charges that were brought against us, along with their obligations that were hostile to us. He took those charges away when he nailed them to the cross.

Now even the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly sanctuary.

"Listen to what the LORD says, you rulers of Sodom, and pay attention to the teaching of our God, you people of Gomorrah! "How do your voluminous sacrifices benefit me?" the LORD is asking. "I've had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts. I don't enjoy the blood of bulls, lambs, or goats. "When you come to present yourselves in my presence, who has required you to trample on my courts? read more.
Stop bringing useless offerings! Incense is detestable to me, as are your New Moons, Sabbaths, and calling of convocations. I cannot stand iniquity within a solemn assembly. As for your New Moons and your appointed festivals, I abhor them. They've become a burden to me; I've grown weary of carrying that burden. When you spread out your hands in prayer, I'll hide my eyes from you. Even though you pray repeatedly, I won't listen. Your hands are full of blood, your fingers drenched with iniquity." "Wash yourselves, and make yourselves clean; remove your evil behavior from my presence; stop practicing what is evil. Learn to practice what is good; seek justice, alleviate oppression, defend orphans in court, and plead the widow's case.

The Holy Spirit was indicating by this that the way into the Most Holy Place had not yet been disclosed as long as the first part of the tent was still standing. This illustration for today indicates that the gifts and sacrifices being offered could not clear the conscience of a worshiper, since they deal only with food, drink, and various washings, which are required for the body until the time when things would be set right.


"Listen to what the LORD says, you rulers of Sodom, and pay attention to the teaching of our God, you people of Gomorrah! "How do your voluminous sacrifices benefit me?" the LORD is asking. "I've had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts. I don't enjoy the blood of bulls, lambs, or goats. "When you come to present yourselves in my presence, who has required you to trample on my courts? read more.
Stop bringing useless offerings! Incense is detestable to me, as are your New Moons, Sabbaths, and calling of convocations. I cannot stand iniquity within a solemn assembly. As for your New Moons and your appointed festivals, I abhor them. They've become a burden to me; I've grown weary of carrying that burden. When you spread out your hands in prayer, I'll hide my eyes from you. Even though you pray repeatedly, I won't listen. Your hands are full of blood, your fingers drenched with iniquity."



"Listen to what the LORD says, you rulers of Sodom, and pay attention to the teaching of our God, you people of Gomorrah! "How do your voluminous sacrifices benefit me?" the LORD is asking. "I've had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts. I don't enjoy the blood of bulls, lambs, or goats. "When you come to present yourselves in my presence, who has required you to trample on my courts? read more.
Stop bringing useless offerings! Incense is detestable to me, as are your New Moons, Sabbaths, and calling of convocations. I cannot stand iniquity within a solemn assembly. As for your New Moons and your appointed festivals, I abhor them. They've become a burden to me; I've grown weary of carrying that burden.

LORD, my God, You have done great things: marvelous works and your thoughts toward us. There is no one who compares to you! I will try to recite your actions, even though there are too many to number. You take no delight in sacrifices and offerings you have prepared my ears to listen you require no burnt offerings or sacrifices for sin.



"Listen to what the LORD says, you rulers of Sodom, and pay attention to the teaching of our God, you people of Gomorrah! "How do your voluminous sacrifices benefit me?" the LORD is asking. "I've had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts. I don't enjoy the blood of bulls, lambs, or goats. "When you come to present yourselves in my presence, who has required you to trample on my courts? read more.
Stop bringing useless offerings! Incense is detestable to me, as are your New Moons, Sabbaths, and calling of convocations. I cannot stand iniquity within a solemn assembly. As for your New Moons and your appointed festivals, I abhor them. They've become a burden to me; I've grown weary of carrying that burden.

When Jesus heard that, he said, "Healthy people don't need a physician, but sick people do. Go and learn what this means: "I want mercy and not sacrifice,' because I did not come to call righteous people, but sinners."

LORD, my God, You have done great things: marvelous works and your thoughts toward us. There is no one who compares to you! I will try to recite your actions, even though there are too many to number. You take no delight in sacrifices and offerings you have prepared my ears to listen you require no burnt offerings or sacrifices for sin.

For the Law, being only a reflection of the blessings to come and not their substance, can never make perfect those who come near by the same sacrifices repeatedly offered year after year. Otherwise, would they not have stopped offering them, because the worshipers, cleansed once for all, would no longer be aware of any sins? Instead, through those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year after year, read more.
for it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. For this reason, the Scriptures say, when the Messiah was about to come into the world: "You did not want sacrifices and offerings, but you prepared a body for me. In burnt offerings and sin offerings you never took delight. Then I said, "See, I have come to do your will, O God' In the volume of the scroll this is written about me." In this passage he says, "You never wanted or took delight in sacrifices, offerings, burnt offerings, and sin offerings," which are offered according to the Law. Then he says, "See, I have come to do your will." He takes away the first in order to establish the second.


This illustration for today indicates that the gifts and sacrifices being offered could not clear the conscience of a worshiper,

You take no delight in sacrifices and offerings you have prepared my ears to listen you require no burnt offerings or sacrifices for sin.



Indeed, you do not delight in sacrifices, or I would give them, nor do you desire burnt offerings. True sacrifice to God is a broken spirit. A broken and chastened heart, God, you will not despise.

"How do your voluminous sacrifices benefit me?" the LORD is asking. "I've had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts. I don't enjoy the blood of bulls, lambs, or goats.


If you had known what "I want mercy and not sacrifice' means, you would not have condemned the innocent,



I will offer to you burnt offerings of fat, along with the smoke of the sacrifice of rams. I will offer bulls along with goats. Interlude


"How do your voluminous sacrifices benefit me?" the LORD is asking. "I've had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts. I don't enjoy the blood of bulls, lambs, or goats.


"Whoever slaughters an ox is just like one who kills a human being; whoever sacrifices a lamb is just like one who breaks a dog's neck; whoever makes a grain offering is just like one who offers pig's blood; and whoever makes a memorial offering of frankincense is just like one who blesses an idol. Yes, these have chosen their own ways, and they take delight in their contaminated actions.

They offer me meat from the sacrifices of my offerings, and they eat from it, but the LORD does not accept them. He will now remember their transgression and pay them back for their sins; to Egypt they will return.

"How do your voluminous sacrifices benefit me?" the LORD is asking. "I've had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts. I don't enjoy the blood of bulls, lambs, or goats.


Listen, earth! I'm about to bring calamity on this people, on the fruit of their plans, because they didn't listen to my words and they rejected my instruction.

"Listen to what the LORD says, you rulers of Sodom, and pay attention to the teaching of our God, you people of Gomorrah! "How do your voluminous sacrifices benefit me?" the LORD is asking. "I've had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts. I don't enjoy the blood of bulls, lambs, or goats. "When you come to present yourselves in my presence, who has required you to trample on my courts? read more.
Stop bringing useless offerings! Incense is detestable to me, as are your New Moons, Sabbaths, and calling of convocations. I cannot stand iniquity within a solemn assembly. As for your New Moons and your appointed festivals, I abhor them. They've become a burden to me; I've grown weary of carrying that burden.

Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear by false gods, burn incense to Baal, follow other gods that you don't know, and then come to stand before me in this house that is called by my name and say, "We're delivered' so we can continue to do all these things that are repugnant to God? Has this house that is called by my name become a hideout for bandits in your eyes? Look, I'm watching," declares the LORD. read more.
"Go to my place that was in Shiloh, where I first caused my name to dwell. See what I did to it because of the evil of my people Israel. Now, because you have done all these things," declares the LORD, "I spoke to you over and over again, but you didn't listen. I called to you, but you didn't answer. Just as I did to Shiloh, I'll do to the house in which you trust and which is called by my name, the place that I gave to you and your ancestors.


"Listen to what the LORD says, you rulers of Sodom, and pay attention to the teaching of our God, you people of Gomorrah! "How do your voluminous sacrifices benefit me?" the LORD is asking. "I've had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts. I don't enjoy the blood of bulls, lambs, or goats. "When you come to present yourselves in my presence, who has required you to trample on my courts? read more.
Stop bringing useless offerings! Incense is detestable to me, as are your New Moons, Sabbaths, and calling of convocations. I cannot stand iniquity within a solemn assembly. As for your New Moons and your appointed festivals, I abhor them. They've become a burden to me; I've grown weary of carrying that burden. When you spread out your hands in prayer, I'll hide my eyes from you. Even though you pray repeatedly, I won't listen. Your hands are full of blood, your fingers drenched with iniquity."

"I hate I despise your festival days, and your solemn convocations stink. And if you send up burnt offerings to me as well as your grain offerings, I will not accept them, nor will I consider your peace offerings of fattened cattle.


"Listen to what the LORD says, you rulers of Sodom, and pay attention to the teaching of our God, you people of Gomorrah! "How do your voluminous sacrifices benefit me?" the LORD is asking. "I've had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts. I don't enjoy the blood of bulls, lambs, or goats. "When you come to present yourselves in my presence, who has required you to trample on my courts? read more.
Stop bringing useless offerings! Incense is detestable to me, as are your New Moons, Sabbaths, and calling of convocations. I cannot stand iniquity within a solemn assembly. As for your New Moons and your appointed festivals, I abhor them. They've become a burden to me; I've grown weary of carrying that burden. When you spread out your hands in prayer, I'll hide my eyes from you. Even though you pray repeatedly, I won't listen. Your hands are full of blood, your fingers drenched with iniquity."

As for the wicked, God says, "How dare you recite my statutes or speak about my covenant with your lips! You hate instruction and toss my words behind you.