Robbing the cross of Christ

“For I the Lord love judgment, I hate robbery for burnt offering; and I will direct their work in truth, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.” (Is. 61:8).

God does not like to be robbed of our humble praise. Yet, all we can manufacture is worship void of selfless praise to God. We do not have it within ourselves to offer pure sacrifices of joy.

God must break us down and rebuild us from the ground floor. In order for us to be workable to God, He must take charge of the work in us, beginning in our heart. He says, “I will direct their work in truth.” (Vs. 8).

Had the people of the Lord given themselves to the sacrifices of God, studying the dying lowly baby animals, they would have inherited a nature as meek and lowly as their God. “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise.” (Ps. 51:17). It wasn’t the death of innocent animals that God wanted, but the opening of the ears and the hardened hearts of sinful men, women, and youth, and the eternal enslavement of their heart to God. “Sacrifice and offering Thou didst not desire; mine ears hast Thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast Thou not required.” (Ps. 40:6).

Yet, even of all the nations of earth, the performance of the very clearest demonstration of the redemptive work of God Israel missed its thrust. The pride was to be broken, but they could not allow that. The goodness of God should have baptized them in repentance, but they did not desire repentance. They missed that privileged knowledge, they missed the baptism of the Holy Ghost. They missed eternal life and they inherited the character of Cain. “Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink the water of gall.” (Jer. 23:15).

As Cain set himself up for damnation by evading the sacrificial lamb commanded by the Lord God in the garden, he robbed God of a broken and contrite spirit in his heart; he robbed God of a place to dwell within him. So, Satan came in and dwelled, and Cain’s last case was worse than when he first despised God’s covenant and ventured to alter the divine requirements. Thus Cain was led to murder his own brother because Abel dared to love God and receive the willingness obey Him.

“But this is a people robbed and spoiled; they are all of them snared in holes, and they are hid in prison houses: they are for a prey, and none delivereth; for a spoil, and none saith, Restore.” (Is. 42:22). All their miserable emptiness and corrupt living they brought upon themselves through their unbelief and unwillingness to attend to the ancient, heaven-ordained sacrifices of God.

But they had assistance in their destruction. Satan has ever been ready to offer them his idolatrous wares, while promising them great benefits. Their being filled full with this world’s pleasures prevented a filling of love for holy things by the Spirit of the Lord. They destroyed themselves, with Satan’s facilitating. “He shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practise, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people.
And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes.” (Dan. 8:24,25).

The devil craftily offers us what we crave in our fallen natures. If we choose not to seek God for help, our natures will lead us to easily focus on the god of this world. He will rob us of righteousness and desolate our knowledge of God.

Unless we are drawn to God through His Lamb, our focus will be on this world and all that is in it. We will be robbed of peace in God and He will be robbed of our love and sanctification. “And in those times there shall many stand up against the king of the south: also the robbers of thy people shall exalt themselves to establish the vision.” (Dan. 11:14). As it was so often was with the Moabites and Ammonites toward Israel, often our closest of kin and friends draw us away from our focus on eternal things, which robs us of the blessings that heaven wants to give us.

But if we will determine to look at the dying Lamb of God, the anointed One, the Messiah, He will “finish the transgression” and “make an end of sins;” He will “make reconciliation for iniquity” and “bring in everlasting righteousness;” He will “seal up the vision and prophecy” and “anoint the most Holy” in our hearts. (Dan. 9:24).

“Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed Me.” (Mal. 3:8). “In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness.” “And one shall say unto Him, What are these wounds in Thine hands? Then He shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of My friends.” (Zech. 13:1,6).

“I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.” (Is. 61:10). “Therefore the redeemed of the Lord shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head: they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and mourning shall flee away.” (Is. 51:11).