Jeremiah 6:20, commentary and pictures

God rejects even costly imported gifts of worship, with burnt offerings and sacrifices, as unacceptable and displeasing to Him when offered by a disobedient people. The refusal comes because the people would not heed and obey His law, having rejected it by breaking its precepts. No incense, sacrifice, or other religious act can make worship acceptable while that law is rejected, and ceremony cannot make up for disobedience or neglect of it. He does not need sacrifices but requires loyal obedience first and continually, which no costly offering can replace or buy back once rejected. The verse thus sets God's own moral law, the ten commandments spoken by His voice and written by His hand on stone, in plain distinction from and above the laws of burnt offerings, sacrifices, and incense, which have no benefit apart from obedience.

Words and Setting

The verse names costly imported gifts of worship, incense brought from Sheba and sweet cane brought from a far and distant country, together with burnt offerings and sacrifices. Those offerings are declared unacceptable to God and not sweet or pleasing to Him when offered by His people in their disobedient state and when they refuse to obey Him. No ritual gifts, however costly, can make such worship pleasing to Him, and ceremonial offerings are thus distinguished from obedience to His voice. Obedience, not sacrificial ritual, was the command given to Israel.

The verse belongs to chapters 2 to 11, the prophecies written by Baruch after Jehoiakim burned the first roll. It stands among the awful denunciations against sin in Jeremiah. There it shows God's sorrow of heart over His people's transgression and His touching appeal for them to return to Him, an appeal the mass of the people met with utter lack of response.

The rejection of offerings in verse 20 follows the rejection of the law in verse 19. God refuses burnt offerings when people have rejected His law, and He will not receive sacrifice in place of obedience to His moral law. That disobedience is identified as breaking the ten precepts by stealing, murdering, committing adultery, swearing falsely, and following other gods, as set out in Jeremiah 7:8-10. The verse thus shows a plain distinction between the moral law by which is the knowledge of sin and the regulations of the typical system.

Obedience Over Sacrifice

The people brought incense and sacrifices while refusing to heed and obey God's law, and their offerings were refused because they had rejected that law. Costly incense and offerings did not make worship acceptable when they disobeyed, and sacrificial worship could not take the place of obedience. The moral law and the sacrificial ceremonies were distinct, so sacrifice could not excuse continued disobedience.

Incense, burnt offerings, sacrifices, and other acts of worship are unacceptable to God when His law is rejected. Religious ceremonies cannot make up for disobedience or neglect of the law, and obedience to the law is superior to ceremonial institutions. Rejecting God's law makes worship and offerings worthless and unacceptable, so ritual offerings cannot substitute for obedience to the law. Religious service is unacceptable when people do not regard the moral law, and religious acts are only valid when the law is regarded.

God does not need sacrifices but requires loyal obedience first and continually, and offerings and sacrifices cannot replace obedience or make up for grace rejected through disobedience. Outward religious acts have no efficacy apart from obedience to the Father's will, and observing ceremonies could not make up for disobedience to the moral law. Even costly incense and sweet cane brought from a distant land are unacceptable when offered without obedience, and sacrifice cannot replace obedience or buy back grace rejected through disobedience. Costly incense and offerings remain unacceptable when worshipers remain committed to sin, since outward acts cannot substitute for sincere obedience or make worship genuine.

The principle that obedience matters more than sacrifice applies in every dispensation, and Old Testament sacrifices pointed to Christ's sacrifice and showed its relation to obedience without making disobedience acceptable. Israel's sacrifices were object lessons pointing beyond animals and rituals to the true sacrifice for sin, and when separated from the spiritual truth they were meant to teach the outward acts had no power or value in themselves. Incense and burnt offerings cannot serve as a means of acceptance with God, for ceremonial offerings were reminders of sin, not a way to take sin away.

The sanctuary service was instituted for the penitent, not the impenitent. A penitent person's confidence in God did not excuse neglecting the ordinances God had commanded. Keeping ceremonial requirements could not replace obedience to the moral law, for the people kept the ceremonial law of incense, burnt offerings, and sacrifices while they refused to hear God's words and rejected His moral law. God declares that ceremonial observance refused and displeasing to Him when the moral law is disregarded. Faith in the Son and knowledge of His teaching are bound to obedience to the Father's will, and are effective only with obedience to the will and law of the Father.

Two Distinct Laws

The refusal of imported incense from Sheba and sweet cane from a far country, with burnt offerings counted unacceptable and sacrifices not pleasing, came because the people had not listened to His words and His law but had rejected it, so that evil would come upon them as the fruit of their own thoughts. To accept ceremonial offerings while that other law was being violated was refused, which proves that two laws stood at the same time. One was a law that includes ceremonies and sacrifices and cannot be obeyed without sacrifices, and the other was a law that can be obeyed without offering sacrifices, namely the moral law written on tables of stone.

God's own moral law is thus set in plain distinction from all other laws, from the laws of burnt offerings and sacrifices and incense and other positive religious institutions. Offerings and ceremonial observances, even costly gifts, are distinct from keeping God's law and cannot make worship acceptable when His words and law are rejected. The moral law takes precedence, and sacrifices have no benefit apart from obedience to God.

The law so rejected while offerings were still brought is the ten commandments and neither more nor less. It is distinguished as spoken by God's own voice in the hearing of the people, written by His own hand on tables of stone, and separated by being put into the ark, while burnt offerings and sacrifices are secondary matters distinct from it and from the sacrificial laws given through Moses. The charge is not hearkening to His words nor to His law but rejecting it, and for that reason the burnt offerings are declared not acceptable and the sacrifices not pleasing.

That same ten commandments remained God's law in Jeremiah's time, when the promises of the new covenant were given. In these last days God is calling out a people to keep the whole law, including the Sabbath.