Jeremiah 7:22 And Bible Innerrancy

[Zakuska]

So how do Bible Innerantists deal with the blatant contradiction outlined in these verses?

Jeremiah 7:22

21 ¶Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Put your burnt offerings unto your sacrifices, and eat flesh.

22 For I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices:

23 But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you.

24 But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward.

vs.

Exodus 5

1 And afterward Moses and Aaron went in, and told Pharaoh, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness.

2 And Pharaoh said, Who is the Lord, that I should aobey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go.

3 And they said, The aGod of the Hebrews hath met with us: let us go, we pray thee, three days’ journey into the desert, and sacrifice unto the Lord our God; lest he fall upon us with pestilence, or with the sword.

Exodus 3

3 And they said, The aGod of the Hebrews hath met with us: let us go, we pray thee, three days’ journey into the desert, and sacrifice unto the Lord our God; lest he fall upon us with pestilence, or with the sword.

Exodus 7

And thou shalt say unto him, The Lord God of the Hebrews hath sent me unto thee, saying, Let my people go, that they may serve me in the wilderness: and, behold, hitherto thou wouldest not hear.

The whole story line God told Moses to feed to Pharoah was of them going into the wilderness for the express purpose of offering sacrifices.

To Sacrifice or not to Sacrifice... that is the question? So which is it?

Edited March 14, 2012 by Zakuska

[zerinus]

So how do Bible Innerantists deal with the blatant contradiction outlined in these verses?

Jeremiah 7:22

21 ¶Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Put your burnt offerings unto your sacrifices, and eat flesh.

22 For I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices:

23 But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you.

24 But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward.

vs.

Exodus 5

1 And afterward Moses and Aaron went in, and told Pharaoh, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness.

2 And Pharaoh said, Who is the Lord, that I should aobey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go.

3 And they said, The aGod of the Hebrews hath met with us: let us go, we pray thee, three days’ journey into the desert, and sacrifice unto the Lord our God; lest he fall upon us with pestilence, or with the sword.

Exodus 3

3 And they said, The aGod of the Hebrews hath met with us: let us go, we pray thee, three days’ journey into the desert, and sacrifice unto the Lord our God; lest he fall upon us with pestilence, or with the sword.

Exodus 7

And thou shalt say unto him, The Lord God of the Hebrews hath sent me unto thee, saying, Let my people go, that they may serve me in the wilderness: and, behold, hitherto thou wouldest not hear.

The whole story line God told Moses to feed to Pharoah was of them going into the wilderness for the express purpose of offering sacrifices.

To Sacrifice or not to Sacrifice... that is the question? So which is it?

The sacrificial rites of the Mosaic Law were not all mandatory. Some types were mandatory (such as sin offerings), but other types were voluntary. The greatest proportion of the sacrifices that were performed in Israel in those days in large numbers were of the voluntary kind, rather than the mandatory kind. And the Jew at that time had reduced the observance of their religion to the innumeracy of performance of those (voluntary) sacrificial rites, rather than the keeping the essential commandments of God. They thought they were doing God’s will by just performing those rites and rituals, while ignoring the keeping of the greater commandments. The following quote from Isaiah illustrates the point:

Isaiah 1:

10 Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah.

11 To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats.

12 When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts?

13 Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.

14 Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them.

15 And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.

16 Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil;

17 Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.

The word of counsel of Samuel to Saul is also relevant here:

1 Samuel 15:

22 And Samuel said, Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.

That was the kind of problem they faced in those days. They had reduced their religion to mere observance of those rituals, while ignoring the more important matters of the Law. What Jeremiah is saying is that that is not what God wants them to do, or indeed had commanded them to do. The real commandment was something else. They had twisted the real commandments to the dry and purposeless observance of a series of rituals.