Don’t Light Useless Fires

“Oh that one of you would shut the temple doors, so that you would not light useless fires on my altar! I am not pleased with you,” says the Lord Almighty, “and I will accept no offering from your hands.”
Malachi 1:10

Recently I heard someone describe sacrifices as “the way we draw near to God.” In the Old Testament, they would sacrifice an animal on the altar in order to draw close to God. In the New Testament, we are instructed to offer a sacrifice of praise (Hebrews 13:15).

In this passage in Malachi, the priests are offering defiled sacrifices to God. These burnt offerings were called, “useless fires”. They were not acceptable to God. Useless sacrifices are beneficial to no one. God will not accept them and the person making the offering has now killed off a valuable animal.

They were called “useless fires” because these were sacrifices that God was not asking the people to make. He was looking for them to repent of their sins. The Israelites at this time were divorcing their wives, even though they had made a marriage covenant with them and God.

The Israelites were trying to offer sacrifices to cover their sin, when what they needed to do was repent. They needed to return to their wife and honor her. Yet, they continued in their sin and offered crippled animals as sacrifices. In other words, they were trying to get away with their sin and not repent.

God tells them their burnt offerings were useless. One of the main takeaways from this passage is that we need to be careful to worship God in the ways that he wants, not in the ways that we want. Too often we try to worship him our way. We want to sing to him the way we see fit. We won’t dance before Him, even though we are told to in Psalms.

“Praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and pipe!”
Psalm 150:4

We also offer sacrifices that He didn’t ask for. We are a lot like the Pharisees, we want to clean the outside of the cup, but we neglect the inside of it. We like to look clean to others, while our hearts are full of poison.

God wants us to offer the right sacrifices. It’s not about doing your religious duty. What we should be doing is asking God, what are the sacrifices that you desire? What sacrifices are you looking for from me? He tells David that a broken and contrite heart is what he desires (Psalm 51:10).

Prayer - Father, I humble myself before you. You are an amazing God. Lord, I am sorry for when I have offered a sacrifice that you didn’t ask for. I’m sorry for when I just went through the motions or offered you something less than what you deserve. Please forgive me. Help me to offer you a broken and contrite heart, filled with praise for its maker. Amen.