Isaiah 57:12 Cross References

Isaiah 57:12

12: "Now I will expose your so-called good deeds that you consider so righteous. None of them will benefit or save you.

"I am sick of your sacrifices," says the LORD. "Don't bring me any more burnt offerings! I don't want the fat from your rams or other animals. I don't want to see the blood from your offerings of bulls and rams and goats.
Why do you keep parading through my courts with your worthless sacrifices?
The incense you bring me is a stench in my nostrils! Your celebrations of the new moon and the Sabbath day, and your special days for fasting--even your most pious meetings--are all sinful and false. I want nothing more to do with them.
I hate all your festivals and sacrifices. I cannot stand the sight of them!
From now on, when you lift up your hands in prayer, I will refuse to look. Even though you offer many prayers, I will not listen. For your hands are covered with the blood of your innocent victims.

As the Scriptures say, "No one is good--not even one.
No one has real understanding; no one is seeking God.
All have turned away from God; all have gone wrong. No one does good, not even one."
"Their talk is foul, like the stench from an open grave. Their speech is filled with lies.The poison of a deadly snake drips from their lips."
"Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness."

but you are the very ones who hate good and love evil. You skin my people alive and tear the flesh off their bones.
You eat my people's flesh, cut away their skin, and break their bones. You chop them up like meat for the cooking pot.
Then you beg the LORD for help in times of trouble! Do you really expect him to listen? After all the evil you have done, he won't even look at you!

"How terrible it will be for you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you won't let others enter the Kingdom of Heaven, and you won't go in yourselves.

You welcome those who cheerfully do good, who follow godly ways. But we are not godly. We are constant sinners, so your anger is heavy on us. How can people like us be saved?

"Everything they do is for show. On their arms they wear extra wide prayer boxes with Scripture verses inside, and they wear extra long tassels on their robes.

Yet they act so pious! They come to the Temple every day and seem delighted to hear my laws. You would almost think this was a righteous nation that would never abandon its God. They love to make a show of coming to me and asking me to take action on their behalf.
`We have fasted before you!' they say. `Why aren't you impressed? We have done much penance, and you don't even notice it!'"I will tell you why! It's because you are living for yourselves even while you are fasting. You keep right on oppressing your workers.
What good is fasting when you keep on fighting and quarreling? This kind of fasting will never get you anywhere with me.
You humble yourselves by going through the motions of penance, bowing your heads like a blade of grass in the wind. You dress in sackcloth and cover yourselves with ashes. Is this what you call fasting? Do you really think this will please the LORD?
"No, the kind of fasting I want calls you to free those who are wrongly imprisoned and to stop oppressing those who work for you. Treat them fairly and give them what they earn.

But do not be fooled by those who repeatedly promise your safety because the Temple of the LORD is here.
I will be merciful only if you stop your wicked thoughts and deeds and are fair to others;
and if you stop exploiting foreigners, orphans, and widows; and if you stop your murdering; and if you stop worshiping idols as you now do to your own harm.
Then I will let you stay in this land that I gave to your ancestors to keep forever.
" `Do you think that because the Temple is here you will never suffer? Don't fool yourselves!

But those who choose their own ways, delighting in their sins, are cursed. Their offerings will not be accepted. When such people sacrifice an ox, it is no more acceptable than a human sacrifice. When they sacrifice a lamb or bring an offering of grain, it is as bad as putting a dog or the blood of a pig on the altar! When they burn incense, it is as if they had blessed an idol.
I will send great troubles against them--all the things they feared. For when I called, they did not answer. When I spoke, they did not listen. They deliberately sinned--before my very eyes--and chose to do what they know I despise."

Destruction is certain for those who try to hide their plans from the LORD, who try to keep him in the dark concerning what they do! "The LORD can't see us," you say to yourselves. "He doesn't know what is going on!"

They cheat and shortchange everyone. Nothing they do is productive; all their activity is filled with sin. Violence is their trademark.
Their feet run to do evil, and they rush to commit murder. They think only about sinning. Wherever they go, misery and destruction follow them.
They do not know what true peace is or what it means to be just and good. They continually do wrong, and those who follow them cannot experience a moment's peace.

I know what enthusiasm they have for God, but it is misdirected zeal.
For they don't understand God's way of making people right with himself. Instead, they are clinging to their own way of getting right with God by trying to keep the law. They won't go along with God's way.

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