THEREFORE WHEN HE
COMES INTO THE WORLD HE SAYS SACRIFICE AND OFFERING HE SAYS THOU HAST NOT
DESIRED: dio eiserchomenos (PMPMSN) eis ton kosmon legei (3SPAI)
thusian kai prosphoran ouk ethelesas (2SAAI): (He 10:7; 1:6; Matthew
11:3; Luke 7:19;) (Psalms 40:6, 7, 8; 50:8-23; Isaiah 1:11; Jeremiah
6:20; Amos 5:21,22)
Therefore (1352)
(dio) hearkens back to the truths just recorded regarding the impotency
and inadequacy of animal sacrifices to
make the worshiper perfect and give them a clean conscience. A greater
sacrifice was necessary.
Barnes adds...
This word (therefore) shows that
the apostle means to sustain what he had said by a reference to the Old
Testament itself. Nothing could be more opposite to the prevailing Jewish
opinions about the efficacy of sacrifice than what he had just said. It was,
therefore, of the highest importance to defend the position which he had
laid down by authority which they would not presume to call in question, and
he therefore makes his appeal to their own Scriptures.
When He comes into
the world - The incarnation of Christ (Jn 1:1, 14)
Sacrifice and
offering...not desired - At first glance this
verse might seem confusing for was it not God Himself Who ordained the
Levitical sacrificial system? Indeed, it was, but it was never intended to
be a mere formality or external ritual without deeper meaning. And so we see
the
OT repeatedly warning Israel that sacrifices as an external formality
without internal change were not pleasing to God. God always desires obedience
from a heart motivated by love not legalism.
Not (3756)
(ou) indicates absolute negation of what follows.
Desired (2309)
(thelo) speaks of an active decision of one's will, implying volition
and purpose. To have a desire for something.
Stedman
observes that in Hebrews 10:5-7 the writer quotes...
Psalm 40:6-8 from the
Septuagint (LXX).
They describe, in words directly ascribed to Christ, His complete
willingness to sacrifice Himself to remove our sins. His was a self-giving
life, not self-loving, as animal sacrifices were. Though there are different
wordings here than the Hebrew text presents, nevertheless the central point
is clear. Jesus saw Himself described in the Suffering Servant passages of
the Old Testament (it is written about Me in the scroll), and
willingly set Himself to fulfilling that role in His incarnation (Here I
am.... I have come to do your will, O God). Wholehearted obedience
is the quality which God desires in sacrifices. He makes the point many
times in the Old Testament, notably, in 1Sa 15:22 ("...to obey is
better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of rams."); Isaiah
1:11, 12, 13, 14 (see
notes); and Amos 5:21,22 (see below). As Morris rightly says,
“God takes no delight in the routine performance of the ritual of sacrifice”
(Hebrews. Bible Study Commentary. Lamplighter Books. Grand Rapids:
Zondervan. 1983:91). Undoubtedly, he feels the same way about routine
worship services today!
Hebrews 10:1-39 Let Us Go On!)
William Cowper
expressed this well in rhyme...
The Heart Healed and
Changed by Mercy
Sin enslaved my many years,
And led me bound and blind;
Till at length a thousand fears
Came swarming o’er my mind.
“Where,” said I, in deep distress,
“Will these sinful pleasures end?
How shall I secure my peace,
And make the Lord my friend?”
Friends and ministers said much
The gospel to enforce;
But my blindness still was such,
I chose a legal course:
Much I fasted, watch’d and strove,
Scarce would shew my face abroad,
Fear’d almost to speak or move,
A stranger still to God.
Thus afraid to trust His grace,
Long time did I rebel;
Till despairing of my case,
Down at His feet I fell:
Then my stubborn heart He broke,
And subdued me to His sway;
By a simple word He spoke,
“Thy sins are done away.”
In Psalm 51 David
declared...
Thou dost not delight in sacrifice,
otherwise I would give it; Thou art not pleased with burnt offering. The
sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God,
Thou wilt not despise. (Psalm 51:16-17)
In Isaiah 11,
in strong terms God
ask faithless, rebellious Israel...
"What are your multiplied sacrifices to
Me?" Says the LORD. "I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams, And the
fat of fed cattle. And I take no pleasure in the blood of bulls, lambs, or
goats.
12 "When you come to appear before Me, Who requires of you this trampling of
My courts?
13 "Bring your worthless offerings no longer, Incense is an abomination to
Me. New moon and sabbath, the calling of assemblies-- I cannot endure
iniquity and the solemn assembly.
14 "I hate your new moon festivals and your appointed feasts, They have
become a burden to Me. I am weary of bearing them.
15 "So when you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide My eyes from
you, Yes, even though you multiply prayers, I will not listen. Your hands
are covered with blood. (Note: even in the midst of God's diatribe,
He offers the way of escape in the next two verses)
16 "Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; Remove the evil of your deeds
from My sight. Cease to do evil,
17 Learn to do good; Seek justice, Reprove the ruthless; Defend the orphan,
Plead for the widow. (Isaiah 1:11-17)
Mark records that...
AND TO LOVE HIM WITH ALL THE HEART AND
WITH ALL THE UNDERSTANDING AND WITH ALL THE STRENGTH, AND TO LOVE ONE'S
NEIGHBOR AS HIMSELF, is much more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices."
(Mark 12:33)
Through His prophet
Amos God declared...
21 "I hate, I reject your festivals, Nor
do I delight in your solemn assemblies.
22 "Even though you offer up to Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings,
I will not accept them; And I will not even look at the peace offerings of
your fatlings.
23 "Take away from Me the noise of your songs; I will not even listen to the
sound of your harps.
24 "But let justice roll down like waters And righteousness like an
ever-flowing stream.
25 "Did you present Me with sacrifices and grain offerings in the wilderness
for forty years, O house of Israel?
26 "You also carried along Sikkuth your king and Kiyyun, your images, the
star of your gods which you made for yourselves. (Amos 5:21-26) (Comment:
Note verse 25 speaks of sacrifices to God but verse 26 indicates the
duplicity of their hearts to run after vain idols!)
Samuel's words to
disobedient King Saul (as God removes the kingdom from him) explain what God
has always desired...
And Samuel said, "Has the LORD as much
delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices As in obeying the voice of the
LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of
rams. For rebellion is as the sin of divination, And insubordination is as
iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, He
has also rejected you from being king. (1Samuel 15:22-23)
God does not delight in external acts
or ritual
of worship. He always inspects the giver, before He inspects the gift,
offering or praise. How can one who is unclean offer a clean sacrifice? The
constant urging of Scripture is that God’s servants give their hearts and
their lives in contrition and brokenness of spirit before they
observe feasts, fasts, sabbaths, sacrifices, etc. Rote religion is never a
substitute for purity of heart.
BUT A BODY THOU HAST PREPARED FOR ME: soma de katertiso (2SAMI)
moi:
(He 10:10; 2:14; 8:3; Genesis 3:15; Isaiah 7:14; Jeremiah 31:22; Matthew
1:20, 21, 22, 23; Luke 1:35; John 1:14; Galatians 4:4; 1Timothy 3:16; 1John
4:2,3; 2John 1:7)
The original Hebrew of Psalm 40:6
reads as follows in the NAS...
Sacrifice and meal offering Thou hast not
desired; My ears Thou hast opened; Burnt offering and sin offering
Thou hast not required.
The LXX
writers translated this verse as follows
substituting soma (body) for otia (ear)...
Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not;
but a body hast thou prepared me: whole-burnt-offering and sacrifice
for sin thou didst not require.
In Exodus 21:6 when the master pierced a
servant's ear with an awl, the servant was to serve the master permanently.
Thereafter the servant was in a sense to hear and obey only the voice of his master. This
OT picture is a foreshadowing of Christ, Who willingly became a
bondservant (Php 2:5, 6, 7, 8-see notes
Phil 2:5-7;
2:8),
even to the point of death, in perfect obedience to His Father's will. But
before Jesus hear and obey, He had to have a human body, with human ears.
Rienecker explains that...
The words (in Psalm 40:6) "a body you
have prepared for me" were evidently taken from the LXX
and are an interpretative paraphrase of
the Hebrew text. It could have been that the Greek translators regarded the
Hebrew words as an instance of "a part for the whole," i.e., the "digging"
or hollowing out of the ears is part of the total work of fashioning a human
body.
It may also have been that the "ears"
were taken as a symbol of obedience in that they were the organ of reception
of the divine will and the body was considered the organ of the fulfillment
of the divine will.
Or finally there may be illusion to the
custom of piercing a slave's ears showing that he had voluntarily refused
his liberty (Ex 21:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, Dt 15:17).
Prepared (2675)
(katartizo
[word study]
from katá = with + artízo = to adjust, fit, finish, in turn
from ártios = fit, complete) conveys the fundamental idea of
putting something into its appropriate condition so it will function well.
It conveys the idea of making whole by fitting together, to order and
arrange properly. When applied to that which is weak and defective, it
denotes setting right what has gone wrong, to restore to a former condition,
whether mending broken nets or setting broken bones.
To
make fitted or equipped for a duty or function. To make someone completely
adequate or sufficient for something. To thoroughly prepare something to
meet demands.
Wuest adds that
katartízō
"has in it the idea
of equipping something or preparing it
for future use." (Wuest,
K. S. Wuest's Word Studies from the Greek New Testament: Eerdmans
or
Logos)
Katartízō
was used in secular Greek to describe a trainer who adjusts parts of the
body, as a surgical term of the setting of a broken bone or putting a
dislocated limb back in place or of the repairing and refitting of a damaged
vessel (ship).
Hebrews 11:3 uses katartizo
for preparing the world...
By faith we understand that the worlds
were prepared (katartizo) by the word of God, so that what is seen
was not made out of things which are visible.
In short, the writer is saying that God
formed the human body of His Son with the same mighty power and wisdom with
which He formed the universe. This can only mean that the body of Jesus,
like that of Adam, was a special creation, not formed by the normal process
of genetic inheritance.
In Hebrews 13 the writer uses
katartizo praying that the...
the God of peace, who brought up from the
dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal
covenant, even Jesus our Lord, 21 equip you in every good thing to do His
will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus
Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. (Hebrews 13:20, 21)
Jamieson writes...
"Thou didst fit for Me a body." "In Thy
counsels Thou didst determine to make for Me a body, to be given up to death
as a sacrificial victim" [WAHL]. In the Hebrew, Ps 40:6, it is "mine ears
hast thou opened," or "dug." Perhaps this alludes to the custom of boring
the ear of a slave who volunteers to remain under his master when he might
be free. Christ's assuming a human body, in obedience to the Father's will,
in order to die the death of a slave (He 2:14), was virtually the same act
of voluntary submission to service as that of a slave suffering his ear to
be bored by his master. His willing obedience to the Father's will is what
is dwelt on as giving special virtue to His sacrifice (He 10:7, 9, 10). The
preparing, or fitting of a body for Him, is not with a view to His mere
incarnation, but to His expiatory sacrifice (He 10:10), as the contrast to
"sacrifice and offering" requires; compare also Ro 7:4; Ep 2:16; Col 1:22.
More probably "opened mine ears" means
opened mine inward ear, so as to be attentively obedient to what God wills
me to do, namely, to assume the body He has prepared for me for my
sacrifice, so Job 33:16, Margin; Job 36:10 (doubtless the boring of a
slave's "ear" was the symbol of such willing obedience); Is 50:5, "The Lord
God hath opened mine ear," that is, made me obediently attentive as a slave
to his master.
Others somewhat similarly explain, "Mine
ears hast thou digged," or "fashioned," not with allusion to Ex 21:6, but to
the true office of the ear--a willing, submissive attention to the voice of
God (Isa 50:4, 5). The forming of the ear implies the preparation of the
body, that is, the incarnation; this secondary idea, really in the Hebrew,
though less prominent, is the one which Paul uses for his argument. In
either explanation the idea of Christ taking on Him the form, and becoming
obedient as a servant, is implied. As He assumed a body in which to make His
self-sacrifice, so ought we present our bodies a living sacrifice (Ro 12:1).
GUIDELINES FOR
INTERPRETING OT QUOTES IN
NT
In Hebrews 10:5-9, the quotation follows the LXX, with a minor variation, instead
of the Hebrew text, as do many of the several hundred quotations of the OT
found in the N.T. Quotations are used in various ways:
(1) Invariably the authors attribute unqualified divine authority to the OT,
in some instances basing their argument on one word (Mt 2:15; 22:43, 44, 45; Jn 10:34; 19:36,37; Ro 4:3; etc.).
(2) The
Septuagint (LXX)
is usually employed, as it is here in Hebrews, in the
same way as an English translation may be quoted today (Mt 1:23; cp. Isa 7:14
in LXX).
(3) Variations in quotations may originate in the desire to translate the
original Hebrew more accurately than the
Septuagint (LXX) (1Cor 14:21; cp. Isa 28:11, 12 in
LXX and Hebrew).
(4) Many quotations were not intended to be verbatim, but are paraphrases
designed to bring out the meaning or particular application (Gal 4:30 cp.
Ge 21:10).
(5) Some quotations are a summary of OT truth taken from several passages,
giving the sense if not the exact words of the original (Ro 11:26,27 cp.
Isa 59:20,21 27:9).
(6) In some cases the quotation is only an allusion and is not intended to
be an exact quotation (Ro 9:27; cp. Isa 10:22,23).
(7) the Holy Spirit who inspired the OT was free to reword a quotation
just as a human author may restate his own writings in other words without
impugning the accuracy of the original statement (Mt 2:6; cp. Micah 5:2). The
doctrine of plenary inspiration requires only that revelation be expressed
without error.
