The second dispute between God and his people focuses on worship at the temple. The people are bringing offerings that are blemished or defiled in the temple, going against the Levitical Law and demonstrating that they don’t truly honour God. Their half-hearted, duty-bound devotion even prompts God to wish the Temple doors would be shut so they’d stop bringing these offerings. To make things worse the priests are complicit in this, participating in the shameful worship instead of pointing the people towards true, obedient worship. The very people chosen to uphold the high standards or worship are the ones defiling it.

How can we, as Christians, be guilty of similar? When do we bring our half-hearted offerings to God and think that’s enough? How can we ‘offer [y]our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship (Romans 12:1)?