The Smell of Obedience: More Than a Burnt Offering Text: Proverbs 21:3
Introduction: The War on Hypocrisy
We live in an age that is allergic to hypocrisy, at least when it sees it in others. The world has a keen nose for the stench of religious pretense. They can spot a pharisee a mile away, the man who polishes the outside of the cup while the inside is crawling with filth. And in this, their instinct is not wrong. They are reacting, however ignorantly, to a profound biblical truth. God detests play-acting. He despises the worship of the man whose hands are busy with religious ritual but whose heart is a thousand miles away, and whose daily business is a tangle of injustice.
Our text today is a sharp, two-edged sword that cuts right to the heart of this matter. It establishes a divine preference, a hierarchy of acceptability before God. And it is a hierarchy that our flesh, and the false religion our flesh loves to manufacture, constantly seeks to invert. We would much rather build an impressive altar than an impressive life. We find it far easier to offer a sacrifice we can see and smell than to offer ourselves as a living sacrifice, which is our reasonable service. We prefer the grand gesture, the public display of piety, to the quiet, unseen, daily grind of righteousness and justice.
But the Lord is not impressed with the smoke of our sacrifices if the fire of our lives is burning with injustice. He is not interested in our solemn assemblies if we are oppressing the poor. This is not a new theme in Scripture. It is a constant drumbeat from the prophets. Samuel tells Saul that "to obey is better than sacrifice" (1 Sam. 15:22). Isaiah tells Israel that God is sick of their burnt offerings because their hands are full of blood (Isaiah 1:11-15). Micah asks what the Lord requires, and the answer is not thousands of rams, but to "do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God" (Micah 6:8).
Proverbs 21:3 distills this prophetic critique into a sharp, memorable axiom. It sets two things side by side: the cultic, ceremonial act of sacrifice, and the ethical, covenantal life of righteousness and justice. And it declares, in no uncertain terms, which one God prefers. This is not a repudiation of the sacrificial system itself; God is the one who commanded it. It is a repudiation of the sacrificial system when it is detached from the heart and life it was meant to represent. It is a declaration of war on all forms of external religion that are used as a cloak for internal rebellion.
The Text
To do righteousness and justice
Is chosen by Yahweh over sacrifice.
(Proverbs 21:3)
The Divine Preference
Let's break this down. The verse presents a choice, a preference held by Yahweh Himself. He has two things before Him, and He chooses one over the other. It is a comparative statement. "To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice."
"To do righteousness and justice..."
This is the first item on the table. What are righteousness and justice? These two terms are frequently paired together in Scripture, and they describe the two great tables of the law. Righteousness (tzedakah) refers to a right standing, an ethical conformity to God's standard. It is about personal integrity, moral uprightness, and living in a way that aligns with the character of God. It is the vertical dimension of our duty: our relationship with God and His holy law.
Justice (mishpat) refers to the application of that righteousness in our dealings with others. It is about fairness in the courts, honesty in business, and equity in our social relationships. It is the horizontal dimension: our duty to our neighbor. It means giving others their due. It means not cheating on your taxes, not slandering your brother, not oppressing your employees, and not showing partiality in judgment. Together, righteousness and justice encompass the whole of a life lived in faithful obedience to God's covenant commands.
Notice the verb: "to do righteousness and justice." This is not about having righteous thoughts or just feelings. It is about action. It is about embodiment. It is about a life that performs the score God has written. It is active, ongoing, practical obedience.
The Pious Alternative
The second item on the table is "sacrifice."
"...Is chosen by Yahweh over sacrifice."
In the Old Covenant, sacrifice was the God-ordained centerpiece of worship. It was how sins were atoned for, how fellowship was restored, and how thanksgiving was expressed. To neglect the sacrifices was a grave sin. So why does God here appear to denigrate it? Is He contradicting Himself?
Not at all. The issue is not sacrifice per se, but sacrifice as a substitute. The problem arises when men try to use the machinery of worship to buy God off. It happens when a man thinks he can cheat his business partner all week, and then make it all right by bringing a particularly fat lamb to the temple on the Sabbath. He is treating the sacrifice as a transaction, a spiritual bribe. He is attempting to use the forms of religion to cover for a life of irreligion.
This is the very heart of hypocrisy. It is the attempt to compartmentalize life, to have a "religious" sphere that is disconnected from the "rest of life" sphere. The man who does this thinks God is only interested in what happens at the altar. But God is interested in what happens at the office, in the courtroom, and at the dinner table. He claims every square inch. The sacrifices were never intended to be a substitute for a righteous life; they were intended to be the expression of a righteous heart that knows it has fallen short and needs grace.
Obedience is the Goal
So, the Lord "chooses" righteousness and justice over this kind of hollow sacrifice. Why? Because obedience is the point. The sacrifices themselves were a command to be obeyed, but they pointed beyond themselves to the greater reality of a life wholly consecrated to God. The outward act was meant to flow from an inward reality of faith and repentance.
When the outward act is present but the inward reality is absent, the act itself becomes an abomination. It's like a husband who buys his wife expensive jewelry but continues to commit adultery. The gift is not a sign of love; it is an insult. It is a cheap attempt to paper over a fundamental betrayal. This is precisely how God views the sacrifices of the unjust. He says through the prophet Amos, "I hate, I despise your feast days, and I do not savor your sacred assemblies... Take away from Me the noise of your songs, for I will not hear the melody of your stringed instruments. But let justice run down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream" (Amos 5:21, 23-24).
God wants the mighty stream of a righteous life, not the noisy trickle of empty songs and meaningless rituals. The ritual only has meaning when it is the true expression of the life.
The Cross and the Christian Life
Now, how does this apply to us, who live under the New Covenant? We do not offer animal sacrifices. The Lord Jesus Christ was the final, perfect, once-for-all sacrifice for sins. Does this proverb, then, have anything to say to us?
It has everything to say to us. The fundamental temptation to substitute religion for righteousness has not gone away. We simply have different sacrifices we try to offer.
We can offer the sacrifice of correct theology. We can have all our doctrinal ducks in a row, we can win every argument on the internet, we can have a bookshelf groaning under the weight of systematic theologies, and yet be harsh with our wives, impatient with our children, and dishonest in our business. To do so is to offer a sacrifice that Yahweh does not choose.
We can offer the sacrifice of diligent church attendance. We can have a perfect record, serve on three committees, and lead a small group, but if our hearts are filled with envy, bitterness, and gossip, our worship is a clanging cymbal. God chooses the doing of righteousness and justice over the mere doing of church.
We can offer the sacrifice of ostentatious piety. We can make a great show of our prayer life, our fasting, or our giving. But Jesus warned us about this very thing. He told us not to be like the hypocrites who pray on the street corners to be seen by men. He said they have their reward in full. God is not interested in the performance of righteousness; He is interested in the reality of it.
The ultimate sacrifice has been made for us in Christ. We can add nothing to it. Our acceptance before God is based entirely on His righteousness, not our own. But the proof that we have truly received that gift, that we have been united to Christ by faith, is that His life begins to work itself out in us. The fruit of the Spirit, which includes goodness and righteousness, begins to grow (Eph. 5:9).
"He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?" (Micah 6:8)
This is the life that pleases God. It is a life that flows from the gospel. Because we have been shown ultimate mercy at the cross, we can love mercy. Because we have been declared righteous in Christ, we can begin to do righteousness. Because we have been reconciled to the ultimate Judge, we can fight for justice in His world. Our good works are not the root of our salvation, but they are the necessary fruit of it. And this fruit, this life of practical, daily, grind-it-out righteousness and justice, is more pleasing to God than any external show of religion we could ever muster.
Conclusion
So, let this proverb search our hearts. Are we attempting to impress God with our sacrifices? Are we pointing to our church attendance, our theological knowledge, our ministry involvement, as evidence of our spiritual health, while neglecting the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy, and faithfulness?
The world is watching. And they can smell a fake. They know when our lives do not match our lips. The greatest apologetic we have is not a clever argument, but a consistent life. It is a life where righteousness and justice flow like a mighty stream, not from our own efforts, but from the indwelling life of Christ Himself.
Let us therefore bring our whole lives to God as our sacrifice. Let us present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is our spiritual worship (Romans 12:1). This is the sacrifice He chooses. It is the sacrifice of a life transformed by grace, a life dedicated to doing righteousness and justice for His glory. And the aroma of such a life is more pleasing to Him than all the burnt offerings in the world.