For today’s post we will tackle the question the Skeptic Annotated Bible asked: Did God command the Israelites to make him burnt offerings?
Here are the two answers which the skeptic believes shows a Bible contradiction:
God commanded the Israelites to make him burnt offerings.
“We must go a three days’ journey into the wilderness and sacrifice to the Lord our God, just as He commands us.”” (Exodus 8:27)
“But Moses said, “You must also [a]let us have sacrifices and burnt offerings, so that we may [b]sacrifice them to the Lord our God.” (Exodus 10:25)
“You shall make an altar of earth for Me, and you shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen; in every place where I cause My name to be remembered, I will come to you and bless you.” (Exodus 20:24)
“and you shall slaughter the ram and take its blood and sprinkle it around on the altar. 17 Then you shall cut the ram into its pieces, and wash its entrails and its legs, and put them with its pieces and its head. 18 And you shall offer up in smoke the whole ram on the altar; it is a burnt offering to the Lord: it is a soothing aroma, an offering by fire to the Lord.” (Exodus 29:16-18)
No
“This is what the Lord of armies, the God of Israel says: “Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat flesh. 22 For I did not speak to your fathers, or command them on the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices.” (Jeremiah 7:21-22)
(All Scriptural quotation comes from the New American Standard Bible)
Here’s a closer look at whether or not there is a contradiction:
- When dealing with skeptics’ claim of Bible contradictions it seems one can never be reminded enough of what exactly is a contradiction. A contradiction occurs when two or more claims conflict with one another so that they cannot simultaneously be true in the same sense and at the same time. To put it another way, a Bible contradiction exists when there are claims within the Bible that are mutually exclusive in the same sense and at the same time.
- One should be skeptical of whether this is a Bible contradiction given the Skeptic Annotated Bible’s track record of inaccurately handling the Bible. See the many examples of their error which we have responded to in this post: Collection of Posts Responding to Bible Contradictions. Of course that does not take away the need to respond to this claim of a contradiction, which is what the remainder of this post will do. But this observation should caution us to slow down and look more closely at the passages cited by the Skeptic Annotated Bible to see if they interpreted the passages properly to support their conclusion that it is a Bible contradiction.
- The skeptic tries to pit four passages (Exodus 8:27, Exodus 10:25, Exodus 20:24, Exodus 29:16-18) as affirming the claim “God command the Israelites to make him burnt offerings” against Jeremiah 7:21-22 as affirming “God did not command the Israelites to make him burnt offerings.”
- The skeptics cited correctly all four passages of Exodus 8:27, Exodus 10:25, Exodus 20:24 and Exodus 29:16-18 as recording God talking to Israel about His requirement for offering in general and at times specifically burnt offering.
- If one read Jeremiah 7:21-22 in context it does not seem to be denying that God during the time the Hebrews were brought out of Egypt God was giving them instructions about burnt offerings and sacrifices. Instead from the context Jeremiah 7:22 is saying God did not tell the Hebrews to make burnt offering in unbiblical ways and to pagan deities. In other words in the context of Jeremiah chapter seven we see that Jeremiah 7:22 is not denying the Law of Moses about burnt offering but rather Jeremiah 7:22 is saying the Law of Moses did not tell people to have sacrifices and burnt offerings in the wrong way that was done during Jeremiah’s days.
- They were offering sacrifices to another god: Baal. Verse 9 states “Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, offer sacrifices to Baal, and follow other gods that you have not known.“
- They were also offering sacrifices to a pagan goddess: “The children gather wood, the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead dough to make sacrificial cakes for the queen of heaven; and they pour out drink offerings to other gods in order to provoke Me to anger” (v.18).
- The people in Jeremiah’s days were also having idols in the Temple, something that God during the days of the Hebrew exodus never said to do: “For the sons of Judah have done that which is evil in My sight,” declares the Lord. “They have put their detestable things in the house which is called by My name, to defile it” (v.30).
- More importantly what the objects of burnt offering that the people in Jeremiah’s days were doing were definitely not what God commanded “on the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt.” Jeremiah 7:31 mentioned that they were offering human sacrifices of their children: “They have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the Valley of Ben-hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command, and it did not come into My mind.”
- There is no contradiction here. Seems the skeptic needs to learn of How to Handle Bible Contradictions.
- We shouldn’t miss that worldviews are at play even with the skeptic’s objection to Christianity. The worldview of the author of the Skeptic Annotated Bible actually doesn’t even allow for such a thing as the law of non-contradiction to be meaningful and intelligible. In other words for him to try to disprove the Bible by pointing out that there’s a Bible contradiction doesn’t even make sense within his own worldview. Check out our post “Skeptic Annotated Bible Author’s Self-Defeating Worldview.”
[…] Did God command the Israelites to make him burnt offerings? […]
I appreciate your thoroughness but I think the skeptic has no clue how to interpret the Bible at all
Excellent brother. It seems to be a repeated pattern of ignoring the context.
Shalom!
Indeed it’s becoming a systemic cycle with the skeptic Annotated Bible! Thanks for the support!
Good work! The skeptic is relentless in his pursuit of taking Scripture out of context!!! I am so thankful for all that you do to help all people read God’s Word in context!!!!
Thanks Mandy!! Appreciate you doing the same thing as well, I appreciate you teaching the youth at our church and showing the context and background for the passages you are going over. That is so helpful!
It does make sense that God would command the Israelites to make sacrifices in ways different than the pagan nations around. Thanks for the explanation.
Thanks for reading this. The skeptics inability to read the context is a major problem that occur over and over again; I think you would agree from reading previous posts in this series that their interpretation without the surrounding context is not a bug but a feature in their list of Bible contradictions; which is crazy isn’t it?
Quite agreed.
Thanks for this thorough rebuttal of Steve/Stephen Wells’ egregiously lame “contradiction.”
You are welcome! It is horrible how Steve Wells don’t let the context dictate what Jeremiah 7:22meant by burnt offering and sacrifices. The guys too often “fortune cookie” Bible verses out of context and gives us just a verse and say that’s a contradiction. Were you able to mow the lawn before the rain today????
It rained this morning but then the sun came out. I waited a couple of hours for the grass to dry a bit and then cut the entire lawn because it’s supposed to rain again tomorrow. Man, that grass was long and I’m whipped. 🛋 duty until lights out.
How’s your Tuesday going?
Good point: “Instead from the context Jeremiah 7:22 is saying God did not tell the Hebrews to make burnt offering in unbiblical ways and to pagan deities.” Based on the context of the texts there are no contradictions.
Amen yes indeed based upon the context! The context shows Jeremiah is not talking about Mosaic burnt offerings but pagan burnt offerings was not what God prescribed! As they say context context context! How are you guys with recovering from your trip???
Since I got saved and study the Bible till I became an adult and taught Bible study and Sunday school I have it drilled into me to read the context. It is very easy to be tricked into thinking there’s an error with the Bible since without seeing the complete picture
You’ve been taught right! Steve Wells of the skeptic Annotated Bible: not so much. Or he forsake what he was taught once he apostated….this guy we got to pray for
This is spiritual and not simply intellectual
Thank you. Blessings.
Thank you Maw maw for reading this; how is your heart doing????
I am ok. I had to lower salt and liquids(sad) tho. :)) Thank you for caring in God’s love.
Reblogged this on The Creation Cowboy and commented:
When misotheists claim to have found Bible contradictions, they are met with howls of glee from their fellow travelers. It is a fact that is often repeated that they ignore the context of the passage, and Pastor Jimmy keeps showing us.
A friend brought up a contradiction and I shared your collection of answers and he replied with a laugh react and then said nothing more. He can’t answer you lol
That happens a lot on social media for me too. I get dragged into a debate and the nonbelievers who think they can bash the Bible with no impunity suddenly have a mutiny from the fight they started…
It is strange how these alleged contradictions have been thoroughly refuted but keep coming up. Some atheists groups in social media are silly. At some point the administrators need to consider if these alleged Bible contradictions are really adding to the discussion when
Excellent discussion! When we read Scripture without reading the supporting verses, we fail to grasp the whole story.
Good point! May we read the Bible in context amen???
[…] 4.) Bible contradiction? Did God command the Israelites to make him burnt offerings? […]
The ways these guys read the Bible makes me think they are prone to misunderstanding what others have to say. Probably single guys who have their girlfriends leave because of their misunderstanding of texts messages
And if they are married they are probably divorced
I read the whole chapter (Jeremiah 7) after this post. I agree with your take.
Well, the mistake is using an NAS Bible which was translated from the Vulgate (original mis-translation from Alexandria; Roman text) rather than the King James which is a translation from the Syrian text. Also applies to NIV and other English translations.
I needed to add here that I agree because also in Isaiah, God says He doesn’t want their fake sacrifices. And, I believe it is Jeremiah 5:10 and 10:3, where the Mysteries cult practices were being observed, see also Ashteroth poles, high places, weeping for Tammuz (Ezekiel) – all of which infuriated Almighty God.
[…] Did God command the Israelites to make him burnt offerings? […]
I read this verse today “Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.” JAMES 5:16 (NLT)… and it reminds me that “righteousness” is not about our works, but about our sincere trust in The Lord. Of course, such trust bring about our desire and passion to provide fragrant fruit. (I might write this in a post. I want others to know this truth)!
That would be a good post!!! Hope you are doing well!!!