Think of this, brethren, in relation to the book of Colossians. What were those people doing? They were offering their sacrifices to God, as it were, through demons! The elements of the world—touch not, taste not, and handle not. It seemed so right, so beautiful, so enhancing. They were disciplining themselves, but all for the wrong reasons and to the wrong spiritual beings.
So God is not saying, "Do not sacrifice." He is not saying, "Do not discipline yourself." He is saying that to do justly and to love has a higher priority. But all those things have to be done with the right object in mind and seeking the right source of strength. You can tie this right together with Matthew 23:23, that famous verse about tithing. What did Jesus say? He said, "This you should do."
Tithing is not easy. It requires a great deal of discipline and faith. But He said, "This you should do, but do not leave the weightier matters of the law undone—judgment (or justice, or being fair, doing unto others as you would have others do unto you); mercy (kindness, compassion); and faithfulness (loyalty to God). There are some things that are more important than others. And those last three—justice, mercy, and faith—Jesus is indicating are more important than tithing.
We touched briefly on those things. God's way revolves around those major concepts. I mentioned to you how that, when Herbert Armstrong said, "You people are not getting it," this is generally what he meant. We were allowing ourselves to become distracted and letting the less important activities dominate our lives.
That syncretistic festival also rhymes with what God says in Amos 5. He says, I hate, I despise your feast days, and I do not savor your sacred assemblies. . .. He says, Take away from Me the noise of your songs, for I will not hear the melody of your stringed instruments (Amos 5:21-23). A few verses later, God says that even as they were making sacrifices to Him in the wilderness, they also had other gods. And then He says, Therefore I will send you into captivity . . . (Amos 5:25-27). In another chilling rhyme, 40 of the revelers were taken into captivity on their feast day.
