Doing What Pleases God

“The LORD your God will be merciful only if you listen to his voice and keep all his commands that I am giving you today, doing what pleases him. [Deuteronomy 13.18]

We must not miss a critical statement in the verse above: "...doing what pleases Him"

The NKJV says it like this:

because you have listened to the voice of the Lord your God, to keep all His commandments which I command you today, to do what is right in the eyes of the Lord your God. [Deuteronomy 13.18 NKJV]

"To do what is right..." is clearly going to please God.

But what is the only thing that pleases God? FAITH. Because God never changes, we can be sure that the Old Testament rituals and sacrifices NEVER pleased God in and of themselves. 

But we have scriptures that say the sacrifices were "pleasing to God" or, in other translations "sweet" or "satisfying." So, what is up with that? 

The New King James Version uses the words "sweet aroma." I like this because it makes me think of "smell." The thing about smell is that it is only an indicator. Smell never nourished anyone. However, smell indicates there is something 'attached' to it, or associated with it. The smell indicated a "delivery of the goods" to come. So the "sweet aroma" of the sacrifices indicated that God could be pleased in the faith of those making the sacrifice! If we can see it, the sacrifice was the aroma and faith was the meal.

Nothing but faith has, or ever will, move God. So poignant is this fact that the Apostle Paul said (pay attention to part highlighted by me):

But the man who has doubts (misgivings, an uneasy conscience) about eating, and then eats [perhaps because of you], stands condemned [before God], because he is not true to his convictions and he does not act from faith. For whatever does not originate and proceed from faith is sin [whatever is done without a conviction of its approval by God is sinful]. [Romans 14.23 AMPC]

The author of Hebrews said it like this: 

And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him. [Hebrews 11.6]

So, again, the OT rituals and sacrifices never pleased God! Only when faith was the motivation behind the practices did they actually please God because... it is impossible to please God without faith!

The Old Testament rituals and sacrifices were necessarily removed because they were subject to human insincerity (lack of faith). In other words, there could be the "smell" of sacrifices without the "meal" of faith. 

Jesus, on the other hand, was the perfect sacrifice because, among other things, He was 100% pure in His sincerity. Therefore, our faith in Jesus leaves no room for the sacrifice to be done insincerely! Our faith then, in Jesus - the sweet smelling sacrifice on our behalf, must necessarily "deliver the goods" of a life lived in Him.

Father, thank You for revealing more depth to the rituals and sacrifices detailed in the Old Testament.