God Did You really ask us to give You a broken spirit and a contrite heart?

God Did You really ask us to give You a broken spirit and a contrite heart?

By Elana Polinger






God? Are You confused?



On one hand You said: "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise." Psa 51:17 NASB



On the other hand You said: " A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit saps a person's strength." Proverbs 17:22



Another translation says: A joyful heart is good medicine, But a broken spirit dries up the bones. Pro 17:22 NASB





You compare a cheerful heart with a broken heart. What's going on, Lord?



You also said that a broken spirit comes from a sad heart: "A joyful heart makes a cheerful face, But when the heart is sad, the spirit is broken." Pro 15:13 NASB



So, do You want us to give You a sacrifice of a broken spirit by having a sad sorrowful heart?



Did You really ask us to give You a broken spirit and a contrinte heart? Or do You delight in a cheerful heart? Because You said that a broekn heart dries the bone.



Do You want us to have dry bones as the Israelites had in the book of Ezekiel and this is a sacrifice You accept? When their bones were dy they were actually dead and You told Ezekiel to speak to the bones and bring them back to life.



Why would You ask for a sacrifice of broken spirit and contrite heart, and then tell us that if we have a broken spirit we will end up with dry bones - which is DEATH? Why, Lord?




Under the law of the old covenant, God gets man to the end of himself. The pride of the Israelites was believing they could keep the law, so they told God "we will do and obey". The minute they said it in their pride as they trusted in their own performance, God told them not to get near Him and keep a distance from the mountain. Before they said "we will do and obey" God called them to come near Him, there was no judgment, no wrath but only grace from the moment they left Egypt. Pure grace was there UNTIL the minute the law was received. Moses and his brothers pierced 3000 of their own brothers and all they knew was judgment for every wrong.



There is nothing we can give God but only ONE sacrifice - that of His Son Jesus. He was the One who had a broken spirit.



Job knew that when his spirit was broken only death waited for him.



Job 17:1 NASB My spirit is broken, my days are extinguished, The grave is ready for me.




Pro 18:14 NASB The spirit of a man can endure his sickness, But as for a broken spirit who can bear it?





God showed us that a broken spirit comes from sorrows. This is why it says about Jesus that He was a man acquainted with sorrows, rejected by man in Isaiah 53. So, according to Isaiah 53 being a man of sorrows (which results from a broken spirit) means being with grief, being despised and not esteemed.




(Isa 53:3 NASB) "He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him."



Jesus indeed had a broken spirit as a result of the sorrows of rejection. Even His own disicples left Him when He was on the cross, except one - John the beloved.



It was Jesus who gave God a sacrifice of a broken spirit because on the cross He went through th sorrows of rejection. Even the Father rejected Him. He was no longer one Spirit with the Father. He became sin and was separated form Him for the first time. For the first time He addresses His Father as God "My God My God, why have You forsaken Me?" He was forsaken and separated from the Father and his heart was broken. The Father had to turn His back to Him and forsake Him.



Why? His rejection was our acceptance. He was forsaken so we can be adopted as sons. He became sin and we became righteous. He imputed His righteousness to us and all our sins were imputed to Him.



When Jesus carried our sorrows it means he was the one who sacrificed to God a broken spirit:



(Isa 53:4 NASB) Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted.



God never despised Jesus' broken and contrite heart, but accepted His sacrifice of a broken spirit and a contrite heart.

He humbled Himself to death - and all was done for us. It's His obedience that made us righteous. Not our own obedience. It's His sacrifice, not or own.

The only sacrifice God accepts is Jesus. No other form. We see it with Cain and Abel. Abel brought the accepted sacrifice; but Cain brought his sacrifice - his works, his own effort, what he worked hard for.


Give God the One accepted sacrifice and believe that it's enough and pleasing to the Father.

Everything God demanded from man under the old covenant Jesus fulfilled for us. Receive what He has done and believe in Him.



Our part in the plan of salvation is to believe and receive His finished works. The more truth is revealed to us, the more we're set free to bear good fruits.



Don't live with God under the old system of the law thinking you need to fulfill it. When David wrote that Psalm, it was BEFORE the cross. It was still the old covenant of the law.



Always discern what you read by asking yourself "Is it BEFORE the cross, or AFTER the cross?"



Everything BEFORE the cross is still God dealing with man under the system of the law.



The new covenant was established only AFTER the cross and here God deals with us no longer based on our performance (works), but based on Jesus' works which He finished.

It's the perfect works of removing perfectly ALL your sin-nature (Noun) and knowing that God sees Christ in you.

As He is, so you are in this world. He is righteous and therefore, also you are. He is holy, and so you are. You are made in His image and it's no longer you who lives, but Christ who lives in you. He became YOU.


There was an exchange on the cross. As your High Priest He represents you to the Father. When God sees Christ, this is how He sees you. He sees Christ in you, not you.

Only under the law God would see YOU and YOUR performance and He will expect your performance to be perfect and meeting the standard of the law.



There is no hope for us if God measured us by who we are and our works. Today God measures you by who Christ Jesus is, and His finished works.





Heb 7:26 KJV For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens;





Much love and grace,

Elana