Thou hast not brought Me the small cattle
Failure in religious details
Failure in religious details may we not ask whether some emphasis may not be laid upon the designation “the small cattle”?
Do not many men fail in religious details? They are emphatic in their stupendous word-creed, but they do not bless some little child on the road to church, or bring some wandering soul to the Church home. We do certain great or conspicuous things, and we forget the small cattle, the little offerings and tributes. Every omission is noticed (Isaiah 43:24). Does God care for our sweet cane? Does He like to see us spending a trifle upon some cane stick that we may take it and offer it as if it were a flower? He hath no need of any service of the kind; yet it pleases Him that we should with some small piece of money buy sweet cane. Observe how He notes the omissions! This might be the very voice of Christ, who said to Simon the Pharisee, “I entered into thine house, thou gavest Me no water for My feet; but she hath washed My feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head. Thou gavest Me no kiss: but this woman since the time I came in hath not ceased to kiss My feet. My head with oil thou didst not anoint: but this woman hath anointed My feet with ointment.” What an eye is the eye of Omniscience! It notices every slip and flaw and omission. That would, indeed, be a miserable declaration to make if it stood alone; but it only leads to the fuller declaration that it notices every cup of cold water, every widow’s gift, every child’s service. God is not unrighteous to forget your work of faith and labour of love. (J. Parker, D. D.)
God and His people a contrast
In one of those antithetical clauses, or “balances of words,” so frequent in Isaiah, He thus contrasts His own and His people’s doings (verse 23): “I have not burdened thee in exacting oblations; I have not wearied thee in demanding incense.”.. . “But thou hast burdened Me with thy sins; thou hast wearied Me with thine iniquities” (verse 24). (J. R. Macduff, D. D.)