John Calvin Commentary Isaiah 43:23

"Thou hast not brought me of thy sheep for burnt-offerings; neither hast thou honored me with thy sacrifices. I have not burdened thee with offerings, nor wearied thee with frankincense." — Isaiah 43:23 (ASV)

You have not brought to me. A question arises: “Why does the Prophet bring this reproach against the Jews, who, it is evident, were very careful to offer sacrifices according to the injunction of the Law?”

Some refer this to the time of the captivity, when they could not have offered sacrifices to God even if they had been willing to do so. This was because it was not lawful for them to offer sacrifices in any other place than Jerusalem, and therefore they could not appease God by sacrifices (Deuteronomy 12:13).

But I rather think that it is a general reproach. For even when the people were sacrificing, they could not boast of their merits or personal worth, as if they had put God under obligation in this manner. This was because they were lacking in the sacrifices that God chiefly approves: faith and obedience, without which nothing can be acceptable to God.

There was no integrity of heart: their hands were full of blood (Isaiah 1:15). Everything was filled with fraud and robbery, and there was no room for justice or equity. Although, therefore, they daily brought beasts to the temple and sacrificed them, He justly affirms that they offered nothing to Him.

Sacrifices could not be accepted by God when they were separated from truth and were offered to another rather than to God. For He did not demand them in themselves, but only insofar as the people treated them as exercises of faith and obedience.

Therefore, we infer that the Prophet says nothing new but continues to present the same doctrine: namely, that God rejects all services that are rendered with a slavish spirit or are in any other respect defective.