Mercy (Continued)
Hosea 6: 6-9
Hosea 6:6–9 (NRSVue): 6 For I desire steadfast love* and not sacrifice,
the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.
7 But at Adam they transgressed the covenant;
there they dealt faithlessly with me.
8 Gilead is a city of evildoers,
tracked with blood.
9 As robbers lie in wait for someone,
so the priests are banded together;
they murder on the road to Shechem;
they commit a monstrous crime.
*chesed- Hebrew for the unconditional love in a family, English word is kindness which is derived from Old English as kinship.
Hosea records these words for in the connection to prostitution, the people were selfishly enjoying personal vice, selling themselves to the “gods” of fleshly sin. Hosea 6:6 therefore means that God desires us being faithful to Him. Religious rituals practiced while practicing sin does not save you, especially when you are ignoring God and His Commandments.
Jesus does something special with these words in Hosea, twice! Look at these verses:
Matthew 9:9–13 (NIV): 9 As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.
10 While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. 11 When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
12 On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 13 But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Matthew 12:1–8 (ESV): 12 At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. 2 But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, “Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.” 3 He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, and those who were with him: 4 how he entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him to eat nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests? 5 Or have you not read in the Law how on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless? 6 I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. 7 And if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. 8 For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”
Jesus takes this area of Hosea and expounds on it. This time it must deal with judging people as sinners. This is a job that belongs to God, not us.
James 2:12–13 (NLT): 12 So whatever you say or whatever you do, remember that you will be judged by the law that sets you free. 13 There will be no mercy for those who have not shown mercy to others. But if you have been merciful, God will be merciful when he judges you.
** A book that I would like to recommend for you to read would be How Jesus SAVES the World FROM US: 12 Antidotes To Toxic Christianity by Morgan Guyton.