Jan 10, 2019 - Suggested Reading Hosea 6 for Jan 13th s message on Matthew 9:9-17 in our worship service at 10:45am

“For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.”

Hosea 6:6 (NIV) 

Matthew records our Lord quoting this verse twice, once in Matthew 9:13 and then again in Matthew 12:7. The use of Hosea 6:6 by Jesus must have had a significant impact on Matthew, for his gospel is the only gospel that records this quote. Perhaps the fact that Jesus used this text to justify His relationship with Matthew, gave Matthew a different perspective then the other gospel writers of the importance of Hosea 6:6 in understanding our Lord’s mission and the mission of all who would follow Jesus. We are no better than the Pharisees nor Matthew, so if we don’t go and learn what this means, then we will not understand why Jesus ate and drank with sinners, nor will we eat and drink with sinners.

Hosea 6:6 is a parallel statement which means that we can gain some understanding of what it means by comparing the parallel statements inside the verse to each other. The word sacrifice is clarified by the parallel burnt offerings, which leaves no doubt that God is speaking of the sacrificial system that he instituted on Sinai when He made the Jews into a His nation, and gave them their religious framework. The word mercy is then clarified by the phrase the acknowledgement of God - or the knowledge of God. So mercy used here carries the concept of living every aspect of our lives with God intertwined, not as an afterthought or as a sidekick, but with God in relationship as our Lord, our Judge, our Sustainer, and our Shepherd. The word desire speaks to God’s heart - that is that God prefers or that God wants mercy to be a characteristic of our lives more than He wants religious sacrifice, or that God does not want religious sacrifices from people whose lives do not exhibit mercy. A person who acknowledges God in every aspect of their lives will know their need of God’s mercy in their lives, for we fall short so often, and our thankfulness for God’s mercy in our lives, causes us to call others into God’s mercy. So what our Lord told the Pharisees was to go and learn what Hosea 6:6 means, knowing that instead of shunning sinners and writing them off, we would engage them, we would forgive them, we would tell them of God’s great mercies available to them through Christ for we have first-hand knowledge of our need for God’s mercy, and for His heart for sinners to repent.