Matthew 9:9-13
God Desires Mercy, Not Sacrifice
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.”
Hosea 6:4-10
God Desires Mercy Not Sacrifice
4 “What can I do with you, Ephraim?
What can I do with you, Judah?
Your love is like the morning mist,
like the early dew that disappears.
5 Therefore I cut you in pieces with my prophets,
I killed you with the words of my mouth—
then my judgments go forth like the sun.
6 For I desire mercy, not sacrifice,
and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.
7 As at Adam, they have broken the covenant;
they were unfaithful to me there.
8 Gilead is a city of evildoers,
stained with footprints of blood.
9 As marauders lie in ambush for a victim,
so do bands of priests;
they murder on the road to Shechem,
carrying out their wicked schemes.
10 I have seen a horrible thing in Israel:
There Ephraim is given to prostitution,
Israel is defiled.
Can there be justice without mercy?...I think most people would say they believe in justice...But is justice singular by definition or does justice need something added, like mercy?...Can we believe only in justice and not believe that mercy accompanies it?...To me justice is an accompanying word, which needs other values around it...The Prophet Hosea writes that God desires mercy and not sacrifice...And He wants us to acknowledge Him more than the sacrifices of burnt offerings...
When Jesus said He came to call the sinners and not for the righteousness or the ones who thought there were righteous is an interesting statement...And when Jesus quotes the Prophet Hosea in His dialogue with the Pharisees that God seeks mercy not sacrifice it is another interesting statement...The sacrifice was our way to make reprimands for the sins we had committed...It was in a way our way back to justice and righteous with God...
But does God really always seek justice?...If God was always seeking justice and always and completely focused on justice of our sins, what would happen to us?...Wouldn't we deserve proper punishment for our sins...We are innate sinners...So do we really always want justice?...So we really must learn that God desires mercy and not sacrifice...To seek and focus on justice only leaves mankind with very little...We need God's mercy...We need His forgiveness...We need His LOVE...So we do need His mercy, forgiveness and LOVE more than we need His justice...So as we look around and judge other people and want justice most of the time (for others) in our lives, let us think of the One who said go and learn what this means, "I desire mercy, not sacrifice."...
As the Prophet Hosea wrote, can we really have justice without mercy?...If people are only receiving justice, the less forgiveness, love, and less mercy is out there...Isn't mercy, forgiveness, and love a part of justice?...How can we have justice without these other values around it?...
God showed all these characteristics in His Judgment on us, when He sacrificed His Son on the cross for us...Can there be justice without mercy....Can we get to our Father without His Son, who saved us?...