"What I want is love not sacrifice" Hosea 6.6

“What I want is love, not sacrifice; knowledge of God, not holocausts.” Hosea 6.6 Jerusalem Bible

I feel that God this week has brought my attention back to this message from the Prophet Hosea. His insight into the heart of God has spoken to me many times over the years. It goes to the heart of our attitude to our faith and explodes our mistaken attitudes.

Our God is a patient father and likes to teach us again the lessons that we thought we already knew.This is because there is always more to learn. Or perhaps in my case because he needs to keep me on track.

I met my friend Chris for breakfast the other morning and afterwards we went for a walk by the river. It was deliberately a prayer walk so our chat turned to what God had been saying to him. We started looking at Matthew 9.9. Where God calls Levi (Matthew) the tax collector out of his booth and tells him to follow him. Almost immediately it seems Jesus falls to be criticised by the Pharisees for hanging around with tax collectors . This is his reply to the criticism  “People who are well do not need a doctor, but only those who are sick.  Go and find out what is meant by the scripture that says: ‘It is kindness that I want, not animal sacrifices.’ I have not come to call respectable people, but outcasts.”

 Most bibles show this as a quote from Hosea 6.6. Jesus quotes it to the Pharisees because it is the bible that they have supposedly studied deeply all their lives in order to qualify - and hence they should have known it thoroughly. But sometimes we can know something and not fully put it into practice.

So I am relearning Hosea this week. Jesus is saying to us that when we sin we can atone for it, make things right, by making our love evident in reality. Making our love real and not just a concept. He is saying that the old religious way of atonement, burning an animal as an offering to God is not enough.  God does not want burnt charred animals from me! He wants me to practise Love.  The kind of Love that is mercy and kindness.

A heart conversion is what is needed. Not just a physical action like burning an animal. A change of heart. To consciously be loving in our behaviour. To behave differently to those who we come across in our daily life.  This doesn't only entail being kind and merciful to those we already love but it goes wider to mean virtually anyone that we meet in our daily lives.

By doing this we can participate in redemption. We can make our day better and the day of those we meet.  It is better to build up rather than destroy.

Dear God, change my heart again. Remove any harshness from my daily transactions. Make me tender hearted and prone to kindness. Refuse any "burnt offering" from me - teach me to see through your eyes and live according to your priorities. Amen