I want to dive in a little further as to what God meant by “I desire mercy, not sacrifice”. To truly understand what God is saying here we have to understand what sacrifices were all about. In the Old Testament sacrifice was a means of worship and atonement for sin. In Hosea God is speaking to the Israelites who have become so caught up in worldly things that they are no longer seeking God. They have begun to worship idols between Sundays. They’re still going to temple and making the sacrifices, but they do it out of routine and obligation. God is telling them that their sacrifices mean nothing to Him and are, in fact, repulsive to Him because they’re not done with a heart of mercy.
God desires for us to know Him in such a way that we seek Him and his guidance in everything that we do. This particular phrase is used several times throughout the bible. The one that sticks out to me the most is in Matthew. Matthew is hosting a dinner party and everyone has been invited. It wasn’t one of those selective invitation to avoid drama kind of parties. Jesus is sitting at the table with a shady IRS agent, maybe some dishonest real estate guys. The bible calls them tax collectors and sinners. I imagine his feet propped up, laughing, telling stories and jokes, maybe they’re playing some Jenga. He seems to be having a great time. The Pharisees pull Matthew aside and are like “Dude, why is Jesus hanging out with THOSE guys?” Jesus happens to overhear this little side chat and steps in. He tells them it’s not the healthy who need the doctor. How can we share God’s love with those who need it most of we’re not willing to love them regardless of who they are? This is where the mercy comes in. We live in a world that is so full of judgement and self-righteousness. Jesus didn’t call us to share his mercy by sitting on our high horse. Let me tell you we’re all a hot mess. We all have sin in our lives. The difference is that we have an almighty God whose grace and mercy covers that sin. Your sin is no less than the sin of homeless man on the corner. Your sin is no less than that girl on Instagram that posts revealing photos. Your sin is no less than any other person on this planet. The only difference is that we have found salvation and redemption. Why would we not want to share that with them who haven’t found it yet? The only way to do that is to sit down with them and get to know them. Love them the way God loves us. You can’t expect them to understand and receive the message of redemption if they don’t SEE it in action. God didn’t call us to only love and minister to the ones that are healthy. He has called us to love the ones that are unloved. God didn’t call us to judge someone else for their sin. He just told us to love them regardless of their sin. Aren’t you glad that God didn’t deem us unworthy?