"O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto thee? for your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away.
Therefore have I hewed them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of my mouth: and thy judgments are as the light that goeth forth.
For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings."
Hosea 6:4-6
The idea of mercy and not sacrifice is one that Christ mentions in Matthew 9:13, asking us to learn what it means. It's an interesting idea, since God *does* ask us to be willing to sacrifice for the gospel when necessary. In this case, I think these verses give some excellent context, helping us to understand that he is likely talking specifically about burnt offerings. The idea behind animal sacrifice was to symbolically point us toward the "great and last sacrifice" of Jesus Christ himself (Alma 34:10), but instead people often glommed onto the idea of sacrifice as an end in itself, and focused on the letter of the law rather than the spirit, or the meaning behind the law.
The first verse seems to be telling us that if we are going to be good, that we have to be good all the way through. We can't just be good on the surface, or until we actually encounter another person each morning. It has to last--to be something we become, not just something that we play at when necessary. I think God is asking us to focus on the whole of the gospel and on becoming good people rather than just on following some rules... those things can go together, because obeying God is part of becoming good, but if we make the rules more important in our minds than God himself, then we are going to go far astray. For instance, do we ever find that one of God's rules is encouraging us to be unkind to someone else? If so, perhaps we are misunderstanding God's laws. Or, if we are using the gospel as some sort of scoreboard to show that we are better than other people, we might be missing the mark. If we ever find that one part of God's law is clashing with another part, that should throw up flags for us and encourage us to go back to God to learn how to resolve those apparent contradictions and help us know what to do.
Today, let's go and "learn what [it] meaneth" (Matthew 9:13) to offer mercy and not sacrifice, not only in the context of the past, but what the same kind of letter versus spirit idea might mean for us right now. Let's stay in tune with God so that we don't misunderstand and start trying to interpret the gospel as though God supports something bad. God gives wisdom to those that ask, and he promises us that the spirit will teach us all things. Let's take him up on those promises and learn to really become good rather than just making marks on a gospel checklist.
Therefore have I hewed them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of my mouth: and thy judgments are as the light that goeth forth.
For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings."
Hosea 6:4-6
The idea of mercy and not sacrifice is one that Christ mentions in Matthew 9:13, asking us to learn what it means. It's an interesting idea, since God *does* ask us to be willing to sacrifice for the gospel when necessary. In this case, I think these verses give some excellent context, helping us to understand that he is likely talking specifically about burnt offerings. The idea behind animal sacrifice was to symbolically point us toward the "great and last sacrifice" of Jesus Christ himself (Alma 34:10), but instead people often glommed onto the idea of sacrifice as an end in itself, and focused on the letter of the law rather than the spirit, or the meaning behind the law.
The first verse seems to be telling us that if we are going to be good, that we have to be good all the way through. We can't just be good on the surface, or until we actually encounter another person each morning. It has to last--to be something we become, not just something that we play at when necessary. I think God is asking us to focus on the whole of the gospel and on becoming good people rather than just on following some rules... those things can go together, because obeying God is part of becoming good, but if we make the rules more important in our minds than God himself, then we are going to go far astray. For instance, do we ever find that one of God's rules is encouraging us to be unkind to someone else? If so, perhaps we are misunderstanding God's laws. Or, if we are using the gospel as some sort of scoreboard to show that we are better than other people, we might be missing the mark. If we ever find that one part of God's law is clashing with another part, that should throw up flags for us and encourage us to go back to God to learn how to resolve those apparent contradictions and help us know what to do.
Today, let's go and "learn what [it] meaneth" (Matthew 9:13) to offer mercy and not sacrifice, not only in the context of the past, but what the same kind of letter versus spirit idea might mean for us right now. Let's stay in tune with God so that we don't misunderstand and start trying to interpret the gospel as though God supports something bad. God gives wisdom to those that ask, and he promises us that the spirit will teach us all things. Let's take him up on those promises and learn to really become good rather than just making marks on a gospel checklist.
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