God
spoke these words through Hosea to the children of Israel. These words are
about what God wanted the people to bring to Him. But when we really think of
these words we wonder how do we offer God mercy? When we use the word
"mercy," we think of forgiveness of sins or wrongs done to another
person. God doesn't sin or commit injustices! So what does it really mean that
God desires mercy? Our traditional understanding is that God desires us to
extend mercy to one another, and that is part of the answer but not the whole
answer. To get the complete answer, we need to look at the original Hebrew word
and the overall context of its usage.
First,
let's look at the overall context of the book of Hosea. God tells Hosea to marry
a harlot as a metaphor for God's relationship with His people. God took the
children of Israel as His people at Mt. Sinai, essentially marrying them. But
the children of Israel forgot God and went after other gods, thus, committing
adultery!
Through
Hosea's adulterous wife, God compares their behavior to that of a wife engaging
in sexual intimacy with other men, then expecting her husband to desire sexual
intimacy with her. The children of Israel offer their worship to idols through sacrifices of various types including sacrificing their children; they then
come to God and expect God to accept or even desire the sacrifices they bring
to Him! No way does God want their sacrifices after they have worshiped other
gods and committed such abominations! What He wants is the same thing any
husband wants, commitment and faithfulness to their marriage vows! God desires
loyalty to the covenant they made with Him at Mt. Sinai. It's not that God
doesn't want their sacrifices; He does. But their sacrifices are not acceptable
when they have also been offered to others!
Now,
let's turn our attention to the words translated as mercy. In the book of
Hosea, there are two different Hebrew words translated as mercy. The first one
is racham with a root word meaning womb. In this case mercy would mean taking
one into the family or as one's own.
Hosea
1:6-7 NKJV 6 And she conceived again and bore a daughter. Then God said to him:
"Call her name Lo-Ruhamah, For I will no longer have mercy on the house of
Israel, But I will utterly take them away. 7 Yet I will have mercy on the house
of Judah, Will save them by the LORD their God, And will not save them by bow,
Nor by sword or battle, By horses or horsemen."
The
context of this verse is Hosea rejecting the daughter his wife bore to him. He
was instructed to name her Lo-Ruhamah which means not loved. God then says He
will no longer have mercy, racham, on the house of Israel. They have been
disinherited! They are no longer part of the family! But God will still have mercy, racham, on Judah.
Judah is still part of the family. God then goes on to say that He will
eventually woo Israel back to Himself. She will be adopted back into the
family.
God
turns His attention to the charge against Israel, namely her unfaithfulness.
Hosea
4:1 NKJV 1 Hear the word of the LORD, You children of Israel, For the LORD
brings a charge against the inhabitants of the land: "There is no truth or
mercy Or knowledge of God in the land.
The word
mercy in this verse comes from the Hebrew word chesed which is sometimes
translated goodness or lovingkindness. In this context, coupled with truth and
knowledge of God, we see that it refers to covenant devotion. Israel has no
devotion or commitment to their covenant with God.
Now, to
the passage about God desiring mercy not sacrifice, God starts by stating their
lack of faithfulness!
Hosea
6:4-5 NKJV 4 "O Ephraim, what shall I do to you? O Judah, what shall I do
to you? For your faithfulness is like a morning cloud, And like the early dew
it goes away. 5 Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets, I have slain them
by the words of My mouth; And your judgments are like light that goes forth.
Then God
states what He desires concluding that they have transgressed the covenant.
Hosea
6:6-7 NKJV 6 For I desire mercy and not sacrifice, And the knowledge of God
more than burnt offerings. 7 "But like men they transgressed the covenant;
There they dealt treacherously with Me.
God
desires commitment, loyalty, devotion to the covenant He makes with Israel.
This is the same commitment He made to them. Instead they have been unfaithful
to the covenant.
Exodus
20:5-6 NKJV 5 you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD
your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the
children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, 6 but
showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
This
word translated mercy is again the Hebrew word “chesed.” God extends covenant
devotion to thousands of generations to
those who love Him! In Jeremiah, we read of God's commitment to His covenant
with Israel and Judah.
Jeremiah
31:37 NKJV 37 Thus says the LORD: "If heaven above can be measured, And
the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the
seed of Israel For all that they have done, says the LORD.
We are
part of God's new covenant with Israel and Judah ratified by the blood of
Yeshua who died to bring us into covenant.
Jeremiah
31:31-33 NKJV 31 "Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will
make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah- 32
"not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day
that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant
which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the LORD. 33 "But
this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those
days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their
hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
Luke
22:20 NKJV 20 Likewise He also took the cup after supper, saying, "This
cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you.
When we
read these words that God desires mercy, we understand that God desires our
whole hearted commitment to Him and the covenant He makes with us.
Shalom and be blessed,
Dan and Brenda Cathcart
