Hosea 6-9

September 25

Hosea 6-9

 "For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings." (Hosea 6:6, NIV)

God gave Israel a sacrificial system to follow when He met with Moses on Mt Sinai. He gave them and extensive system that instructed the people when to bring sacrifices and instructed the priests in how to present the sacrifice before God. God is holy and people of sinful. The sacrifices represented the cost of rebelling against God. But they never took away the sin, they just atoned for them.

The Israelites began to see the sacrifice as the cost of doing business. They could live any way they wanted. They could rebel against God. They even worshiped idols, but they would come back and bring their sacrifices to God as a way to pay Him off. But that was not God’s reason for giving them the sacrificial system. God wanted a relationship with the Israelites. He wanted to be their God, not one of their many gods. Offerings and sacrifices were to acknowledge their sin and God’s holiness.

When the relationship became religion, when Israel brought the offerings as a religious ritual instead of a means to re-connect with God; God told them it is not your sacrifices I want it is mercy. It is not your burnt offerings; it is acknowledging that God is God.

Showing up at church is not God’s end goal for us. He wants us to gather as believers to strengthen one another and to worship Him, but that is not His end goal. God is not interested in our religion. God wants a loving living relationship with us. He wants to transform our lives so that we live our lives centered on Him, not having Him on the sideline as a Sunday add-on to our lives. Jesus did not die so that we could go out and live for the world all week and come into church on Sunday and think we are alright. Jesus died to give us life full and fulfilled as children of God seven days a week.