Hosea 6:6
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Scripture Reading: Hosea 6:6
Scripture Reading: Hosea 6:6
Imagine there’s a husband who never his anniversary
Every year he goes all out to impress his wife…
With hugs, kisses, flowers, fancy dinner, heartfelt card
Sounds like a very blessed woman, doesn’t it?
She should be thankful for having such a wonderful husband
But here’s the catch:
The rest of the year:
He barely speaks to her
He never listens to her
He has no interest in what matters to her
He shows her no affection (no hugs, no kisses)
He gives no effort to make her feel special
He gives no effort to make her feel loved
In fact, he seems more interested in other women
She only gets one night a year
One night of affection, feeling special, love
Now let me ask you:
Does that one night mean anything?
Or is he simply going through the motions…
In order to try to cover for an entire year…
Of being distant & unloving?
That’s exactly how the people of Israel…
Were treating God in Hosea’s day
They continued with their ceremonies, rituals, & sacrifices
But their hearts were not in it
Their love for God was non-existent
They thought that by going through the ritualistic motions…
God would be happy with them
Hosea 6 begins with the people saying:
“Let’s return to God…”
“He’ll bless us again!”
But God responds with:
“What am I going to do with you people?”
“Your loyalty (loving faithfulness) to me…”
“Is like the dew in the morning”
“It lasts for a short time & then disappears”
“Your repentance with your sacrifices & your rituals…”
“Are so shallow, insincere, & short-lived”
That leads us to our Scripture reading:
6 For I delight in loyalty rather than sacrifice, And in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.
“I’m so tired of your phony faithfulness…”
“And your counterfeit love…”
“And your bogus religiosity”
“I want the real thing!”
“I want your true loyalty (loving faithfulness)”
“I want you to know Me & have a relationship with Me!”
Or as Eugene Peterson’s The Message Bible puts it:
6 I’m after love that lasts, not more religion. I want you to know God, not go to more prayer meetings.
Just going through the motions…
And checking boxes off a list of religious duties…
Is the very opposite of what God wants
Just going to church…
And doing the “right” religious rituals…
Is not an adequate replacement…
For a loving relationship with Him
Religious rituals without loyalty (faithful love) are meaningless
God cares more about where our heart is…
Than about our religious performance
In A Nutshell
In A Nutshell
I believe Hosea 6:6 is a perfect “nutshell” passage
It, along with many other passages throughout the Prophets,…
Summarizes how God prefers our hearts over our actions
But the reason I chose this passage…
Is because is quoted by Jesus…
Not once, but twice
In Hosea, the text is speaking of how God’s people treat Him
But Jesus extracts the principle from the text…
And applies it to how we should treat one another
The 1st time is in Matthew 9
9 As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him. 10 While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples.
11 When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” 12 On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 13 But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
The 2nd time is the very next time Jesus speaks to the Pharisees
At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, “Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.”
He answered, “Haven’t you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread—which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests. Or haven’t you read in the Law that the priests on Sabbath duty in the temple desecrate the Sabbath and yet are innocent?
I tell you that something greater than the temple is here. If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent.
In both cases, Jesus is responding to the Pharisees
And in both cases, the Pharisees are prioritizing…
Obedience to their religious traditions:
1st - Remaining Ritually Pure & Clean
They believed Jesus was in the wrong…
For eating with tax collectors & sinners
2nd - Observing the Sabbath Day
They believed Jesus was in the wrong…
For picking & eating grain on the Sabbath Day
In both cases…
Had they understood the principle behind Hosea 6:6…
They wouldn’t have been so quick to judge/condemn
They would have understood…
That God prefers mercy, compassion, & love…
Over strict rule-keeping & judgment
In the 1st case…
They should have shown mercy to the tax collectors & sinners…
Who were in need of repentance, cleansing, & salvation
In the 2nd case…
They should have shown mercy to Jesus & His disciples…
Because they were hungry & without any other source of food
In reality, Jesus & His disciples did nothing outside the Law
But, due to the Pharisees’ strict way of interpreting the Law…
And building traditions upon those strict interpretations…
They believed Jesus & His disciples to be disobeying the Law itself
All the while, Jesus shows them…
That they were the ones who were actually disobeying God
And they did so, not because they didn’t know the letter of the Law
They had the Law memorized frontward & backward
It was because they didn’t know the heart of the Law
They didn’t know God’s heart
They knew the words, but they missed the meaning
The Scriptures aren’t about having a bunch of rules to follow
They are meant to show us the heart of God:
Mercy Over Judgment
Compassion Over Condemnation
Love Over Rituals
Application
Application
I think we in the churches of Christ…
Need to take a long hard look at ourselves…
When studying passages like these
I’m afraid that in many ways…
We have become far too similar to the Pharisees
We are very serious about doing things “right”
We want to believe the “right” way
We want to practice the “right” things
We want our assemblies to be done “right”
We want to worship God the “right” way
We want to live “right”
And that’s not a bad thing at all
But, is it possible that in all our efforts to “get it right”…
We could neglect things that are even more important?
Can we become so focused…
On our rituals, steps, traditions…
That we lose sight of the heart behind it all?
Is it possible that we have missed the forest…
Because we were too focused on the trees?
It’s so easy to get caught up in “getting it right”…
And holding our interpretations of the Scriptures to such a high degree…
That what starts as well-meaning tradition…
Can become something divisive & heartless
And when someone steps outside the boundaries of our traditions…
We judge, condemn, and excommunicate them
But when we understand the true message of the Scriptures…
We find that God wants us:
To care more about people…
Than our ritual purity
To care more about showing mercy…
Than getting all the rules/rituals exactly right
Jesus shows us that God prioritizes mercy & love…
Over rigid rule-keeping
If our faithfulness to God & His Scriptures…
Makes us cold, critical, & judgmental:
Then Jesus says we have misunderstood who God is
We have misunderstood His Scriptures
And we are being faithful to neither
We are being just like the Israelites in Hosea’s day…
And just like the Pharisees in Jesus’ day
We are prioritizing sacrifice over love & mercy
This is a hard truth that we need to understand before it’s too late:
Jesus isn’t coming back for a church that gets it all right
He’s coming back for a church that:
Knows God
Loves Him
Loves Others
It’s possible to get every detail right & still miss God’s heart
That’s why focusing on the heart/spirit of the Law…
Is of 1st importance
There’s a fantastic kids show called “Bluey”
It’s a cartoon about a family of dogs
On one episode, the dad is trying to teach the 2 daughters how to play chess
He’s adamant about them getting all the rules right…
Because he thinks that will make them smarter & more successful adults
But by the end of the episode the wife/mother helps him understand
That getting all the rules exactly right…
Isn’t of 1st importance
She has this fantastic quote…
That aligns perfectly with what Jesus was trying to teach the Pharisees:
She says: “Work on their heads later, for now, just hearts.”
The point:
What’s more important?
Raising children to know & follow all the rules?
Raising children to love & have compassion for others?
The latter always leads to the former
But the former rarely ever leads to the latter
Start with the heart, then move to the head
Begin with the grand principles…
(Love, Compassion, Humility)…
Only then should we move our focus onto the specific laws/rules…
Of how to live out those principles
But when we start with the laws/rules…
We often find ourselves checking off boxes…
Without the foundation of love, compassion, or humility…
That give power, purpose, & meaning to those laws/rules
In the next service…
We’ll look at the good & bad of traditions…
As well as get more specific…
About some traditions that we may believe/follow…
That might actually be doing more harm than good
But, to bring this lesson to a close…
Let’s remember the lesson we learn from Hosea & Jesus
God doesn’t want our empty rituals
He doesn’t want our focus to be on getting everything “right”
He wants our focus to be on knowing & loving Him
He wants our focus to be on:
Loving & showing mercy to our neighbors
If our interpretation of the Scriptures leads us away from that…
Then we are interpreting them wrong
If our interpretation causes us to be cold, cynical, & judgmental...
Then we are reading the Scriptures all wrong
If our interpretation leads us to establish & follow traditions…
That have nothing to do with the heart of God…
Or the spirit of His Scriptures…
Then our interpretation is wrong
Our God & His Scriptures are pointing us toward:
Freedom, not further slavery to tradition & law-keeping
Mercy, not condemnation of those who don’t follow all our traditions
Love for our God & neighbor
Pray for God to Help Us Understand His Heart & the Heart of His Scriptures
Pray for God to Help Us Understand His Heart & the Heart of His Scriptures
