Reading through the Scripture passage at Matthew 12:1-8 today, how thankful I was for the grace of God drawing my attention particularly to the words of Yeshua the Lord, as recorded, at Matthew 12:7:
“But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless.”
It gave me the opportunity to pause and have a deeper think on those words: ‘..if you had known what this means, I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’ Profound instruction for me personally!
In the passage Lord Yeshua is speaking these words to some Pharisees, religious leaders in His day – people who ought to have known better! The passage at Matthew 12:1-8 is the account of these Pharisees accusing Yeshua’s disciples of breaking Sabbath because they had plucked some grain to et as they walked through a grainfield on Sabbath. The Lord defended them correcting the Pharisees who had gone beyond the word of God concerning how His people Israel were to observe Sabbath and its true purpose. Lord Yeshua pointed out examples of David breaking the Law of Moses on who could eat the holy showbread of the tabernacle (see Leviticus 24:5-9) when he was desperately hungry on the run from Saul the king (see 1 Samuel 21:1-6) and also those ministering before the Lord in His work on Sabbath in His Temple – both being blameless before the Lord God. What His disciples were doing was completely permissible before God – they were hungry and they were not harvesting the grain with sickles, merely plucking them to eat by hand (note e.g. Deuteronomy 23:25). The point was that the self-righteous and judgmental heart attitude of the Pharisees led them to wrongly convict Yeshua’s disciples of breaking the Sabbath law and fail to recognise that Yeshua the Messiah has complete authority over it. He tells them in no uncertain terms that He ‘..the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath’ (Matthew 12:8).
The most striking part for me in reading the account today was what the Lord said to the Pharisees in correcting their mind-set concerning the actions of His disciples at Matthew 12:7. Here the Lord quotes the word of God through His prophet Hosea, recorded at Hosea 6:6 which in full says this: ‘For I desire mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.’ Although it is a familiar Scripture text, for the first time I noticed a little footnote besides it in my bible, which turned out to include a reference to Micah 6:6-8. It says this:
6 With what shall I come before the Lord,
And bow myself before the High God?
Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings,
With calves a year old?
7 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
Ten thousand rivers of oil?
Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,
The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
8 He has shown you, O man, what is good;
And what does the Lord require of you
But to do justly,
To love mercy,
And to walk humbly with your God?
(underlined for emphasis).
This, the underlined portion of text above, is what I believe Lord Yeshua meant when He quoted the prophet Hosea to the Pharisees. Even though God commanded the sacrifices, in and of themselves these were not what was important to God, not what He truly desired. Rather we learn from the Bible that what God wanted was a heart that truly was after His, that finds expression in voluntary obedience to God from the heart and true knowing of Him expressed as mercy/lovingkindness towards others and doing justly – i.e. loving our neighbour and walking humbly with God – i.e. loving God with our all.
Pondering these things, not for the first time I was aware of having pointed out for me that no amount of outward works alone can replace inward obedience to the will of God our Father – which is the truest work of all and through which outward works in Messiah Yeshua are made acceptable to God. Moreover, this is impossible apart from the grace of God, through faith in Lord Yeshua and the Spirit of God dwelling in us. God our heavenly Father desires mercy in His children because He Himself is merciful and does not require sacrifice because in His mercy He Himself has provides the Sacrifice with which He is pleased. As these thoughts were going through my mind, I was reminded of the Scripture at Hebrews 10:5-7 concerning Lord Yeshua the Son of God, underlined in its contextual passage below:
1For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect. 2 For then would they not have ceased to be offered? For the worshipers, once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins. 3 But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. 4 For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins. 5 Therefore, when He came into the world, He said:
“Sacrifice and offering You did not desire,
But a body You have prepared for Me.
6 In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin
You had no pleasure.
7 Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come—
In the volume of the book it is written of Me—
To do Your will, O God.’ ” [quoting Psalm 40:6-8]
8 Previously saying, “Sacrifice and offering, burnt offerings, and offerings for sin You did not desire, nor had pleasure in them” (which are offered according to the law), 9 then He said, “Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God.” He takes away the first that He may establish the second. 10 By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. 11 And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, 13 from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. 14 For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. (Hebrews 10:1-14)
Note the words above: ‘[t]o do Your will, O God‘.
The point appeared to me to be this: what does God really desire – great displays of “sacrificial” works with a lukewarm heart towards Lord Yeshua and His purposes or a heart after God’s own heart from which flows acceptable service to God according with His will and word?
Earlier in Mathew’s account of The Gospel we have recorded for us Lord Yeshua quoting the same words of the prophet Hosea, this time in a different context, with these words preceding the quote: “But go and learn what this means…” (Matthew 9:13).
A person would have to be very blind indeed to not see that we are certainly living in ‘perilous times’ as the apostle warned us at 2 Timothy 3:1-5. I’m pretty sure that many of us are being made keenly aware of the personal need of the Spirit of God’s enabling, by God’s grace, of continuing teachability in striving to live The Faith of Lord Yeshua in these days. This is certainly true in the world – it is also true to some measure in The Church of Messiah as apostasy, spiritual deception and failures seemingly increase. Let us not forget the admonition of Hosea 6:6 and Micah 6:6-8 and to seek God for wisdom and discernment for doing this particular will of God in living out the faith in today’s world. May God help us to ‘grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savour Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.’ (2 Peter 3:18).
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