Three ways to live

1. Israel is never learning from its mistakes, as follows from v.3-5. According to v.3, the imagery of the dawn symbolizes certainty of God’s restoration. Yet the mood changes in v.5, where the light of dawn symbolizes judgment. In other words, even though God restores people with a new day, their love disappears almost immediately with the rising son and hence leads to new judgment.

2. The key to understanding why this happens is in v.6.

First of all, the word translated as “mercy” is Hebrew “hesed”, which can mean either loyal love (when applied to God’s love to us) or kindness (between people). See earlier post for more translation nuances.

So God says he would rather us show kindness to other people than to offer him sacrifices. The second part of verse 6 says that the knowledge of God is also more important than sacrifices. But what does it mean to know God? Surprisingly, in the context of Hosea it most likely to mean to have kindness toward other people.

The Hebrew word “knowledge” usually implies intimate knowledge of something or somebody that results in appropriate action. For example, to know ones wife is to have sexual relationship with her. So the knowledge of God is best defined as understanding of his deep desires, which would naturally bring our desire to fulfill them. What are the God’s desires? To see at least some them, consider the following verses that show what God desires more than sacrifices:

1 Sam 15:22 (Obedience)
Psalm 50:7–15; (Confession and praise)
Psalm 51:16 (Broken spirit and contrite heart)
Psalm 147:11 (People who fear God and put their hope in God’s unfailing love)
Prov 21:3 (For us to do what is right and just)
Isaiah 1:17 (For us to do right, seek justice, encourage the oppressed, defend the cause of fatherless and widows)
Jeremiah 9:24 (kindness, justice and righteousness)
Mark 12:33 (Love of God and our neighbors)

One of the strongest God’s desires for us to love and show kindness and mercy toward others. So, to know God means at least to understand that this is one of his main desires. The following verse makes it even clearer:

Jeremiah 22:15-16 (NIV)

Israelites did not know God – they didn’t understand his deep desires. They were following his commands “blindly”, possibly to get his favor or blessing. Prophet Isaiah, who prophesized at about the same time as Hosea, also speaks about this problem:

Isaiah 58:2-9 (NIV)

1. Jews, while tried, utterly failed to really understand what pleases God. How can we, as Christians, do that?

Things that pleased God then are the same things that please Him now. But we must see that we cannot simply please God by fulfilling all his desires.

First, we need to understand another reason why God did not desire sacrifices.

Hebrews 10:1-10

The real reason God didn’t desire sacrifices and offerings is because they can never take away our sin completely. Similarly, when a teacher of the law tried to clarify what it means to love your neighbor, Jesus reply (parable of a Good Samaritan) makes it clear it means much more than we can ever do. If sacrifices in the form of offerings were all that were required from us, some of us could have claimed that they’ve done it, they have satisfied God’s standards. Yet when we see that God’s real standards are mercy and intimate knowledge of Him, we will never be able to say, We have done it.

Only when we understand and admit that we cannot please God by our works, he will come and teach us how to really please Him, through the work of Holy Spirit within us. This process is called sanctification:

Ezekiel 36:25-27 (NIV)

The realization of the new birth, which comes through faith in Jesus Christ, and the work the Holy Spirit in our lives is the only acceptable way for us to please God.