notes

Central idea

Because of your transient “love” and rampant wickedness, my words have destroyed you and laid you bare. For I desire true love and knowledge of me, not ritual appeasement.

Notes

A word on the title: Homework from Jesus. Matt 9:13 records the only biblical account of Jesus assigning homework--so to speak. The occasion is an accusatory question by the Pharisees regarding why Jesus eats with sinners. Jesus' response is to point out that it is the sick, not the healthy, who need a doctor. And then comes the assignment. "Go and learn what this means, 'I desire mercy, and not sacrifice'" (quoting from our passage). Lastly he gives an explanatory ground saying that he came for sinners, not the righteous (meaning, I suppose, those who would think themselves righteous). So while we were not the direct audience of Jesus' homework assignment, it seems worthy to me to likewise follow his command to "go and learn." Above all else, I do not want to get the gospel wrong, and that is exactly what is at stake. How do prophets hew and words slay? The word translated "hewn" is used throughout the Old Testament to speak of cutting stone or digging out a cistern. Thus the picture is of God, through the pronouncements of the prophets, coming at the hard-hearted (rock hard) people with an axe. Or similarly in 5b it is the words of God's mouth fashioned as a weapon coming to kill the people in judgment. This is scary. This is the same Speaker whose words have power to create out of nothing (Gen 1). We can see this power as well in the life of Jesus. Whether speaking to a roaring sea or to a legion of demons or to a dead man, Jesus' words are not suggestions. They always perform what they command. His words are power! Thus, it is not without reason that Heb 4:12 and Eph 6:17 liken the word of God to a sharp sword. And this, let us take heart is not any ordinary sword. You would be better off with a thousand swords of men after your life than the words of God coming to slay you! What is God's light-like judgment? John 3:19-21 seems most helpful to me in answering this question. There we read, "This is the judgment..." after which it is explained that Jesus comes into the world as an exposing light, but evil people do not like this because they do not want their evil seen. Similarly in our passage, with the words of God via the prophets, the Lord is sending forth judgments as an exposing light. With every sentence the sin and shame of the people is revealed, and with it the expectation of just punishment. And yet even here there is hidden hope. As we cycle back to the words of John 3, we can recall that "God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him." And so we, sinners though we be, can in fact come into the light. Then, when--by grace--we actually do begin to see genuine good come out of our lives, it will be plain to all that God has done it, to our great joy. How do we not condemn the guiltless? So we have come back to the particular homework verse--vs6. Let us make some observations from the context and rest of the Old Testament and then try to piece this together with the words of Jesus. Essentially, there are two things the Lord is declaring that he desires. Love and knowing him--this is what the Lord requires. It is two out of the three items presented in 4:1 as a sort of thesis for this section of the book. (The missing component--faithfulness/truth--appears in vs7 as we read that the people have dealt faithlessly with God.) Another place we read of the Lord's delight is in Jer 9:24. Again we find these components. So what of the things the Lord does not delight in--sacrifices? We read similar sentiments throughout the prophets and psalms (Ps 40:6-8; 51:15-19; Is 1:11-17; Amos 5:21-24; Mic 6:6-8). Is this a contradiction from what we read in the law? Did not God require sacrifices? No, God has never require sacrifices like this . In other words, he has never desired that the people would bring to him animals to slaughter while maintaining unrepentant hearts. Thus, the prophets speak in hyperbole, as Jesus does when he tells us we must hate our family to follow him (Luke 14:26). The point is to get the central piece right and so the non-central expression is greatly belittled. So now we come to Matt 9:10-13 and Matt 12:1-8. We have already described the situation of Matt 9. In Matt 12, Jesus quotes the same words, but in a different context. His disciples have just been criticized by the Pharisees for picking grain to eat on the Sabbath. Jesus defends them by referring to David eating the bread of the Presence, the priests “working” on the Sabbath in the temple, and then the quote from our passage, “I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.” So what is Jesus' interpretation of Hosea 6:6? The Lord is about love and mercy and relationship with him, not about law-keeping as an end of itself. God does not want you to follow his rules for rules sake! He delights to eat with sinners that he intends to save and to walk in fellowship with those who are not posing as self-righteous via heartless law-orientation, but rather looking to the face of their God for cues. God's people will fulfill all the law when we forget about it as an end in and of itself and set all our hearts to love the Lord.

Phrase

OT

Hosea 6:4-11

esv

What shall I do with you, O Ephraim?

Ground #1

What shall I do with you, O Judah?

Ground #2 (parallelism)

Your love is like a morning cloud,

Ground

like the dew

Explanation (parallelism)

that goes early away.

Therefore

I have hewn them

by the prophets;

Agency

I have slain them

Explanation (parallelism)

by the words

Means

of my mouth,

and my judgment goes forth

as the light.

Comparison #1

For

Ground #3

I desire steadfast love

and not sacrifice,

Negative

the knowledge

(parallelism)

of God

rather than burnt offerings.

But ... they transgressed the covenant;

Negative #1

like Adam

Comparison

there they dealt faithlessly

Explanation (parallelism)

with me.

Context

Gilead is a city

Example #1

of evildoers,

tracked

Explanation

with blood.

Content

As robbers lie in wait

for a man,

Disadvantage

so the priests band together;

Example #2 (paralleism)

they murder

on the way

Locative

to Shechem;

Destination

for they commit villainy.

Ground (of the Comparison)

In the house

of Israel

I have seen a horrible thing;

Ephraim’s whoredom is there;

Israel is defiled.

Explanation (parallelism)

For you also, O Judah,

a harvest is appointed,

Negative #2

phrasing