Hosea 6:6 For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.
Have you ever tried to buy a gift for someone who already has everything or who never wants anything? That is difficult. Many times this person can be a dad, a mom, or oftentimes a grandparent. The truth is, they have everything they want. They’ve had time in life to get everything that they want, and they have also realized that many things that we really want are not things you can buy in a store.
The bottom line is that all of us probably know the experience of trying to give something to somebody who doesn’t need anything. Now when you think about the One Who is the least needy of all, it would be God. What does He need that you could possibly give Him? God spoke the worlds into existence. God owns the cattle on a thousand hills. God owns the gold and diamonds in every mine. These are clichés perhaps, but they are absolutely true. God owns everything. What could we possibly give God that He doesn’t already have?
Hosea’s message from God in chapter 6 is this: “I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.” God is saying, “I don’t want your sacrifice. I don’t want your burnt offerings. I don’t want all the things that you think you can give to ingratiate yourselves with Me.” Earlier in the book God talks about people bringing entire herds for sacrifice that were not ultimately going to please God. Why? It is because God already owns everything.
I’m not saying that sacrifice is not important or that liturgy has no place. What I am saying is that God wants something far more. What God wants is something you don’t give Him. It is something He gives you. The qualities God wants from you are the ones He alone can give. This is to say, nothing you can give God of yourself will ever please God. Hebrews says, “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”
So, what God wants from us is qualities that He alone can give. These are qualities like true piety, which is what the idea of mercy is here, and the knowledge of God. Knowledge is exactly what Israel did not have. Hosea 5 basically says, “They have not known the Lord, and I have eclipsed them from knowing what they could know of God.” In Hosea 5:9 the Bible says, “Among the tribes of Israel have I made known that which shall surely be.” That is to say they didn’t know God, and because they didn’t know God, they didn’t know what was coming down the pike. They didn’t know what could be known because they didn’t know God.
God offers to you everything that you need in order to please Him, and that comes by faith. The problem raised here is answered over and again in the New Testament when it talks about the fruit of the Spirit, the outworking of God’s Spirit in your life. This is nothing a man can produce. Hosea 6:7 says, “But they like men have transgressed the covenant.” I am living like a man when I do what comes naturally to me. I transgress. I am treacherous. The Bible says this over and again.
Ultimately things like mercy and the knowledge of God are not something we give God of ourselves. As we live in submission to God, they are something we receive from God and give back to Him. In short, the qualities God wants from you today are ones He alone can give to you. Live in obedience; live by faith; and God will provide for you what He wants to receive from you.