“But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’ For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance” (Matt. 9:13).
In Matt. 9 the Pharisees ridicule Jesus for eating with tax collectors and sinners. In ancient Jewish culture eating together was a sign of mutual confidence and friendship. The self-righteous Pharisees would have never dreamed of eating with anyone that was not considered to be socially and religiously on par with themselves. Yet Jesus humbled himself to be labeled as a friend of tax collectors and sinners (Matt. 11:19) so that He could reach out to the lost.
When Jesus’ disciples are confronted by the Pharisees about this, He takes the opportunity to teach the Pharisees about what God truly desires from His people. Quoting from Hos. 6:6, Jesus tells them, “…go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’” (Matt. 9:13). Later on, in Matt. 12, when the Pharisees again confront Jesus’ disciples (this time about violating the Sabbath), Jesus says to them, “But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless.” (Matt. 12:7). Certainly if this was something that the Pharisees needed to learn, it is something that we all need to understand as well. Let’s make sure that we do not fall into the same trap as the Pharisees by not heeding Jesus’ exhortation to examine the meaning of this passage.
When we look at Hos. 6:6 in context we see that God is rebuking the children of Israel for their fleeting faithfulness (Hos. 6:4-5). He is trying to make them see what true repentance and service to God is all about. Being heavily influenced by the pagan nations around them, the Israelites had adopted the idea that the attention of the gods was best reached by extreme expressions of sacrifice and devotion such as the offering of one’s children to Molech (Jer. 32:35) or inflicting wounds upon themselves to get the attention of Baal (1 Kings 18:28). They thought that the outward signs of devotion to God were most important, but the Lord is trying to teach them otherwise. “For I desire mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings” (Hos. 6:6). It was the condition of the heart that the Lord was most concerned about.
This same concept is taught many other times throughout the Old Testament: “For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it; You do not delight in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart—These, O God, You will not despise” (Ps. 51:16-17); “Will I eat the flesh of bulls, Or drink the blood of goats? Offer to God thanksgiving, And pay your vows to the Most High” (Ps. 50:13-14); “Sacrifice and offering You did not desire; My ears You have opened. Burnt offering and sin offering You did not require… I delight to do Your will, O my God, And Your law is within my heart” (Ps. 40:6-8); “To what purpose is the multitude of sacrifices to Me?’ Says the Lord, ‘I have had enough of your burnt offerings of rams And the fat of fed cattle. I do not delight in the blood of bulls, Or of lambs or goats… Cease to do evil, Learn to do good; Seek justice, Rebuke the oppressor; Defend the fatherless, Plead for the widow” (Is. 1:11-17).
In the same way that the Lord did not merely desire the outward sacrifices of the Israelites in the days of Hosea, the Lord was not impressed by the Pharisee’s strict observance of the Law. The Pharisees were one of the most rebuked groups of people in the New Testament. They were more concerned about the outward appearance of righteousness than the inward condition of the heart (Matt. 23:27-28). This is why they despised Jesus for eating with sinners and condemned Jesus’ disciples for violating their Sabbath traditions. These were both areas in which they felt like they had achieved a higher level of righteousness, but in actuality they had just strayed further away from God’s will. This is why Jesus tried to get them to understand that the Lord desires mercy and not sacrifice, but they refused to be taught.
Let us make sure that we don’t fall into the same trap that the Pharisees did. While certainly the Lord desires for us to firmly adhere to His law in matters of religious practice, we cannot let this distract us from what God is most concerned about in our lives. It doesn’t matter if we are singing without instrumental music, using the Church treasury in the correct way, and teaching the truth on marriage divorce and remarriage, if we have forgotten about the condition of our hearts. Strict obedience to God’s law must be the reaction of a heart that has humbly submitted itself to God’s will in everything. We must first strain out the camel before we try to get out all the gnats (Matt. 23:23-24). Let us never forget the weightier matters of the law like justice, faith, and mercy, because our Lord has told us, “I desire mercy and not sacrifice” (Matt. 9:13).

So the Hebrews study has been going very well. You all might want to here about other aspects of my life, but too bad! Hebrews is where it's at!
We noticed an interesting literary feature of Hebrews 3:6-19 and I thought I would share it with you.

vs. 6--whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence... of the hope firm to the end.
vs. 14--we have become partakers with Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence firm to the end.

vs. 7-8--Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.
vs. 15--Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.

vs. 8--Do not hearden your hearts as in the rebellion, In the day of trial in the wilderness
vs. 16--For who, having heard, rebelled? Indeed, was it not all who came out of Egypt, led by Moses?

vs. 9-10--Where your fathers tested Me, tried Me, and saw My works forty years. Therefore I was anry with that generation
vs. 17--Now with whom was He angry, forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the wilderness?

vs. 10-11--And said, "They always go astray in their heart, And they have not known My ways." So I swore in My wrath, "They shall not enter My rest.
vs. 18--And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey?

vs. 12--Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God.
vs. 19--So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief


In the very center of this structure is vs. 13, "but exhort one another daily while it is called "Today," lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin." It is certainly possible that the Hebrew writer structured his writing this way to put emphasis on this exhortation in vs. 13 as the center point.

Let's not forget to take his exhortation to heart and encourage one another daily.

We're having a study over Hebrews every Friday at 4:30. So far we have gotten through chapter 1 and 2. Heb. 2:5-8 was a very hard passage to figure out in context. It doesn't seem to flow from vs. 1-4 and there is some question about whether he is strictly talking about man in this section (in contrast to talking about Christ is vs. 9 and following) or whether this is all talking about Christ. I think the Lord has blessed me to figure a few of these things out, so I thought I would share them.

If vs. 1-4 are considered as somewhat of an aside, vs. 5 makes more sense. Going directly from 1:14 to 2:5 it would read, "Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation? ... For He has not put the world to come, of which we speak, in subjection to angels." The contrast that He seems to be making here, is no longer just a contrast between Christ and the angels, but man and the angels. We see this same contrast in 2:16. In this case, the quotation of Psalm 8 would be applied to man in this section and only applied to Jesus when we come to vs. 9. How does this fit in the grand scheme of the writer's purpose? Hopefully this outline will help us look at it in context:

1:1-3--Gospel vs. the Old Law (a.k.a. Christ vs. the Prophets)
1:4-14--Christ vs. Angels
2:1-4--Exhortation (Christ greater than the Angels = Gospel greater than the Old Law)
(1:14) 2:5-8--Man vs. Angels
2:9-18--Why Christ had to Become Man (Answering the potential objection to Jesus' greatness based on his humanity)

P.S. The connection between 1:14 and 2:5 could potentially be made stronger by the use of the greek word mello in 1:14 translated "who shall" and in 2:5 translated "to come". This word is not used again until 6:5. I'm not a greek scholar though. So, I'm not sure if it is really valid to make a point about that.

Stop wasting your time on the web and spend some time in prayer.

...having said that, I should problem take my own advice.

The semester has officially begun and I am really excited about all the opportunities that the Lord is blessing us with. I feel like I am a lot more focused and prepared for this semester than I was last semester. However, as things get busier and more hectic I know it is easy to slip into auto-pilot and not use my time and energy in the best way. There are a few things that I think it would be good to remember as we start out this semester.

1. If nothing else is accomplished during the day besides spending personal time in prayer and study with the Lord, it has still been a productive day.
2. If we only enjoy studying, singing, and praying to God with other people and not on our own, it shows that we are more focused on the social benefits of spirituality and not actually focused on God.
3. We need to save our appetite for the Lord. We can't fill ourselves with unproductive, etertainment oriented activities and hope we still have room for the Lord. We need to fill our hunger and thirst with the Lord and give the leftovers to rest and relaxation, not the other way around. (Is. 55:1-2)
4. Just because other spiritually minded people are involved in something doesn't mean it would be the best way for me to use my time for the Lord.
5. "'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets." (Matt. 22:37-40)

I'm sure there are countless other things that would be good for us to remember, but I think these are specifically some things that I didn't follow as well first semester. Let's all endeavor to keep these constanly before us as we go through these next 4 months.