Hosea 6

Hosea 6:4b Your piety is like a morning cloud, like the dew that early passes away.
Hosea 6:6 For it is love that I desire, not sacrifice, and knowledge of God rather than holocausts.

I feel many days is summed up like verse 4b. I begin the day with all kinds of happy thoughts, plans to devote my day to God and be even tempered with my children. And like the dew that passes away, by mid morning my plan have slipped away. I am constantly trying to figure out a way to make myself stick to my plans. To hold my temper. To give all that I do to God. I set alarms to remind me to pray, because I can't remember otherwise. I tried setting alarms to go off during our more stressful times of day, saying nice words and reminding me to be gentle with my words to my children. Those alarms just made me more angry. When I first read verse 6, I read it as God wanting us to truly give love, and not just see giving it as a sacrifice. To not feel obligated to give it. I think that my "gentle reminders" were making me feel obligated when I was backed in a corner. So I turned those off. I need to think of another way to help me with that.

I have since come to understand that verse 6 is referring to actual sacrifices. The people of Israel were diligently offering cereal and burned sacrifices that were prescribed to Moses, but those offerings meant nothing to God because they weren't offered with true love. The people of Israel weren't seeking the knowledge of God. It's like they were just trying to appease Him enough that He would take care of them. Like pagans would do for their gods. They had abandoned faithfulness and mercy (Hosea 4:1) and stopped seeking the knowledge of God.

Jesus references this in Matthew 9:13, "Go and learn the meaning of the words, 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' I did not come to call the righteous but sinners." This was in reference to the pharisees asking Jesus's disciples why he ate with tax collectors and sinners. Then in Matthew 12:7, "If you knew what this meant, 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice,' you would not have condemned these innocent men." This was after the pharisees saw Jesus's disciples picking grain out of a field on the Sabbath. Jesus didn't come for those who do physical acts of love but do not have love in their hearts. God wants us to become the living sacrifice, to give our hearts and souls fully to Him with love.