"Mercy, not Sacrifice."

“For I desire mercy, not sacrifice,
and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.”
Hosea 6:6

Matt. 9:9-13.   The Calling of Matthew.
As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew, sitting at the tax collector’s booth.  “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.

While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and “sinners” came and ate with him and his disciples.  When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and ‘sinners’?”

  On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.  But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’  For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Matt. 12:1-8.   Lord of the Sabbath.
At that time Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabbath.  His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them.  When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, “Look!  Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.”

He answered, “Haven’t you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry?  He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread – which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests.  Or haven’t you read in the Law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple desecrate the day and yet are innocent?  I tell you that one greater than the temple is here.  If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent.  For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”

Micah 6:6-8
With what shall I come before the Lord and bow down before the exalted God?  Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?

Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil?  Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?  (Roger’s question: Shall I bring the blood of God’s Son? Answer: No!).

He has showed you, O man, what is good.  And what does the Lord require of you?  To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

Isaiah 1:11-14
“The multitude of your sacrifices – what are they to me?” says the Lord.  “I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals; I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.

When you come to appear before me, who has asked this of you, this trampling of my courts?  Stop bringing meaningless offerings!  Your incense is detestable to me.  New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations – I cannot bear your evil assemblies.

Your New Moon festivals and your appointed feasts my soul hates.  They have become a burden to me.  I am weary of bearing them.”

John 11:45-53   The Plot to Kill Jesus.
Then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up, "You know nothing at all!  You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish." He did not say this on his own, but as high priest that year he prophesized that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation, and not only for that nation but also for the scattered children of God, to bring them together and make them one.
So from that day on they (the chief priests and Pharisees) plotted to take his life.     (vs.49-53).

Micah 6:8
He has showed you, O man, what is good.  And what does the Lord require of you?  To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

I Sam. 15:22
But Samuel replied: “Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifice as much as in obeying the voice of the Lord?  To obey is better than sacrifice.”

Isaiah 1:17   Learn to do right!  Seek justice, encourage the oppressed.

Jeremiah 22:3   This is what the Lord says: Do what is just and right.

Mark 12:33
To love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

Jesus said: “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.”

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