God Desires Mercy

By Craig Ashton Jr., March 30, 2024

“I desire mercy, not sacrifice,” said the prophet Hosea 6:6. Mercy and loving-kindness are better than Christian forms of worship. Jesus quoted Hosea when He said, “But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice’” (Matthew 9:13). The word for mercy is hesed, which fundamentally means a deep, abiding, and loyal love. It’s one of the Bible’s most important concepts. Hesed is a loving act of benevolence—looking out for the well-being of others as a moral approach to living, not as an obligation.

Jesus tells me to learn what God desires. It is clear that loving-kindness—not sacrificial ritual—matters most to God. Practicing loving-kindness is more important than affirming my religion. We tend to choose the easiest forms of worship, such as prayers, fasting, and almsgiving. We do the same things over and over until they feel like obligations, and we find comfort in that. It affirms our rightness, but is my devotion separating me from loving-kindness and mercy? Do my actions show love and a constant selfless character? Going through religious motions can make us feel that we have done something good until we feel obligated. In a way, going through such motions forms our sense of rightness. However, we can be religious yet unkind, generous in almsgiving yet guilty of harming others, and devout yet unrighteous. Such cases are what God calls vain sacrifices. They are empty worship.

Instead of focusing on the forms of worship, I want to focus on the beauty of God’s mercy and unparalleled love. The ideal that God desires is more important than ritual. God is more interested in the kind of person I am becoming and the character I possess. I want to keep God’s desire for relationship prominent. I want to learn what “mercy, not sacrifice” means so I can understand the kind of God I am involved with. God desires love and intimate relationship. If I go through the motions of religion with a sacrifice-only mindset, I can miss His deep and abiding love. God is calling to me. It’s not a call for empty sacrifice but for increased loving-kindness and mercy—a call to experience a deep and abiding love relationship with Him. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit (Psalm 51:17). Micah tells us that God requires loving-kindness (Micah 6:8). So are we seeking more powerful prayers, sacrifices, and blessings in our worship, or are we looking to become more compassionate, humble, gracious, merciful, and loving people? How would you answer?

Craig Ashton Jr.