Hosea 6:6

"For I desire goodness, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt-offerings."

It is truly amazing how many scholars interpret this verse to mean that, "God repudiates the externalism in religion";[14] or that it is a, "declaration rejecting sacrifice."[15] Such views would mean, of course, that God was rejecting what he himself had commanded in the law of Moses, and even much earlier, going back to the sacrifices offered by Cain and Abel. Certainly, this view has to be incorrect. God was not here repudiating the covenant he had made with Israel, which surely included sacrifice, nor was he changing that covenant. What he did in this verse is to condemn the people, not for offering sacrifices, but for omitting the true devotion, loyalty to God, and integrity of heart that were necessary accompaniments of sacrifice. We are thankful indeed that a number of very able scholars have discerned this essential truth:

"It was not that God rejected such methods of worship, but that sacrifices and offerings ought to have been the expression of truly dedicated lives, and not a substitute for them. Remember the observation of Jesus in Matthew 23:23."[16]

The inference on the part of critics to the effect that God had never commanded sacrifice, that it was merely the adoption by Israel of a device found in the pagan cults around them is totally wrong. Hindley discussed this briefly, thus:

"Some critics have seen in this and the five similar passages (Isaiah 1:11-15; 43:22-24; Amos 5:21-25; and Micah 6:6-8) a conflict between the prophets and the sacrificial cultus; but nowhere do the prophets deny the validity of sacrifice offered in the right spirit. In each case, they denounce sins of immorality, idolatry, self-righteousness, which violate the covenant and invalidate the sacrifices.[17]

Concerning the sacrifices commanded in the Law of Moses, Jesus himself said, "These ye ought to have done, and not to have left the other undone (justice, mercy, and faith)" (Matthew 23:23). In this admonition, Jesus referred primarily to tithing certain things; and, since the tithing of flocks and herds was also included, it is a valid view that Jesus designated the sacrifices of the Law of Moses as legitimate, things which "ye ought to have done." Furthermore, the prophetic and inspired designation of Jesus Christ as "The Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world" inevitably points to the sacrificial system from which such a designation is derived, with the mandatory conclusion that the system was as authentic as the Christ which it identified. Therefore, the false notion that animal sacrifices were never really part of God's will is to be rejected. They were a valid part of the Mosaic system, a system clearly introduced by God Himself.

"I desire goodness, and not sacrifice ..." Departing from the ancient manuscripts, and following more recent variations, the Revised Standard Version renders this place, "It is stedfast love and not sacrifice"; and, while this does no violence to the meaning of the prophet, it is nevertheless incorrect. "I desire goodness, and not sacrifice" is, in sense, parallel to the words of Samuel: "Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice," etc. (1 Samuel 15:22). That, of course, is precisely the meaning of it here. Many of the current generation of scholars are dedicated to removing the concept of obedience from God's Word; and this, no doubt, resulted in the choice of "I desire stedfast love, etc."; but it is often overlooked that love invariably includes obedience also. See John 14:15.