"For I desire mercy, and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God rather than burnt-offerings" Hosea 6:6, Hebrew Bible Mechon-Mamre
"...there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land." Hosea 4:1, Mechon-Mamre
"And let us know, eagerly strive to know the LORD" Hosea 6:3, Mechon-Mamre
"My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge..." Hosea 4:6, Mechon-Mamre
The Hebrew word translated by mercy in the verses above is Chesed (Hesed). It is commonly translated in English by kindness or loving-kindness. Translators find it hard to translate this word in other languages because it is difficult to convey the true meaning. This word is mainly attributed to God's kindness or goodness and that is hard enough to describe because it is not common to human race. Whilst reading the verses above I noticed a pattern, a pattern the apostle Paul tells us how we can prevent in Romans 12:2 "Do not change yourselves to be like the people of this world. But be changed within by a new way of thinking. Then you will be able to determine what God wants for you. And you will be able to know what is good and pleasing to God and what is perfect."
When you get to know what Paul describes above, what do you actually know? I think you know God, you know what chesed means. That goodness and compassion that remains good and compassionate even when it has nothing to gain from it or even when it goes against ones interests. That is the main characteristic of God. When you truly know that, you know Him and that knowledge does something in you. Firstly, because He is chesed with you, you want to be chesed with others. That extravagant kindness that appears in ones life when they deserve it the least. His chesed creates chesed in you and it fulfills His purpose from the beginning- to create humans in His likeness. I believe throughout our history God's complaint with us was always the same "You don't know Me. If you truly knew Me it wouldn't be so easy for you to leave Me and abandon My ways."
What happens if you don't listen to Hosea's warnings and Paul's advice?
As always Israel is my teacher. She knew from the beginning she had a different kind of God than the nations around her. But somehow Israel always wanted to be like the other nations. God set for her very clear guidelines on how He should be approached, but the purpose of the guidelines was always the approach- "draw near". Still, since Israel was so focused on the nations around her, she ended up copying them. She focused more on the guidelines than on Him. She slowly ended up worshiping Him in the same way the nations around her worshiped their gods- sacrifices to please them, rituals to satisfy them...This way she failed to draw near, she failed to know Him. If she did, she would've noticed all He actually wanted was a restored relationship in which Israel willingly gave herself just as He gave Himself, when He called Himself her God.
It pains me to see the same things in many churches today. It doesn't matter the denomination, the principle seems to remain the same. Because of the level we've reached in the realms of technology and communication, the gods of this age are money, power, influence, fame and glory to a degree unequaled in our past. I look around myself and I see how "saving souls" turned into a competition between congregation sizes. Numbers is what matters because numbers bring donations, donations bring bigger buildings and bigger buildings bring fame and influence. We don't have sacrifices. We replaced them with programmes...But if you're approaching "the numbers" one by one, you will many times hear the same verses and the same phrases, which if you happen to dig deeper very few can really explain.
The other day, I saw a chain of messages on a Facebook page of which I am a member. The owner added a status requesting the brothers and sisters to listen to the desperate pleas of a sister of ours. She was asking us to help her. Her daughter is dieing of cystic fibrosis and she is the mother of a two year old. Our sister was telling us how she raised all the money she possibly could to cover for the treatment but it was still not enough. One after the other my brothers told her how they will pray for her. Others demanded healing in the Name of Jesus, whilst others were claiming it done. I was sitting there going through the messages and this verses came into my mind "My brothers and sisters, if people say they have faith, but do nothing, their faith is worth nothing. Can faith like that save them?A brother or sister in Christ might need clothes or food. If you say to that person, "God be with you! I hope you stay warm and get plenty to eat," but you do not give what that person needs, your words are worth nothing." (James 2:14-16)
I got angry in my heart. I felt like writing the verse and tell them "I hope you will remember this and the tears of that woman next time you look at your $20,000 car parked on your alley". But that was not the love in me talking. One person wrote "Look, I don't want to sound like a jerk, but make sure you don't just pray, you also ACT." And then another wrote "Can you please give us details on where to send the money?" So, I calmed down. I remembered perhaps I should not look at them through the perspective of their $20,000 car in light on some of the theories we hear in some churches today (if you're sitting there asking yourself what churches is she on about open God Channel)
What's happening to us? Are we losing sight of His chesed again? Do we fail to know Him again because we are too focus on copying what's around us?
I am not here to judge anyone. These thoughts are mainly for me. I pray God will bring them in my heart everytime I go and waste money on something more expensive and I forget all the faces I saw in the Romanian villages I've been through. I am part of His Church, I am part of my brothers and sisters. Perhaps that's why I can't keep my mouth shut. I wish I could only write about smiles, love, butterflies and flowers. I wish I would live in a world that would not give me any other topics, but regrettably I don't...
I really want this to be a road sign for me on a personal level. If I am focused on copying what's around me rather than on being changed within, I am convinced I will end up in the same place. A place where there is "no truth, no chesed (goodness, kindness, compassion) and no knowledge of God" (Hosea 4:1)
A place where I forget that He is chesed- Good and Compassionate even when He has nothing to gain from me. A place where I forget myself to be chesed, because I loose sight of His good, pleasing and perfect will for my life.
