Mercy and Not Sacrifice.

THIS blessed expression of the mind of God occurs twice in the gospel by Matthew. It is a quotation from the prophet Hosea (6:6): “I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.” What He looked for―what He had a right to look for in a people brought so near to Him was the exercise of a quality so eminently dear to Himself―so befitting a people called by His name-the exercise of mercy. “He delighteth in mercy.” (Micah 7:1818Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy. (Micah 7:18).) It is the spring of His dealings with Israel―with man. There would be no hope for man without it. And hence when Jesus came into His ministry on earth, this was the key-note, the characteristic of His acts, His words, His ways towards men. “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy,” was among the earliest sentences in what is called, “The sermon on the Mount;” and mercy is the only suited thing for man. The mission of the Son, the wisdom of God, as well as the power of God declares it. And if suited to man because so deeply needed by him, surely it was infinitely worthy of the ever-blessed God, the only fountain of true, real mercy, to show it. Mercy never shone so brightly, so sweetly as in the person, the mission of the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, God manifest in the flesh. The proud legal mind of the Pharisees in His day could not see this; and this came out on the first occasion I have referred to―the 9th chapter of the gospel by Matthew. “Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners?” is the question put to the disciples. Jesus answers it: “They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice; for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” Wondrous and blessed declaration of the Son of God, the Son in the bosom of the Father― the word of God! What majesty, what dignity is in it! He takes up the words of Jehovah by His prophet, ―His own words, ―and spake them as His own. “I will have mercy, and not sacrifice; for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” Sinners all were. Righteous, there were none to call. The Lord knew this, and justifies His ways of grace to sinners. He will have mercy. Who dare be offended at this? who has a right to be offended? Blessed indeed for us that mercy reigns―reigns in the bosom of our Lord, that mercy is the spring of all His dealings now with this poor lost and ruined world. “His mercy endureth forever” will be the song of Israel by and by, when they are brought to see their need of it, and taste its sweetness in their souls. But sinners now are called―called to repentance, called to turn from evil unto God―to lift the eye to Jesus crucified, to look, to trust, and live. Now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation. Today, if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts.
But if we look on to the second occasion when these words appear, we find the legal mind at work again, and met again by rebuke from Jesus. (chapters 12:1-8.) He, the Lord of Israel, the Lord of all, is passing through the corn, the harvest that His bounteous hand had given; His followers were hungry, and began to eat. Was there not provision for the poor and needy in the law of God? (Lev. 23:2222And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not make clean riddance of the corners of thy field when thou reapest, neither shalt thou gather any gleaning of thy harvest: thou shalt leave them unto the poor, and to the stranger: I am the Lord your God. (Leviticus 23:22); Deuteronomy 23:2525When thou comest into the standing corn of thy neighbor, then thou mayest pluck the ears with thine hand; but thou shalt not move a sickle unto thy neighbor's standing corn. (Deuteronomy 23:25).) Did not He, the Master, take the lowest place―the Son of Man, who had not where to lay His head? The poor disciples freely take what grace divine had provided―provided by the hand of creative power, by the word of inspired truth. Provision for the needy, that is written on the works and in the word of God. Pharisees cannot see this, or if they do they must bind it in some legal wrappings to obscure the grace, to hinder the free flow of God’s unbounded love and goodness. One greater than the temple, greater than the universe, is there, and marks it all. The blessed One, the holy One pleads, as He ever does, the cause of His disciples: “If ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless.” O how blessed is this word―the guiltless! Jesus speaks it, speaks it of His own.
“Who now accuses them
For whom the Surety died?”
The Law-giver has been the Law-fulfiller; for jot or tittle of it could not pass away till all had been fulfilled. He magnified the law; and made it honorable; it never shone so brightly as when Jesus took it, was made under it, died beneath its curse, blotted out the transgressions that were under it in His most precious blood. (Hebrews 9:1515And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. (Hebrews 9:15).) I say again,
“Who now accuseth them
For whom the Surety died?
Or who shall those condemn
Whom God hath justified?
Captivity is captive led
Since Jesus liveth, who was dead.”
“The Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath day.” In the dignity and glory of His person He is above all, has right and title to remove all, set aside all that would hinder the full blessing, the full joy and endless liberty of His redeemed ones. For it is redemption title that He acts upon, as well as creation title, when He says, “I will have mercy, and not sacrifice.” This is the rule, the order of the dispensation, of every dispensation in which God is known, and acts as God, towards man upon earth. I speak now of what is past and present―this long-suffering time. It is the rule, I say. Judgment is His strange work, only resorted to when grace has been finally resisted and despised. God will have mercy, and not sacrifice. Sacrifice man cannot offer. Blood of bulls and goats were all in vain. God gave His only Son―His well-beloved―to be a sacrifice for sin. That one offering once offered has forever perfected them that are sanctified. The blood of atonement shed upon the cross at Calvary avails forever for the sinner’s need. “I will have mercy, and not sacrifice.” The sacrifice was on God’s part, mercy flowed through that to ruined man―mercy, and peace, and grace, and life eternal. This is the rule then for the Christian, ― “Be ye therefore merciful, even as your Father which is in heaven is merciful.” It is the rule for the servants of God. A Jeremiah in his day might have commission to root out, to pull down, and to destroy (Jeremiah 1:1010See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant. (Jeremiah 1:10)); but the Christian servant, the preacher of the gospel, must not even root the tares up, lest he root the wheat up with them. (Matthew 13) Patience and long-suffering become us. If there is one thing more than another that would bring sweet alleviation into the trials of the people of God it is this, the practice of forbearing, forgiving, active mercy. (1 Peter 3:88Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous: (1 Peter 3:8).) The more we know of God the more we shall desire to be like Him, to be imitators of Him, as dear children, even in this vale of tears. I say the rule, because God is always God, and never can be any other. Many of the provisions of the law show His tenderness, as to the touching appeals of the prophets. The blessed Jesus might well say of these Scriptures, “Search”―they testify of me.