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I desired mercy, and not sacrifice - I taught them righteousness by my prophets; for I desired mercy. I was more willing to save than to destroy; and would rather see them full of penitent and holy resolutions, than behold them offering the best and most numerous victims upon my altar. See Matthew 9:13.

For I desired mercy and not sacrifice - God had said before, that they should “seek” Him “with their flocks and herds, and not find” Him. So here He anticipates their excuses with the same answer wherewith He met those of Saul, when he would compensate for disobedience by burnt-offerings. The answer is, that all which they did to win His favor, or turn aside His wrath, was of no avail, while they willfully withheld what He required of them. Their mercy and goodness were but a brief, passing, show; in vain He had tried to awaken them by His prophets; therefore judgment was coming upon them, for, to turn it aside, they had offered Him what He desired not, sacrifices without love, and had not offered Him, what He did desire, love of man out of love for God. God had Himself, after the fall, enjoined sacrifice, to foreshow and plead to Himself the meritorious Sacrifice of Christ. “He” had not contrasted “mercy” and “sacrifice,” who enjoined them both.

When then they were contrasted, it was through man‘s severing what God united. If we were to say, “Charity is better than Church-going,” we should be understood to mean that it is better than such Church-going as is severed from charity. For, if they were united, they would not be contrasted. The soul is of more value than the body. But it is not contrasted, unless they come in competition with one another, and their interests (although they cannot in trust “be,”) “seem” to be separated. in itself, “Sacrifice” represented all the direct duties to God, all the duties of the first table. For Sacrifice owned Him as the One God, to whom, as His creatures, we owe and offer all; as His guilty creatures, it owned that we owed to Him our lives also. “mercy” represented all duties of the second table. In saying then, “I will have mercy and not sacrifice,” he says, in effect, the same as John, “If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar, for he that loveth not his brother, whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?” 1 John 4:20.

As the love, which a man pretended to have for God, was not real love, if a man loved not his brother, so “sacrifice” was not an offering, to God at all, while man withheld from God that offering, which God most required of him, the oblation of man‘s own self. They were, rather, offerings to satisfy and bribe a man‘s own conscience. Yet the Jews were profuse in making these sacrifices, which cost them little hoping thereby to secure to themselves impunity the wrongful gains, oppressions, and fulnesses which they would not part with. It is with this contrast, that God so often rejects the sacrifices of the Jews, “To what purpose is the multitude of your oblations unto Me? Bring no more vain oblations unto Me; new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; iniquity and the solemn meeting” Isaiah 1:11-13. “I spake not to your fathers, nor commanded them, in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt-offerings or sacrifices; but this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be My people” Jeremiah 7:22-23. And the Psalmist; “I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices or thy burnt-offerings, to have been continually before Me. Offer unto God thanksgiving, etc. But unto the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do, to declare My statutes, etc.” Psalm 1:1-6, Psalm 8:1-9, Psalm 14:1-7, Psalm 16:1-11.

But, further, the prophet adds, “and the knowledge of God more than burnt-offerings.” The two parts of the verse fill out one another, and the latter explains the former. “The knowledge of God” is, as before, no inactive head-knowledge, but that knowledge, of which John speaks, “Hereby we do know that we knew Him, if we keep His commandments” Ephesians 2:3. It is a knowledge, such as they alone can have, who love God and do His will. God says then, that He prefers the inward, loving, knowledge of Himself, and lovingkindness toward man, above the outward means of acceptableness with Himself, which He had appointed. He does not lower those His own appointments; but only when, emptied of the spirit of devotion, they were lifeless bodies, unensouled by His grace.

Yet the words of God go beyond the immediate occasion and bearing, in which they were first spoken. And so these words, “I will have mercy and not sacrifice” Matthew 9:13, are a sort of sacred proverb, contrasting “mercy,” which overflows the bounds of strict justice, with “sacrifice,” which represents that stern justice. Thus, when the Pharisees complained at our Lord for eating with Publicans and sinners, He bade them, “Go and learn what that meaneth. I will have mercy and not sacrifice.” He bade them learn that deeper meaning of the words, that God valued mercy for the souls for which Christ died, above that outward propriety, that He, the All-Holy, should not feast familiarly with those who profaned God‘s law and themselves. Again, when they found fault with the hungry disciples for breaking the sabbath by rubbing the ears of grain, He, in the same way, tells them, that they did not know the real meaning of that saying. “If ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless” Matthew 12:7. For as, before, they were envious as to mercy to the souls of sinners, so how they were reckless as to others‘ bodily needs. Without that love then, which shows itself in acts of mercy to the souls and bodies of people, all sacrifice is useless.

“Mercy” is also more comprehensive than “sacrifice.” For sacrifice was referred to God only, as its end; “mercy,” or love of man for the love of God, obeys God who commands it; imitates God, “Whose property it is always to have mercy;” seeks God who rewards it; promotes the glory of God, through the thanksgiving to God, from those whom it benefits. “mercy leads man up to God, for mercy brought down God to man; mercy humbled God, exalts man.” mercy takes Christ as its pattern, who, from His Holy Incarnation to His Precious Death on the Cross, “bare our griefs, and carried our sorrows” Isaiah 53:4. Yet neither does mercy itself avail without true knowledge of God. For as mercy or love is the soul of all our acts, so true knowledge of God and faith in God are the source and soul of love. “Vain were it to boast that we have the other members, if faith, the head, were cut off”.

Through the man of God that had appeared before the altar at Bethel, through Elijah and Elisha, through Amos and Hosea, the Lord had repeatedly set before the ten tribes the evils of disobedience. But notwithstanding reproof and entreaty, Israel had sunk lower and still lower in apostasy. “Israel slideth back as a backsliding heifer,” the Lord declared; “My people are bent to backsliding from Me.” Hosea 4:16; 11:7. PK 281.1

There were times when the judgments of Heaven fell very heavily on the rebellious people. “I hewed them by the prophets,” God declared; “I have slain them by the words of My mouth: and thy judgments are as the light that goeth forth. For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. But they like men have transgressed the covenant: there have they dealt treacherously against Me.” Hosea 6:5-7. PK 281.2

“Hear the word of the Lord, ye children of Israel,” was the message that finally came to them: “Seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children. As they were increased, so they sinned against Me: therefore will I change their glory into shame.... I will punish them for their ways, and reward them their doings.” Hosea 4:1, 6-9. PK 281.3

For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. Hosea 6:6. CC 284.1

There will always be duties which have to be performed on the Sabbath for the relief of suffering humanity. This is right, and in accordance with the law of Him who says, “I will have mercy, and not sacrifice.” But there is danger of falling into carelessness on this point, and of doing that which it is not positively essential to do on the Sabbath. MM 50.1

Unnecessary traveling is done on the Sabbath, with many other things which might be left undone. “Take heed,” saith the Lord, “to all thy ways, lest I remove My Holy Spirit because of the lax regard given to My precepts.” “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.” Bear in mind the charge to remember. Do not carelessly forget, “Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work.” In this time all the duties necessary to prepare for the Sabbath are to be done.—Letter 51, 1901. MM 50.2

Thoughts Suggested by God—If you will only follow on to know the Lord, and do His bidding, you will know by your experience that God will suggest thoughts to you as you attempt to speak words to those who are around you, to restrain them from doing wrong, and to point out to them the way of life.—Manuscript 61, 1907. VSS 28.1