The first three verses seem to offer hope, they seem to imply that Israel has seen sense and has repented, turning to the Lord. They seem to have realised the reason why nothing was working, and that only by turning to Him could they be revived.
Yet this was just superficial. Many times in their history Israel had gone through the cycle of desert God- suffer disaster- turn to God. Sadly it was never more than skin deep. We have no doubt seen this in individuals as well, maybe even in our own lives.
"For I desire mercy not sacrifice". Israel had probably shown her "repentance" by offering sacrifices, but what God desired was a change of heart, which would show it self in mercy.
It was not that God did not desire to help the nation, but every time He was about to their wickedness would come to the fore again. So it is with all of mankind. The world as a whole sees God as an enemy, but the truth is that He loves us, it is only our sin that stops us receiving the blessings of God.
It was the wickedness of their hearts that stops God from blessing them. It is our hearts that need to change. We will look for the cause of a problem in any location except our own hearts.
No comments:
Post a Comment