I desire mercy, not sacrifice. (Hos. 6:6)
Expanded Passage: Hosea 6:1-3
What situation comes to your mind when you hear the word revive? Likely, you think of EMTs or emergency room doctors trying to bring a dying person back to life.
Every church and every individual Christian has felt God’s vitality through the life of Jesus. We may not be able to avoid occasional ups and downs in our spiritual temperature, but we can stay far away from those times when spiritual life all but disappears, those times when we need help from spiritual emergency rooms.
What dangers lurk, threatening spiritual death to churches and believers? Most of us more easily recognize temptations to blatant sin, so Satan works with greater subtlety. “If only,” he reasons, “I can get them to focus their attention on means rather than ends, I will win the battle in time.” So he moves our minds away from pleasing God to disputing minor doctrinal differences. Satan leads us to focus on programs, rather than the people those activities serve. We become focused on building church bank accounts instead of using God’s money for God’s glory.
God himself designed the Old Testament sacrificial system. But the sacrifices merely served to promote relationships between God and people. When the sacrifices took first place, they lost their value. God needed to send Hosea, a spiritual EMT, to revive his people—to bring them back to spiritual life.
Return to the Lord, and he will heal you.
Phil Bence is a retired pastor living in Nampa, Idaho. He and his wife, Kathy, have two adult daughters and three nearly adult grandsons.
© 2024 Wesleyan Publishing House. Reprinted from Light from the Word. Used by permission. Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®.
