Hosea 6:6 - Hawker's Poor Man's Commentary

Our blessed Jesus hath made this scripture memorable by twice quoting it. Matthew 9:13 and again, Matthew 12:7. But it should seem, as if by our Lord's expression on both occasions, the sense of it was not then well understood; neither is it now. Some have ventured to suppose, that the sense of it is, that the Lord prefers the mercy and goodness of our hearts to the sacrifices of his own appointing. Whereas the sacrifices, all referring as they do to Christ, carry with them a full conviction, that we have neither mercy nor goodness in our hearts. Jeremiah 17:9. I confess that according to my views of the scripture, the mercy here desired by Jehovah is Christ himself; and the knowledge of God, the knowledge of God in Christ, as the substance of whole burnt-offerings. For Christ is the mercy promised; and Christ the one all-sufficient sacrifice with which alone God is well pleased. Luke 1:72; Ephesians 5:2.