epcblog

Devotional thoughts (Monday through Thursday mornings) from the pastor of Exeter Presbyterian Church in Exeter, NH // Sunday Worship 10:30am // 73 Winter Street

Monday, July 28, 2008

Hosea 1

God has spoken clearly to people for many centuries. He “speaks” through all that He has made, but because of our sinful hearts, we need something more, because we suppress the truth of His majesty in ungodliness, and we will not acknowledge our sins, nor will we worship Him. Because of this He has spoken to people in former days through visions and visitations. He has also caused His Word to be preserved in writing since the days of Moses, so that there could be no doubt concerning His message to us in this confusing sin-filled age. Even in the most bleak times, we can read this Word and be comforted with the truth of the Lord’s great love for us, and His intention to give to us the desires of our hearts. Yet as any great father disciplines His children because he loves them, God disciplines us, and moves us toward the fullness of His blessing for us in the age of resurrection. He has used men like Hosea to record for us the character of His love for His people, so that we would not think of ourselves as unwanted.

In the days of the Old Covenant, God spoke through the prophets, little by little and in various ways. One of the most amazing ways that He has ever spoken was through the life of this man Hosea. He told him to take a wife of whoredom, and to have children with her. Understand that when Hosea obeyed the Lord by taking Gomer, the prophet was playing the part of the covenant-keeping, faithful, and loving God, and Gomer was displaying the false dealings of Israel against her faithful Lord. How can a nation be counted as unfaithful to God? They do this when they have been promised to Him and then turn away from Him and consort with other deities. We are supposed to feel the pain of this situation, and to know something of the character of our God, who loves us despite the despicable way that we have treated Him.

All of this took place during the closing years of the northern kingdom of Israel, when she was about to be taken over by the Assyrian empire. Judah would follow later in her own days of trouble, but our focus here is on the other tribes to the north. Though Judah was in some ways the more faithful of the two lands, this book tells us that God still loved Israel despite her whoredom, a lesson that we will do well to reflect upon when we consider the character of the God who sent His Son to die for sinners.

God’s plans are sure from all eternity, yet they are presented to us through His prophets over time in the language of being more or less settled depending upon the response of His people to His entreaties. In this way, the Lord is honestly pleading with His people, so that we will see that for His part, He has done all He could for them. Yet there comes a time when their fate is presented as certain. That time has come for Israel during the ministry of Hosea. The Lord’s settled determination to punish the dynasty of Jehu, to have no more mercy on the governing authorities of Israel, and to end their existence as a nation is reflected in the very names of Hosea’s children.

Despite this pronouncement, the electing love of the Lord toward His chosen ones is very powerful, so that even at this desperate time He not only renews His covenant promises to His people somehow, but expands them! He indicates that there will be those who were formally called “Not My people” who will now be brought into the household of God. These loved ones from the nations will somehow be considered to be a part of the Jewish people that will soon be no more, not only in the north, but even in the south. Though He will discipline Israel, He will somehow expand Israel, for these new children will be there with the children of Judah and the children of Israel. They will all somehow be a reconstituted nation, under one Head. What a mysterious and wonderful prophesy! What an amazing God we serve who announce His wrath against His people, and in the midst of what will soon be their worst days, speaks with such certainty of the blessings of grace that will come upon them and upon many others in the day of their best blessings.

All of this is much easier for us to understand today because of the great revelation of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, that One who has become the Head of this amazing kingdom. We have somehow become the fulfillment of this prophesy of mercy as we have been brought into relationship with this powerfully loving, covenant-keeping God through the sacrifice of His great Son.

There has never been a better Man than Jesus Christ. He has suffered greatly for the glory that was set before Him. It was His Father’s good will to set aside some vessels for mercy even from the nations of the world, and to join these children together into one body with descendants of the tribes of Israel. Christ is the Head of that body and the King of a most mysterious kingdom which will soon be born in resurrection glory. We wait for that day as those who have become convinced of the surpassing greatness of the King of the kingdom, who is even to be our faithful Husband. In that day, the sins and weaknesses of His bride will be put away forever in a great burst of resurrection glory, just as surely as the penalty for our sins has been entirely paid for by His death on the cross for His bride.

posted by Pastor Magee @ 6:00 AM

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