epcblog

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

Friday, August 08, 2008

Hosea 10

There is always the danger for us that prosperity will bring complacency. In the case of Old Testament Israel, God says that the more they had, the more they gave to their idolatrous enterprises. This came from a heart problem among the people. God says, “Their heart is false.” This is also the truth about us, at least in our sinful nature. Just as Israel needed to have her places of idolatrous worship destroyed, we need to have the idols of our hearts taken away if we are to see God as the first and best reality of our lives both now and forever.

Israel rejected the Lord as their King. They also rejected men who were their kings, believing that their own rulers could do nothing for them. We might think that they would be at least equally cynical about the potential benefits that could come to them from lifeless idols or enemy empires, but that was not the case. They put their hopes firmly in these false answers.

They had made promises to God, covenants that had been in place for many generations, but these were long forgotten or ignored. Men forget their promises to God as generation replaces generation, but the Lord does not forget. What this meant was that they had troubles with God that they were largely ignoring, like a farmer who continues to expect good crops in the harvest, barely aware that there are poisonous weeds that have overtaken his fields.

What they did remember were their calf idols. Imagine that. They shed tears for something that they had made, and that they may have thought was an adequate representation of their god or gods. There could never have been any glory from these objects, and yet they loved them, but they spurned the love of the glorious Lord of lords. Their precious religious statues would be taken to Assyria, and they would be put to shame, for their idols could not deliver them from the hands of their captors.

For many generations the northern kingdom and her kings had rejected the way of the Lord. They followed the way of gross immorality in the days of Gibeah recorded in the book of Judges. Now their spiritual shrines would be begging for the mountains to fall on them. Their destruction was decreed because of the iniquity of the nation.

God’s judgment for both Ephraim in the north and Judah in the south was for these nations to be subservient people for many centuries. They would not be independent nations. The Lord prepared them for the grand experiment of the Law for centuries, but now they would have centuries without national sovereignty. First disaster would come upon the north, and then upon the south.

What are the faithful to do in this day of such horrifying trouble? These descendants of Jacob have planted iniquity and have reaped a wretched curse upon their nations. Beginning with the destruction of the King of Israel, many families will face overwhelming grief. The way for them is to sow righteousness and to reap the steadfast love of the Lord, to break up the weed-infested ground of their hearts and to seek the Lord. But is there any reasonable hope that such a thing could ever happen if the Lord were patient for many more centuries?

The evidence shows us conclusively that there needed to be some other way of peace and lasting joy than through the obedience of the people to the Law of the Lord, for we will not obey. Nor is it the answer for God to decide that righteousness is no longer important. That would be a denial of His character. The true solution is for the Lord to take the burden of the covenant upon Himself. God has done that by meeting His own righteous demands in the person of His Son. This is the only way of true blessing for us.

Christ has achieved what Israel could never have accomplished, no matter how many more years of testing they might have been granted. Through the cross He has taken away centuries of sin, even the stain of Adam as our representative. Jesus brings us a new life, and now Jew and Gentile have been granted a hope and a future. This is the only way out of the desperation of a land that knows things are so bad that she would only want the mountains to crush her in judgment.

Now that Christ has accomplished our redemption, He is working hard by His Spirit in the lives of His people. What is He doing? He is ridding us of our filthy idols. One day His new “Israel” will be completely idol-free, in a land of sinless perfection and glorious joy. We hate our record of sin, but we love the perfections of our great substitute. He has won for us a victory that we never could have accomplished with even our best efforts and intentions.

posted by Pastor Magee @ 6:00 AM

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