epcblog

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

Thursday, August 07, 2008

Hosea 9

There is much said in many of the prophetic writings about the spiritual adultery of the people of God. This is often quite blunt and difficult to take, the kind of material that we find hard to read in front of children because of the topics and images that are addressed. This is all the more challenging in Hosea because of the very obvious parallel between the indictment of the nation and the sad story of Hosea’s own wife. When God spoke these words through His special servant, the prophet understood exactly what he was talking about. He had lived through it himself.

Somehow we think it unseemly when God calls Israel a “whore,” but we don’t think that spiritual adultery itself is all that rude. Isn’t that strange? We think it too strong to talk about sin, and not quite so serious to commit it. God’s nation had a special role in His plan. Of all the places in the world, this was to be the land where the people were joyfully worshipping the Lord according to the plan provided in His Law. Instead people set up special spots where they combined actual sexual immorality with the fertility cults directed toward the false god Baal. This was a horrible and foolish attack against the Lord God Almighty, the God of Israel.

The people went to Baal not only for help in having children, but also for increased fruitfulness in the land. It is the God of creation who gives life among all His creatures. Baal can give fruit to no one. They wanted wine and bread from him, but only the Lord who could have really helped them. Not only did they seek idols, they also ran off to nations like Egypt and Assyria for help. They would soon be taken to a foreign land where it would be impossible to maintain ritual cleanliness as required by God. The entire system of the Lord’s blessing through the temple and the sacrificial would be stopped in its tracks.

We love what we love. We have our lusts for what keeps us wide awake. Our various duties and the things that we should do to obey the Lord may seem uninteresting compared to the things that we love as a part of our earnest worship of what is not a god. All that we run after that promises life, energy, and happiness may quickly lead us in a pathway that will bring us anything but life. Our most eager lusts may soon be buried with us in the grave.

If everything was working according to the way of life, God would speak accurately and powerfully through His prophet and the people of the Lord would eagerly hear and obey. But this is not the way for Israel. The prophet has been treated as an enemy of the people, or has himself become captivated by lies. There is no love in the house of God, only hatred and despair. There is a great breech between the Lord and His people.

The Lord brings two of the low points of their heritage to the attention of His people. The book of Judges records some horrible events associated with Gibeah. The iniquity of the people there included rape and murder. Israel is like this, and she is also like the people that fell for an enemy’s entrapment many centuries before. They were willing to follow the way of Baalam in a plot of sexual immorality that would lead to bondage and death. We can so easily lose all sense of who we are as servants of the Lord, and give ourselves over to detestable impulses.

What we want so much from this passing world eludes us. If we would stop chasing after desert mirages of glory, we could give ourselves over to the glory in Christ that actually lasts forever. We could find a way to worship, to love, and to help. Oddly enough, if we would set our hearts on pleasing God in this way, we may surprise ourselves and find that we will even do fairly well in this passing place of vanity. Instead we insist on kisses that are soon nothing but bitter memories, and find ourselves ill-equipped for the coming age, and disappointed in the age we live in now. We are fruitless and alone, and have no active acquaintance with the gift of hope.

The Lord Jesus Christ did not love evil or hate good. The One who did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many, was not too busy to worship, to love, and to help. He seemed to lose everything, but He won the battle for our salvation in the greatest display of divine love every seen among men.

When He died on the cross, He seemed like a young man who was already past His prime. The crowds who loved Him had given up because of His hard words about their need to eat His flesh and drink His blood. One of His disciples betrayed Him. Another denied Him. The rest fled and left Him to die alone with only a few watching, maybe the youngest disciple nearby enough to hear His voice, and then perhaps he ran away as well.

When He cried out to God and acknowledged that His Lord had somehow forsaken Him, it would have appeared that nothing of any lasting good could come from either His death or His life. Yet when He rose from the dead, true joy and hope were born. We rejoice now in Him always. He lives. We have a hope that is real. As the resurrected Man is, so shall we be. Though we may never achieve greatness in the eyes of men, we are kept by the Lord for eternity, and there is much help that we can give to others in this place where lusts must soon be buried in the grave.

posted by Pastor Magee @ 6:00 AM

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