No More Heroics

Hosea chapter 6 left off with a piece of chapter 7 on it. In verse 11 Hosea writes, "For you also, O Judah, a harvest is appointed, when I restore the fortunes of my people." There is a glimpse of hope in this verse, but not without consequence will it come. God is just to forgive, but first a harvest. Fitting in with the analogy that you reap what you sow, Israel will reap the fruit of their labor. Again, God is just to forgive, but restoration will not happen until the sin is brought to light. After all, God does not forgive so that we can sin more and more. "Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?" Romans 2:4 Israel needs to acknowledge their sin and seek God as we read back in 5:15, but they are at the point where their deeds are right there in front of God and they don't even consider that as a problem. Verses 3 and 4 say, "By their evil they make their king glad, and the princes by their treachery. They are all adulterers; they are like a heated oven whose baker ceases to stir the fire." They delight in their sin and it is even a thing to be desired. Their sexual immorality is described as a fire that is overwhelming and out of control. Verse 7 says, "All their kings have fallen, and none of them calls upon me." Even in times of turmoil and desperation they do not come to God for help. Verse 10 attributes their actions to their pride. It is their desire to act independently of God that causes them to live the way they do. They go back and forth looking this way and that for help, but not towards God. Verse 11 says, "Ephraim is like a dove, silly and without sense, calling to Egypt, going to Assyria." They even turn to the nation that once held them captive before they turn to the God that once brought them out of captivity. Verse 13 says, "Woe to them, for they have strayed from me! Destruction to them, for they have rebelled against me! I would redeem them, but they speak lies against me." They continue to seek other avenues of redemption other than God. Verse 14 says, "They do not cry to me from the heart, but they wail upon their beds; for grain and wine they gash themselves; they rebel against me." They cut themselves to show sincerity to false gods as if they have ever heard their cries. They want to find their own solution to their problem. God is the one that made the nation of Israel what it was, but they became confident in themselves.
This looks more and more like the life I live as I read. I desire to do what I know is wrong. My passions become a fire that I cannot control. I fall and don't immediately turn to God. I go to my music before I go to the Bible. I am full of pride. I find myself too busy to repent immediately. I quench the Holy Spirit and later don't feel convicted like I once was. My sin builds upon sin and now I cannot bear it myself. I cannot look at the example of Israel and continue my life this way. I need to lose my pride and selfish ambition and let go of the weight that easily weighs me down. No more heroics. I need my Savior.

A Call to Repentance

In chapter 6 Hosea calls the children of Israel to repentance. Remember in 5:14 God is likened to a lion going after a meal. It says, "I, even I, will tear and go away; I will carry off and no one shall rescue." vs. 15 goes on to say that, "I will return again to my place, until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face, and in their distress earnestly seek me." This is what Hosea is telling the Israelites to do. In vs. 1 it says, "Come let us return to the Lord; for he has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up."
Israel is far from God at this point. Their love has been compared to morning dew. In vs. 4 it says, "Your love is like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes early away." They have quickly forgotten how good God has been. Their love for God was once there, but it has dissipated and dried up. This is the root of Israel's trouble. We see that in vs. 6 that God says, "For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings." They had no love for God. They had no knowledge of God either. I don't want to downplay repentance at all, but God does not desire sacrifice like he desires steadfast love and knowledge of him. If we come to God in true repentance it is because we acknowledge our guilt and seek God's face earnestly. It should make us aware of God. We should not fall into sin as easily again and again. We should feel the guilt of our transgression and it should compel us to please God. This ties in with the way Paul spoke of grace in the book of Romans. Romans 6:1 says, "What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?" The grace of God does not warrant sin. Romans 2:4 says, "Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?" Be mindful of God.
vs.7, " But like Adam they transgressed the covenant; there they dealt faithlessly with me." 9 and 10, "As robbers lie in wait for a man, so the priests band together; they murder on their way to Shechem; they commit villainy. In the house of Israel I have seen a horrible thing; Ephraim's whoredom is there; Israel is defiled." I don't know what it will take to get Israel to repent, but I know that it is nothing I have done that has brought me to the place where I am at. It must be God's kindness, forbearance, and patience. I can think of no other explanation.

Seeking God's Face

Hosea chapter 5 describes the punishment that Israel has coming to them. Looking from the perspective of a father, it is difficult to bear. No father desires to do what God is about to do to Israel. Regardless of the pain involved, it is for the good of the nation. God desperately wants a relationship with his chosen people, but they are so far from him that they don't even know of him. In vs. 2 it says, "And the revolters have gone deep into slaughter, but I will discipline all of them." When a father properly disciplines his child, it is done in love and out of a heart of restoration. If God did not love Israel and if God did not want to restore fellowship with Israel, He would have just left them to their own wicked devices. They would have destroyed themselves eventually. Vs. 4 tells of the depth of their fall. It says, "Their deeds do not permit them to return to their God. For the spirit of whoredom is within them, and they know not the Lord." When I was growing up, I would often find myself under judgement. The consequences would be coming and an apology was not sufficient. According to vs. 6, Israel has arrived in a similar situation. "With their flocks and herds they shall go to seek the Lord, but they will not find him; he has withdrawn from them." There was no sacrifice that could atone for their sins. It was too late; judgement was on its way. Vs. 10 says, "upon them I will pour out my wrath like water." Never doubt for a second the depth and magnitude of God's love. Micah 7:18, "Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance? He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in steadfast love." It is becasue of his steadfast love that he pours out his wrath like water. It is not to be confused for hate. Vs. 14 describes the judgement. "For I will be like a lion to Ephraim, and like a young lion to the house of Judah. I, even I, will tear and go away; I will carry off, and no one shall rescue." Like a lion going after a meal God will devastate the nation and leave them to waste. Vs. 15, "And I will return again to my place, until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face, and in their distress earnestly seek me." When I recieved judgment from my father, it did not make everything better. The punishment in itself did not restore the relationship. If I don't make things right with my dad, their will never be any relationship. I need to make things right with my dad. I have been sitting here wondering how long it will take for Israel to repent, and I need to do the same. It has been much too long since I have had a right relationship with my dad. All these years I blamed him, thinking that he wasn't good to me. I doubted how much he loves me. Of course my dad isn't God, but he faithfully did his part in discipline. Now it's my turn.

God's Chosen

Hosea 4 through the rest of the book is like a roller coaster of doom and hope. Doom, because of Israel's unfaithfulness. Hope, because of God's faithfulness. In the beginning of the chapter in vs. 1 we see 3 things about Israel that the Lord has a controversy with. First, there is no faithfulness in the land. This reminds me of the times of Noah. In Genesis 6:5 it says, "The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." Although a few verses later in vs. 8 it says, "But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord." Apparently there was not even a Noah among God's chosen people. At least there is no mention of one. Secondly, there is no steadfast love. Another word for steadfast is unwavering. Love that is wavering is not really love. The last thing mentioned about the children of Israel is that they had no knowledge of God. It's sad to see when people forget what God has done, but for the people to not even know about God's great love is just not right. There is no excuse after all that God has done for Israel to have no knowledge of Him. So Israel was not faithful to God because they did not love Him, but further more they did not even know Him. Vs. 3 says that, "the land mourns and all who dwell in it languish, and also the beasts of the field and the birds of the heavens, and even the fish of the sea are taken away." This is a picture of complete devastation. Again, it reminds me of Noah's day. Genesis 6:7 says, So the Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.” But God is faithful to His people and He does not blot them out. From vs. 4 through 15 it mentions the wickedness that Israel has become involved in. I wont go into all of it, but just imagine what a group of people would do if they had no love or knowledge of God. In vs. 16 Israel is compared to a stubborn heifer. The verse says, "Like a stubborn heifer, Israel is stubborn; can the Lord now feed them like a lamb in a broad pasture." "Like a lamb" makes me think of Psalm 23, how the Lord is my shepherd. The Psalm is a picture of fellowship with God the way He intended it. It speaks of safety and security in the Lord; how he leads us to safe waters and His provision for us. Not only are we secure in safety, but also in places of danger. The psalmist says, "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me." Israel was outside of God's safety and security. This is why God punishes them. God has great things planned for this nation and has chosen them for a reason.
Just as Israel has been chosen by God, we have also been chosen by God. Ephesians 1:4 says, "even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him." Just as Israel was chosen to bring Jesus into the world, we are chosen by God to proclaim Jesus to the world. But as Israel was like a stubborn heifer, we too are often unusable. We fight God's will in exchange for our own desires. We get lost in "ministry" when God has something else for us. If we would be faithful, ever loving, unwavering, and aware of God's still small voice; just imagine the wonders He has in store for us.

Redeeming Love

I cannot stress enough how applicable the Bible is and how personal a relationship with God is. Going through the book of Hosea was intimidating to me at first because I was afraid I wouldn't be able to make it practical and interesting the whole way through with every chapter. It's a good thing God took care of that problem when He had the book written. 2 Timothy 3:16 says, "All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training for righteousness. It is enough that God has said it, but He has gone a step further and has proved it to me consistently with every chapter.
In Hosea 3, God's love is displayed in undeserved faithfulness to an idolatrous people. He commands Hosea to buy back his wife. He does so and tells her in vs. 3, "You must dwell as mine for many days. You shall not play the whore, or belong to another man; so will I also be to you." God expects the same of us, but He is there with us the whole way. Just as Hosea said, "so will I also be to you", God will also be the same to us. We owe it to God to be faithful, but God owes us nothing. It is such a strong display of how far reaching God's love goes. Also, as Hosea bought back his wife, Jesus did the same. Mark 10:45 says, "For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many." Hosea told her, "You must dwell as mine for many days." In vs. 4 it says, "For the children of Israel shall dwell many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or pillar, without ephod or household gods. I mentioned last week that I have trouble relating to having "idols". Vs. 4 has helped me see it from a different perspective. When I thought of these things mentioned like king or prince, sacrifice or pillar, ephod or household god, with the exception of household god, these things are not necessarily evil, but God has stripped them of these to draw them back to Him. It has made me realize how I forget God because of business in my life. In vs. 5 it says that, "Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God, and David their king, and they shall come in fear to the Lord and to his goodness in the latter days." Coming to God in fear really is something that is downplayed. Gus spoke of it in Sunday School how people treat Jesus as a peer and not as our redeemer. It is apparent in our literature. I don't intend to tear down the author of "The Shack", but I want to point out my own deficiency. In the book the main character was in the presence of God blatantly swearing when the Bible warns against the tongue as being set on fire of Hell. When I read it, I didn't even think of how Moses was afraid to look on the face of God when He appeared to him in the burning bush. I not only forget God, but forget his role in my life. Yes God is my friend and yes He is closer than a brother, but do I live my life for a friend? Do I die daily to my flesh because God and I are "tight like that"? God paid the ultimate price of leaving His son to die at the hands of the ones He created so that an unfaithful people could have a relationship with Him. God is my King. That is why Israel went without one, because they forgot who God was.

God who?

In the 2nd chapter of Hosea, we get a more clear picture of how Israel's relationship with God was. The 1st chapter talks of how God would not protect them from bow or sword and it continues into chapter 2 in vs 2-3 where it says, "Plead with your mother...lest I strip her naked and make her as in the day she was born, and make her like a wilderness, and make her like a parched land, and kill her with thirst." It draws the picture of a nation that is vulnerable. It is like God has taken everything from them in order to show their misplaced trust. The Israelites were not relying on God for their needs. They gave credit to Baal. Thomas McComiskey writes in his commentary that they would place idols of Baal in their fields because it would make the harvest more plentiful. God would give and they would praise Baal. Vs. 5 says, "For she said, 'I will go after my lovers who give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.' " She gives credit to her lovers when it is really God who gives. Then in vs. 13 God says, "And I will punish her for the feast days of the Baals when she burned offerings to them and adorned herself with her ring and jewelry, and went after her lovers and forgot me. I have always had a hard time relating idol worship with my every day struggles, but one thing I can relate to is forgetting God. Earlier today I drove by a gas station and I saw that gas was 2.85 and it really made me feel secure. I find comfort more in low gas prices than in the knowledge that God provides for me financially. I forget how much God provides just like Israel thought that some stupid idol would make their harvest more plentiful. Why do we think that something we create would provide for us rather than the one who created us? We forget God.
Proverbs 3:12 says, "for the Lord reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights." Through vs 14-23 we see God's great love for the nation of Israel. It speaks of how God will "allure her, and bring her into the wilderness and speak tenderly to her. And there I will give her her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor (trouble) a door of hope." In vs 18 it says, "And I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in safety." This reminds me of Psalm 23 how it talks about God as our shepherd and how he makes us lie down in green pastures and leads us by still waters. It is through punishment that God draws us back to Him. It is when that relationship is made right that we have that peace in our lives. It is when we walk by him that He leads us by still waters. And even in the valley of the shadow of death I fear no evil because God is with me. This is the God we forget. This is the God we wander from, and it is God's love that draws us back to Him.
"And I will have mercy on No Mercy, and I will say to Not My People, You are my people; and he shall say, 'You are my God.' "

Jezreel, No Mercy, and Not My People

The book of Hosea shows so much wrath from God and his dealings with the unfaithfulness of Israel, yet it is all done in love. God chose the people of Israel. They were special to God above all other nations. The relationship that they had was unlike any other. God's wrath was done out of love, chasing after His people in a righteous jealousy.
The first time God ever spoke through Hosea, He told him to take for himself a wife of whoredom and to have children of whoredom. God had Hosea do this because Israel had forsaken him. The book says that Hosea's wife, Gomer, conceived and bore two sons and a daughter. In vs. 3 it says, "So he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son." In vs. 6 and 8 it says again that she conceived and bore a daughter and another son. Of the 3 children that she bore, the first is the only one that appears to be Hosea's child. It said that she bore him a son. The 2nd and 3rd times it only says that she conceived. Knowing Gomer's reputation it wouldn't be a long shot to say that she had some illegitimate children. Also, this would be an accurate parallel with the nation of Israel. God's wrath is apparent in the names that he commands Hosea to give his children. The first child was to be named Jezreel. Jehu, who was king at the time killed a lot of people. God was going to punish "the house of Jehu" for the blood of Jezreel. Jehu killed Ahab and his family, friends, and officials as well as Jezebel in the land of Jezreel. Thus the child was named Jezreel. The second child was the daughter named "No Mercy". God said in vs. 6, "Call her name No Mercy, for I will no more have mercy on the house of Israel, to forgive them at all." In vs. 8 it says that when Gomer had weaned No Mercy, that she conceived again and bore a son. God had Hosea name this child Not My People, "for you are not my people, and I am not your God." Those words are harsh considering that this is the nation that was chosen by God. This was the nation God loved. He had mercy on them for so long, but they were unrepentant and unfaithful. Hebrews 12:6 says, "For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” God may seem like He is done with the nation, but this is not the case. He disciplines because he loves. He chastises those who He has received. Remember, this is only the first chapter. The story is not over yet.
The parallel is not just between the nation of Israel and God vs. Hosea and Gomer. This is my story too. This is probably your story as well. We are an unfaithful people. God disciplines the ones He loves and chastises every son whom He receives. Do not be ignorant to your relationship with God. God said that "they are not my people and I am not their God. " Would God say that of you? God said this of his chosen people. So this is not a matter of salvation on your part, but rather a reflection of your faithfulness to God. Are you faithful to God? Do not be ignorant to your relationship with God.

Prayer

Prayer is one of those things that is so important to the Christian life, yet we get by so easily without doing it. I find that God has provided so much for me that I am really never in need of anything, but it is not because of my prayer life. It is times of need when we really fall to our knees and cry out for God to intercede. My friend Ryan called me last Friday and told me his brother Lucas has cancer and there is not much the doctors can do. It took something this urgent to get me on my knees before God, and I find myself wondering how much weight does my prayer even hold? Does not God have a plan in all this? And why would He change his plan just because I ask of him? If God has an ultimate plan and He doesn't make mistakes than what can I even say? James 5:13-18 talks about the prayer of faith. Vs 16 says, "Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. " Vs 17 goes on to talk about Elijah and how he prayed that it would not rain and it did not for 31/2 years. I want to focus on what vs 16 says about the righteous man. His prayer has great power. I was reading in Titus and chapter 1 talks about the qualifications of an elder. vs 7 says, "For an overseer, as God's steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick tempered or a drunkard or a violent or greedy for gain, but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined. He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it." These things that make a good steward of God are the same things that will make a righteous persons prayer full of power. This list was a qualification for elders, but it was not a special list of excessive good but rather a bare minimum. I want to challenge you to search your heart and make the changes you need to to become righteous so that your prayer will be powerful. I said at the beginning that I wondered how much weight my prayer held. It isn't about how much my prayer can hold, but rather how much my God can hold.

Community Commentary

So what does one write in a blog anyways? I guess there is no correct way to go about this. How about I just make a purpose statement or something to describe what this is all about.
Community Commentary, defined, is a group of people (in our case) with distinct beliefs that separate us from the larger society. These beliefs are based on God's word. So where does the commentary part fit in with all this? A commentary is anything that will exemplify, illustrate, or prompt a realization. To learn facts about what we believe is an exercise in futility. If the things we believe don't alter the way we act, we are hypocrites. It is my desire that this blog be used as a tool to "prompt a realization." I want my beliefs to be more than knowledge. Goethe said that "knowing is not enough, we must apply!"
For those who do not share our community of belief, I welcome you. I do not mean to preach at you, but to share the love of God with you. As I challenge the things that you believe, please, I only ask that you do the same to me.