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.