I know that we talk about disobeying
God’s law, and that’s certainly appropriate. He doesn’t give us advice or suggestions;
he gives us commands. He tells us not to lie, not to steal, not to commit
adultery, and he expects to be obeyed.
And whenever we disobey, there are bad consequences that follow that,
even for believers. As R. C. Sproul put it, all sin is cosmic treason.
But there’s a much more intimate
aspect to all this, which the prophets--and especially Hosea—paint for us. The
first and third chapters of his book tell the heartbreaking story about how the
Lord ordered his servant to marry an adulterous wife, to volunteer for a lifetime of heartbreak. The entire reason—spelled
out for us in black and white—was so that God’s people could see in front of
their own eyes how their Redeemer felt when he saw their sin, or at least a
small portion of what he felt.
Reading today’s passage continues
that theme. We see a summarized history of God’s relations with Israel: How he
called them out of Egypt, how he cared for them out in the desert and provided
for their every need, how he protected them and led them. He “led them with
cords of human kindness, with ties of love. To them [he] was like one who lifts
a little child to the cheek, and [he] bent down to feed them.”
The images the Lord gives his
prophet swings back and forth between a man wooing his beloved (and sacrificing
for her) and that of a parent caring for his little child. The key word here is
intimacy. Unlike the gods of the
other nations (and all other gods men have worshiped), this God is intimately
related to his people. The reason he gives such images to his prophet to make
us understand what type of relationship he wants with us. As we’ve discussed
before, there’s an aspect of transcendence that’s appropriate—he’s not our
“buddy”—and there’s also immanence, the fact that he’s “here.” One of my
favorite names of our Savior is Immanuel,
“God with us.”
It also tells of their response,
which could be summed up in another word: Ingratitude. They forgot about what
he had done, and did much worse than merely forgetting. Just as in nature,
spiritual reality abhors a vacuum. When they turned away from the One who'd redeemed them from slavery in Egypt, they quite naturally turned to worthless
idols: “They sacrificed to the Baals and they burned incense to images.”
He was about ready to strike them
down, and he'd be perfectly just in doing so. But something stayed his
hand: His heart of compassion. Pure justice would dictate that he completely
destroy the nation from top to bottom until there wasn't even a memory of them left. But just
as his hand was raised, this thought came to his mind, which he revealed to his
prophet: “How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel?” He
would not release upon them the full brunt of his anger.
How are we to interpret this? He did punish Israel severely for her sins.
He brought Assyria against the North (Israel), and about a hundred years later
he brought Babylon against the South (Judah). Most of their populations were
killed or deported to distant lands, and they really didn’t have a sovereign
nation as such until the late 1940’s (of the 20th century).
But he left them a remnant, even
when he punished them. He gave hints about a restoration to come (alluded to in
vss. 10-11), and he made it clear that he’s not done with
Israel yet.
So what can we learn from this? I
think passages like this show once again 1) How much our sins deeply wound the
loving heart of our Father, and 2) how egregious is our rebellion against him,
especially considering what he’s done for us, and 3) how great is his mercy,
kindness and grace, how slow he is to give us what we deserve and how quick he
is to forgive and restore.
Let’s ponder that for a moment, shall
we?
Father God, you're so good to me and
mine. How quick I am to forget, and how quick you are to forgive and restore!
Please improve my memory.
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