Play

God’s Heart

Mark Dunagan
11/12/17 - Sunday Morning

God’s Heart

Have you ever had to do something really, really hard? In the Bible we find that various individuals were given some incredibly hard assignments. Noah was told to build an ark that even by today’s standards was a big ship. Abraham was told to leave his homeland and journey 1000 miles to a place he had never seen before. He was then told to offer up his only son (Hebrews 11:17). Jeremiah was told not to marry (Jeremiah 16:2), and when Ezekiel’s wife died, he was not allowed to mourn audibly or visibly for her (Ezekiel 24:16). Then there is Hosea. When God called Hosea he was first given the assignment to marry a prostitute or a woman who would become one (Hosea 1:2 “When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, ‘Go, take to yourself a wife of harlotry”). 

God’s Sensitive Heart

If we think that God is unmoved by what happens on this earth, we could not be further from the truth. Hosea is told to marry an unfaithful woman because God is currently married to one (Hosea 1:2 “for the land commits flagrant harlotry, forsaking the Lord”). In this letter God informs Israel concerning what really hurts Him:

• All the blessings that God had given to Israel, she in turn had spent them upon worshipping other gods or thanked other gods for them (Hosea 2:8, 12). How would you feel if you cooked your husband a wonderful meal and he called another woman and thanked her for it? Or, if your wife expressed her gratitude to a stranger, when in reality you were the one going to work every day, paying the bills, teaching the children and providing her with many comforts?
• Things got so bad that Hosea had to eventually buy his wife back another man who owned her (Hosea 3:1-2). How humiliating. Yet, God would have to do the same thing. His people became so unfaithful that He removed them from the land and sent them into captivity for 70 years. Then, He moved Cyrus king of Persia to issue a decree that allowed them to return home. 
• God had cared for the Jewish nation in its infancy, had “taught them how to walk” (11:3). He is simply beside Him with emotion concerning the punishment that He must bring upon them (11:8 “My heart is turned over within Me, all My compassions are kindled”). 

What Type of Spouse am I?

In the New Testament the people of God are called the bride of Christ (Ephesians 5:25; 2 Corinthians 11:2). Are we a faithful or unfaithful bride and what kind of bride does Jesus really deserve? Nothing has really changed. If we are unfaithful, God takes it very personally. God is telling us that when His people stray from Him it feels just like when a man finds out that his wife is cheating on him. “You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility towards God?” (James 4:4). Thus, we are told that we can bring a lot of grief to the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:30), and things can get so bad that God is sorry that He created us in the first place (Genesis 6:6). We see this aspect of God when Jesus came to earth and wept over the city of Jerusalem (Luke 19:41).

What Am I Doing with My Blessings?

Israel foolishly spent the blessings that God gave them on Baal and gave Baal the credit for them (2:8). Do I really thank God for my intelligence, health, good fortune, material blessings, or do I give myself or someone else the credit? Who is getting my best? The good mind that God gave me, the unique talents that I possess, do I use such gifts to glorify, praise and serve God, or I am unwisely giving my best to other causes and purposes?

A Spirit of Harlotry

In this letter God says that a spirit of harlotry has taken hold of His people (Hosea 5:4). This is further defined as there being a complete lack of faithfulness among His people (4:1), and that His people are bent on straying from Him (11:7). So what is my pattern of behavior? Do I remain close to God, or am I constantly going after other things that I foolishly think are far more interesting than God?

It Affects Just Everything

The devil tries to convince us that if we bring a sin into our lives that it will really only affect just a very small part of our lives. Yet when Israel departed from God, observe what happened:

• People stopped being kind to one another: 4:1
• You could not trust what a person said: 4:2
• You could no longer trust a person’s promise or word: “They speak mere words, with worthless oaths they make covenants” (10:4).
• People no longer respected the lives, rights or marriages of others: 4:2
• The land and the animals on the land were affected: 4:3
• They stopped being smart and intelligent, wisdom eluded them: 4:11
• They actually became just like the evil that they were flirting with: “And they became as detestable as that which they loved” (9:10).
• The word of God had become a strange thing to them: 8:12

How about me? Do I know a lot more about things that really don’t matter than I do about what the Bible says? Can I remember all kinds of things, but I can’t remember were a verse in the Bible is? Am I an expert in man’s wisdom or knowledge, but really unfamiliar with God’s wisdom?

• It was a culture that had surrounded itself with lies: 11:12
• Things had gotten so bad that the current situation resembled the deep depravity that had existed back in Judges Chapters 19-21. “They have gone deep in depravity as in the days of Gibeah” (9:9). Gibeah was a town mentioned in Judges 19 that had an infamous past. It was one of those towns that looked and acted just like Sodom and Gomorrah (Judges 19:15-22).

So I hope that one of the lies that we reject is the idea that we can flirt with sin and yet not become addicted or enslaved to it. The lie that we can go into sin and still retain our good sense, that we can sin and still be wise, that we can keep it under control. 

Promises, Promises

“For your loyalty is like a morning cloud and like the dew which goes away early” (Hosea 6:4).

Like an unfaithful spouse, Israel made all sorts of promises to God, and then quickly forgot them when they became distracted by something novel or popular in the nations around them.

Mixed with the Nations

“Ephraim mixes himself with the nations, Ephraim has become a cake not turned. Strangers devour his strength, yet he does not know it; gray hairs also are sprinkled on him, yet he does not know it” (Hosea 7:8-9).

By following the practices of the nations around them, the Israelites had become like a half turned pancake, burnt on one side and raw on the other. Yet they were completely unaware of this reality. They were very familiar with sinful things, yet completely unacquainted with the things of God. The ungodly people that they associated with or looked up to were actually devouring their strength. There are people that will remove our motivation to do the right thing, and then there are people who we can become stronger around, instead of feeding off of us, they feed us. The nation was also prematurely old, but was unaware of it. While they had wrinkles and gray hairs upon them, they thought they were teenagers. 

Repentance Involves

• Putting one’s energies into righteousness: 10:12
• Breaking up the hard ground in your heart: 10:12
• Waking up, it is time to seek the Lord: 10:12
• Being honest, getting rid of the lies in our heads, and admitting what cannot save us: 14:3
• Realizing that only God can save us: 14:2

Thus the book ends with, “Whoever is wise, let him understand these things; whoever is discerning, let him know them. For the ways of the Lord are right, and the righteous will walk in them, but transgressors will stumble in them” (14:9).

Mark Dunagan | mdunagan@frontier.net
Beaverton Church of Christ | 503-644-9017
www.beavertonchurchofchrist.net