How Can I Give You Up, O My Son? There Is No Other Way (Easter Message) Series

HOW CAN I GIVE YOU UP, O MY SON? THERE IS NO OTHER WAY (Easter Message)

This is a message with an Easter application, one that tries to explore the great difficulty of the Father in heaven giving up the Son to the cross.

PART 1 – THE APPLICATION TO ISRAEL

{{1Timothy 3:16 “By common confession great is the mystery of godliness: He who was revealed in the flesh was vindicated in the Spirit, beheld by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.”}}

There are 2 great mysteries in the New Testament. One deals with Christ and the Church and this is the other one. In this one the focus is on the Lord Jesus Christ for how can we understand the whole mystery of redemption?

HOW CAN A HOLY GOD EVEN CARE ABOUT A SINFUL AND REBELLIOUS PEOPLE? WHAT IS IT THAT CONNECTS GOD WITH HIS CREATION, AND ISRAEL IN PARTICULAR?

To answer that we go to the book of Exodus and get a very special glimpse at the heart of God. {{Exodus 34:6-7 “Then the LORD passed by in front of him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in loving kindness and truth, who keeps loving kindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.”}} God is compassionate with all the qualities that are noble, yet sin can not be entertained. It must be judged. Sin can have no acceptance; nor can it be overlooked by God.

There was a time when Moses had to address the nation in the desert before they came to Caanan – {{Numbers 32:13-15 “The LORD’s anger burned against Israel, and He made them wander in the wilderness forty years until the entire generation of those who had done evil in the sight of the LORD was destroyed. Now behold, you have risen up in your fathers’ place, a brood of sinful men, to add still more to the burning anger of the LORD against Israel. If you turn away from following Him, He will once more abandon them in the wilderness and you will destroy all these people.”}}

God would destroy them for their sin, yet underlying all of this is a verse of great importance we have to note – {{Deuteronomy 4:31 “for the LORD your God is a compassionate God. He will not fail you, nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant with your fathers which He swore to them.”}}

The two vital points that we have established to connect God with His people Israel are compassion and His covenant. In spite of rebellion, constant sin, apostasy, and idolatry (that God can not overlook) there are the two great pillars of compassion and the covenant.

HOW DID GOD REACT IN THE MATTER OF ISRAEL’S CONSTANT SIN?

Sin has its reward. It has what is coming to it. It always earns its wages. An annoying tap may leak, may drip, but then it starts to run unbroken. You may use all the force your hand can muster to try to turn it off but it is beyond that. What do you do? You must take more drastic action to fix the problem. Look at these verses from Hosea that tell us of God’s more drastic action when Israel fails to remedy the “leaking tap” - {{Hosea 11:7 “My people are bent on turning from Me. Though they call them to the One on high, none exalts Him at all.” Hosea 13:6-8 “As they had their pasture, they became satisfied, and being satisfied, their heart became proud. Therefore, they forgot Me, so I will be like a lion to them. Like a leopard I will lie in wait by the wayside. I will encounter them like a bear robbed of her cubs, and I will tear open their chests. There I will also devour them like a lioness, as a wild beast would tear them.”}}

That is strong language but for an apostate people, they will not learn, nor turn away from their wickedness. God would devour them, and would tear into them. What a fearful action that is when creator God has to go to that length. A point of interest is the animals mentioned – lion, bear and leopard. The Lord punished His people through three empires – Babylon, Medo Persia and Greece (Rome later on). In Daniel the lion is Babylon; the bear is Medo Persia and the leopard is Greece.

THE HEART OF GOD

In the above verses we have the results that sin earns, and they are rejection and judgement of a people God loves. However, contained in this book of Hosea is one of the deepest and most profound verses in the entire Bible – {{Hosea 11:8 “How can I give you up, O Ephraim? How can I surrender you, O Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I treat you like Zeboiim? My heart is turned over within Me. All My compassions are kindled.”}} It is easy to “read past” this verse and not see the import of it. It is our key verse this morning.