There’s been a lot of cooing and cuddling going on in the Habben household this week. With Grandma, and an aunt and uncle here, baby Maya has sure received her fair share of love. Babies have it made don’t they? They’re adored by everyone. Wouldn’t it be great to be treated like that again? Doesn’t it seem that as we get older, people adore us just a little less every year? For example our parents no longer do everything for us but expect us to do things for ourselves and for them like pick up the toys, clean our room, and wash the dishes. They may even do things that hurt us like ground us when we’ve disobeyed. Could it be that our parents don’t love us as much as they did when we were babies? Of course you know that’s not true. Our parents love us just as much, if not more, now than when we were first born. They just show their love for us in different ways now that we are older. Some times that love may even hurt as they seek to correct behaviour that isn’t good for us.
The Bible teaches us that God’s love for us never falters. He loves us just as much today as he did when he first called us to be his children. Nevertheless there are times when God’s love also hurts. This morning we’re going to learn that Misery is God’s Message of Mercy. 1) It awakens us from sin, and 2) draws us to Him.
In our devotion this morning we meet a prophet who is not that familiar to us although his message is. Hosea was a contemporary of the prophet Amos and lived about 750 B.C. Both prophets had been sent to witness to the Northern Kingdom of Israel at the height of its power. Although things were going relatively well economically and militarily for Israel, its spiritual health was, at best, anaemic. Just a century before Hosea and Amos started their work, Israel witnessed Elijah rout Jezebel’s prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel. The reformation that followed, however, didn’t run very deep. Instead of giving themselves over wholeheartedly to the Lord, the Israelites continued to worship idols along with the true God.
You can imagine how frustrating that must have been for God who had been so patient and done so much to bring the Israelites back to him. Well the time had come for God to change tactics. No, he hadn’t stopped loving the Israelites; he would just show that love in a different way. Through his prophet Hosea God said, “For I will be like a lion to Ephraim, like a great lion to Judah. I will tear them to pieces and go away; I will carry them off, with no one to rescue them. 15 Then I will go back to my place until they admit their guilt. And they will seek my face; in their misery they will earnestly seek me” (Hosea 15:14, 15).
Instead of handing everything to them on a sliver platter and letting them enjoy economic and military success, God himself now was going to tear the Israelites to pieces. He did that by letting them be overrun by the Assyrians and then taken into captivity. His purpose for doing so was to awaken the Israelites from their sin.
Why do you suppose God is so desperate to have people turn from their sins? I mean what’s the big deal? Sin is a big deal to God because he is holy, and therefore cannot stand sin. It’s like water and oil, the two just don’t mix. It’s even worse than that with God, however, because he will not forever tolerate sin. Finally in the end he must punish those eternally who continue in their sinful ways.
Since sin has the power to damage us forever in the fires of hell, God in his love will send misery into our lives to awaken us from sin. That’s why sin often has painful consequences. Through those painful consequences God wants us to realize just how dangerous sin is to us. It’s the same reason God put nerves in your hand. When you do something that’s not healthy for your hand, like stick it in a fire, the nerves send pain messages to your brain causing you withdraw your hand from the fire before you do permanent damage to it. In that sense pain is a blessing from God. It’s even more of a blessing if pain and misery make us realize that the sinful action we’re engaging in isn’t healthy for us and will lead to eternal destruction.
Does this mean then that every time we suffer we’ve some how sinned? That’s what Job’s friends thought but it’s not true. Some times God allows us to suffer even though it’s not for a specific sin. He has promised though that when we do suffer he won’t give us more than we can handle nor will he abandon us. We can also be certain that our suffering will strengthen us in some way. As we said last week, suffering can strengthen a weak faith as we are forced to rely on God’s promises. God also may choose to send suffering our way so that we will be better equipped to help others who go through the same experience. Whatever the misery, we can be certain that it’s a message of mercy for it shows that God takes an active interest in our life. Therefore when misery comes your way wake up and take stock of your actions. If you are engaged in sin, turn away from it so that you won’t have to face the eternal consequences.
Just how should we return to God when we’ve realized that we’ve drifted from him? Let’s see what the Israelites did. After God awakened them from their sin they said to one another, “Come, let us return to the LORD. He has torn us to pieces but he will heal us; he has injured us but he will bind up our wounds. 2 After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will restore us, that we may live in his presence. 3 Let us acknowledge the LORD; let us press on to acknowledge him. As surely as the sun rises, he will appear; he will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth” (Hosea 6:1-3).
Everything the Israelites said about God is true isn’t it? Our God is gracious and takes us back no matter how many times we fall into sin. The prophet Jeremiah put it this way, “Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. 23 They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness” (Lamentations 3:22, 23).
There was something wrong with the Israelites response, however, for God went on to answer them like this: “What can I do with you, Ephraim? What can I do with you, Judah? Your love is like the morning mist, like the early dew that disappears. 5 Therefore I cut you in pieces with my prophets, I killed you with the words of my mouth; my judgments flashed like lightning upon you. 6 For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings” (Hosea 6:4-6).
From God’s reaction we see that while Israel said the right thing, their heart was not in the right place. It’s like the child who apologizes for playing ball in the house only because he knows that’s what his parents want to hear. More than anything he’s just sorry he got caught. The Apostle Paul said of such repentance, “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death” (2 Corinthians 7:10).
The Israelites were taking advantage of God’s grace. They thought that if God forgives all sin then they might as well just keep on sinning and ask for forgiveness when God busted them. Sin had ceased to be a big deal to them. When we start to think that sin is not such a big deal we need to take a trip to Calvary and see how much sin cost God’s Son. Jesus suffered what no man has ever suffered because of sin. How can we continue to live in sin and think that it’s not such a big deal?
Think of it this way. If you lost your family as a child and had nowhere to go, how would you feel if you were then graciously adopted by a billionaire? How would you show your thanks? Would you purposely smash up a few of his luxury cars, ruin his antique furniture, and pulverize his fine china thinking he can afford a few losses like that anyway? What foolishness! If a billionaire adopted us when we had nowhere to turn, wouldn’t we do everything we could to show our thanks? In the same way we’ll want to show our thanks to God for adopting us into his family by steering clear of sin and sincerely repenting of it when we do fall into sin. This is why we have started pausing after the general confession in our liturgy to confess specific sins. We do this lest we rush right through the confession without stopping to reflect on how terrible our sin is and thereby minimize what God has done to forgive those sins.
While God wants us to be sincere in our repentance we have to be careful that we don’t steer too far to the other side and think that we earn forgiveness by our repentance. God does want us to be sorry for sin and to turn away from it, but our repentance doesn’t remove sin nor does it make us worthy to receive God’s forgiveness. Forgiveness is something that God has already given us even before repent. By moving us to repent the Holy Spirit causes us to make that forgiveness our very own through faith. All this has come to us simply because of God’s underserved love for us. That’s why Paul said, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8, 9).
So what can we learn from this text? We can learn that just because people aren’t lining up to hold us as they did when we were babies doesn’t mean that we’re not loved. God loves us even when he sends misery our way. I’m sure there are many here who can testify that misery is God’s message of mercy for without it you wouldn’t be here today. Therefore the next time God sends misery into your life, wake up and take a good look around you. Have you gotten caught up in some sin for which you have been refusing to repent? Have you unintentionally drifted away from the faith because of some life-style choices you’ve made? If so, repent of your sins and return to the Lord. Know that Lord who has torn you to pieces is also the Lord that will heal you, for with him is forgiveness. Amen.
