Has there ever been a time in your life where determination has taken over? Where you tried to do something on your own that it didn’t matter who you hurt? I have felt for some time that we very much live in a society of get on the train or get off the tracks. We touched on a similar issue in our Bible Study this past Wednesday, how from a very early age we are brought up in self-sufficiency. School systems teach young children to solve the problem on their own. And many of them do. When I was in school there was very few times where a group of students teamed to tackle a project or a problem.
I was reminded of a story of a boy whose mother put him in the car seat. She went to buckle him in and emphatically he said, “I’ll do it myself!” He struggled and struggled and every time his mother tried to help he’d repeat that sentence. After twenty minutes of fighting with the seat the mother heard the finally snap and she flew out of the driveway. When they arrived at their destination she got out and opened the door, reached for the buckle. The boy exclaimed again, “Mom, I’ll do it myself!” After a few attempts he unbuckled himself and stood at the door. The mother reached for him but he was determined. He fell flat on his face. When she reached down to pick him up he said whimpering, “I’ll do it myself.”
Men don’t like to ask for directions. Students rarely seem to ask for help anymore. If they can’t do it they just skip over the problem or they struggle with it for hours upon hours. We are conditioned that we have to do things on our own, that asking for help is a sign of weakness. We don’t like to admit fault. We don’t like to admit defeat. We don’t like to admit we can’t do something. We don’t like to admit that we can’t fix something. This idea has infiltrated the church. Pastors don’t ask for help – or that they need prayer because it could be seen as weakness. As a result lay people don’t readily express their need. And the one individual that gets hurt is God.
Israel is a prime example of a people, a nation, who believed that they could do things are their own. Ironically, they were unable to free themselves from Egyptian captivity. God had to do it. They were unable to provide food for themselves, so God provided manna and quail for them to eat. When they arrived to the Red Sea, they couldn’t cross it. They didn’t have any boats, so God created a way for them to cross. And yet, poor Israel still believes they don’t need God despite the many signs and signals along the way, the red flags and red lights that said, “You can’t do this by yourself. You need help!”
Now, the setting of Hosea is interesting to me. Hosea began his ministry during the end of the prosperous but morally declining reign of Jeroboam II. The upper class was doing well, but they were oppressing the poor. I will just leave at that. The whole message of the Book of Hosea is God’s expressing his love for his people, his creation. Throughout this book we read of the great measures that God took to bring his people back into right relationship with him. It portrays God in a very different light. So much of religion today seems to be bottom-up, what can we do to reach God. Yet here, God is the aggressor. God is the pursuer. God is the seeker.
Our text comes after God calls Hosea to marry a prostitute, Gomer. They marry, have three children, God gives them some very interesting names, and then explains the purpose of this calling to Hosea. Gomer leaves, just as Israel left. Hosea seeks his wife, just as God seeks his people. Hosea finds her, welcomes her back as his wife, just as God welcomes back those who turn to him. The key to this message, the key to this next, is found in those words; “If people turn to God.” That’s the message in 2 Chronicles 7:14; “if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
In chapter 2, specifically beginning in verse 14, we see what will happen for those who will do that.
First, God will restore his mercy to the unfaithful.
We get a very interesting picture of mercy in this text. God says, “I will lead her into the wilderness.” That doesn’t sound much like mercy. The wilderness, humanly speaking, is a bad place. People can get lost in the wilderness. People can get killed in the wilderness. But note that the mercy of God is not found in where she is, but what God does while she’s there. Missionary Amy Carmichael knew this truth: “Bare heights of loneliness . . . a wilderness whose burning winds sweep over glowing sands, what are they to HIM? Even there He can refresh us, even there He can renew us.”
The wilderness is an unpleasant place because we want prosperity; we want wealth, health, and easy going times. But the same God who created the garden also created the wilderness. And Jesus as the Garden of Eden became a wilderness because of unfaithfulness to Him; God can bring a garden into the wilderness because of faithfulness to Him. And that’s exactly what he does here. He restores the vineyard. He gives back what was originally destroyed. In fact, much like Job, interest was given. Now my question I had, was why a wilderness? But the answer is simple.
God will sometimes bring people to a wilderness to remove them from all the distractions. To focus their mind on what’s most important. God would bring to their minds the state of the condition they are in. I believe that our nation is in a wilderness. All that has happened over the course of the last few months, all that has happened over the course of the last few decades is evidence of it. Churches aren’t safe. Schools aren’t safe. Children aren’t safe. Homes aren’t safe. Military facilities aren’t safe. We have people more irate over the senseless death of a lion than the murder of babies. We are in a wilderness, folks! And what’s worse, we are trying to solve the problem ourselves.
Church, we have systematically determined to remove the one person who could get out of the wilderness and Christians are silent. I truly believe that God still speaks in the wilderness. We just aren’t deep enough to hear it. We’re still distracted. We focus more on the voices of news teams, social media, the president, the newspaper, who are all essentially telling us we have no solution than we do on the man who has the plan. God had a plan for Israel; they just needed to get deep enough to hear it. God would incline them and speak to their hearts to return to him.
He will remind Israel of how good things were when they served him and were faithful to him. He will remind Israel of the prosperity they had under the guidance of the Almighty. He will restore his favor with them. He will restore the vineyards of blessings and Israel would flourish. They would have corn for necessity and vineyards of delight and consolation and rest and peace. God says that He would turn the Valley of Trouble into a gateway of hope. Hope is exactly what’s needed today. Our churches, our families, our communities, we all need a vineyard of hope.
But there is something we must understand about this. When God returns his mercy, people must return their duty. We have a responsibility on this earth to God, to serve him, to worship him, to keep his precepts, to learn from him, to teach others about him, to give grace because we’ve been given grace, to give mercy because we’ve been given mercy, and to love others unconditionally because God loves us unconditionally. God gave us a sacred calling to be a vital presence on this earth. We are stewards to his creation. I believe, as a nation, we’re headed for an even darker wilderness, but I also believe God is waiting for us there.
God will restore his grace to the unfaithful.
Things get better from there. Israel’s biggest problem was that they were worshipping Baal, a false God. Baal never delivered them from captivity. He never parted the sea, rained down food from Heaven, yet they still worshipped him. The worship of Baal was the sin that entrapped most of the people. As I looked at that I wondered what the sin that most entraps people today is. Among the numerous sins I could pull from I narrowed it down to simply the sin of the self. We are just a self-oriented people, aren’t we?
Think about. We support the ideas and policies that better ourselves rather than the common good. We promote ourselves rather than the good of others. We look to provide for ourselves before providing for others. We revile in the things we have rather than what someone else doesn’t have. We keep to our own agenda. In fact, I think the idea of the common good is all but disappeared. Now this might not describe you as an individual but as a whole people I think it fits.
God has every right to give us what we deserve. Another flood. Perhaps another ice age. It felt like we are on the verge last winter. God also had every right to abandon Israel, but notice what happens. God abolishes that worship. He says, “I will wipe away the many names of Baal from your lips and you will never mention them again.” It probably should have said, “I will wipe you away!” But I am not God. God wipes away everything. He wipes away the sin that so strongly entangles us. This is exactly what grace does. God doesn’t give us what we deserve. Those idols will not be mentioned, ever again. The very word Baal will be tossed aside so that the name that is spoken is Yahweh, Emmanuel, Elohim, Abba.
Part of God’s grace is a restored relationship with him. The nature of this covenant is a marriage founded on choice and love. All that are sincerely devoted to God are betrothed to him. God gives them the most sacred and unchallengeable security imaginable, that he will love them and protect them, and provide for them. He will do his part as a husband. Separation begins on our side, we alienate ourselves from God. It’s a covenant that will last forever. God will forever betroth himself to his people. He will never break it, neither should we. The blessing of this covenant will last forever.
God uses the Hebrew word, Ishi, which means husband, or literally “my man.” It’s a covenant based on righteousness, lovingkindness, and faithfulness. God will always act justly towards his people. If the covenant is broken, God will restore it to those who ask. He will always deal graciously and tenderly to those who share in this covenant. He will be merciful to them. It shall be a covenant of grace, that if we break it, God will forgive. And we can rest assured that every bit of this covenant will be punctually carried out and fulfilled.
Finally, God will restore his peace to the unfaithful.
People are running frantic today, trying to figure out the solution to the problem. To me, the solution is simple. We need the peace of God. Once the idols were put aside, once the sin had been removed, and God restores the covenant, restores his grace, there is an overwhelming peace that will fill the soul. There can be peace in the wilderness. God shall protect them from evil. When God is at peace with us, he makes every creature to be so too.
But today, men and more in danger from other men. I am more concerned about someone breaking into my house than I am getting bit by a shark. The idea is take the weapons away. By that logical we ought to remove anything that could possibly be used as a weapon. Knives, forks, spoons, candlesticks, scissors, bats, lamps, cut off everyone’s hands and feet, the list could go on and on. Someone, somewhere, will find a new item to take someone’s life with. It’s not the solution. God says to Israel, “I will disarm the enemy.” God will remove all the weapons from their land so that we can live in peace and safety.
God will not only keep them safe, but make them lie down in safety. “The Lord is my shepherd (my man), I have all that I need. He lets me rest in green meadows; he leads me beside peaceful streams. He renews my strength. He guides me along right paths, bringing honor to his name. Even when I walk through the darkest valleys, (the wilderness) I will not be afraid for you are close beside me. Your rod and your staff protect and comfort me. You prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies. You honor me by anointing my head with oil. My cup overflows with blessings. Surely goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord, forever.” If God is your man, you are under heaven’s protection. No agent of hell can stand against you.
Hope is not lost for us. I still believe God is in control and that he has a plan. Perhaps that plan is to lead us into the wilderness. Don’t be afraid to go deeper because I believe that’s where God will be. When we are removed from the distractions we will hear his voice. When we’re in the dark we will realize how good the light was. When he is our only hope, he will be ready and willing to lead us to green meadows and peaceful rivers. Keep pushing through and keep trusting God. It’s only a matter of time.
