We have all had it happen. You are driving in an unfamiliar area and make a turn, and something does not seem right. As you go on you realize that there is no way that this could be the right road. It is time to stop traveling the wrong direction and turn around and go back. Repentance is like that. It is the action of turning around. It is changing from traveling away from God to following God’s way.
Maybe this illustration of driving and missing your turn is not as relevant in these days of GPS location on our phones to guide us on unfamiliar roads. There is no corresponding technology for our spiritual lives. We still miss our turn in our spiritual lives and get we still need to make a U-turn back to God. Our Lord still forgives the sinner who repents.
For the person away from God the only right action is to make a U-turn and return back to God. Hosea 14 speaks of repentance. Like the prodigal son who realized the agony and senselessness of being away from his Father. He discovered the blessing and joy in the return.
Hosea described the blessing that awaited Israel in repentance. That same blessing is available for anyone who turns back to the Lord. Jesus said, I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full (John 10:10). This blessing of a full and meaningful life comes when we are living the Spirit filled life and walking with our Lord.
The act of Repentance (Hosea 14:1-3)
It is amazing what people will turn to when they turn away from the Lord. Temptation is like when the fly is drawn to the Venus fly trap. What seemed so attractive becomes the very thing that traps and destroys. We become trapped and destroyed by sin.
There are two things mentioned in verse 3 that drew Israel away from the Lord. One is not surprising, It was the ongoing sin of idolatry. The other sin was very surprising. They were trusting the war machinery of their enemy to protect them rather than trusting God.
Israel turned to idols made with their own hands. This was the analogy of Hosea. God commanded him to marry an unfaithful woman. She had children from a relationship outside her marriage to Hosea. This was the analogy of what Israel was doing by trusting idols made by their own hands instead of trusting Almighty God who made them.
The second thing Israel turned to was Assyria. They turned to their enemy who had done more violent aggression toward them than any other army. Israel was turning to Assyria for military protection instead of trusting the Lord. The real reason that Jonah ran from God was because the Assyrian people had committed atrocities against Israel, and he did not want them to be saved. Now Israel turned now to their enemy, to this pagan nation with a strong army, for security.
Just like believers in Christ who are tempted to walk by sight and not by faith. Putting trust in the Lord is a test of faith. It’s not by power. It’s not by might, but by my Spirit says the Lord. Israel turned away from the God of the universe, all powerful, all knowing, all present and they turned to pieces of wood and silver made by their own hands.
Israel’s suffering and ruin was caused by their sins. Idols or political military might are not where our trust needs to be, but in God. We find the prescription for spiritual healing in verse 2. “Take words with you and return to the Lord.” You usually find at the end of most gospel tract a sinner’s prayer. It has the words to say or pray to the Lord. They are the words of repentance. The words of doing a U-turn to God.
Hosea has outlined here a sinner’s prayer. “Forgive all our sins and receive us graciously, that we may offer the fruit of our lips.” The words must come from a sincere heart. When I speak with someone regarding the sinner’s prayer I ask, did you really mean it in your heart?
Part of repentance is to articulate in words the change of heart to God. Take words with you and return to the Lord.
The Blessing in repentance (Hosea 14:4-8)
Hosea was a poet as well as a prophet. He uses beautiful imagery about the blessing and fruitfulness to the life of the repentant sinner. God forgives the sinner who repents. God says to the repentant sinner, “I will heal their waywardness” (Hosea 14:4). One of the great blessings of the repentance is that God offers forgiveness of sin. There is a new freedom in life.
Dew meant life for Israel. Hosea uses the poetic imagery of dew. He spoke of a vanishing shallow dew in trusting in anything but God (Hosea 6:4). But a dew of promise and blessing when trusting the Lord (Hosea 14:5). Dew falls quietly. God comes to the repentant sinner in the stillness.
Dew comes in the darkness and God comes at the dark moments of our life. Dew comes at the lowest point not on the mountaintop. God comes to the humble. In chapter 6 Hosea told Israel that trusting in idols is like a dew that vanishes when the sun comes out. But here in Chapter 14 Hosea tells us trusting in God is like a dew that nourishes like a spring rain.
DEW LIKE THE RAINS OF SPRING.
When the sun appears it has vanished from view. (Hosea 6:4)
Dew in the early hours that is not true.
Gone is this promising mist of the morning.
It disappears without warning.
There is a mist, which is true. (Hosea 14:5)
It makes the Lilly bloom, this dew.
The mighty tree will send down roots.
Nurtured by this dew it grows new shoots.
So acknowledge the Lord, press on to know. (Hosea 6:3)
Dwell in His presence, so you may grow. (Hosea 6:2)
Let mercy flow, may our hearts sing. (Hosea 6:6)
There is dew like the rains of spring. (Hosea 6:3)
(Hosea 6:2,3,4; 14:5) reference 1
The dew gives life to the lily and produces a beautiful blossom. There is beauty, purity, and the image of fertility in the lily. The Israelites had sought after fertility gods and it brought them nothing but bareness. God would bring them real blessing.
The morning dew of the Lord brings stability to your life. Hosea gives us the image of stability with the roots of cedars of Lebanon watered by the dew. The wise builder builds on the Rock and the foolish builds on the sand. The person with the repentant heart is a person of real stability. There is an attractive fragrance to the cedars of Lebanon.
The olive tree has magnificence and splendor (Hosea 14:6). There is life and new shoots. Repentance is a life of blessing for the one who feeds his soul with things of God. That is the one who knows these blessings.
The full and meaningful life that Jesus spoke of in John 10:10 and the dew Hosea speaks of here are one and the same. The one who will trust Jesus and walk close to God will experience the fruit of the Spirit, Love and joy, peace and patience.
True Wisdom (Hosea 14:9)
Who is wise? The answer is the one who realizes they are driving in the wrong direction and makes a U-turn. The one who turns from trusting in the sin that at first looks attractive and then traps and destroys us. The wise is the one who turns to God and follows God with all their heart.
True wisdom is more than intelligence and knowledge. True wisdom is the one who acts on the knowledge they have. Wisdom makes the right turn. Take the turn back to God. A blessing awaits you.
The discerning will trust in God. Jesus died on the cross. He died for us the just for the unjust to bring us back to God. We trust him by faith, that is death on the cross pay our debt we could never pay.
The discerning turn back to God when they trust in the things of this world that vanish like the morning dew. The ways of the Lord are right. The wise trust in God who brings a spiritual refreshment to our lives.
Reference
1 Poem Dew Like the Rains of Spring by Brad Beaman
(https://bradbeaman.wordpress.com/2007/10/14/dew-like-the-rains-of-spring-hosea-6234-145/)
