The 3rd Product of Unfaithfulness: Estrangement
Hosea 1:7-8; Romans 9:1-29
Pastor Jim Luthy
Imagine a large ship sailing across uncharted waters in the vast Pacific Ocean. Aboard ship are the ever-wise captain Ichiro (I couldn’t help myself) and his large family – children, grandchildren -- along with several crew members.
Suppose the oldest son of Ichiro came to the captain and insisted on a little vacation to a small tropical island they’ve spotted in the distance. The captain, knowing the dangers of sailing near uncharted land and exploring an unknown island with vulnerable little children, declines the son’s request.
Into the night, the son stirs up the passions of the family and the crew to go to the island. In spite of the captains warnings, the family insists on turning starboard toward the island. The captain refuses, retiring to his cabin with clear orders to sail ahead.
During the night, the son incites a frenzy among the family and crew. Before dawn breaks, the decision has been made. Mutiny! The oldest son and his two brothers storm the captain’s cabin, rousing him from his bed, and sending him adrift aboard the ship’s life raft. Every man and woman aboard was given the opportunity to go with Captain Ichiro, but all chose to stay, hoping for greater pleasures in the pictured paradise. The children were given no choice.
With a fog hovering over the still waters of the ocean, the crew watches as the inexperienced brothers steer the ship right and head toward the unknown island. The younger men are inexperienced seamen, unskilled in navigation. As they draw closer to shore, they realize they have little control of the ship. They’re unsure how to stop or how to best approach to the island. Beside all that, none of them would take responsibility for controlling the ship. Each one repeatedly defers to the others in favor of surveying the approaching paradise.
Suddenly the ship halts to a thunderous crash 1,000 feet offshore. The ship jumps skyward and then rolls halfway over, causing one of the brothers and a child to fall overboard. The child is never found. Once the initial screams of fright clear the air, new screams of panic arise from the hull of the ship as crew members ascend, crying, "We’re taking on water!" and "She’s gonna sink!"
The perilous trip to shore from the sinking vessel claims nearly one-third of the 70 people on board. Most drown, but a few fall victim to the vicious sharks that swarm the reef. Once ashore, the family and crew have no ship, no life boat, no way off the island. They are marooned. But that is only the beginning of their troubles.
The castaways soon discover that the land is not fit for survival. There is no fresh water supply and little rain from which to draw some. Food supplies are also limited. Within weeks they also discover they are not alone. A small tribe of native islanders invade their camp, killing one of the men and taking one of their women as a souvenir. A battle for survival ensues, resulting in more drama and more death. After a period of time, the battles seem to subside. The castaways and the natives just seemed to learn to co-exist.
To make matters worse, a volcano rumbles at the top of the island, posing a constant threat to wipe out both "tribes" in one destructive eruption. The lingering threats of a fiery volcano and the hostile natives, along with the struggle to survive with very little food and water, hang over the settlers like a cloud of condemnation. Each passing of a starved child reminds them of that dreadful day they cast their captain aside. The family and crew had managed to find their way to the island of their dreams, only to find themselves stranded in a nightmare.
Now, suppose the captain finds his way to safety and has the means to find his family and crew and bring them home. Would he be unjust if he chose to leave them deserted on the island of desolation? Wouldn’t he be perfectly justified to let them face the consequences of their choices?
Let’s say the captain does return after a period of time. The ship he returns in is large enough to carry all of his surviving family members and crew as well as the native tribe. Would he still be unjust to take some of the island’s inhabitants to safety while leaving others for destruction?
(Have a few volunteers stand on one side of the front indicating they will be spared. Ask a few others to stand on another side, indicating they will be left on the island)
What have those who are left received? Injustice? No, we’ve already determined it would be justified to let them stay. These have received justice. What have those who are chosen received? Mercy.
And if you were captain, how would you choose which ones would be spared and which would remain? Should he choose only his family members and not the others? Would he be wrong if he chose a few tribesmen and left his own sons behind? We’ve already agreed he would not.
I tell this story as a bridge between our last message and today’s. In our last message, we drew from Hosea’s experience with an unfaithful wife to learn that one of the products of unfaithfulness is condemnation. We saw condemnation in the naming of Gomer’s second child, Lo-Ruhamah, who represented the guilt of Israel. That condemnation was experienced by the family and crew of our parable as their horrors constantly reminded them of the mistake they made in cutting themselves free of the captain’s rule. Israel made a similar mistake.
Yet the story also illustrates the third and final product of unfaithfulness – estrangement. Without the captain, the rebels had no ability to chart their course or steer their ship. They were blinded by their own passions. They were cut off from the captains wisdom, the same wisdom that knew the dangers that lurked on the unknown island. Worse yet, sons and daughters were cut off from their father. Children were cut off from their grandfather. Servants were cut off from their livelihood. And all were left without a hope and a future.
Such was the warning Hosea would give to Israel. After she had weaned Lo-Ruhamah, Gomer had another son. The the Lord said, "Call him Lo-Ammi, for you are not my people, and I am not your God." – Hosea 1:8-9.
As we learned last week, the people of Israel were guilty of all sorts of spiritual adultery. They were a nation of Gomers. They worshipped false gods and man-made idols. Before long, they were overrun by Assyria and taken off into strange lands. In those lands, they continued the vile practices their old kings had introduced. They also began to do the things the natives of the land would do to appease their gods. Even in exile, they had lost their identity as God’s people. They were estranged. Cut off from God. Out of touch with the Father.
Samuel Johnson, the 18th century poet and essayist, summarized the cause of estrangement this way: "The friendship which is to be practiced or expected by common mortals, must take its rise from mutual pleasure, and must end when the power ceases of delighting each other."
Israel had ceased to delight in God, so the friendship between God and his chosen people ended. In our culture, when a married man and woman cease to delight in one another, they become estranged. We read about the effect of estrangement in several key news stories these past two weeks - a woman estranged from her baby strangled her baby in a local park; a Portland man shot his estranged wife while his kids watched, then shot himself after he locked the kids outside his apartment; and a man shoots his estranged wife at the ball park after his 10-year old’s Little League game, then shoots his son several times, right in front of his teammates. That man also killed himself.
We recognize estrangement in our world today. We should also recognize that we are estranged from the God who created us to delight in us and for us to delight in him. Yet we have ceased to delight in him, and so we’ve erected a dividing wall of hostility between us and God. Our unfaithfulness has made our witness weak and our message fuzzy. As the church loses its power, more and more people are feeling the effects of estrangement from God. They are cut off from his power. They are cut off from his love. In many cases they are like the children in our story, cut off from the Father, not through their own choices, but through the choices of those who have gone before them.
But for all who are estranged from God, the Lord leaves a glimmer of hope in his promise to Israel: "Yet the Israelites will be like the sand on the seashore, which cannot be measured or counted. In the place where it was said to them, ‘You are my people,’ they will be called ‘sons of the Living God."
800 years after the exile Hosea prophesied, Paul lamented the ongoing estrangement of Israel in his letter to the Roman believers. In chapter 9, Paul recognizes the significance of Israel in God’s relationship with man before revisiting the history of God’s promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the Patriarchs of Israel, to demonstrate that people were never blessed by birthright but by God’s sovereign choice. He said this to point out that the only solution to Israel’s estrangement would be God’s mercy.
You see, many of the Jews of that day -- and today -- believed that Messiah was yet to come, and that they will be reconciled with God simply because they are Jewish. This kind of thinking is like the castaways on the island thinking they should be reconciled with the captain and chosen to return to safety because they belong to the captain. Do you see the futility of that thinking? Would it be unjust for the captain to leave behind those who think they have a right to return?
Suppose the captain chooses to allow those estranged from him to remain cut off, even if he knows they are destined for destruction. Is he unjust? Paul is saying that God allows some to remain estranged and destines them for destruction to show to those he is choosing to reconcile with him how great his mercy is. To the one he is perfectly just. To the other, he is perfectly merciful. The character of God is not compromised!
Paul concludes by quoting from the prophets Hosea and Isaiah. From Hosea, he revisits Lo-Ammi, the child who represented Israel becoming estranged from God, quoting Hosea 2:3: I will call them ‘my people’ who are not my people; and I will call her ‘my loved one’ who is not my loved one."
The promise the Lord made to Israel through Hosea was fulfilled in the sufficiency of Jesus Christ. Jesus came and became our rescuer by dying on the cross and shedding his blood for the forgiveness of our sin.
For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God… (1 Peter 3:18) When he died and rose again, he became the sacrifice for all men. This opened the door for the Gentiles, or non-Israelites, to be reconciled to God, as well as the Israelites. That’s why Paul quoted Hosea, saying,
"It will happen that in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ they will be called sons of the Living God."
God is choosing both Jews and Gentiles to be reconciled to him and be his children. When the captain returns, he will take some from his family, but also his servants and even some of the natives too. All by his mercy. All without violating his justice. All by his sovereign choice.
Listen, O shipwrecked ones! God has made the standard for his choosing and that standard is Jesus. It doesn’t matter if you are Jew or Gentile. It doesn’t matter what good you might do to impress him upon his return. He has made the way for us to escape our estrangement from him by putting our confidence in what Jesus accomplished on the cross. As it says in Ephesians 2:14, "For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility."
And here’s the really great news: It’s not just a promise of reconciliation for a later date, it is a promise of reconciliation for today. The moment you put your trust in the cross, the Spirit of God births into you a new life that whisks you off the island of estrangement into a living, active, relationship with God. You can be reconnected to his wisdom. You can be reconnected to his love.
Do you need to end your estrangement today?
