Unruly

“Judah is also unruly against God, even against the Holy One who is faithful.”  Hosea 11:12

Unruly – The prophet and the prostitute.  If you have never read the story of Hosea, you’ve missed one of the most compelling accounts of obedience in the Old Testament.  God instructs Hosea to marry Gomer, a prostitute.  He has two sons with her yet she refuses to change her ways.  Here is a man whose family life is a mess but God says, “Stay married to her because your life a living picture of my faithfulness to my unfaithful people.”

In this verse, Hosea addresses the tribe of Judah.  The word that he uses is rud.  It means, “to wander restlessly or to roam”.  It is the perfect picture of the unfaithful wanderings of God’s chosen people.  But unless we are careful, it is also a word that describes us.

One of the great themes of the Bible is God’s faithfulness.  God never breaks a promise.  From the beginning of human history, God has shown Himself to be utterly reliable.  If the Bible is any kind of history at all, it is the history of our constant wandering.  Except for Jesus, every man, woman and child who has ever lived has played the role of Gomer.  We all have good intentions.  We all claim that we want to be obedient.  But the truth is that we have all done our fair share of wandering away from the faithful God.  And it is this truth that reminds us how fragile our lives really are.  Paul gave words to our struggle in Romans 7. 

There is another theme here.  Until we recognize the depth of our rebellion and reconcile ourselves to our vulnerability to sin, we will not begin to understand how much we need the continuous, faithful intervention of God in our lives.  Living for Him has never been a matter of improving our moral constitution.  It does not depend on becoming a better, stronger Christian.  Obedience is the result of throwing our wandering hearts on His mercy and asking Him to change who we are. 

“Father God, I am a sinner forgiven by Your grace.  I can’t make it without You.  Let my life be one of dependence on You.   Protect me from the error of thinking I only need to be better.  Show me the depth of my wanderings so that I will cling to You.”