Ping-Pong Repentance
“Come, let us return to the LORD, for he has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up.” Hosea 6:1 ESV
Return – “Although ‘in their distress’ (5:15) the Israelites do indeed resolve ‘come, let us return to Yahweh’ (6:1), the people are not really transformed. Israel continues to lack insight into its own guilt (cf. 6:2-3 with 14:2-3[1-2]) and does not exhibit constancy (6:4b), steadfast love, or knowledge of God (6:6).”[1]
Not much has changed since the time of Hosea, has it? Distress leads to a form of repentance. When things get bad, God comes to mind. Like the fertility cults of the ancient past, we turn to God in order to improve our lives. We make promises. We offer sacrifices (bigger tithes, more services, whatever it takes). We show penance. But just like the Israelites, we lack insight into our own guilt. We think like pagans. “If we just do this, then God will be happy with us again and life will return to normal,” we say to ourselves. Perhaps we aren’t even aware of the implicit selfishness of our actions. Perhaps we don’t see that our motives are not based on God’s perspective but rather on our own desires to remove the pain. But the result is no different. We move toward God only long enough to reduce our distress. But there is no long-term consistency, no abiding faithful loyalty, no true understanding of His heart. When the pain is gone, so are the vows.
The sad pattern of sincere capriciousness is evident for both corporate and individual. A nation turns to God in a time of crisis. Ten years later no one notices any difference. A man or woman, struck by anxiety and guilt, pleads and prays. A month later nothing has changed. It took one thousand years of waiting before God sent Hosea to warn the people about their fickle faith. I am afraid that we have also used up the clock. The long-nose of deferred wrath is shortened by our lack of compassion for God. As the parable of the great debtor clearly shows us, having proven ourselves unworthy of His grace, He may withdraw the benefit and require us to pay.
Hosea’s summary is fitting: “they turn . . . to powerlessness.” We turn back to our plans, our attempts to control our destiny, our beliefs that power and money will make us free. We follow the path of Ba’al, with the same result. And, by the way, Hosea also makes it clear that the proof of our pagan Christianity is not in our theological constructs but rather in our actions. If God can describe what it means to be in His image in His self-definition of Exodus 34:6-7, are we compelled to ask ourselves if we can be described by the same terms. Where is our compassion as intense as the care of an unborn child? Where is our patient endurance? Where is unmerited favor poured out? Where is hesed? If you made journal entries into your spiritual account based on the characteristics of God’s declaration to Moses, how would you fare? Are you like Hosea’s Israel or are you like Yeshua’s servants?
Topical Index: shuv, return, Exodus 34:6-7, Hosea 6:1, Matthew 18:21-35
“We offer sacrifices (bigger tithes, more services, whatever it takes). We show penance. But just like the Israelites, we lack insight into our own guilt. We think like pagans.”
Hmmm
Hosea 6:5 Therefore I have cut them to pieces with the prophets; I killed them with the words of my mouth. Your judgments are like a flash of lightning.
Hosea 6:6 For I desire mercy, and not sacrifice; And the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings
Who says God doesn’t answer prayers?
This morning I had a disagreement with my daughter (15). I think I did not respond very ‘Godly’ to her rebellious behaviour, to say the least, not lovingly.
Than I went to my room and prayed: God, show me, please, how to be a better father. I need to, I want to be!
The first answer He gave me was a little book by Anslem Grun, called ‘Benedictan Rules’. The chapter I read was about when do you really meat someone. You have to get rid of your judgmental attitude, your prejudices. Wow, that’s a good lesson!
The second was the text I read when I closed the book:
Ephesians 6:4 – And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord.
God, what does that mean? The nurture and admonition of the Lord?, I prayed.
And than I opened Today’s Word. How does He nurture and admonish His children, us?
Ex.34:6,7.
Wow, Gods answer couldn’t come any faster!
Thank You, Lord!
Here are the words of the prophet Samuel to (the then) king Saul which also apply to any man today:
~ Has the LORD as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the LORD?
“Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed (or hearken) than the fat of rams”
(1 Samuel 15.22)
Must we break it down? or doesn’t the word of God speak for itself?
Behold… – take a good long look. Stare at this awhile” ~ to obey ~ to hear and to obey
to heed: listen intently
(better yet) to hearken: to listen with the intent of carrying out what is spoken; to hear AND to obey
In Hebrew thought there is a single word to describe this idea or concept even further. It is the word: “shema” which (being interpreted) is “hear AND obey.”
Or has the mother of our Savior once told the servants: ~ whatever He (the One who has been revealed to us as the resurrected Living Word of God in Revelation 19.13) says unto you- “do it.”
“Do whatever He tells you”
~ Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed the heir of all things, through whom also He created the world ~ (Hebrews 1.1-2)
~ He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and His Name is the Word of God ~ (Revelation 19.13)
Now return unto the hill of Mt. Calvary and behold once again “Who” this was that we willingly-knowingly crucified.
~ knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of The Messiah, a Lamb without blemish or defect ~ (1 Peter 1.18,19)
Behold the Lamb!
Behold the Lamb!
Slain from the foundation of the world
For sinners crucified
O holy sacrifice!
Behold the Lamb of God!
Behold the Lamb!
~ ask and you will receive: LORD, I believe, please help my unbelief. ~
~ But we see that He is Yeshua, who became a little lower than the Angels for the suffering of His death, and glory and honor are placed upon His head, for God Himself, by His grace, tasted death in the place of every person ~ (Hebrews 2.9)
~The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost ~ (1 Timothy 1.15)
~ For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost ~ (Luke 19.10)
~ And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands; saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!” ~ (Revelation 5.13)
~Yours, LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is Yours. Yours, LORD, is the kingdom; You are exalted as head over all ~ (1 Chronicles 29.11)
R. G. Lee spoke of the sovereign authority of Jesus’ name in a sermon entitled The Name Above Every Name, from Philippians 2:9-10. He said, “The transcendence of the name of Jesus and its everlasting glory depend upon the work accomplished at the place called Calvary and at the open grave.”
“It is because of that, dear friends, that He stands out today the First Begotten from the dead, ‘that in all things He might have the pre-eminence.’ ‘His Name shall endure forever.’”
“When the names of earth’s benefactors are no more remembered, when the achievements of science are no longer of value, when the guesses of philosophers are seen to be in vain, when time shall be no more – multitudes, in praise of Him in gratitude for salvation through His name, will still sing the song of Moses, and of the Lamb of enduring Name.”
“When the Caesars and Charlemagne, the Napoleons and Wellingtons and their so-called splendid victories are forgotten, the multitudinous trophies of His saving power, in enjoyment of His endless fruits of His blood-bought victories, will sing the praises of His peerless Name.”
“There never was a name like the Name of Jesus – so representative of Sacrificial Love at its best. And someday, ‘every tongue shall confess that Jesus is Lord … to the glory of God the Father.’”
And when the Lordship of Jesus is a settled issue in the Christian’s life, all other issues are settled.
LOVE is the only thing in this world that covers up all the pain and makes us feel wonderful again.
http://www.andiesisle.com/breathe.html
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Thanks Skip.
Your study today reminds me of the time of the 9/11 attacks. For a few weeks afterwards most of the churches were full for Sunday services, but then quickly tapered off as the nation returned to its old ways – the way of Baal as you so aptly put it. I also remember from that time all those cars on the freeways here in California with their fresh stickers asking: “God bless America”, and I kept asking myself every time I saw one – why should HE bless us when 9/11 really did not bring us to our knees as a nation, not even close. Rabbi Jonathan Kahn and others did an excellent job of documenting that there was indeed a warning of Judgment from God in the attack on the Twin Towers. (Kahn wrote the book: The Harbinger).
Skip, you put your finger on the great human problem once again! And it is that carnal minds wants to deal with their “god’ or ‘gods” on their terms, not HIS. Since World War two the topic of God’s Sovereignty does not seem to come up too much anymore.
I happened to read a newsletter today that quoted from Zechariah. I was struck by the words the Lord gave the prophet to pass on:
“This is the word of the Lord to Zerub’babel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts.” (Zech 4:6)
His Spirit is the key to the changes many of us want to see in our nation and even in our workplace and our homes. The Word is telling us that the time may be close when HE will pour out His Spirit:
“And in the last days, it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh…” (Acts 2:17)
May He hasten that DAY.
John Walsh