I will respond to the sky,
and it will respond to the earth.
The earth will respond to the grain,
the new wine, and the oil,
and they will respond to Jamie.
I go to God because He first comes to me. Whenever I start to doubt that God is there or that He is good or that He loves me, I run to the barren part of me and meet with Him in the eye of the storm. I don't want to ever be okay with feeling any of those three things, ever. I want always to know more deeply the height and depth, length and width of God's love for me.
"Call your brothers: My People
and your sisters: Compassion."
This is am almost word for word story about the way in which God speaks to me, filling me with hope and richness of love that overflows, as written from over 2000 years ago in the life of a man named Hosea. Our God is unchanging and Jesus fulfilled our role of dying because of our disobedience--and gave us His obedience so that despite what we see going on in our lives we always have the right to be loved by God, always. And it is in this assurance of this right to be loved that I can walk into any dark valley within the most wicked parts of my heart and find hope. I do not fear the darkness, because even darkness is light to my God who loves me. But I walk into darkness in order to expose it, because a part of me is still fearful of what I will find, but God goes before me and with me every time. He leads me in a way that I cannot refuse Him. But at the end of each difficulty, at the settling down of atrocious emotional pain, at the finish of some horrible physical strain, the proof is there. He is made strong in my weakness. This means that the next time I become scared or feel the overwhelming ambiguity of my circumstances, I anchor my actions in faith that God has always proven Himself to be for me. I cannot break His promise to me even if I tried, and He promises to take me all the way. So then, why would I try to break His word to me? Rather I let as many guards of myself down as I can so that I become as weak as I know how and go to Him just as I am, naked and without any power or any clue as to what will happen. Because in the deep and honest depth of my heart, that is the only thing I can do.
And His love proves more and more loyal to me over the years. But I never stop needing to become weaker because I never stop needing Him to be my strength and my refuge. I thank God that He makes me weak so that I can be strong, and through His process I am always reassured of how deep and wide His love for me truly is. There has yet to be something more enticing than God's love for me. I live for pleasure and find it most exceedingly in Him. This is the story of my life in light of what Jesus did for me:
Therefore,
this is what I will do:
I will block her way with thorns;
I will enclose her with a wall,
so that she cannot find her paths.
She will pursue her lovers
but not catch them;
she will seek them
but not find them.
Then she will think,
“I will go back to my former husband,
for then it was better for me than now.”
She does not recognize
that it is I who gave her
the grain, the new wine, and the oil.
I lavished silver and gold on her,
which they used for Baal.
Therefore,
I will take back My grain in its time
and My new wine in its season;
I will take away My wool and linen,
which were to cover her nakedness.
Now
I will expose her shame
in the sight of her lovers,
and no one will rescue her
from My hands.
I will put an end to all her celebrations:
her feasts, New Moons, and Sabbaths —
all her festivals.
I will devastate her vines and fig trees.
She thinks that these are her wages
that her lovers have given her.
I will turn them into a thicket,
and the wild animals will eat them.
And I will punish her for the days of the Baals when she burned incense to them,
put on her rings and jewelry,
and went after her lovers, but forgot Me.
This is the Lord’s declaration.
Therefore,
I am going to persuade her,
lead her to the wilderness,
and speak tenderly to her.
-Hosea 2:1, 6-14
...
God responds in love for me, as I am a recipient of his grace and do nothing to usher his response but stand exposed and naked before Him. That is all I do.
There (in the wilderness and exposed shame and nakedness)
I will give her vineyards back to her
and make the Valley of Achor
into a gateway of hope.
There she will respond
as she did in the days of her youth,
as in the day she came out of the land of Egypt.
In that day — this is the Lord’s declaration —
you, Jamie, will call Me, “My husband,”
and no longer call Me, “My Baal.”
For I will remove the names of the Baals
from her mouth;
they will no longer be remembered
by their names.
On that day I will make a covenant for them
with the wild animals,
the birds of the sky,
and the creatures that crawl on the ground.
I will shatter bow, sword, and weapons of war
in the land
and will enable the people to rest securely.
I will take you to be My wife forever.
I will take you to be My wife in righteousness, justice, love, and compassion.
I will take you to be My wife in faithfulness,
and you will know Yahweh.
On that day I will respond —
this is the Lord’s declaration.
I will respond to the sky,
and it will respond to the earth.
The earth will respond to the grain,
the new wine, and the oil,
and they will respond to Jamie.
I will sow her in the land for Myself,
and I will have compassion on No Compassion;
I will say to Not My People: You are My people, and he will say, “You are My God.”
Hosea 2:15-23
♥️ But all this does not just happen without a significant process that God takes me through time and time again--for me to get to that place, in Christ, where I am free indeed, I must always first be brought to the barren place. The place where I most clearly see my need for Jesus, and this shows me I am loved time and time again. To be exposed and ashamed is to be reminded that He was exposed and ashamed for me to no longer be. So when I am there again and again I meet with Him in His life, death, and resurrection. I go to the barrenness time and time again because it is here that I regain my life. Nothing I do is Him outside of this meeting with Him in the barrenness. Below is a more descriptive parallel of our lives in Hosea's book.
---
When we try acting as judges and priests of our lives and in the lives of others regarding sin and holiness we do a disservice, no we completely wreck the meaning of the cross! When we acts as priests we are rejected by God, because we are changing honor into disgrace! Yet we love to act as priests because we feed off sin. We love watching others sin so that we can feel good about ourselves! And then we go and act like we are giving our sacrifice to God as a tribute because it feels good and eases our guilty consciences, but it is our guilty conscience that leads us to discernment, for how would we know our wrong unless we felt it in our minds? We are wrong and that leaves less room for our arrogance.
For this reason the land mourns,
and everyone who lives in it languishes,
along with the wild animals and the birds of the sky; even the fish of the sea disappear.
But let no one dispute; let no one argue,
for My case is against you priests.
You will stumble by day; the prophet will also stumble with you by night.
And I will destroy your mother.
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge,
I will reject you from serving as My priest.
Since you have forgotten the law of your God,
I will also forget your sons.
The more they multiplied,
the more they sinned against Me.
I will change their honor into disgrace.
They feed on the sin of My people;
they have an appetite for their transgressions.
They will eat but not be satisfied;
they will be promiscuous but not multiply.
For they have abandoned their devotion to the Lord.
Promiscuity, wine, and new wine take away one’s understanding.
My people consult their wooden idols,
and their divining rods inform them.
For a spirit of promiscuity leads them astray; they act promiscuously
in disobedience to their God.
They sacrifice on the mountaintops,
and they burn offerings on the hills,
and under oaks, poplars, and terebinths, because their shade is pleasant.
And so your daughters act promiscuously
and your daughters-in-law commit adultery.
I will not punish your daughters when they act promiscuously or your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery,
for the men themselves go off with prostitutes and make sacrifices with cult prostitutes.
People without discernment are doomed.
(Hosea 4:3-8, 10-14 HCSB)
---
Who are we outside of Jesus?
For Israel is as obstinate as a stubborn cow.
Can the Lord now shepherd them like a lamb in an open meadow?
Ephraim is attached to idols; leave him alone!
When their drinking is over,
they turn to promiscuity.
Israel’s leaders fervently love disgrace.
A wind with its wings will carry them off, and they will be ashamed of their sacrifices.
-Hosea 4:16-19
---
How do we treat our God??
Their actions do not allow them to return to their God,
for a spirit of promiscuity is among them,
and they do not know the Lord.
Israel’s arrogance testifies against them.
Both Israel and Ephraim stumble because of their wickedness; even Judah will stumble with them.
They go with their flocks and herds to seek the Lord but do not find Him;
He has withdrawn from them.
Ephraim will become a desolation
on the day of punishment;
I announce what is certain
among the tribes of Israel.
The princes of Judah are like those who move boundary markers;
I will pour out My fury on them like water.
Ephraim is oppressed, crushed in judgment,
for he is determined to follow what is worthless.
So I am like rot to Ephraim
and like decay to the house of Judah.
-Hosea 5:4-6, 9-12
--
Your love is loyal Lord, and you do what is necessary to save us from our destructive sins! You see the outcome down the road when we ignore it, and you care for us by doing what is needed to lead us back to life! You are the only life, and when we seek You we are in Life and not death.
For I am like a lion to Ephraim
and like a young lion to the house of Judah.
Yes, I will tear them to pieces and depart.
I will carry them off,
and no one can rescue them.
I will depart
and return to My place
until they recognize their guilt
and seek My face;
they will search for Me in their distress.
-Hosea 5:14-15
---
What does repentance look like?
Come, let us return to the Lord.
For He has torn us,
and He will heal us;
He has wounded us,
and He will bind up our wounds.
He will revive us after two days,
and on the third day He will raise us up
so we can live in His presence.
Let us strive to know the Lord.
His appearance is as sure as the dawn.
He will come to us like the rain,
like the spring showers that water the land.
-Hosea 6:1-3
---
Our sin problem is deeper than we think, we are in a one way loyalty: He is being loyal and we are not. He is forever loyal, and we are not. We need Jesus because through Jesus we are given His loyalty not in becoming loyal ourselves but having natural loyalty imputed to us! Effortless loyalty! When we try to be loyal that is not our loyalty! Our loyalty is from Christ, and we are recipients of it by grace!
What am I going to do with you, Ephraim?
What am I going to do with you, Judah?
Your loyalty is like the morning mist
and like the early dew that vanishes.
For I desire loyalty
and not sacrifice,
the knowledge of God
rather than burnt offerings.
But they, like Adam,
have violated the covenant;
there they have betrayed Me.
-Hosea 6:4, 6-7
---
The Lord sees all, even when you see Him punishing others for their sin, you are next! So don't be arrogant about your life, if you are living it is all by grace.
I have seen something horrible in the house of Israel: Ephraim’s promiscuity is there;
Israel is defiled.
A harvest is also appointed for you, Judah.
When I return My people from captivity,
-Hosea 6:10-11
---
God, He heals in the midst of seeing our sin against Him...He sits in the sin with us and heals us, and we are there sinning and being healed by Him!
when I heal Israel,
the sins of Ephraim
and the crimes of Samaria
will be exposed.
For they practice fraud;
a thief breaks in; a raiding party pillages outside.
But they never consider
that I remember all their evil.
Now their sins are all around them;
they are right in front of My face.
-Hosea 7:1-2
---
Our hearts burn for the taste of sin! And we do not even notice! We ignore God because we are arrogant! When really we are all silly and senseless!
They please the king with their evil,
the princes with their lies.
All of them commit adultery;
they are like an oven
heated by a baker
who stops stirring the fire
from the kneading of the dough
until it is leavened.
For they — their hearts like an oven —
draw him into their oven.
Their anger smolders all night;
in the morning it blazes like a flaming fire.
Foreigners consume his strength,
but he does not notice.
Even his hair is streaked with gray,
but he does not notice.
Israel’s arrogance testifies against them,
yet they do not return to Yahweh their God,
and for all this,
they do not seek Him.
So Ephraim has
become like a silly, senseless dove;
they call to Egypt, and they go to Assyria.
-Hosea 7:3-4, 6, 9-11
---
The Lord catches us in our silly senselessness!
As they are going,
I will spread My net over them;
I will bring them down like birds of the sky.
I will discipline them in accordance
with the news that reaches their assembly.
-Hosea 7:12
---
How do we treat You God?
Woe to them, for they fled from Me;
destruction to them,
for they rebelled against Me!
Though I want to redeem them,
they speak lies against Me.
They do not cry to Me
from their hearts; rather,
they wail on their beds.
They slash themselves
for grain and new wine;
they turn away from Me.
I trained and strengthened their arms,
but they plot evil against Me.
They turn,
but not to what is above;
they are like a faulty bow.
Their leaders will fall by the sword
because of the cursing of their tongue.
They will be ridiculed for this in the land of Egypt.
-Hosea 7:13-16
---
We have no sacrifice to offer except our own bodies, everything else is an altar for sinning more! We think we can offer something to appease God, but that is our arrogance! We do not give anything to God! We could never earn our forgiveness! We give our bodies as a living sacrifice not because we should, because that is our arrogant way of thinking, but we give our bodies over for life, because Christ gave His body over to death so that we could give ours for life! We are called to life! To live because Jesus died our death! We are called to be loved by God! We cannot even love God! We can only be loved by God. Everything else is not God.
Israel has rejected what is good;
an enemy will pursue him.
They have installed kings,
but not through Me.
They have appointed leaders,
but without My approval.
They make their silver and gold
into idols for themselves
for their own destruction.
Your calf-idol is rejected, Samaria.
My anger burns against them.
How long will they be incapable of innocence?
For this thing is from Israel —
a craftsman made it,
and it is not God.
The calf of Samaria will be smashed to bits!
For they have gone up to Assyria
like a wild donkey going off on its own.
Ephraim has paid for love.
When Ephraim multiplied his altars for sin,
they became his altars for sinning.
Though I were to write out for him ten thousand points of My instruction,
they would be regarded as something strange.
Though they offer sacrificial gifts and eat the flesh, the Lord does not accept them.
Now He will remember their guilt
and punish their sins;
they will return to Egypt.
Israel has forgotten his Maker and built palaces; Judah has also multiplied fortified cities.
I will send fire on their cities,
and it will consume their citadels.
-Hosea 8:3-6, 9, 11-14
---
I'm too tired to finish the rest of the book, but now seems sufficient to end this post.
I'll end with the reminder that God uses what we want most to respond to us. For Israel it was wine and oil and grain because food is necessary and represented comfort, provision, and ultimately life. Now those same wants, comfort, provision, and things that make us feel like we are and can continue living...those same wants will be what God uses to speak to us. He must, because those are not real life, and He will expose them for what they are to give us real life.
I will respond to the sky,
and it will respond to the earth.
The earth will respond to the grain,
the new wine, and the oil,
and they will respond to Jamie.
Jmegrey
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