Hosea, Part IX

The Divine Prosecutor is not mincing any words about why He is disgusted with His people. God is very clear:  He is the One who is facing His people, and here is what they have done, and this is why He is angry. Nothing could be clearer than that. Let us go back into the courtroom.

"Wine has robbed my people of their understanding." (4:11) 

Let's stop there.  Wine is a choice--no one is forcing inebriation upon the people.  May I expand the list? 

Alcohol...drugs...cell phones...sex...entertainment...social causes...anything that distracts us way from God is a "wine."  No one forces this "wine" on us.  We choose it. When we are distracted, we lean on our own understanding.  We don't know what to do when life isn't so dependable or comprehensible. We lose a job; our spouse files for divorce; our kid wants to be a girl; our pastor is preaching doctrine that is only faintly biblical and we just don't know which end is up anymore.  Our "wine" has blunted our spiritual awareness of God and His presence.  So what do we do?

Well, in Hosea's day, they consulted idols: 

"They ask a piece of wood for advice!
They think a stick can tell them the future!
Longing after idols
has made them foolish.
They have played the prostitute,
serving other gods and deserting their God." (v.12)

Then, what did the people do when the way was not clear? 

"They offer sacrifices to idols on the mountaintops.
They go up into the hills to burn incense
in the pleasant shade of oaks, poplars, and terebinth trees.
That is why your daughters turn to prostitution,
and your daughters-in-law commit adultery.
But why should I punish them
for their prostitution and adultery?
For your men are doing the same thing,
sinning with whores and shrine prostitutes." (vs. 13-14) 
O foolish people! You refuse to understand,
so you will be destroyed." (vs. 13-14)

Of course.  The people, with no vision, were perishing.  So, they turned to what they were accustomed to...which is sad.  The people have been used to consulting other gods by engaging in reprehensible practices, and so, in their confusion on how to proceed, they defaulted to their usual evil.

Not only the older generation but the younger people were engaging in these practices.  The adults had failed to teach the ways of Yahweh, so it was no surprise that the younger generation didn't know any better.  Why would they? 

If we don't teach, and more importantly model Christ-like behavior, then the younger generation will not understand His ways, and the culture will fill in the gap.  Relying on that verse in Proverbs that tells us that if we train up a child in God's ways, they won't depart from it, is not a free pass for our behavior.  The "training up" must be a "living out" of what it means to follow Christ.

Many adult children do not follow the faith of their parents.  Somewhere along the line, what the parents said and what they did started to unravel.  Rules replaced love; self replaced selflessness and compromise replaced following Christ closely. 

We are always training up our children, because we are always walking in Christ, and showing them how we deal with each life stage in a godly way.  Our training falls by the wayside if we are not walking consistently.  And if we fail, we are quick to seek His forgiveness, and that of those around us. 

We now have many children who don't know the things of God, because their parents walked away from faith, having repudiated what they experienced themselves as children growing up in a Christian home.  I know we all make mistakes as believers, but I have seen parents who thought that judging their children's faith was acceptable because it didn't conform to what they thought Christianity should be like and now those children have grown up, not wanting faith.

Each generation must find Christ in their own idiom.  As long as the Bible is upheld, how the younger generation expresses their faith is up to them.  

I taught in a Christian school where several of the older teachers were aghast that one of my middle school students was wearing blue nail polish.  They wanted my students to wear only pinks and corals, as proper Christian girl should do.(!)  

It is that kind of thinking that drives younger people away, because if wearing blue nail polish is tantamount to sin, then why bother? When sin is defined by tradition and not by the Bible, it loses its potency to correct our behavior. 

 So, what will happen to all of the generations occupying Israel?

"O foolish people! You refuse to understand, so you will be destroyed." (v. 14)

Ignorance can be fixed.  Arrogance cannot.  So, the people, in refusing to reacquaint themselves with  Yahweh's ways as taught by the prophets, they will soon reap what they sowed. 

God is always interested in repentance. He does not want His people to be destroyed, but He cannot abide sin year after year after year. If the people refuse to listen to His word, as proclaimed by His prophets, their arrogance will lead them into the deep waters of judgement. Ezekiel 33:11 captures God's sorrow: “Tell them, ‘As sure as I am the living God, I take no pleasure from the death of the wicked. I want the wicked to change their ways and live. Turn your life around! Reverse your evil ways! Why die, Israel?’" (The Message) 

God is mourning what is coming to His people as a result of their sin. He laments over Israel, and hopes her example will be a warning to Judah, her southern neighbor: 

“Though you, Israel, are a prostitute,
may Judah not be guilty of such things.
Do not join the false worship at Gilgal or Beth-aven,
and do not take oaths there in the Lord’s name.
Israel is stubborn,
like a stubborn heifer.
So should the Lord feed her
like a lamb in a lush pasture?
Leave Israel alone,
because she is married to idolatry.
When the rulers of Israel finish their drinking,
off they go to find some prostitutes.
They love shame more than honor.

So a mighty wind will sweep them away.
Their sacrifices to idols will bring them shame." (4:15-19)

Why do we, in our modern America, think we will escape God's judgment?  You could argue we are not His chosen people, but we have, in our history, identified ourselves as a Christian nation.  With great power comes great responsibility, and we are losing our moral standards by allowing the culture to define us. 

We want the culture to approve of us.  But will they?  Ever? Or will they continue to chip away at our faith until there is nothing left?

I am not proclaiming a nationalistic approach.  I am advocating a personal approach.  We must live our lives so that people see a difference. I am advocating a grassroots approach.   

The sacrifices prescribed in Leviticus resulted in "a pleasing aroma to the Lord." What made that aroma even possible was the sacrifice itself. Jesus was our sacrifice. Now His aroma becomes our own: "Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. He loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God." (Eph. 5:2)

 
Not everyone will respond positively to what they sense in us, but that doesn't absolve us from allowing His fragrance to emanate from us: "For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life." (2 Cor. 2:15-16)

: