One long love story
The Bible is not a collection of individual, random stories. The Bible tells one long story, the never-ending story, and the thread running through the whole story is God’s forever love.
Despite this perfect love, God’s people are imperfect. They keep turning away from Him over and over and over again, telling themselves lies about how they don’t need Him and how they can do perfectly well without Him. They make unholy alliances with surrounding nations for protection and provision, just in case God isn’t up to the task.
In Hosea 12, Hosea traces this right back to Jacob, right at the start of the story in the book of Genesis. Jacob who was nicknamed the deceiver for deceiving his brother out of his birthright. And yet God came to him at Bethel and met with him and talked with him, providing Jacob with a way back to him. There is always a way back.
But you must return to your God;
maintain love and justice,
and wait for your God always. Hosea 12:6
Remember, returning to God isn’t about fancy words or big displays of commitment. It’s about practising love and justice, even when no one is watching.
Being rich makes no difference. God has been there from the start when His people had nothing. However successful they may believe themselves to be now, He was the one who brought them out of slavery when they were being treated as the lowest of the low. Riches and success won’t impress God at all.
However exalted and respected and celebrated this nation has become, it has achieved this by slipping down that slippery slope of sin and will end up being remembered no more.
Therefore they will be like the morning mist,
like the early dew that disappears,
like chaff swirling from a threshing-floor,
like smoke escaping through a window. Hosea 13:3
Whatever lies they have been telling themselves, this is the truth. The only truth.
But I have been the Lord your God
ever since you came out of Egypt.
You shall acknowledge no God but me,
no Saviour except me. Hosea 13:4
God’s people forget who rescued them. Who protected them and provided for them. Who showered them with good things.
They take the credit themselves for where they are today. They show no gratitude for all that God has done for them. They don’t even acknowledge that God has helped them.
When I fed them, they were satisfied;
when they were satisfied, they became proud;
then they forgot me. Hosea 13:6
It’s a familiar story. One God’s people have been living out since the start. One the prophets have been telling and retelling. The same story we are living in right now.
And yet there is always a way back. There is always a way back. That’s why the book of Hosea ends with a call to repentance.
Repentance means turning back. It means acknowledging that things aren’t right, that you’ve got it wrong. It means recognising that God’s way is the best way and that’s the path you want to be walking.
Repentance is a change of direction. Embracing all that is life-giving. Learning to trust and to obey (because God is love and God knows best).
We will never again say “Our gods”
to what our own hands have made,
for in you the fatherless find compassion.I will heal their waywardness
and love them freely,
for my anger has turned away from them. Hosea 14:3-4
It’s beautiful, isn’t it? Truly beautiful.
To be loved freely. Isn’t that something every human heart yearns for?
And this is where we end the book of Hosea with the last verse of the whole book. It’s a call to reflect, to cut through all the lies and deceit you’re carrying around with you and take a long look at the love of God and your response to it.
May this Christmas season be a great time of love and reflection for you and I’ll see you ready for all things new at the beginning of 2017!
May you know God’s free love and compassion this Christmas and always.
Who is wise? Let them realise these things.
Who is discerning? Let them understand.
The ways of the Lord are right;
the righteous walk in them,
but the rebellious stumble in them. Hosea 14:9THE END
