Lessons for August 26
EXPLORE THE BIBLE:
Everyone must choose: Rebellion or repentance
___ Hosea 14:1-9
___By Jeane Law
___First Baptist Church, Lubbock
___This week we come to the final message from the book of Hosea, which probably was given shortly before 722 B.C. Hosea is not offering a last-minute reprieve from Assyrian defeat but hope after the fall of the nation.
___It has been many weeks since we read of Hosea's wife, Gomer, being unfaithful to him by living a life of prostitution. But Hosea has remembered the hurt he felt as he heard of Gomer's adulterous lifestyle. He also remembers buying her back at the slave market and bringing her home to love her and restore her to a life as his wife. This personal experience has been the understanding from which he has preached passionately of God's unfailing
love to his unfaithful people. And, like Gomer, they too will experience slavery and undeserved love.
___Chapter 14 begins with Hosea, one last time, calling the people back to the Lord--"Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God. Your sins have been your downfall" (v. 1). He then calls them to repent before the Lord. Historically, the children of Israel always have sought forgiveness by bringing gifts of sacrifice to the temple, but now Hosea challenges them to go a step farther. He tells them to bring the fruit of their lips, which is words. He wants them to think about what they will say to the Lord before they speak. The words should come from their hearts and express true feelings of repentance.
___Have you ever had the experience of needing to ask forgiveness from someone and you rehearsed what you would say before you began, so that you would communicate all that you wanted to say? This was Hosea's desire.
___I remember a time when one of our sons was a young boy and he did something that required stern discipline from his dad. Later that evening, he called his dad into his room and offered him his piggy bank full of coins to use however he needed. He was trying to re-establish relationship. He was repentant.
___This was the attitude Hosea was encouraging. He even suggested the words they might say: "Say to him: Forgive all our sins and receive us graciously, that we may offer the fruit of our lips. Assyria cannot save us; we will not mount war-horses" (v. 2). They should ask God to receive them so they could come before him and admit to their sin of trusting nations instead of God's power and love for them.
___"We will never again say 'Our gods' to what our own hands have made, for in you the fatherless find compassion" (v. 3). They should recognize how foolish it was to worship a man-made object and accept God's love and care for them.
___These were the two specific sins God most addressed through Hosea.
___The first step in true repentance is to turn away from our sin and toward God. We must then acknowledge our sin and ask God for forgiveness. When he has dealt with our sin through forgiveness, then he will begin to bless us and heal us through his grace in our lives. As a result of that grace, one has the strength to turn against the sin.
___A friend of our daughter became a Christian while in college. He told her he had learned from Scripture that God would give him the desires of his heart, but God had changed his desires! That is how the Lord gives us healing from sin. He changes our desires and restores us to a relationship with him.
___In verse 4, God says, "I will heal their waywardness and love them freely." This 14th chapter is a message of hope. If Israel will repent and pray the prayer in verses 2 and 3, then God will restore them to their land someday. He will refresh them like morning dew. They will be transformed. They will become beautiful like the lily. Like the cedars of Lebanon, they will put down deep roots to stabilize their nation. They will have the splendor of an olive tree which has many uses and takes years of maturity to become fully productive. (While traveling in eastern Turkey last fall, I saw miles and miles of magnificent olive orchards. They contribute greatly to the economy of the land.)
___God continues in verses 6 and 7 to tell how they will flourish and blossom and have fragrance. In verse 8 he says, "I am like a green pine tree; your fruitfulness comes from me." Every good thing the people sought through idols, they would find in the Lord. We teach that truth to our children in Sunday School. "Every good gift and every perfect gift cometh from above ..." (James 1:17).
___We do not know how the audience responded to this final word of hope, but we do know this call to repentance and forgiveness and restoration continues to us today because of God's love for us. He loved us and sent his Son.
___Hosea concludes with the underlying truth of God. The wise man knows that "the ways of the Lord are right; the righteous walk in them, but the rebellious stumble in them" (v. 9). Each generation and individual must choose between the way of rebellion and death or repentance and life. Choose life!
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