In Hosea 1:2-3, God tells Hosea to marry an adulterous wife and take her children out of wedlock. This is a shocking action by God. Yet, it is in actuality God’s story that Hosea is called to live out. We think a lot about poor Hosea who had to enter into this awful situation. In reality, we are given an insight into how God feels. God marries or makes a commitment to His people. His people become unfaithful and break their commitment by seeking other gods and having a relationship with them instead of the one true God. Do we ever stop and think about the God who is faithful to us even though we have prostituted ourselves to other things besides Him? Yes, He disciplines and judges us because He loves us. If you get a chance, skip ahead to Hosea 11:1-9 and read the touching proclamation of God about how He loves us in spite of what we have done. Read this section and think about God when in anguish He asks the question, “How can I give you up…?” (Hosea 11:8) Have you ever stopped to think about how God feels? I read this story from Hosea and I realize, I have hurt my God. This is not the final part of the story because my God forgives. He sent us His Son!
Archive for the ‘Divorce’ Category
Day 350: Hosea 1:2-3 — Think about how God feels?
Thursday, December 16th, 2010Day 32: Ex. 13:17-15:27; Matt. 19:23-20:16 — We have left all…what now?
Monday, February 1st, 2010Free, at last! Free! and now what? Pharaoh’s coming, the sea locks us into his grip! We left everything we had! We should have stayed in Egypt!
Married, ah, that blissful state. Now comes real life. Can a man divorce for any reason?
I have been good ALL my life. Surely God will open up the pearly gates big and wide just to let me through.
We have left everything to follow you. What now?
“Fear not. Stand firm and see the salvation of the LORD which He will work for you today.” Exodus 14:13. With this, Israel will receive the blessing of deliverance. Yahweh transformed what would have been their grave into the the means of their salvation. “And the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground.” Exodus 14:22. “Pharaoh’s chariots and his host he cast into the sea…the floods (deeps, NASB) covered them.” Exodus 15:4-5. A term rich in meaning tells us where Pharaoh went, TEHOM, rendered by the ESV as floods, NASB as deeps, odd English, good Hebrew, good theology. TEHOM describes the universe before light of creation, a place of darkness and chaos. Genesis 1:2. To this existence, realm, chaos, destruction, end was Pharaoh taken. Our love and commitment to the Creator becomes blessed as we follow through the hard, impossible times, when nothing appears as it should. When He says, “Press on, be determined, trust Me.” 1 John 4:18 — Perfect love casts out fear. Life dedicated to the Great Liberator does have questions, and we have some times of doubt, but complete confidence, going through the sea, results in goodness now and promises which will be fulfilled. Committed, leave all and follow Him, you will find Life. Do-it-my-way life without Him? The Deep.
She cooks so badly, inedible horrors! She squawks so loudly, all the neighbors hear her! WHAT have I gotten myself into?!! Thus the Israelite could get the writ of divorce and get of that mess! Hold on, hold on, now. What mess? WHO created the mess? Jesus assures that crowd of nay-sayers-and-how-will-you-get-out-of-this-one that if there is any mess, any problem with marriage, mankind brings it on himself, “the hardness of your heart.” Are there extraordinary circumstances? Yes. Are there horrible conundrums? Yes. But is there a design of the Creator giving us the best place from which to start and finish? YES! To the world, marriage now, as then, becomes a cloudy state of whatever I think it should be. It’s for ME isn’t it? With whomever, however, and whatever I want. Whom am I hurting? — the world says. What about the purposes of the One Who created us? What of the design? Marriage is about what God creates in us, using us as wonderful streams of blessing for ourselves and others. Marriage must seek the design and will of God first, the will of God in me, for Him, and then directed to and for that spouse, for Him.
We have left all and followed You. What now? We are ridiculed. The job does not pay much. Looks bleak even for a rich man. In Deuteronomy 30 and Romans 10, the Holy Spirit speaks in Moses and Paul: Is the will and design of God so outlandish that no one can do it? Are His purposes so impossible that we have to go to the farthest reaches of time and space to figure it out? By ourselves, under our own wind, that answer is yes. “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” Matthew 19:26.
Commitment goes to God first, on His terms, in His way. Never to me first on my terms, no matter how much I don’t like to say that, human that I am. Then the seas divide, the way becomes clear, life takes on its true meaning, and, yes, that far dream we dare to dream, life forever with the One Who loved me and gave Himself for me. Galatians 2:20
“My stubborn will at last hath yielded. I would be Thine, and Thine alone.”