Life Here and There

“For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim:” -Hosea 3:4

Hosea speaks prophetically of a time when Israel would spend a long period of time without a king, a prince, or a sacrifice. In part, this prophecy may refer to the time when the nation returned from captivity to rebuild the temple. They had no king, but the did have sacrifices even in Jesus’ time. But in 70 a.d., the nation of Israel would be forever changed again.

The Roman forces sacked the city and left not one stone upon another. It was flattened. The Jewish people were scattered once more. Today, they have no king, no prince, and no sacrifice. On the positive side, they also have no image (monument/shrine of worship), ephod (instrument used for divination or fortune-telling), or teraphim (general word for idols used in Baal-worship). For approximately twenty-six centuries, the nation of Israel has never turned to idolatry again.

But she waits. Romans chapters nine through eleven speak of the temporary setting aside of God’s agenda with Israel to turn his attention to the Gentiles. It was forever intended that the Jewish people would hold in trust the deposit of God’s truth in the Law, and that they would share the truth of God with the world. By Jesus’ day, the Jewish leaders had snubbed their noses at the Gentiles, damning them to an eternity without a knowledge of Jehovah.

Jesus wept bitterly over His rejection by His own people as He glared at Jerusalem. Then the book of Acts turns its attention to God’s agenda for the Gentile people. Did God forsake His chosen nation in favor of the heathen? God forbid. God’s agenda for Israel, temporarily set aside to welcome the nations into His family will be resumed someday in anticipation of the coming of Jesus Christ to reign as King over His chosen people forever.

For further reading on God’s long-term agenda for Israel, read Deuteronomy 28:64-67; Isaiah 11:11-12; 60:21; Jeremiah 16:14-16; Ezekiel 36:24-28; Amos 9:14-15; and Romans 11-13. One day I will gladly subject myself to the eternal rule and reign of Jesus Christ and His Kingdom leaders, the Jews. I pray for the day to come when millions of Jews turn to Jesus Christ by faith and receive Him as their eternal King.

“And I said unto her, Thou shalt abide for me many days; thou shalt not play the harlot, and thou shalt not be for another man: so will I also be for thee.” -Hosea 3:3

Scholars debate the construction of this verse, but it is clear that a covenant, a marital vow is being renewed. God has not only loved Israel through her spiritual adultery, not only through her rejection of Jesus as Messiah, but He loves her still. And one day He will renew His marriage vows to her. This was partially fulfilled with their return to the promised land under Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah, but it will be finally and eternally fulfilled when Jesus returns to earth.

First, she must be fooled. For a period of seven years, she will trust in a false lover once more. Then shall Jesus come and make war with that antichrist until he is cast into the lake of fire forever. God’s covenant with Abraham and the patriarchs is a permanent covenant. There has been no repeal, but also no complete fulfillment as of yet. Christians who believe that God is finished with the Jews have a sorely mistaken theology.

Those whom God chooses, He never unchooses. Those whom He adopts, He never unadopts. There are blessings from God which are conditional. To receive them, His people must walk in obedience to His commands. But the covenant sealed with the patriarchs is unbreakable, regardless of the behavior of God’s people. He loves them and is betrothed to them still.

“So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, and for an homer of barley, and an half homer of barley:…” -Hosea 3:2

Imagine the scene. A slave block is in the center of the marketplace where dirty, naked, abused and neglected slaves are put on display before the bidders. One after another their prices are named and they become the property of another owner. Gomer was destitute, abandoned by her lover whom she had presumed had cared enough to provide for her needs. Now she had been tossed aside to be transferred to another at the price of a common slave.

She hears a familiar voice bidding for her. As she gathers the strength to look up, her eyes lock with his… her husband, Hosea. He’s bidding for her and he’s willing to pay any price to have her back. Imagine the wave of emotion that must have passed over Gomer’s broken heart. When her presumed lovers had abandoned and discarded her, the husband to whom she had brought nothing but heartache and shame is now willing to put a price on her to purchase her back to himself.

The scene echoes the New Testament scene of God’s purchase of Israel through the blood of the Lamb, Jesus. While Israel had stooped to idolatry and had rejected their Creator in the flesh as Messiah, God continued to love them. He paid the ultimate price, giving His one and only Son as a supreme sacrifice for her sins. That’s redemption! That’s the purchase price God is willing to pay for all of the Jews, and for all of the Gentiles too. He is mighty to save and He is ready to redeem!

He has paid for your freedom. He wants to own you so that you might be set free to serve Him for all of eternity. Have you climbed out of the gutter of life to find Him as Savior? Have you stepped off the auction block of slavery to sin into the freedom of knowing Him personally and eternally? He’s ready to receive you today, if only you’ll come home to Him.

“Then said the Lord unto me, Go yet, love a woman beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress, according to the love of the Lord toward the children of Israel, who look to other gods, and love flagons of wine (raisin cakes for Baal worship).” -Hosea 3:1

It takes a special affection and an unbelievably deep love to demonstrate love toward an adulterous wife, but that’s what Hosea was commanded to do for his wife, Gomer. His love was to symbolize the kind of love with which God loves His chosen race of Israel. Hosea chapter three can be seen as the story of Israel’s history, start to finish, in just five verses. James Montgomery Boice called this the greatest chapter in the Bible.

Chapter one of the story of Israel has to do with God’s adopting and abiding love for His chosen people. Out of all the people on the face of the earth, God chose Abraham and his seed to forever be the blessing of God to all peoples on earth. This blessing would come as Abraham’s seed produced the Messiah, Jesus, who would offer Himself a ransom so that people who believe in Him could be saved eternally.

To say that God loves Israel and chose them to be His own nation does not exclude all other nations of people from every enjoying His love. If I were to say that I love my wife, that would not mean that I cannot or do not love anyone else. Rather it would simply showcase the special love I have for the one to whom I have been wedded. The same is true in God’s choice of Israel. He loves her with a special love, even today.

When Israel was idolatrous in her wanderings through the Arabian wilderness for forty years, He loved her. When she resorted to idolatry in the period of the judges, God loved her. When she called Baal her god, Jehovah loved her. And today, while the majority of Jewish people do not receive Jesus as Messiah, God loves her still.

There is an indirect application to all whom God loves. As Paul echoed in Romans 8:35-39, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?… Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

One day, Israel will realize the love of Jehovah for them which He proved by giving His one and only Son to pay the price of their rejection of the Lamb of God. They will turn to Him in repentance and faith and receive Jesus Christ as Messiah, King, Savior, and Lord. Have you realized today how much God loves you?

“And the Lord shall scatter you… And there ye shall serve gods, the work of men’s hands… But if from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him, if you seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.” -Deut. 4:27-29

Imagine saying on your wedding day, “Honey, I know in advance you’re going to cheat on me, but if you come home and love me again with all your heart, I’ll take you back.” Or imagine saying on the day of your child’s birth, “Little darling, I know in advance that you’re going to rebel against all of my values, reject me and run away. You’ll dissapoint me and embarass me, but if you come home again and love me with all your heart, I’ll take you back in.”

Obviously, none of us have the knowledge of the future that God has. We can know that things won’t always be perfect. We can guess that people will let us down. But imagine knowing every single dissapointment everyone in your life would ever bring you. Would you go ahead and befriend them, marry them, or bring them into the world? God’s knowledge includes our every act of idolatry, our every thought of impurity, and our every wrong motive. Yet just as He promised to the nation of Israel, He promises to us, “If you’ll seek me with all of your heart, you’ll find me.”

The term “seekers” has been abused by the modern church. We’ve gotten the impression that a “seeker” is simply one who has lost his way a little or one who is struggling to understand God. For many, a “seeker” is simply one who’s self-esteem is impaired and needs to have it restored in order to find God. But a “seeker” according to Deuteronomy is one who has walked in spiritual adultery. A seeker is one who has fled the presence of the all-consuming God in rebellion and reprobation. A seeker is one who has committed acts which insult the holiness and character of God. Yet God says, “Seek me!”

God is ultimately seeker-sensitive, but He doesn’t lessen His holiness to become more like sinners. He doesn’t market His truth like the latest fiction novel. He pleads instead for poor, lost, hell-bound sinners to “turn ye,” to “look ye,” to “seek ye the Lord…” His invitation is open. Anybody that seeks Him finds Him. Think of Cornelius, think of Apollos, think of the Ethiopian eunuch. Each was an example of one who sought God and found Him.

But then, consider the other half of Scripture. Hosea lost his wife to unfaithfulness and sought her out. When he found her, he purchased her off the prostitution auction block, took her home, and committed to forgive and love her again. Consider Zacchaues who was found up in the tree, the woman at the well, and the earliest apostles on the banks of the Jordan. God Himself is the greater Seeker!

He’s been in hot pursuit of you from the time you were conceived, not in your mother’s womb, but in His imagination from eternity past! He’s chased you through your sin, through your wandering, as you’ve sought Him and as you’ve sought to lose Him. The Bible begins with one sinner named Adam, hiding from God. From that moment flows a history of God’s seeking for the redemption of all of humankind back to Himself. And the story of redemption continues with you today. He’s purchased you with the blood of His very own Son, that you could turn to Him, seek forgiveness, and come into His family.