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In Christ, Mark
In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
The Lord said to me, “Go, show your love to your wife again,
though she is loved by another man and is an adulteress. Love her as the Lord
loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin
cakes.”
So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and about a
homer and a lethek of barley. Then I told her, “You are to live with me many
days; you must not be a prostitute or be intimate with any man, and I will
behave the same way toward you.”
For the Israelites will live many days without king or
prince, without sacrifice or sacred stones, without ephod or household gods. Afterward
the Israelites will return and seek the Lord their God and David their king.
They will come trembling to the Lord and to his blessings in the last days.
Hosea 3
This ends today’s
reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
Yesterday, we examined how our God is a God of
reconciliation, grace, mercy, and love. As we move onto Hosea, Chapter 3, we
see this theme carry over and extend to the matter of forgiveness as God uses
the marriage between Hosea and Gomer to once again mirror His relationship with
the Israelites. Look again at these verses here:
The Lord said to me,
“Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another man and
is an adulteress. Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn
to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes.”
So I bought her for
fifteen shekels of silver and about a homer and a lethek of barley. Then I told
her, “You are to live with me many days; you must not be a prostitute or be
intimate with any man, and I will behave the same way toward you.”
For the Israelites will
live many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred stones,
without ephod or household gods. Afterward the Israelites will return and seek
the Lord their God and David their king. They will come trembling to the Lord
and to his blessings in the last days. Hosea
3
Going back in my life, I have experienced the atrocity of
infidelity, the feelings and emotions that come with betrayal and
unfaithfulness. It’s a bitter pill to swallow and one that leaves a lengthy
aftertaste, something I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy.
But even despite the way I was forsaken and deceived, I
remember vividly being prepared to reconcile with my wife and try and make
things work. I was willing to forgive her, even though she had wronged me in
the worse way possible.
I was reminded of this when I read the words of Chapter 3
and how the Lord moved to bring two people back together out of the brokenness
of their relationship, a relationship shattered by adultery. For the Lord tells
Hosea to:
“Go, show your love
to your wife again, though she is loved by another man and is an adulteress.
Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and
love the sacred raisin cakes.”
Note the comparison drawn between Hosea/Gomer and
God/Israelites. Both Gomer and the people of God had been unfaithful within
their respective relationships. Gomer gave her love to another man other than her
husband while the Israelites gave their devotion to false gods and idols
instead of the one and only God of all creation, the very Maker of the heavens
and the earth. But in both instances, God ordained reconciliation and in doing
so, provided us a glimpse of what forgiveness looks like.
And so after given the command to love his wife again, We
find Gomer being obedient to that command and taking her back with him, sharing
the following words about their marriage moving forward:
“You are to live with
me many days; you must not be a prostitute or be intimate with any man, and I
will behave the same way toward you.”
It was a simple statement of expectation for the
relationship, one grounded in faithfulness to one another as they tried to give
their marriage a second chance.
Going back to the parallel this chapter draws between the
relationship between God and His people, we find forgiveness happening there
too as the Israelites would return to God after their seventy year captivity, a
time where they lived “without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred
stones, without ephod or household gods.” When we look at the Books of Ezra and
Nehemiah in the Old Testament, we find a detailed account of when the Israelites
returned home and renewed their commitment to the Lord their God, returning
with a new sense of respect and reverence for Him as they came trembling before
Him and His blessings.
Today, we get our own personal glimpse of forgiveness by
looking at the cross of Calvary where Jesus showed us the kind of pardon God
expects to extend to those who have wronged us in some way. For as He hung from
the cross, suffering excruciating pain from the nails through His hands and
feet with only hours to live, He looked at those who had wrongly accused him,
those who crucified Him, and those who mocked and ridiculed Him before looking
to the heavens and simply asking:
“Father, forgive them
for they know not what they do.”
I don’t know of a greater expression of forgiveness in the
Bible than that, perfect in every sense of the word, and we, as Christians, are
to adopt that same attitude of clemency on those who do us wrong as well,
adulterers or otherwise. In fact, just in case we don’t get it and might choose
to not forgive someone for something they have done, Jesus tells us this:
For if you forgive
other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive
you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive
your sins. Matthew 6:14-15
In closing, God’s word is crystal clear. We are to forgive others
for the wrongs they have committed against us.
Hosea forgave Gomer.
God forgave the Israelite people.
God forgives us through His Son who washes away our sins
with His shed blood, the blood of atonement.
Friends, in the end translation, we don’t have any other
choice but to forgive when we take into consideration the word of God. And when
we extend God’s grace and mercy unto others, not holding what they have done
against them, then we too will be able to give them a glimpse of forgiveness,
the same forgiveness that the Lord has extended to us many times over.
Amen
In Christ,
Mark
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