THE COMPASSIONATE LION

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

“How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel? How can I treat you like Admah? How can I make you like Zeboyim?”

“My heart is changed within Me; all My compassion is aroused. I will not carry out my fierce anger, nor will I devastate Ephraim again. For I am God, and not a man—the Holy One among you. I will not come against their cities. They will follow the Lord; He will roar like a lion. When He roars, His children will come trembling from the west. They will come from Egypt, trembling like sparrows, from Assyria, fluttering like doves. I will settle them in their homes,” declares the Lord.

Hosea 11:8-11

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

God was angry with His people. He had commanded them to have no other gods before Him and yet they chose to completely disregard and disrespect Him by bowing down and worshiping pagan idols. The God who had made them and sustained them, the God who had rescued and delivered their ancestors, was no longer good enough for the Israelites. That was the message they decided to send.

And so God chose to send His own message, a message that clearly conveyed that blatant disobedience of His will, word, and way would be met with judgment. The only question was how severe would that punishment be.

On the high end of the severity scale, one could go back in time and look at the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, cities that once existed in the plains near the Jordan River in the southern part of Canaan. You may remember that the Canaanites in these two cities were engaging in sexual immorality to such a degree that God destroyed them both by raining down burning sulfur from the heavens. All those residing in the cities perished (Genesis 19).

God could have sent the same punishment on His people again in Hosea’s time but as we see in today’s passage, He chose not to, instead opting to show His people that He was a compassionate God or as He will refer to Himself in the passage, a compassionate lion. Look again at these words here:

“How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel? How can I treat you like Admah? How can I make you like Zeboyim?”

“My heart is changed within Me; all My compassion is aroused. I will not carry out my fierce anger, nor will I devastate Ephraim again. For I am God, and not a man—the Holy One among you. I will not come against their cities. They will follow the Lord; He will roar like a lion. When He roars, His children will come trembling from the west. They will come from Egypt, trembling like sparrows, from Assyria, fluttering like doves. I will settle them in their homes,” declares the Lord.  Hosea 11:8-11

We get a sense that God did have it in mind to send complete annihilation on the sinful, idolatrous Israelites if he had not had a change of heart. I say this because He said it Himself when He stated:

“How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel? How can I treat you like Admah? How can I make you like Zeboyim?”

What did Admah and Zeboyim have to do with the judgment of the Israelites?

They were both smaller towns right outside of Sodom and Gomorrah, towns that were destroyed with the aforementioned two cities. This is the significance of their mention for note the Lord could not bring it upon Himself to treat the Israelites of Hosea’s time like those in the time of Lot.

This is because God’s compassion became aroused, an awakening of grace that caused Him to back off of carrying out punishment with His fierce anger. For kings of that day were the ones who were ruthless and merciless, sparing no one who got in the way of them expanding their territory and the associated power that came with running an empire. God wanted to make it clear that He was not in the same league with man. He was the Lord God Almighty, the holy One, the Maker and Master of all creation. He had no rival and His portraying Himself as a lion exudes the might and majesty He held above all things. The lion was considered king over all animals in the world. God was the King of all kings, all people, and all things.

In the end translation, God could choose to do whatever He wanted because He was God. No one could stop Him once He set events in motion and in the case of our scripture passage today, God had decided to spare His people and not come against their cities. It wasn’t that they wouldn’t face His punishment because there are always negative consequences for the sinful actions of God’s people. In the case of the Israelites, their punishment came in the form of a seventy year exile into Babylon, a captivity that would take them away from their homes and homeland. But note that the penalty would not last forever because God, the compassionate lion, would draw His people back to Him with a roar, allowing them to settle back in their homes. And indeed, if you read the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, you’ll find the account of the returning Israelites as they came home from exile to rebuild their nation, their homes, their lives, and their relationships with God.

Today, we still serve this caring King of kings, the compassionate lion who could choose to devastate us all because of our sins but instead extends amazing mercy and grace to us, not wishing for us to perish but rather have a chance to live with Him forever through Jesus, His Son (John 3:16).

Have you received His compassion and the gift of salvation He offers through His Son, the precious Lamb of God who takes away the sins of anyone who places their faith, hope, and trust in Him?

Amen

In Christ,

Mark
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