351. Heal and Bind
Hosea 6:1 Come, and let us return unto the Lord: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up.
I have good news and bad news: The bad news: God tears and smites; the good news: God heals and binds up. This is the Salvation Story throughout the Bible from the beginning. And thank God, there is a happy end. Then it is all good news.
But why do we go through the bad news? We go through bad news because of our sin. God has torn and God has smitten as an announcement of Law and as a call to repentance. Every time we hear bad news (every day?) it is a reminder that we ourselves are sinners living in a sinful world under an evil despot. It is a call to repentance and it brings us back to faith in the Gospel. If we could treat every bad news moment as a call to repent and believe Christ for forgiveness and salvation, then we would be constantly rejoicing. The bad news is always caused by Sin, sometimes our own and sometimes the world’s. Either way, we follow up the bad news with the thought: “I am the sinner, and I am forgiven.” We hear so much bad news and get into so much trouble that we have plenty of opportunity to “return unto the Lord.” When we return He is always there with welcoming arms.
We don’t like the words: “the Lord has torn and He has smitten.” We like to hear the words: “He will heal us and He will bind us up.” But there is no good news without first receiving the bad news. The Good News is not given in a vacuum. It is given for dirt, dust, filth, trouble and turmoil. We can only appreciate amazing grace when we feel the news of “a wretch like me.” If we do not see our Sin when hearing the Gospel we can become a Pharisee who believes the oxymoron, “I deserve grace.” It is too easy to be smug and point out the sins of others. So God smites.
Is it God who tears and smites? No, God is not the originator of broken bodies, broken souls and broken hearts. Or, for that matter, natural disasters like the plague of Covid-19; they come from Satan, Sin, and Death. However, in God’s hands He may allow evils to tear and smite so that pride is broken, we are humbled and penitent and believing. Hear the remarkable words from Luther: “The devil is God’s devil.” God uses evil, once it has come, to bring about good. Then we return to the Lord for it is He who heals the wounded soul and binds up the broken heart.
We let the Bad News of the world remind us of the Good News of Christ. And the more we hear that Gospel message the better we will be. That’s a promise!