Month: August 2020

358. Return, Revive, Grow

Hosea 14:7 They that dwell under his shadow shall return; they shall revive as the corn, and grow as the vine: the scent thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon.

The Lord through the prophet Hosea promises that the sinful nation, which will be judged for idolatry and adultery, will go into exile and will return again to the Land and to the Lord. Then the people will live again and grow again. This prophecy came true for Israel. And in the wider prophecy it came true for all God’s people when the Son of God came to earth to redeem and bring believers back to the Kingdom and to God; in the kingdom those who believe in Jesus will live, grow, flourish and give off a pleasant aroma. This promise came true in Christ and the NT Church.

We have returned, as promised, to the Kingdom of God where we belong. We have been born anew and entered the Kingdom. We grow and produce fruit in the kingdom as we abide in the vine. And we give off a sweet fragrance of life into the world so that others see our good works and give glory to the Father. We can see these things happen to the corn, the vine and the wine, In this way we can see and understand what is happening in the spiritual world next to us that we can’t see. The Lord uses many images in the Bible to reveal to the eyes of the heart what we cannot see with the eyes in our head.

There is a condition to this wonderful promise of living, growing, flourishing and scenting: “Dwell under his shadow.” This is believing God, trusting in Him, entering into His presence, coming under His Lordship, living in the holy place, staying under His protective care, fearing God and worshiping the Lord alone. It is a different and colorful way of saying, “Believe in Jesus.” If we believe in Jesus, then we will live well. The condition has been met every time we hear, read and receive the gospel with the repentance and faith worked in us by the Spirit. The condition has been satisfied (we dwell under his shadow); therefore, we return, revive, grow and smell good.

In other words, believe in Jesus, remain in the faith, and enjoy the wonderful life as a result. There is a spiritual life within and it is much more glorious that the physical life we enjoy, living in God’s good Creation. God is good, and His life is good.

357. Fertility and Abundance

Hosea 14:5, 6 I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon. His branches shall spread and His beauty shall be as the olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon.

This promise is one of several descriptions of the Messianic Age as a time of fertility and abundant prosperity. The plant growth and greenery is reminiscent of the Garden of Eden and foreshadows the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth of Paradise. This kind of fertility and abundance is shown in the life of Jesus with the several miracles: water into wine, feeding of 5000, stilling the storm, walking on water, large catch of fish, and the coin in the fish’s mouth. Several parables describe growth and prosperity: sower and seed, seed growing secretly, mustard seed growth, vine and branches, the wedding feasts, and the prodigal’s party. 

The Messianic Age when Jesus comes will be a glorious time. These promises involve two aspects: 1) the spiritual fertility and abundance of the kingdom of God ruling in the hearts of believers; 2) the eternal state of paradise with God. The two aspects are connected to each other: the one is now by faith, and the other is later by sight. The one flows into the other. We see neither the present spiritual abundant life nor the future physical abundant life, but we see them afar off and take hold of them by faith. For the present time, we need to see life from this glorious point of view. Though the fertile life is obscured by sin it is nevertheless more real and abiding that the life we see and feel.

The promise of life in the Kingdom is beyond description, but the Bible uses physical things we can see to attempt top describe spiritual and eternal beauty and prosperity. The Lord Himself is as fresh every morning as the dew unto us. So is God’s mercy new every morning. The Church shall grow as the lily, and all the blossoming flowers of grace and beauty. The roots of the Church spread widely and grow deep, so that we may stand strong and always find nourishment. Our branches shall spread abroad to provide shade and cool breezes as rest and relaxation for the soul. The beauty of trees reminds us of the beauty of the Church as it reflects the beauty of the Lord God to the world. The smell of the cedars of Lebanon points to the fragrance of Christ living in Christians as they give off the pleasant odor of love to all around them. Receiving the present and future promise by faith affects our life with joy and hope.

356. Heal Backsliding

Hosea 14:4 I will heal their backsliding. I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him.

This promise can be dangerous, for sinners can presume upon the mercy of God, take it for granted, and just go ahead and sin with planned penitence hoping that God will forgive. God is merciful, He does love us freely, and his anger is turned away from us. But that does not give us license to do what we want and then ask for forgiveness later. 

Instead, the promise of grace and healing of backsliding is a motivation to be good and do acts of service and kindness. It is the goodness of God that leads to repentance and the inner desire to do better. We do not look to get away with sin, but rather to avoid it ahead of time. The anger of God is turned away from us because God’s wrath has been placed upon the Son of God on the cross. The grace, mercy and love of God is the only power that can change the human heart, its desires and the subsequent behaviors. The Law does not have that power; it only has the power to convict, accuse and condemn. Therefore, the Gospel of grace and the promise of mercy give us the motivation and ability to turn from serving self to serving others.

Nevertheless, this promise is encouraging for us because we are still sinners, tempted by sin, and living in a sinful world. All Christians backslide every day since we can’t get rid of the sinful, selfish flesh. We may struggle hard, but we still lose. But Jesus wins. Therefore, we need the encouragement of the promise that God will heal our backsliding. Every little sin is a sliding backward. We need the promise of healing daily, for we cannot go very long without exerting our selfish and willful nature. We backslide; we repent and believe; we are forgiven and healed; we have a changed motivation to live better. Then we pray the meaning of the Lord’s Prayer, which is simply a glorified way asking the Father to make me a better person.

Backsliding hurts us and damages our lives. We need healing and straightening. We take hold of this promise and apply it personally through faith in the Gospel of a God who says, “I will love them freely.” If we are not constantly turning, if we absent ourselves from the church that preaches the gospel for too long, and if we blithely go our “merry” way oblivious to the grace of God we may keep on sliding back into the pit of hell and the slough of despond. But like the Prodigal, we return home where we belong, to the loving arms of a gracious Father. Then we stop sliding, and we go forth.

355. Redeem from Death

Hosea 13:14 I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction: repentance shall be hid from mine eyes.

Death is the last enemy that will be destroyed. We have been and we will be ransomed from the power of death and redeemed from death. We pay a ransom for someone who has been kidnapped; we redeem someone who has been enslaved. We were kidnapped by death and the devil; we were enslaved by sin. These enemies have been overcome by the innocent death of Jesus Christ, and sin and death were decisively defeated by the resurrection of Christ.

Death has no more power to instill fear or take a life. Death will take our life, but because of Christ he must give it back again. It cannot hold us. All during our life we suffer under the shadow of death, in three ways: 1) Loved ones die while we are still living; they are removed from our presence; and we are separated from them. Christ has removed this temporary separation: we shall be reunited once again forever, never to be separated again. 2) The fear of death is ever present, and the end of life is certain to come; our own death looms over us every day. We are delivered from the fear of death. Though we will die; yet, we shall live. 3) We suffer many “little deaths” throughout life: every time we get sick or injured health and life is diminished; every emotional issue reduces the full life we cherish; every damaged relationship takes away a bit of living life.

But when we focus on Christ’s resurrection we enjoy the presence of His Life with us and in us. When we focus on Christ’s resurrection we are strengthened and encouraged in our own certain bodily resurrection. Death is serious. We make no mistake about that. But in another sense, by faith we laugh at death because it is destroyed and it cannot hold us for long. We laugh at death for it has no plagues. We laugh at death because the Lord is his destruction. And this decree cannot be changed. And so we laugh at death, for its defeat is certain and we win. We live in the joy of victory. We have been redeemed!

354. Rain Righteousness

Hosea 10:12 Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the Lord, till he come and rain righteousness upon you.

The Lord will come and rain righteousness upon you. When Jesus came to earth he earned righteousness so that the Lord could rain His righteousness upon us, for the righteous shall live by faith, Since we could not claim our own righteousness or set it up for ourselves, God Himself, in the person of the Son, came to earth as a man to earn it and give it to us freely. Faith receives it.

After the death and resurrection of Christ, Jesus poured out the Holy Spirit upon all people like rain from heaven. The rain of the Spirit gives life to lifeless souls, whom the Spirit has led to accept Christ as Savior. The Spirit continues to pour out righteousness like rain until we become saturated, nourished, and saturated again and again with the righteousness of God. In this faith we are accounted righteous, purified from sin, and fit to live in God’s presence eternally. Jesus, who is now ruling all things from the right hand of God, continues to pour out the rain of the Spirit who fills us with God’s life.

The conditions of this promise of the coming of the rain include sowing, plowing and seeking. The conditions listed together equal faith in Jesus. Jesus uses the farming metaphor many times to describe the kingdom of God. The farmer, who is God, sows the seed, which is the Word of Gospel. Then the farmer plows the fallow ground to break it up so that the seed may sink into the ground and take root. (Modern day farming reverses this process, plowing first and then planting.) The fallow ground is hard ground after a long winter, which cannot receive the seed. The hard ground is the soul, which is hardened to God’s Word by its Enemies. The Spirit uses the experiences of life connected to the Word to bring about repentance and softness ready to receive Jesus. To all those who did receive Him (believe in Jesus) He gave the right to become the children of God. Then we seek the Lord, that is, cultivate the soil of the soul, wait for the rain, and look for the harvest of righteousness. This is the promise that the Lord will fulfill in each believer’s life.

353. Lord comes as the Rain

Hosea 6:3 Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth.

The Lord promises to come to us as the rain, like the former and the latter rain. Both rains are necessary for the growth of the crops. The rain is the Holy Spirit poured out upon us when we believe. The Spirit enters into our spirit and causes the soul to grow and produce a harvest. We cannot make it rain, no matter what we try to do; neither can we make the Lord come to us as the rain. He comes in His time and in His season. But He will come.

The going forth of the Lord is prepared as the morning. As sure as the sun rises in the morning dawn, so the Lord will surely come to us. He will come in His time, but He will surely come. Therefore, we can pray for His coming when we need Him. The coming of the morning is assured and it is prepared for us. As surely as the sun will rise, so surely the Spirit comes. We may have to wait, but we do not have to doubt. The Lord has prepared Himself to come each morning and each new day. As surely as Christ died and rose again, so surely will He send the Holy Spirit. For each day the Lord has prepared beforehand all the good works that we should walk in. We just follow on to know the Lord, and He comes at the right time. How do we follow on to know the Lord? We follow on through daily repentance and faith in the gospel. This is our daily early morning ritual habit. Then we wait on the day to see the opportunity to serve and do the prepared good works. When our focus is on Jesus and His kingdom all these good things will be added. When Jesus says “all these things will be added unto you,” He is referring to the already prepared good works. The rain (the Spirit) will come and move within us to prompt us to the good, while at the same time, with the rain, He will provide and take care of us for all that we need. He will give us daily bread. He gives both physical and spiritual bread to do the good. That’s why it rains.

352. Revive and Raise 

Hosea 6:2 After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight.

God promises that we will be revived, that He will raise us up, and that we will live in His sight. After two days = after a relatively short time. 

We shall be revived. One is revived after passing out, fainting, or just becoming unconscious. He is given life once again and restored like before. In Adam we were breathed into and we became a living soul. In Adam we sinned and immediately died. We lost the Life. The spirit died and was disconnected from the Lord. We are born spiritually dead. Dead people can do nothing; much less can they do anything good. Without a connection and union with the Life of God the human is left with a selfish soul that seeks only his or her own good in order to survive and try to make a life. But without God life fails. We are born dead with only an animal survival soul. We remain dead until we are revived, that is, baptized, born from above, or born of water and the spirit, God’s life enters our spirit and we have new life. Jesus says we enter the kingdom of God. Whichever metaphor we use, the promise is: He will revive us. Believing is living: “By believing you may have life in his name.”

In the third day the Lord will raise us up. This is the raising up back to life again of a dead body. After death is resurrection, and the body lives again without end. This raising takes place “in the third day.” This phrase is a veiled allusion to the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ on Easter Sunday. “On the third day he rose again according to the Scripture.” Hosea 6:2 is the Scripture. We who believe in Jesus are united with Him in His resurrection, and because of Jesus’ resurrection God the Father will raise us up. Body unites with soul and we are whole again. We must wait for such health and life to be enjoyed until we are changed, 1 Corinthians 15:31, 32: “We shall all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.”

And we shall live in his sight. God promises life: we will live. This can be taken two ways, physically and spiritually: 1) Physically, we will live in the actual sight of God and we shall see Him in our own resurrected body. “Yet my flesh I shall see God.” Once we behold the beatific vision of the Glorious Lord God with our physical eyes we will never be the same again. We will indeed be “changed.” This is truly “living in his sight.” 2) Spiritually, we live presently in His sight. God sees into our invisible spirit and He sees a reflection of Himself, and He is well pleased. We always live in His sight. He sees what we don’t, and that’s a good thing. He sees, us, knows us, cares for us, and takes care of us. We truly live.

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!

350. Return, Seek, Fear

Hosea 3:5 Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the Lord their God, and David their king: and shall fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter days.

The promise for Israel is that the people shall return and seek the Lord and shall fear the Lord and his goodness. This promise came true in the return from Exile, but the true and extended promise is for all believers in Christ: in the “latter days” believers, the people of God, will return to the Lord, seek Him, and believe the Lord and His goodness. The “latter days” are the days of the New Testament, from the time of Jesus’ First Coming to earth at Christmas and the time of His Second Coming to earth at the End of Time. During all these days the people of God will believe in the Lord and His goodness.

This promise refers to us NT believers. Through believing and following Jesus Christ we are returning, seeking and believing. The promise is that we will do so. And so it has happened in these days in which we are alive. We, the people of God, the Church, which is the New Israel, will return and seek the Lord. This is what we have done in the New Testament times. Jesus has come to earth and gathered followers. These are the children of Israel who have returned and sought the Lord their God. The Church also seeks Jesus, the Son of David their king. The promise is for each believer like me: I will return and seek the Lord and Jesus my king. I worship the Lord Jesus Christ and take Him as my only King and Lord. I will have no other.

We shall fear the Lord. In Biblical language, to “fear the Lord” means the same as “believe in Jesus.” The promise is true: we NT believers in Christ fear, love and trust the Lord Jesus Christ alone to the exclusion of everything else. We also believe in and trust His goodness. We confess and believe: God is good! God is not just good all the time; He is good to me. In difficult times I will still hang on to the Lord and believe that He is good to me. I do not always see the good, but I can still believe that God is good even, or especially, in troubled and threatening and painful times. God is still here in the middle of everything, and He is able to work out everything, everything, together for good. The promise is that I will seek His goodness. Faith opens the eyes to see the goodness of God in everything, and thank Him for it. It is not always easy, but you can find God’s goodness if you look for it.

349. Mercy and a People

Hosea 2:23 And I will sow her unto me in the earth; and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to them which were not my people, Thou are my people: and they shall say, Thou art my God.

We have not obtained mercy. We don’t deserve mercy. According to all that’s holy and just and right, we cannot have mercy shown to us. But in spite of the fact that each human being has forfeited God’s love, God’s life, and God Himself, God will have mercy. It is holy, just and right that we cannot be shown mercy or be acquitted. We justly deserved nothing but condemnation, the sentence of death, and eternal punishment.

But God has mercy because of what Jesus Christ, His only Son, has done for us. Because of Jesus the Lord can justly and rightly forgive our sins, give us eternal life, and bring us to Himself in heaven. God is merciful, but He does not just forgive because He decides to have mercy; He has mercy because of Christ. Our Sin has been justly and fully paid for, so both the holiness and the love of God is satisfied. In this way, God has mercy on us, the sinners, and we go to our home justified.

God, as a righteous judge, may decide anything He wants to, but He cannot and He will not decide against His nature and character. He cannot violate His Holiness. It must be maintained, or He could not be God any longer. So He did the only thing possible: He Himself came to fulfill righteousness for us, and died for us. Now He can and He will rightly, justly, totally and eternally forgive. He has mercy on us who have a snowball’s chance for mercy.

We are not His people. We lost that privilege through sin, disobedience and rebellion. Sinners have no relationship or connection to God. Sin separates. Sin brings death, which is eternal separation. By grace He makes a covenant with us, which makes us His people again. Our relationship, our connection, our communion with the Lord God is restored fully in Christ. We are His people; we belong to Him; we are at home in the family. “I am by Beloved’s, and He is mine.”

We receive that promise and complete the covenant by saying, “Thou art my God!” We love Him because He first loved us. Loving God is the outcome and fruit of faith. Jesus gives mercy and restores our relationship.