Passion and Rebellion

GOD'S PASSION FOR

HIS REBELLIOUS CHILD

When we seek after anyone or anything other than God to provide us with food, water, clothing, etc, we are like an adulterous wife. We have become unfaithful to God. We are to continually acknowledge God's provision. We have become "guilty of the vilest adultery." (Hosea 1:2) Hosea walks us through the steps God will take to bring us back to Him:

1. He puts us in a place where nothing will bring us satisfaction.

He strips us naked and makes us like a desert. He creates a thirst for living water. It's a thirst that cannot be quenched except by Him.

"Otherwise I will strip her naked and make her as bare as on the day she was born; I will make her like a desert, turn her into a parched land, and slay her with thirst." (Hosea 2:3 NIV)

2. He blocks all of our plans.

We will come back to Him, but until we acknowledge Him and His provision we are still in rebellion. He will bring us into an intense time of frustration.

Their mother has been unfaithful and has conceived them in disgrace. She said, 'I will go after my lovers, who give me my food and my water, my wool and my linen, my oil and my drink.' Therefore I will block her path with thornbushes; I will wall her in so that she cannot find her way. (Hosea 2:5-6)

3. He exposes us. Our true motives will not be hidden from anyone.

So now I will expose her lewdness before the eyes of her lovers; no one will take her out of my hands. (Hosea 2:10 NIV)

4. He will bring us into a place of many troubles and He will punish us.

I will punish her for the days she burned incense to the Baals; she decked herself with rings and jewelry, and went after her lovers, but me she forgot," declares the LORD. (Hosea 2:13 NIV)

5. He will allure us from the place of trouble into His presence . He will lead us into the desert and speak tenderly to us, restore our blessings and give us a song in our hearts.

"Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her. There I will give her back her vineyards, and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. There she will sing as in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt. (Hosea 2:14-15 NIV)

This is when He will give us a physical reason to want to live. Our lives will become so full of trouble that the bottom seems to fall out. We will have nowhere else to go for help but to Him. At this point, if we turn to Him, He will change our relationship from "master" to "husband." It is indicative of an intimate relationship with Him. Our focus will change, and our old "gods" will no longer be in our minds and hearts.

(Hosea 2:16 NIV) "In that day," declares the LORD, "you will call me 'my husband'; you will no longer call me 'my master.'

6. He will "betroth " us in righteousness and justice faithfulness, love, and compassion. And we will acknowledge Him.

I will betroth you to me forever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion. I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will acknowledge the LORD. "In that day I will respond," declares the LORD-- "I will respond to the skies, and they will respond to the earth; and the earth will respond to the grain, the new wine and oil, and they will respond to Jezreel. I will plant her for myself in the land; I will show my love to the one I called 'Not my loved one. ' I will say to those called 'Not my people, ' 'You are my people'; and they will say, 'You are my God.'" (Hosea 2:19-23)

7. If we still remain unfaithful to Him, He will then come at us as a roaring lion.

Evil angers God because evil destroys His children.   He will not sit quietly by while His children indulge in perversion.   He lets us go our sinful ways and reap the consequences. Every broken heart, unwanted child, war and tragedy can be traced back to our rebellion against God. The one who urges us to "hate what is evil" (Rom 12:9) is the One who hates evil (Rom 1:18)

Love is always angry at evil.

God gets angry because disobedience always leads to self destruction. It is not like human wrath, which is self-driven. He is rightfully angry. Our sins are an affront to his Holiness (Heb 1:13).   His eyes "are too good to look at evil; He cannot stand to see those who do wrong." We have no excuse for what we do (Rom 1:19-20)

God has a Holy Hostility; a righteous hatred of wrong; a divine disgust at the evil that destroys His children.

So, if we will not turn to Him when He has wooed us lovingly, He will become a roaring lion.   He will tear us to pieces and go away. He will carry us off and no one can rescue us. (Hosea 5:14-15) He will then leave us until we repent- He will withdraw His presence from us!!!!! (That is not to say He is not watching over us.)   He knows that if we become miserable enough we will return to Him, and He is willing to let us suffer for as long and as hard as it takes. He will be ready to bind our wounds when we do come to Him.

He will never give up on us, even if He has to train us up so we will call on Him so He can heal us.   As someone wise once said, "God is more interested in my character than He is in my comfort."   He will strip us bare in order to dress us in righteousness. But that is not His choice.   He would like to do that as soon as possible.   It is our own choices that bring us through the fires!

OH FATHER, THANK YOU FOR YOUR PROMISE TO NEVER GIVE UP ON ME! FORGIVE ME FOR THE TIMES I HAVE IGNORED AND TURNED MY BACK ON YOUR LOVE. I THANK YOU THAT YOU LOVE ME ENOUGH TO ALLOW ME TO SUFFER PAIN IF THAT IS WHAT IT TAKES FOR ME TO COME BACK TO YOU. I PRAY I WILL KEEP MY FOCUS AND MY HEART ALWAYS ON YOU. I PRAISE YOU FOR YOU UNFAILING LOVE FOR ME!!

Rom 1:12 that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith.

Prov 22:15 Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline will drive it far from him.

Prov 23:13-14 Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you punish him with the rod, he will not die. Punish him with the rod and save his soul from death.

Matt 13:11-15 He replied, "The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. This is why I speak to them in parables: "Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand. In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: "'You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. For this people's heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.'

Ps 34:8Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.

Ps 34:14Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.

Rom 12:9 Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.

Hosea 2:1-2 "Say of your brothers, 'My people,' and of your sisters, 'My loved one.' "Rebuke your mother, rebuke her, for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband. Let her remove the adulterous look from her face and the unfaithfulness from between her breasts.

Hosea 2:3-9. Otherwise I will strip her naked and make her as bare as on the day she was born; I will make her like a desert, turn her into a parched land, and slay her with thirst. I will not show my love to her children, because they are the children of adultery. Their mother has been unfaithful and has conceived them in disgrace. She said, 'I will go after my lovers, who give me my food and my water, my wool and my linen, my oil and my drink.' Therefore I will block her path with thornbushes; I will wall her in so that she cannot find her way. She will chase after her lovers but not catch them; she will look for them but not find them. Then she will say, 'I will go back to my husband as at first, for then I was better off than now.' She has not acknowledged that I was the one who gave her the grain, the new wine and oil, who lavished on her the silver and gold-- which they used for Baal. "Therefore I will take away my grain when it ripens, and my new wine when it is ready. I will take back my wool and my linen, intended to cover her nakedness.

Hosea 2:13-20 I will punish her for the days she burned incense to the Baals; she decked herself with rings and jewelry, and went after her lovers, but me she forgot," declares the LORD. "Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her. There I will give her back her vineyards, and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. There she will sing as in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt. "In that day," declares the LORD, "you will call me 'my husband'; you will no longer call me 'my master.' I will remove the names of the Baals from her lips; no longer will their names be invoked. In that day I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field and the birds of the air and the creatures that move along the ground. Bow and sword and battle I will abolish from the land, so that all may lie down in safety. I will betroth you to me forever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion. I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will acknowledge the LORD.

Ps 121:1-8 A song of ascents. I lift up my eyes to the hills-- where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot slip-- he who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
The LORD watches over you-- the LORD is your shade at your right hand;
the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. The LORD will keep you from all harm-- he will watch over your life; the LORD will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.