Hosea 14:4
I will heal their apostasy; I will love them freely, for my anger has turned from them.
Hosea has lived out the drama of a faithless wife in front of the nation, a drama that Israel and God had experienced in their covenant relationship, a relationship that needs to be based on obedience and trust, but fell into drama and pain, due to the treachery of a unfaithful wife, a woman who would not submit to her man.
She was a loose woman before Hosea married her, as was Israel.
She was a faithless wife after Hosea married her, as was Israel.
She suffered due to her decisions, as will Israel.
And yet God says He will heal her.
Honestly, I expected that God would speak of forgiveness toward Israel, especially as the first few verses of Hosea speaks of their need of repentance and return to Him. But He speaks of healing.
If forgiveness was referred to, in my minds eye, I see a Judge who has found a way to righteously release the criminal – as in the gospel message and the crime being paid for by the Guiltless One.
But Hosea doesn’t speak of forgiveness, at least not in this passage referring to apostacy. He speaks of healing. Now when healing is brought into the conversation, it implies a relationship of doctor / patient, and of a diseased condition. That is somewhat shocking, for that implies a condition in which Israel may not be culpable.
No one “blames” me if I have Covid 19. I don’t link a disease with my will or actions stemming from it. Granted some disease may be associated with bad decisions, but the point is that God is in the healing business in this passage.
And to be clear, this disease is not some simple Covid 19, a relatively minor infection that is essentially harmless. This disease is the disease of sin in and through the heart of the victim, a spiritual sickness that leads to death, that is carried by each and every one of us, that pulls us down, that pulls us away, that draws us to the worst and not the best, that harms us and eventually kills us.
God will heal this disease, this apostacy, this sickness rampant through the nation. It will take time, and the death of the Only One, but the healing will and has come. But for those individuals who rejected Hosea’s plea to return to the Lord, it seems that the disease would continue in it’s natural course of destruction.
This passage speaks to me of the many faceted mercies of God, that in His sacrifice for us, He dealt with the willful sin of the rebel, and healed the helpless victim of a killing disease.
Apostacy existed in the Old Testament. The rot of sin had gotten hold of the nation and both Jeremiah and Hosea spoke of this condition as the nation teetered into the chasm of captivity. The reality of apostacy became evident as the pleas for repentance were at first ignored, then rejected, and finally deaf to any message from the Lord.
Don’t reject the call of God on your life, even in those day to day circumstances when God’s Word speaks loudly in the mundane, the ordinary, the “boring” acts of obedience we as the Bride of Christ can do to show our love to Him.
As I have heard often, the closer the walk, the better the life!
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