I Will Make the Outcasts a Strong Nation

“I will make the lame a remnant
And the outcasts a strong nation,
And the Lord will reign over them in Mount Zion
From now on and forever. ” -Mic. 4.7

The remnant of Israel will call upon the name of the Lord from the ashes of tribulation at the end of this age. In the time leading up to their salvation, they will be a despised and rejected people, considered by the nations to be the “scum of the earth.” The kings and potentates of the nations will see them as worthless, and they will pursue them with a vehemence and bitterness that can only be explained when we make note of how intensely the powers of darkness hate the God of covenant. There will be immeasurable trial and bloodshed during that distressful hour, and the Lord has declared that He will permit it as a necessary “affliction” before the salvation of Israel will be permanently established. (v. 6)

But here is where we see the glory of God’s brand of government. When Israel has been reduced to the category of the “lame” and the “outcasts,” it is “in that day” that He will “assemble” and “gather” them, setting into motion their remarkable national destiny. We ought to love how the Lord turns the wisdom of man on it’s head.

He makes “the lame a remnant and the outcasts a strong nation.” He will take the broken and fragmented nation, now dispersed throughout the earth and despised by all peoples, and anoint them as His own precious remnant, even a strong nation that He will reign over “from now on and forever.”

The mountain of the house of the Lord will be established as the chief of the mountains. It will be elevated above the hills, and peoples of the earth will make long pilgrimages in hopes of catching a glimpse of its glorious light. That previously despised people Israel, will be recognized as a “strong nation,” and her King will be present in the land. Everlasting joy will mark her as an entire nation, and not one sinner will be found among them. They will be a model nation for the rest of the earth, and their Ruler and King will be the One who governs with a rod of iron in one hand, and the towel and basin in the other.

Israel will pass through an unspeakable death before the glory of God rests upon her nationally, for her self-sufficiency and idolatry must first be purged from her midst. The prophets indicate that “Jacob’s trouble” will mean great trial and sifting for Israel, but when she emerges from the rubble, having called upon the name of the Lord, she will be crowned with mercy and grace, and God will raise her up, “a mighty and vast army.” We have a calling to set forth the Gospel to the Jew both now, and in the midst of the great trouble to come. We need to learn God’s government, that we are called to identify with those who are despised by men, even if it means a threat to our livelihood. We have been called to pray, to fast, and to set forth the Gospel of the Kingdom, until God Himself makes “the lame a remnant and the outcasts a strong nation, and the Lord will reign over them in Mount Zion from now on and forever.” Amen.

Co-Laborers in Supernatural Faith

“Now the day was ending, and the twelve came and said to Him, ‘Send the crowd away, that they may go into the surrounding villages and countryside and find lodging and get something to eat; for here we are in a desolate place.’
But He said to them, ‘You give them something to eat!’ And they said, ‘We have no more than five loaves and two fish, unless perhaps we go and buy food for all these people.’” -Lk. 9.12-13

We would do well not to condemn the ignorance and blindness of the disciples, for we are often walking in the same manner that they were in this passage. We are an earthbound bunch, and it matters not that we’ve experienced grace and mercy, without a continual stretching and exercising of vital faith, we eventually fall into a non-supernatural view of life.

The disciples had just returned from their first real Kingdom mission, for the Lord had sent them to preach the Gospel and to “perform healing” (v. 2) on all who would receive. They had gone “throughout the villages, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere.” (v. 6) This must’ve been a remarkable experience for them, for the same miraculous works that they had seen performed from the Lord were now taking place through their own hands. They returned to Jesus, and gave Him an account of the preaching and healing.

If this weren’t supernatural and mind-blowing enough, Jesus took them to Bethsaida, “but the crowds were aware of this and followed Him; and welcoming them, He began speaking to them about the kingdom of God and curing those who had need of healing.” (v. 11) So following their own brief but remarkable mission, they were brought to a new city and were blessed to watch the Lord perform even more works of power and deliverance before their eyes.

But “now the day was ending.” Surely the multiplied teachings and healings were enough to call the day good. Surely Jesus was fatigued by now. Surely the crowd needed to start heading back into town to find lodging and food. Surely things could only go downhill from here on out, and they were moving into “down-time” mode.

The sensible logic of the disciples enters into the text now, and it is just here that Jesus is wanting to teach something that they would never forget. He is looking for co-laborers, and He longs to walk with those who will believe Him in ways that seem ludicrous or illogical to the world and its wisdom.

How crooked their faces must’ve looked when Jesus said, “You give them something to eat!” They responded like most of us would. “We only have five loaves and two fish. I guess we could go into town and buy something from the food shop.” They wanted to obey Him, they wanted to serve the people, but they were thinking on an entirely lower plane than that which Jesus was teaching them to live on. How could Jesus have expected that these men would believe for a supernatural multiplication of fish and loaves?

It doesn’t seem reasonable, but He expected them to believe nonetheless, and we all know the outcome to the story. “And they all ate and were satisfied.” We mustn’t be too quick to fall back on our logic and human understanding. There may be a totally unexpected route that the Lord would have us to take in any given situation, so a moment-by-moment dependence upon Him is absolutely crucial. The possibilities of grace far transcend anything we can expect or figure, so we must walk in child-like faith before the One who is enthroned above, and who intends to demonstrate His power through those who are willing to co-labor with Him.

Eschatology Made Present

“While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who were listening to the message. All the circumcised believers who came with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also. For they were hearing them speaking with tongues and exalting God.” -Acts 10.44-46a

The Spirit of God is not confined to our categories and limitations. When we have settled into starchy subjectivity, and have failed to keep our hearts open to the Lord in child-like faith, it becomes His mission to burst our ideas at the seams, and to reveal His righteousness and love in ways that transcend our limitations.

The early Jewish apostles were mostly bound in their understanding of the spreading of God’s Gospel. Though they had heard the “great commission” firsthand, it had yet to break into their practical understanding and faith. It was precious that they were setting forth the Son of God in Jerusalem and it’s surrounding regions, but the idea of Gentiles receiving the same Life was still blurry or contradictory in their minds.

When Peter and his brethren witnessed the inbreaking of holy power in the house of Cornelius, their minds were changed immediately and dramatically. It required a trance and a vision to move Peter the first step from his subjective thinking, and it required a remarkable outpouring of the Spirit to seal the deal in his heart. The Lord is merciful to move us toward the reality of His heavenly Kingdom, and we can be intensely grateful that He is, for if we reject the work of His Spirit now, we become candidates for hardening our hearts towards the full expression of the Kingdom which is yet to come.

The Spirit of God poured out in the midst of weak souls who are pursuing Him is the tangible foretaste of eschatological power and life. The joy, fire, conviction, wonder, intensity, and love that results from the activity of the Spirit is but a glimpse of the glories to come.

When we speak of the Spirit as eschatological, we mean that it is eschatology made present. -Helmut Flender

We would do well to open our hearts entirely to the Lord in hunger and anticipation of the work of His Spirit. To quench that hunger and faith is to cut ourselves off from the blessed “deposit” that He longs to give us, that we might be rooted and grounded in love, and prepared for the day of shaking to come.

A church which seeks to restrict and control the Spirit, as too dangerous and unpredictable may be safe, but has signed its own death warrant. A church which seeks to follow where the Spirit leads will have to expect the unexpected and be prepared to be shaken to its core. -J.D.G. Dunn

Lord, we invite you to shake our categories. Pour out Your Spirit on all flesh, that we may know and walk in Your own purity, power, and love. Amen!

Undistracted Trust

“O Lord, my heart is not proud, nor my eyes haughty;
Nor do I involve myself in great matters
Or in things too difficult for me.
Surely I have composed and quieted my soul….” -Ps. 131.1-2a

One of the greatest distractions for serious believers is to fall into a heady, brain-centered kind of Christianity. While senseless and ignorant faith is foreign to the Scriptures, the flip-side of spiritual silliness is a pursuit of detail and knowledge that distracts the believer from the “simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.”

It is a stifling thing to allow your mind to run faster than your devotional spirit, for the human thought life will “take the treasure and run” if you allow it to. The psalmist equates the simplicity of trust in the Father with the leaning of a child upon the chest of its mother, and he calls Israel itself to the same kind of trust and sabbath rest in communion with the Lord.

Is your life marked by depression, anxiety, and confusion? It could be that you are involving your mind in matters “too difficult” for the present condition of your heart. It is one thing to search out great matters that the Lord places upon your heart. It is quite another to trust in your own wisdom and intellect in that pursuit.

It is the human tendency to turn to our own understanding, but the psalmist calls us to break down the altars of the mind, and all the swirling energies of speculation and presumption, and to trust in Him with an entire heart.

There will always be matters too great for us, no matter our maturity level, and it is crucial to recognize the season that the Lord has us in, and to learn to walk with Him through each valley, until He brings us to the next one. In the end, the issue of life is that of walking with the Lord, and it would be a great shame to stifle the life of communion with the God of creation by pursuing matters that He has not called us to be concerned with.

To Those Who Ask Him

“If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!” -Lk. 11.13

The Lord Jesus promised to send the Comforter to His disciples, stating that it would be better for us if He went than if He would have stayed. Surely the first disciples found this statement difficult to fathom, but on the day of Pentecost, when fire from heaven came down upon them all in the upper room, it became evident why Jesus had said such a thing.

Nowadays there are whole denominations who have no anticipation of the visitation of God by the Spirit, and there are others who equate noise and hype with spiritual movement. On the day of Pentecost, there was a great noise from heaven, and it was heaven’s response to the faith, hunger and anticipation of the disciples who were waiting upon Him, having believed His promise.

We need daily to be reminded that the promise is to us just as much as it was to the believers of old. Hear this from Wesley Duewel:

You need not remain satisfied with an occasional awareness of God’s Spirit in your life. You can be filled with Him daily, moment by moment. He places the longing for more of His Spirit in your heart because He desires to satisfy you, to amaze you by His abundant answer.

…. God wants you to have such an abundance of the water of the Spirit that you are more than satisfied. The Spirit’s water will spring up within you like a fountain fed by an artesian well (Jn. 4.14). When you are thus filled with the Spirit, it will be impossible to hide the fact, and thirsty people around you will come and be blessed through your life.

(Wesley Duewel, More God More Power; Zondervan, pp. 15-16)

The promise is not some doctrinal opinion reserved for those in Pentecostal denominations. It is not an optional idea for those believers who are interested. It is not some cheap and unfounded emotional display in a large meeting. The promise is that the Living Waters of God will come rushing into your life with all the force of God Himself, if you are hungry, child-like, and trusting enough to ask it of the Father. He will impart His own power, love, and nature to the saint who hungers and thirsts after His Spirit. He will make all things new and give you His own character and heart.

His desire to give you His Spirit is greater than a father’s desire to give good gifts to his children. Turn to Him today, then, dear saint. The Lamb of God was slain to open the floodgates of grace over your life, and He will pour out His Spirit upon all who are thirsty.

Enshrouded, Yet Perceiving Him

“I have set the Lord continually before me;
Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.” -Ps. 16.8

The life of faith, and the life of any soul in general, is fraught with mysteries and unanswered dilemmas. If one is honest about himself and about his life, there are aspects that are enshrouded with uncertainty, and the Lord permits these areas to remain so until we have learned to “set” Him continually before our hearts.

We can allow the cloudiness to move us into depressions, deathly introspection, and hopelessness, or we can set the Lord before our lives even though we are totally rattled and bewildered. No matter how dark the season, or how grim the situation, the believer always has the option to lift his head heavenward. Every saint will at some point encounter paradoxes, contradictions, and painful mysteries in the life of faith. Sometimes they are demonic in origin, and may be driven back through prayer and faith. Other times, the Lord permits these events and seasons for the growth and strengthening of the inner-man. Jesus Himself endured such seasons, but the totality of His dependence upon the Father shone through gloriously, and He has invited us to the same kind of overcoming communion.

In these dark seasons, if we would abide in Him still, we must learn to “set” Him continually before our hearts, that we might not be shaken. Hear John Calvin on this portion:

To set God before us is nothing else than to keep all our senses bound and captive, that they may not run out and go astray after any other object. We must look to Him with other eyes than those of the flesh, for we shall seldom be able to perceive Him unless we elevate our minds above the world; and faith prevents us from turning our back on Him.

(John Calvin, as quoted in Psalms: A Continental Commentary by Hans Joachim-Kraus; Fortress Press)

We can be sure that though the ground seems to shake beneath us, when we set Him before us we will see that He is at our right hand. In that revelation, we will not be shaken. Today, dear saint, set the Lord before your heart and life. He will keep you secure in the hour of trial, and you will see the glory of God. Perceiving Him, even while enveloped with difficulty and unanswered dilemmas, is to experience the eternal life of God. Perceiving Him is everything.

Lord, we would see You at all times, for this is our inheritance in Christ. Teach us, in the weakest of times, to perceive Your glory, and to set Your Person before us.

Turning to See the Voice

“I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me…” -Rev. 1.12a

In the first chapter of Revelation, John gives a brief but staggering description of his face-to-face meeting with the resurrected and ascended Lord. He is rocked by what he sees, and though he had lain his head upon the chest of Jesus during His earthly ministry, and though he had witnessed the transfiguration, his frame could not bear the heat and light of an open encounter with the Son of God in His Kingly glory.

Though Jesus comforted him with the words “Do not fear,” it goes without saying that we have grossly underestimated the power and majesty of God, and have become too casual with the subject of His glory. The excesses within many modern circles may be more unfortunate than ever, with so much focus being placed on supernatural phenomena, without rightly seeing the One who sits on the heavenly throne. The sense of His holiness has all but dissipated, and the reality of His power has been undermined.

In some places He is considered so stoic and lifeless that one can hardly believe in the reality of His love, and in other places He is almost like a hippy, and you can more easily imagine him flashing a “peace” sign than you can envision Him returning with holy fire in His eyes, a sword at His hip, and vengeance in His heart, “dealing out retribution on them who know not God and obey not the gospel.” There are pictures of the Lord given in the book of Revelation that most believers are unwilling to be confronted with, yet without these passages we have yet to see the Lord as He has shown Himself, and as He will be revealed at the end.

It is crucial for us to know Him as He is, and not to see Him through the limited lens of religious categories. Hear David Pawson on this:

The important thing is that Christians should know what Jesus looks like now. Sometimes parents cling to a photograph of their little child as a baby after the child has grown up, with an almost subconscious wish that the child was still a little baby, but you have got to live with people as they are now if the relationship is going to be real; you cannot live with a picture, you must live with a person. And it is terribly important that Christians should grow up and live with Jesus as he is now, not with a kind of sentimental picture of a fair-haired person with blue eyes, such as you have seen in Sunday school take home papers, otherwise you will get a distorted view.

….So get away from the view of Jesus you had as a child, and get to this mature, heavenly, majestic view; this is a view of Jesus as divine as well as human: in glory, in majesty, in purity, as well as in compassion.

(Come With Me Through Revelation; David Pawson, Terra Nova Publications; 2008, pp. 49-52)

Today, ask the Lord for the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Himself. Ask for a greater encounter with His unfailing love and compassion. Ask for a greater touch of His purifying and refining fire. Ask for a greater understanding of His heart. Ask for a revelation of His coming. The true knowledge of God is worth dying for, and a life lived without knowing the reality of His heart is no life at all.

“Thus says the Lord, ‘Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches; but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me….” -Jer. 9.23-24a

The Eschatological Lifestyle: Broken Bread & Poured Out Wine

“For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.”  -2 Tim. 4.6-8

The line of faith that the apostle abides in is not of a different brand than that which the Church itself lives in. There are not two separate faiths, one for the apostles and prophets, and another for the “regular” Christian folk. Paul unconsciously puts the sword on the table in this passage, inviting us into the soldiership of eschatological living. For him, it is impossible to long for the appearing of Jesus, and to simultaneously live and unconsecrated lifestyle.

This passage is charged with a sense of rejoicing in the gracious work of God in Paul’s life. He realized full well that it was not his own work, but “Christ in me,” working out that which He desired to work out through the apostle’s frame. There is almost a sense in this late letter from Paul, that ‘the journey is about to come to an end, and I am about to exhale for the last time, only to inhale the clear air of heaven in remarkable and new experience.’ He is not afraid of death, and there is no sense of regret in his words here. The time has come for his departure, and by the grace of God, he has “fought the good fight,” “finished the race,” and “kept the faith.”

He has demonstrated the reality of living as broken bread and poured out wine, along every line of consecration. He has lived a life of worship and adoration in secret and before men. He has labored long years in intercession and prayer for the saints. He has walked in humility, mercy, and purity of heart. He has boldly set forth the Gospel of the Kingdom is both pleasant and dangerous atmospheres. He has seen the power of the Spirit move through his person, and he has developed blisters while building tents with the same hands that delivered healing. He has been embraced in one place and pelted with rocks in another. He has delighted in the faith of the saints and agonized over those who have forsaken the Lord. He has been utterly poured out for the glory of God, and for him, this was the only legitimate response to the Gospel of Christ and the promise of His soon return.

Paul puts the sword on the table in this text. The reward is laid up for him, he declares, for he has leaned hard into the grace of God, taking all the risks that were set before him, in light of the soon coming of his King. For Paul, who longed for Jesus’ appearing, nothing else made sense aside from allowing his life to be poured out completely. And the reward is ours as well, not because we sing ditties about His return, but because we come into the same eschatological lifestyle ourselves- a life of holy love; a life of total consecration; a life of prayer and intercession; a life of purity and power; a life that can only be described as broken bread and poured out wine for the Glory of Christ, the salvation of Israel, and the transformation of the nations.

We are not called to dwell on the periphery, but to delve deeply into the heart of God, and to come into an eschatological lifestyle; a mode of living that makes sense in light of the cross, and in light of His glorious appearing.

Are You A Witness?

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” -Acts 1.8

The reception of Holy Spirit power is a total necessity to the life of true faith. Without receiving power from on high, you have nothing but a mental idea of religion, however accurate it may be. Without receiving power from on high, you have not believed the Gospel in the manner that Jesus had in mind when He went to the cross.

The joy set before Him was the promise that a “nation of priests” would be raised up, not by merely agreeing with the doctrinal truth of the cross, but by receiving His own Spirit in a manner so real and tangible that they would be made to live as witnesses “to the ends of the earth.”

Our concept of “witnessing” falls short of the NT consciousness. We have often reduced it to the act of handing out tracts or presenting the “Romans Road” to salvation in a mechanical manner. Hence, our “converts” have often come into a mental faith only, and have failed to be born from above by the power of God’s indestructible life.

It is as Leonard Ravenhill once wrote:

A sermon from the head reaches the head. A sermon from the heart reaches the heart.

That is not to say that only an emotionally charged act of witness will suffice, but rather to say that unless our own conscience has been seared by the fire of God, and unless we are speaking by the power of His Spirit, we are not introducing men to the faith that the apostles have handed down to us.

You shall “be” witnesses. This is not merely handing out tracts, nor is it simply sitting around and trying to “be” something as opposed to “doing” something. To be a witness of something, you have to have seen it. Many of us were witnesses of the fire, smoke, and ash of that terrible day on 9/11. You may have witnessed some catastrophic event, or perhaps some wonderful historical happening. Maybe you were a witness of the tearing down of the Berlin wall, or some other memorable thing. You are not a witness because you went around handing out tracts about the Berlin wall, but because you saw it, even if it was over a TV screen.

The folk in Cleveland, having seen the talent of All-Star basketball player Lebron James, can often be found wearing the T-Shirt which declares, “We Are All Witnesses.” I think they have a better concept of the NT idea of “witness” than most believers, though their subject doesn’t hold a candle to the Man Christ Jesus.

Have you received His Spirit in power? Only by receiving His Spirit are we made into witnesses, those who can say, “We are all witnesses who can testify to the reality: Jesus Christ was crucified, He is risen and enthroned, and He is coming to Judge the nations and establish righteousness and peace forever.”

Only by the Spirit can we make such a claim, and only by the Spirit will men receive the Gospel of the Kingdom through us. So, dear Christian, are you a witness?

The Marvel of Yahweh’s Emotive Loyalty

“So My people are bent on turning from Me.
Though they [God's prophets] call them [Israel] to the One on high,
None at all exalts Him.
How can I give you up, O Ephraim?
How can I surrender you, O Israel?
…. My heart is turned over within Me,
All My compassions are kindled.” -Hos. 11.7-8

Hosea 11 contains one of the most remarkable self-disclosures of God in the whole of Scripture. Upon reading it, one is struck with a heightened sense of the Divine emotions, the intensity of Fatherly love, and the impassioned longings of a holy Creator Who desires to show mercy far beyond the point of pain. We would do well to lay our souls before it afresh.

Not too long ago, I had a rather “non-pastoral” interaction with a leader in the Body of Christ. Without going into the details, let me just say that he was terribly suspicious of any activity in the Church that was marked with human emotions in the least way. The whole event left me with a sense that the Lord must be quite stoical, unemotional, and incapable of relating to the feelings of human beings. While still “catching my breath” from that interaction, my daily readings took me to Hosea 11. The revelation of God contained therein is totally contrary to what this particular leader had conveyed.

In fact, the description of Yahweh’s impassioned plea with Israel totally transcends the reach of any human language, and I believe Hosea’s experience was something like trying to describe the force of a hurricane wave just after being washed ashore by its power. What can you say that will fit the magnitude of it? I find it remarkable that, as Hosea shows, God loves the way that He does, and that He feels a grief, a compassion, and a Fatherly affection that far supersedes anything we’ve ever known.

Hear OT scholar James Luther Mays on this portion:

Yahweh’s self-disclosure through the speech of Hosea reaches an unusual level of intensity and power in this chapter. The portrayal of Yahweh as a father caring for a son achieves an explicit tenderness and detail unmatched in the Old Testament.

…. The emotion and commitment of love is introduced as the basis and power of Yahweh’s way with Israel; and a theme of revelation appears which finds its climax finally in the New Testament.

(Hosea by J.L. Mays, WJK Publishers; 1969)

In the days of the Great Awakenings, Whitefield and Wesley, Finney and Edwards all suffered indictments against their meetings from critics. Much of the criticism they heard was the result of ‘emotionalism’ from the participants, or ‘enthusiasm’ as the critics then called it. While there were certainly excesses in every historical revival, there have always been those souls who could not bear the idea of anything emotional transpiring in religious gatherings, and who felt the need to raise a cry against it. Of course, their names are not nearly as remembered as the true Kingdom laborers whom they were criticizing. (Be assured that wood, hay and stubble will burn entirely at the Judgment, but it is already going up in smoke today.)

While there are fleshly emotional displays in various kinds of Christian meetings (and perhaps they are more flagrant in our day than any other!), this does not discount the remarkable truth that God Himself is an emotional Being. His loyalty to covenant and servant is intensely emotive; that is to say, He burns with love and holy jealousy, and His emotions actually awaken our spiritual consciousness from numbness and indifference as well!

I still remember one of my teachers asking the congregation over a decade ago:

You don’t think God has emotions? Remember, He’s God, we’re the image!

In other words, our make-up is based on His, not the reverse. The trouble is, we have sin and deceit within, and our emotions are without the wisdom and truth of God. So it could be said that in many ways, the process of discipleship has to do with learning to live and walk upon the foundation of Christ so solidly that our emotions are immersed and aligned with His own.

In verses 1-4 the Lord gives us a remarkable view into His own Fatherly feelings toward Israel. Though Israel went away from the pleadings of the prophets, though they sacrificed to the Baals and burned incense to idols (v. 2), He could not forget that when “Israel was a youth I loved him, and out of Egypt I called My son.” The God of consuming fire who shook the mount, was also the One “who taught Ephraim to walk,” “took them in My arms,” “led them with cords of a man, with bonds of love,” and “became to them as one who lifts the yoke from their jaws,” bending down to feed them. The heightened intensity of fatherly love is here expressed, and as Mays wrote, it “achieves an explicit tenderness and detail unmatched in the Old Testament.” This is His way with Israel, and it is His way with every one of His children also. Do we know Him in this fatherly way, or have we been too busy-minded to let Him be a Father to us? As we see so profoundly expressed here, He longs to take us “out of Egypt,” out of the spirit of this age, and to embrace us, lift the yoke from our jaws, lead us with cords and bonds of love, and feed us from His own hand. What lovingkindness!

Verses 5-7 express the judgment and devastation that will strike Israel should they continue to worship idols and turn their hearts away from Him. “…. they refused to return to Me. The sword will whirl against their cities, and will demolish their gate bars and consume them because of the their counsels.” The God of Israel will not forever endure a cold shoulder from His children. When we delight in idols, and prefer the counsel of men to the word received in His holy place, His anger will build until judgement becomes a necessity. We see that here, as in all the prophets. In Hosea 11’s case, however, it climaxes in verse 7, and the level of Divine grief is too deep-seated to measure or describe:

“So My people are bent on turning from Me. Though they [God's prophets] call them [Israel] to the One on high, none at all exalts Him.”

Hear Mays again:

The verse carries the mood of a lament, Yahweh’s sorrowing over His people, a preparation for the intense self-questioning that breaks forth from Yahweh in v. 8.

Are we untouched by this? The Creator of all things, the Lord of history, the King of the nations, lamenting and sorrowing over His people? Would we make light of our sin? Would we treat the Lord as if He is no different than the wooden idols of the nations? One who cannot hear or see, one who cannot feel or sense, one who will not respond on any level? We need to be jolted by the Spirit with a new revelation of God’s Personhood.

Mays says that Yahweh was preparing for a series of questions in verse 7, and He asks them in verse 8.

“How can I give you up, O Ephraim?
How can I surrender you, O Israel?
How can I make you like Admah?
How can I treat you like Zeboiim?”

Are these questions asked with dryness and without feeling? Hardly. They are charged with the emotive loyalty of God Himself. Hear Mays once again:

In vv. 8f Yahweh reveals the suffering agony which Israel’s faithlessness has brought upon Him….

Through the prophet, He is disclosing His own self-examination in light of the covenant. It is a remarkable passage, where God Himself is so overcome with grief, yet so desirous of showing mercy, that He questions Himself, and allows His compassionate waters to overflow and flood out the imminence of judgment upon Israel.

“My heart is turned over within Me,
All My compassions are kindled.
I will not execute My fierce anger;
I will not destroy Ephraim again.
For I am God and not man, the Holy One in your midst,
And I will not come in wrath.
They will walk after the Lord….” (8b-10a)

…. His love will not let them go. In the sovereign freedom of His being God He refuses to permit the sin of Israel to lead to their annihilation. (Mays)

As history confirms, the Lord has been through many controversies with Israel, and judgments have been poured out upon her in measures that cause any sober heart to tremble. The majority of God’s covenant people have refused to turn to Him, and have been cut-off from His presence forever. Only a remnant in our day is willing to consider Him. Only a small percentage of the people Israel have been willing to consider His Son Jesus. And it will be a remnant (though I’m convinced that it may be more than a few million souls) that blesses His name from the ground of eschatological Jerusalem; ground that has been shaken like no other time in history. So many have perished without knowing the God of Hosea; the One whom Jesus called “Our Father.”

If only they had known His heart toward them. If only they would have known that “His heart turned over” within Him, and that “all” His “compassions” were kindled toward them. Oh to set Him forth, friends! Oh to hold high the banner of the Gospel in this hour, to Jew and to Greek!

The revelation of this remarkable compassion reached is zenith in the cross of Jesus Christ. How He wept over Jerusalem! How He wept over His antagonists! How He wept over the lost sheep of His house!

Israel, like all nations, had proven that within themselves they would flop on every spiritual level, so the joy set before Him was the promise that when He had been exalted in resurrection power, His Spirit would find a permanent release in the earth. He would reveal, in power and great light, the God that we only glimpse in Hosea 11.

We need to be increasingly cognizant of the emotive loyalty of the Lord. His loyalty is not based upon circumstances. It is based on His Person. He is loyal in and of Himself, quite contrary to the character of man. He is moved over mankind today, as He was moved over Ephraim in Hosea’s day. He feels compassion over Israel and the nations today just as He “felt compassion” over the dead boy and his mother in Luke 7. He is moved over you, dear soul.

He is not stoical or removed from our plight. He is intensely focused upon us. He longs to see the power of sin broken from our lives. He longs to embrace, carry, and feed us just as He has sought to do with Israel. This is not some shallow, flighty, sappy idea of God. His fatherliness is stalwart and towering, His compassions blaze past our masks and straw hiding places, and His emotions are loyal, awakening our hearts to the reality of Divine love.

Lord, may we see you as Hosea saw You? Might we come into the revelation of Your Fatherly character? We marvel at Your emotions, Lord. You are not blind toward us. You are not indifferent toward us. You have revealed the intensity of your heart in Hosea, and even more magnificently in Your Son. Might we abandon religious performance and find You in the walk of real life, hearing You, obeying You, receiving from You, following You? We recognize this as the heart of the Gospel. Take us deeper, we pray. Amen.