The Problem with the World (Hosea 6; 2 Chron. 13-18; Ps. 56; Hosea 8-14)
As I continue reading through the Old Testament in my quiet time each morning, a common refrain keeps popping up this time through the Bible. Who or what am I trusting in? Is it a government to deliver me from a broken economy, from lawlessness, from danger, or from fill-in-the-blank? Is it a vaccine that will make it "safe" to once again be around all the people I love and long to see and hug again freely without worrying I am jeopardizing their health in some way or my own? Is it my own righteousness, my trust in a religious system that, too, seems broken?
If my answer to any of these question is yes, I have a big problem that needs to be dealt with quickly! I read again today as I finished up Hosea that God desires "mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings" (6:6). I need to have a true understanding of who my God is as well as a sincere longing for His mercy. The next verse grabbed me as God spoke of His chosen people, Israel: "But like Adam, they transgressed the covenant; there they dealt treacherously with Me" (v. 7). All men have wandered astray (I'm included), have transgressed and "fallen short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:23). As the song says and scripture affirms, "The problem with the world is me." And my salvation is found only in my total trust and dependence in Christ to save me.
Back in 2 Chronicles 13, an alarm was sounded by King Abijah (Judah's king) during a time of war between Judah and Israel; Judah found herself outnumbered by Israel's army two to one, a scary prospect on the best of days! King Abijah stood up and boldly called out Israel's sin and false worship as well as their making of priests for themselves versus God's appointment through the line of Aaron. (Lest we tune out here, Israel had decided to put their trusts in things they had created for themselves to worship, and we do the same thing, not making small idols with our own hands to physically bow down to but making idols out of things we are working/living for or elevating over God Himself.) Abijah stood on a mountain top and proclaimed that as for Judah, the LORD was their God and they had neither forsaken Him nor chosen their own priests. The alarm he sounded was this: "O children of Israel, do not fight against the LORD God of your fathers, for you shall not prosper!" (v. 12b). The result? Israel chose not to listen, and when Judah was surrounded and gave a shout, God struck Israel's army, resulting in 500,000 men of Israel falling because they chose to trust in their own way and their own strength while a surrounded Judah trusted in God alone to deliver them from sure defeat (v. 15-18).
I shared in an earlier post about King Asa's early trust in God to deliver Judah from a million man Ethiopian army (2 Chron. 15). Asa's utter trust at that point in God's deliverance is nothing less than awe- inspiring, but his decided lack of trust one chapter later brings severe consequences (2 Chron. 16).
Elijah in 1 Kings trusts in God to deliver him after a bold speech to Ahab and the proclamation of a drought; he even confronts the 400 prophets of Baal and urges the people to turn back to God and kill the prophets, and they do (Ch. 18). Then one short chapter later, Elijah is running for his life from Jezebel because she's angry Elijah put the false prophets to death (Ch. 19). God asks Elijah twice what he is doing hiding in a cave, and God in His mercy reminds him that he's not alone, as there are 7,000 in Israel who hadn't bowed to Baal or kissed him with their mouths (19: 18). Then God provides Elijah relief through Elisha.
Trust is a huge issue with God. Proverbs 3:5 tells me to trust in the LORD with all my heart and to not lean on my own understanding. Psalm 56:3-4 reminds me to put my trust in the LORD when I am afraid instead of fearing what man may do to me. Is. 26:3 tells me to keep my mind stayed or fixed on God because He is an everlasting rock and will keep my mind at peace if I am trusting in Him. Ps. 118:8 teaches me that it's better to take refuge in God than to trust in man. Ps. 20:7 reminds me that while some trust in chariots and horses, I am to trust in God. Trust is a refrain running through the Bible from beginning to end, and ultimately, trust is required through belief to be saved: "Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved" (Rom. 10:9). Without trust in God, we are lost. If we as believers can trust Him for our eternal salvation, why can't we trust Him with the small stuff of this life? Oh, that God would open the eyes of our hearts to see Him at work as He opened the eyes of Elisha's servant to see the innumerable host surrounding them that was far more impressive than the Syrian army waiting to attack (2 Kings 6:16-18). But that would be seeing, wouldn't it?
Let us trust in God to let "nothing fall to the earth of the word of the LORD" as nothing fell short in God's words about Ahab's destruction (2 Kings 10:10). God's word never returns to the earth void of accomplishing its purpose (Is. 55:11). May we trust that God has the power both "to help and to overthrow" (2 Chron. 25:8) when it is needed, even though King Amaziah did not trust and was destroyed because of it. Let us trust God in obeying the hard things He asks of us, unlike Jonah, who wanted to trust that his way was better than God's. Like Amos, a lowly shepherd and fruit tender sent to speak words of destruction to an angry king in Israel, let us trust God to accomplish His will and let us go where He sends us without fear of man (Amos 7). Let us trust the LORD's discipline when we sin and return to Him instead of sowing the wind and reaping the whirlwind (Hosea 8:7). Let us not be a people "bent on backsliding from" God, calling out to the Most High, but never exalting Him (Hosea 11:7). Let us be a people of whom God says, "I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely" (Hosea 14:4) as He did of His children, of Israel, after they were disciplined. Let us not expect that God should "take [our sin] away by forgiving it if we do not put it away by forsaking it," relying on "God only for all the good we stand in need of" (Matthew Henry Commentary, Hosea 14). Let us be willing to be "truly sensible of [our] helplessness . . . and willing to acknowledge it" (MH Commentary). Let us understand as the song says, "the problem with the world is me."
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