Last edit: 01/06/2014
In what became the first half of this post, I worked through the rhetorical questions of Paul's Romans 7-8. In this second half, I'm going to look at another two passages.
Hosea 2: forgetting the names of the Baalim
For she does not know that it was I who gave her the grain, the new wine, and the oil,
and who lavished on her silver and gold,
which.
they.
used.
for.
Baal.
Therefore I will take back my grain at harvest time, and my new wine in its season.
I will also take away my wool and my flax, given to cover her nakedness...
...
I will punish her for the days of the Baals when she used to burn sacrifices to them
and adorn herself with her earrings and jewelry,
and follow her lovers
so.
that.
she.
forgot.
me, declares the LORD.
Therefore, behold, I will allure her,
bring her into the wilderness and speak kindly to her.
Then I will give her her vineyards from there
and the Valley of Achor as a door of hope.
And she will sing there as in the days of her youth,
as in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt.
It will come about in that day, declares the LORD, that you will call me Ishi [my husband] and will no longer call me Baali [my lord]. For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, so that they will be mentioned by their names no more.
My conscience is strong, except when it's not. This much I've learned this year. But Jesus promises to purge these stains, these memories of sins. They will be mentioned by their names no more. Furthermore, the Christian no longer looks up in fear to a terrifying Baal of a God, but to the true and living God, slow to anger and overflowing with love. A husband is a lord, a sir, a master, but he is a master who dies for his bride. Who stands as head and representative and the one who dies when the family fails. A husband toils long hours and works through heavily-weeded gardens and thorns in order to create beautiful things in the sight of God. What is the fertility baal who falls on his face and cannot speak or use his arms or legs? What kind of fertility god cannot create, much less sustain the sexuality of man or the livelihood of livestock or bulls or rain or corn?
More! Jesus ransoms us to rejoice. Redemption from sin is better than redemption from bondage, for who should we fear? Those who kill the body, or the Baal who kills body and soul? Yet God does both! And he is able to redeem my soul through the thrice-executed judgment of Achan, a man under the authority of Joshua the prophet (Joshua 7), who coveted and stole some of the devoted things. He was stoned, burned, and stoned. And so were the possessions he thought he could take to the grave! Even the tragic and wrathful history of such a place can be reversed by the redemption of God.
Though the LORD is grief-stricken and deeply betrayed as a faithful husband catching his beloved bride in the act of adultery, He extends unthinkable grace, an irrational love. The LORD sees his bride pawning off her wedding ring (Hosea 2:8), and yet he woos her and brings her back into the wilderness. He brings her back to the arena of pain, of growth, of death and rebirth. And when her time of affliction has passed, when her judgment is completed, he remembers her and blesses her and makes covenant with her. Why? I don't know. She sure as hell doesn't deserve it.
Joshua had JUST seen this happen. The people had donated all their spoils of war, the bride wealth given to her by the LORD their God who plundered Egypt, towards the crafting of an idol, the golden calf. Moses, trembling with anger, contradicts Joshua: "It is not the sound of the cry of triumph nor it is the sound of the cry of defeat; but the sound of SINGING I hear" (Exodus 32:18). Moses administers the test of adultery to the people, using the golden calf and the leveled primordial-earth reminiscent "surface of the water." And about three thousand people died of the curse, and the Levites, the holy priesthood, became a curse, a scourge of God against Israel.
And this reminds me that my sin is not too heavy to drown me. Though I would throw millstones around my own neck and cast myself into the sea, behold, you are there, LORD. If my bed be in the depths of woe, you will hear my voice of lamentation.
"By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him."
In what became the first half of this post, I worked through the rhetorical questions of Paul's Romans 7-8. In this second half, I'm going to look at another two passages.
Hosea 2: forgetting the names of the Baalim
For she does not know that it was I who gave her the grain, the new wine, and the oil,
and who lavished on her silver and gold,
which.
they.
used.
for.
Baal.
Therefore I will take back my grain at harvest time, and my new wine in its season.
I will also take away my wool and my flax, given to cover her nakedness...
...
I will punish her for the days of the Baals when she used to burn sacrifices to them
and adorn herself with her earrings and jewelry,
and follow her lovers
so.
that.
she.
forgot.
me, declares the LORD.
Therefore, behold, I will allure her,
bring her into the wilderness and speak kindly to her.
Then I will give her her vineyards from there
and the Valley of Achor as a door of hope.
And she will sing there as in the days of her youth,
as in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt.
It will come about in that day, declares the LORD, that you will call me Ishi [my husband] and will no longer call me Baali [my lord]. For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, so that they will be mentioned by their names no more.
My conscience is strong, except when it's not. This much I've learned this year. But Jesus promises to purge these stains, these memories of sins. They will be mentioned by their names no more. Furthermore, the Christian no longer looks up in fear to a terrifying Baal of a God, but to the true and living God, slow to anger and overflowing with love. A husband is a lord, a sir, a master, but he is a master who dies for his bride. Who stands as head and representative and the one who dies when the family fails. A husband toils long hours and works through heavily-weeded gardens and thorns in order to create beautiful things in the sight of God. What is the fertility baal who falls on his face and cannot speak or use his arms or legs? What kind of fertility god cannot create, much less sustain the sexuality of man or the livelihood of livestock or bulls or rain or corn?
More! Jesus ransoms us to rejoice. Redemption from sin is better than redemption from bondage, for who should we fear? Those who kill the body, or the Baal who kills body and soul? Yet God does both! And he is able to redeem my soul through the thrice-executed judgment of Achan, a man under the authority of Joshua the prophet (Joshua 7), who coveted and stole some of the devoted things. He was stoned, burned, and stoned. And so were the possessions he thought he could take to the grave! Even the tragic and wrathful history of such a place can be reversed by the redemption of God.
Though the LORD is grief-stricken and deeply betrayed as a faithful husband catching his beloved bride in the act of adultery, He extends unthinkable grace, an irrational love. The LORD sees his bride pawning off her wedding ring (Hosea 2:8), and yet he woos her and brings her back into the wilderness. He brings her back to the arena of pain, of growth, of death and rebirth. And when her time of affliction has passed, when her judgment is completed, he remembers her and blesses her and makes covenant with her. Why? I don't know. She sure as hell doesn't deserve it.
Joshua had JUST seen this happen. The people had donated all their spoils of war, the bride wealth given to her by the LORD their God who plundered Egypt, towards the crafting of an idol, the golden calf. Moses, trembling with anger, contradicts Joshua: "It is not the sound of the cry of triumph nor it is the sound of the cry of defeat; but the sound of SINGING I hear" (Exodus 32:18). Moses administers the test of adultery to the people, using the golden calf and the leveled primordial-earth reminiscent "surface of the water." And about three thousand people died of the curse, and the Levites, the holy priesthood, became a curse, a scourge of God against Israel.
And this reminds me that my sin is not too heavy to drown me. Though I would throw millstones around my own neck and cast myself into the sea, behold, you are there, LORD. If my bed be in the depths of woe, you will hear my voice of lamentation.
"By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him."
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