WHAT TO DO WHEN THERE IS NO GLORY
We must face reality with honest
hearts. There are days, even years, when the glory of God has departed,
and Paul’s definition of sin in Romans 3: 23 underlines our state, “…for
all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
We’ve missed the beauty
of God’s plan for our lives by disease, disaster or disobedience. Decades
of sin have brought an unconscious decadence to our hearts. The word of
Hosea 7: 9 resonates:
“…aliens have
devoured his strength, but he does not know it. Yes, grey hairs are here
and there on him, yet
he does not know it.”
Imperceptibly, the UK has drifted
into spiritual bankruptcy throughout the twentieth century. In 2007 many
believers ask, “Where is the God of Elijah?” and “We’ve heard about a revival
coming to Britain for 30 years, but where is it?” Grey hairs are all over
England – that’s not wrong in itself, but we are not aware of it. Grey
hairs single out a lack of former powers. You never find the words “glory
of God” in Hosea, because it has departed. Glory of the occult is mentioned
in 10: 5. In 4: 7 God promises to change THEIR glory into shame. And in
9: 11 Ephraim’s glory shall fly away like a bird. The glory of God is absent.
THE PROBLEM
Hosea paints a dark picture
from 740 – 680 BC and it’s the same today. We also have forgotten God and
God has departed. Look at Hosea 5: 15 and 8: 14 carefully. God in 5: 15
has departed to His place, the highest heaven. When God departs, holiness,
agape love and wisdom disappear and cease among the sons of men. There
comes atrophy of the faculties, strength begins to wane. Know the truth
that God NEVER leaves man, until man has left God. In chapter 5: 12 God’s
judgement is like a moth – subtle, slow eating away of man’s clothing as
it were. In 5: 14 God is like a savage lion devastating its prey. The judgement
over Europe was two world wars – savagery and unmitigated bloodshed. In
the 1960’s we had “the death of God” theology. God has left His earth and
become an absentee Father leaving man to his own devices. The only exception
is a diminishing remnant of true believers.
In chapter 8 after a record
of five specific sins, the last verse speaks loud and clear,
“For Israel HAS
FORGOTTEN his Maker and made temples (or spacious buildings), and Judah
has multiplied
fortified cities…”
(Emphasis
mine)
The word “forgotten”
according to Campbell Morgan means mislaid. You can mislay your keys without
forgetting them. How do we today mislay God?
a) No relationship to the
word of God. A lack of the love of the truth.
b) No response to the Holy
Spirit – losing vision and power to live for Christ. Let’s be frank. Do
we have the power to live through our 40’s, 50’s, 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s
without:
bitterness or disease?
regret and disappointment?
unforgiveness and hatred?
jealousy or sorrow?
pride?
c) We love spacious buildings
and fail to find room for Jesus in our hearts. Too many leaders empire
build with huge church buildings and make merchandize out of the flock
to do so. So often they become “pink elephants” and God is mislaid.
d) The pursuit of security
in our society comes with CCTV cameras, massive shopping malls and identity
cards, not to mention burglar alarms and Alsatians! 9/11 should be an icon
to us – nothing in this world is safe. Our only security is listening to
Jesus (Proverbs 1: 33).
THE SOLUTION
Even God is having a problem
devising a plan to get Israel back to Himself. His difficulty is expressed
in 6: 4,
“O Ephraim, what
shall I do to you? ...For your faithfulness is like a morning cloud and
like the early dew it goes away.”
The word “faithfulness” is in
the original language closer to submission, graciousness, or bending the
neck. In other words, nothing is carried through. Your admiration
for the ideal is wonderful, but you never work it out in practical righteousness.
The admonition of Hosea 10: 12 is the first step to the presence and compassions
of God that fail not,
“Sow for yourselves
righteousness,
Reap in mercy –
Break up your fallow
ground,
For it is time to
seek the Lord till He comes and rains
righteousness on you.”
Fallow ground is not empty but
has no useful crop. Are we productive for the kingdom or are we so self-absorbed,
we end up like the wicked lazy servant, who hides his talent?
Repentance
Self-examination can take
the form of going through the sin list of Hosea 8, and seeing where we
today fall short. Have we robbed God of glory in these five areas?
1. Transgression of the
covenant (v1)
Disobedience to the new
covenant can include a multitude of sins. One massive area is the sin of
Ephraim, who were willingly walking by human reason and not by faith (5:
11). Reason alone kills faith dead but there is a rationality of faith.
There has to be hope before faith, the word of promise before hope, and
prevailing prayer before promise. Trace the battle in the Bible between
reason and revelation: from Cain killing Abel, to the Jews delivering Jesus
up out of envy.
2. False kings and rulers
(v 4)
Leaders whom God doesn’t
set up do damage, in the church and in the world.
King Saul is a classic example.
It always leads to some form of spiritual harlotry, so the people stumble
in iniquity.
3. Idolatry (v 6)
Anything in our lives challenging
the Lordship of Jesus is idolatry. Jesus will slay His enemies (Luke 19:27),
which includes political institutions, the EU, and law-makers who do not
consider His precepts.
4. Folly of seeking godless
alliances (v 9)
Jehoshaphat made an alliance
with Ahab and it was nearly his undoing. The true church should not join
C.T.E. (Churches Together in England) because of its inter-faith and ecumenical
links which includes spiritism, unitarianism, and other religious lies.
5. False altars produce
sin (v 11, 12)
Car boot sales on Sundays,
Hollywood, pub-life, soccer stadiums and many other modern amusements BLUNT
our cutting edge, and gradually make the word of God a STRANGE thing. Being
led of the Spirit to enter a pub or club is one thing, but being in them
as a regular haunt will surely do harm. We need to be careful that our
commitment to Jesus comes first in our lives.
Faith for the future
After self-examination and
repentance for sins the second step is faith for the future. The lovely
phrase “the valley of Achor AS A DOOR OF HOPE” (2: 14) describes the restoration
of the purposes and glory of God.
The valley of Achor is the
valley of troubling both for Hosea personally, and for Israel and Judah.
It is one of those verses that enshrine a great redemptive principle. Out
of the very nature of the trouble (whether that trouble comes from personal
sin or Satan) God will use that problem to produce an open door of opportunity
for His glory.
Gomer got burned by prostitution.
Her immoral valley produced a door of hope, “I will go back to my husband.”
(2:7). The prodigal son made the similar declaration in Luke 15: 18 and
19, “I will go back to my father.” Our folly and emptiness of personality
is seen by our loving Father, who provides a door of hope… but we must
by faith enter it. Then the promise of 2: 19, “I will betroth you forever
unto Me” which can be etched on the soft and yielding heart. Our marriage
to Jesus is “in righteousness and justice, in loving-kindness and mercy,
in faithfulness.” (2: 19, 20) That is glorious! Our spirit is joined to
the risen Lord where we are of “one spirit” with Him.
TO CONCLUDE
Do we examine our lives and
repent?
Do we meditate on the promises
of God and believe?
Hosea 6: 1 – 3 is a wonderful
door of hope for you who have been in a valley of Achor. The troubling
valley in Hosea is the accumulation of sin. The valley of Achor in Joshua
was the work of the enemy, through a believer, bringing an unclean thing
into the house of God. Whichever of these valleys you have experienced:
He will heal us
He will bandage us up
He will revive us
He will raise us up so we may
live in His sight.
Therefore let us return to the
Lord… let us pursue the knowledge of the Lord.
Let us. HE WILL! He will
come to us like the rain, the latter and the former rain on the earth.
The Spirit gives us faith TO ASK THE LORD for rain in the time of the latter
rain, when seven times the volume and velocity of the Holy Spirit will
deluge His remnant people!
So we see Hosea as a tract
for these times, where trouble is at every hand. The alternating themes
of the sin of idolatry and the loving-kindness of Father are particularly
seen in the last four chapters. Jehovah and the prophet who has so closely
identified with the churning of His heart have a dialogue. Jehovah speaks,
Hosea commentates –
Chapter 11:
1 – 12: 1 – Jehovah speaks
Chapter 12: 2 – 12:
6 – Hosea commentates
Chapter 12: 7 – 11
– Jehovah speaks
Chapter 12: 12 – 13:
1 – Hosea commentates
Chapter 13: 2 – 14
Jehovah speaks
Chapter 13: 15 – 14:
3 – Hosea commentates
Chapter 14: 4 – 9
– Jehovah speaks
Throughout this sevenfold dialogue,
notice how our text, “…the valley of Achor AS A DOOR OF HOPE” undergirds
it. Trouble can turn to hope.
One day I was praying for
a lady with a long-term problem. God gave a simple vision of a colander
with many holes. She had been a very sensitive girl upon whom domestic
responsibility lay. Some of the holes wore fear, some rejection, panic
and worry. She had developed diseases, wrecking her adult life, because
the spiritual and physical immune systems had largely broken down. But
God had a door of hope. She would still be like a colander – but now the
holes would be openings in the heart and mind so the RIVERS OF LIVING WATER
could flow out unimpeded by self.
Remember Joseph on seeing
his brothers who so mistreated him. God sent Joseph before them to preserve
life. He had been separated by the cruelty of his brothers. They meant
it for evil, but God meant it for good. The sovereignty of God is in our
verse – the very trouble of a heavy pressure situation has a door of hope
hinged to it. Eyes of our spirit-man be flooded with light! May we see
that we enter the kingdom of God through many tribulations. And the actual
trouble has a door leading to:
REVELATION
(Revelation 4: 1)
WARFARE (Psalm 24:
8)
EVANGELISM (Colossians
4: 3).
Let us pray:
“Father in
heaven, grant heavenly eyes for me to see the very valley I’ve been in
has a door of hope, a door
of opportunity and ministry
for the sake of the name of Jesus, my Lord. Doors of revelation, warfare
and doors
of evangelism be OPENED
in 2007. Amen.”
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