"For I will be like a lion to Ephraim, like a great lion to Judah. I will tear them to pieces and go away; I will carry them off, with no one to rescue them." (Hosea 5:14) We know from our study of the kings that the northern kingdom of Israel was conquered by Assyria and that all but the poorest citizens were taken captive and carried away. Likewise, the southern kingdom of Judah was conquered by Babylon and all but the poorest citizens were taken captive and carried away. The kings of Israel and Judah called for help from their allies but no one was able to rescue them out of their enemies' hands because the fall of both kingdoms was ordained by the Lord because of the people's idolatry.
But the Lord's purpose in allowing these calamities was not to make an end of the descendants of Jacob. Rather, His purpose was to bring about repentance and restoration. "Then I will return to My lair until they have borne their guilt and seek My face---in their misery they will earnestly seek Me." (Hosea 5:15) Sometimes the Lord cannot get our attention except with adversity. Sometimes we won't listen to Him until He falls silent. Then, if we respond appropriately to these forms of correction, we will say as David said, "Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I obey Your word." (Psalm 119:67) It would behoove us to recognize our sin and repent of it before the Lord has to discipline us, but we often do the opposite. We often keep drifting deeper into sin, ignoring our consciences, until the Lord confronts us with our guilt by sending hardship our way which causes us to ask, "Why has this trouble come into my life? Why is the Lord not hedging me about with His protection as He did in the past?"
We know that not every hardship of life has been caused by our own personal sin but there is no doubt that we bring trouble upon ourselves from time to time by not living according to the Lord's word. We've talked about this before but the best thing---and the first thing---we should do when trouble knocks on the door is to humbly ask the Lord to reveal to us whether we have gotten off track. If that turns out to be the case, what we need to do immediately is repent and allow Him to guide us back onto the right track.
This is what Hosea advises his people to do as we begin Chapter 6. "Come, let us return to the Lord. He has torn us to pieces but He will heal us; He has injured us but He will bind up our wounds. After two days He will revive us; on the third day He will restore us, that we may live in His presence. Let us acknowledge the Lord; let us press on to acknowledge Him. As surely as the sun rises, He will appear; He will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth." (Hosea 6:1-3)
There's nothing as refreshing as feeling close to the Lord again after we've gone through a period of spiritual dryness. I've gone through a period of spiritual dryness for almost a year. Some of the feelings of distance between myself and God were due to shock, grief, and depression due to one very calamitous circumstance in my life and several smaller circumstances. I don't believe anything I did brought my trouble upon me; bad things happen in this fallen world. Events happen that cause us pain and in our pain we don't always feel close to the Lord. My grief was not a sin. But I was angry, bitter, hurt, and offended that He'd allowed those things to happen to me. Therefore, my attitude was sinful and I believe I'd have felt refreshed long before now if I hadn't clung to those wrong feelings. Sometimes it feels good, to the carnal side of our nature, to wallow in wrong feelings. But the Lord has been in the process of sending me "the spring rains that water the earth", spiritually speaking, and I'm beginning to revive. Last week He came through in a big way for a specific need I'd been praying about and now I can see that He sent the need my way so I would cling closer to Him and He could revive my spirit.
Hosea says to the people, "Cast down your idols! Stop clinging to them and return to the Lord your God. Cling to Him only. He will revive and refresh you. He will restore to you the joy of your salvation. He will satisfy your soul in a way nothing in this world can."
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