Today’s devotional author is Prince of Peace member, Paul Sponheim.
In this beautiful and profound passage the prophet Hosea takes us into God to probe what happens for GOD in the divine relationship with Israel. What can we learn from the ponderings of this eighth-century prophet? We claim a relationship with that same God. We can learn much about our relationship with God, appreciating both commonalities and differences. So, what happens for God with Israel? Well, God remembers what God had done for Israel. Can you hear the tenderness culminating in verse 4?
I led them with cords of human kindness,
with bands of love.
I was to them like those,
who lift infants to their cheeks.
I bent down to them and fed them. (11:4)
I can remember my mother’s bible stories. There was feeding aplenty. My mother saw to that. It’s good to remember. But none of us can be silent on Sunday morning during the confession of sin. Thus, it was with Israel:
The more I called them,
The more they went from me (v. 2)
If something other than God takes first place in our life, aren’t we joining Israel in sacrificing to the Baals, and offering incense to idols (v. 2)?
So, what happens for God when we are caught up in the reality of opposition? Pain does! And Anger! Here Hosea is talking about what happens IN GOD. And he speaks for more biblical authors. In the Old Testament all by itself, the ten Hebrew terms referring to divine anger occur more than 500 times. (Fretheim, What Kind of God?,142). In the New Testament there are passages like the apostle Paul’s opening blast in Romans: “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness of those who by their wickedness suppress the truth.” (Rom 1:18)
Hosea reaches deep to say that what happens for God happens ultimately because of what happens in God. There God is reasoning with God, asking if the deliverances of divine wrath can be delivered. Why not?
Well, God’s heart speaks:
My heart recoils within me;
My compassion grows warm and tender.
So, verse 9 is pure gospel, undeserved grace:
I will not execute my fierce anger; . . .
For I am God and no mortal,
The Holy One in your midst,
And I will not come in wrath. (v 9)
Sin and evil are not trivialized here, My sins make God angry, wrathful. And there are consequences for evil actions, carried by the natural connectedness of created things. Perhaps we finite creatures live by a logic of retribution–tit for tat. But God doesn’t live by that logic. God will not come in wrath. It sort of does sound like God is coming. We are on the cusp of the Advent season. Yes, God came in Jesus, born of Mary. Jesus’ ministry was directed by a heart “moved to compassion” (Debbie J., devotion, Sept. 5). The Father surely wept over what happened to the man from Nazareth, his precious son. Days later God came again, not in wrath to punish, but in love to bring healing and reconciliation for the whole creation. (Col. 1:19-20)
I hear it is said that we are made in his image. There might be a calling there.
Gracious God, we praise you for your compassionate heart. Empower us, we pray, for lives of reconciling love. AMEN