Battling on Baal’s Court

As a Browns fan (and a Royals fan) I know the pain of losing. But some losses hurt more than others. As an example, the Browns lost to the rival Pittsburgh Steelers 18 times in the ten years from September of 2000-December of 2009. They only one three times. One of the worst punch to the gut losses came in 2005 when the Steelers won 41-0 at Cleveland Browns Stadium. There is something about a home loss that hurts worse than losing on the road. Even a drunken Browns fan was body-slammed by the Steelers. (see video below)

Beating someone—and so badly—communicates your absolute dominance. Or in the Browns case being beaten so badly on your home field shows the world exactly how inept you actually are. In the same way the Lord often does battle on the idols court just to show his dominance.

Consider Baal. Baal was the god of fertility. Not just the dude in charge of making babies but the one that was in charge of crops and all things agricultural. In an agrarian community Baal was a big deal. This is why the Lord says in Hosea 2:12, “I will lay waste her vines and her fig trees, of which she said, ‘These are my wages, which my lovers have given me’”.

The Israelites thought that their bounty came from the hand of Baal. Their enjoyment of the fruit of the land was a direct result of their faithful Baal worship. Or so they thought. The Lord was about to utterly strip the land of all agricultural success. They would be laid barren. And Baal was left powerless. The fertility god was shown exactly how infertile he is. As Ray Ortlund has said:

The power of life and death lies with YHWH alone, and he is able to blight her happiness and fertility and make the nation a virtual desert with no mitigation of the suffering entailed, even to the point of death. (From God’s Unfaithful Wife)

In order to win hearts Yahweh must utterly expose and shame the competing idols. Otherwise, the Israelites will bow a knee to Baal in all things fertility and add Yahweh to their affections for all else. He must show that He alone is God.

What this Means for Missions

I don’t know that Christians, myself included, are confident enough in the Lord’s beauty to do battle on the court of our culture’s idols. If we really believed the Lord’s sufficiency I’m not sure that we would engage in defensive apologetics as much as we do. I doubt we would apologize for the gospel. We wouldn’t be so afraid of hiding the sharpened edge of the gospel.

Awhile back I was out and about in the community trying to share the gospel with people. We were doing ministry in a poverty stricken area of town. Here we would try to meet people and ask if they had any prayer requests or if there was any way that we could serve them. We would keep coming back to this neighborhood week after week asking the same questions.

On one occasion we met a young man that informed us that he recently had become a Buddhist. After studying the claims of Buddha and that of Christianity and a few other religions he found that Buddhism seemed to be the most peaceful and the one that appealed to him the most. He thanked us for our time and wished us well. As we were leaving I felt compelled to ask him whether or not he had peace.

I didn’t know it at the time but I was doing battle on Buddha’s court. Buddhism is all about inner peace and tranquility. This man was pursuing that and I wondered how it was going for him. He was somewhat stopped in his tracks but nervously acknowledged that he did seem to have more peace. We went back to our cars and prayed that he wouldn’t be able to sleep until he received the peace that only Christ gives.

Three days later someone from our team received a phone call. This guy hadn’t been able to sleep for three days. He had found himself in the psych ward because he had attempted suicide. He couldn’t find peace. Apparently my off-handed question had rattled him more than he put on. He couldn’t get the question out of his mind. Thankfully, some people from our team came to visit him in the hospital and shared the gospel with him. He found true peace that day.

This is why I say we ought to do battle with the idols of our culture. I’m not saying that we present the Lord as if he’s a better Santa Claus. I’m not saying that we tell materialistic people that the way to get more prosperity is to bow a knee to the God that owns everything. Nor am I saying that we tell people that are hell bent on psychological comfort that the way to comfort is through Jesus Christ. What I am saying is that we confront the idol of comfort, prosperity, and everything else with the sufficiency of Jesus Christ. He really is better. If we truly believe that then we believe that He can take on any idol and win every time.

Church, let’s do battle on Baal’s court. Let’s body slam Baal on his home court...(how was that for a lame transition):

Jesus in Hosea 11

Hosea 11 would make a great Hallmark movie. Not that it’s lame, like most of those movies, but that it really tugs at your heart strings. It is not difficult to picture a court room with parents and a rebellious child standing before the judge. Of course it will take a somewhat different set of cultural eyes to really grasp what is happening in this text.

In ancient Israel rebellious children were to be stoned before the assembly for their rebellion. Not honoring your father and mother was a serious offense in that day. Today it produces guilty laughs and giggles amongst teenagers. They all acknowledge their having blown this commandment. I doubt it would have evoked such giggles in ancient Israel.

In Hosea 11 we have a court proceeding where Yahweh’s fathering is on display as well as his son’s—Israel’s--unfaithfulness. After hearing of Yahweh’s kind love and care for His children, coupled with Israel’s rebellion, the judge issues a guilty verdict and pronounces the sentence.

“They shall not return to the land of Egypt, but Assyria shall be their king…the sword shall rage against their cities…and though they call out to the Most High, he shall not raise them up at all.”

Can you see the picture? Yahweh’s beloved child is being taken away because of his rebellion. He is guilty. He must be punished. It’s even a more painful picture when we realize that the father in the story is also wearing a judge’s robe. He is the one handing down the sentence. He is the one giving the guilty verdict. His son deserves death and punishment.

Then in verse 8 the father emerges out from the judge’s cloak:

“How can I give you up, O Ephraim? How can I hand you over, O Israel”

“I can’t give up my baby. I cannot execute the punishment on Israel. I will withhold my wrath.”

Why Hosea 11:8 is in our Bible

If we are not careful we will misread this text and insert our 21st century emotions and parenting methods into the text. It is not as if Yahweh is saying, “It’s okay I’m going to keep loving you no matter what you do. You just live how you want to and you know that no matter what decisions you make or how many times you hurt me, daddy is still going to keep loving you.”  No, Yahweh’s parenting is much bolder than this. His love and His parenting is transformative. Israel will be punished, but he will not destroyed.

Furthermore, Yahweh is holy. He cannot simply sweep Israel’s sin under the rug. Hosea 11:8 is only in our Bible’s because of Jesus Christ.

Jesus, the True Israel, the Greater Son, was handed over so that the Lesser Son would not have to be. The Lord was able to withhold the full fury of His wrath because that very same wrath would be poured out upon Jesus on the cross, where he took the rebellious child’s punishment.

God is able to not “hand you over” because He “handed over” Jesus into the hands of wicked and sinful men. He hung on a tree, cursed, so that rebellious children--like you and I--could be in a relationship with the Father.

If Hosea Prophesied in 21st Century America

Hosea’s story is a bleak one. God calls him to marry an unfaithful woman. It’s often debated whether or not she was unfaithful when God called Hosea to marry her, or if she turned that way. The answer to that question probably made little difference in the day to day workings of Hosea’s home. His wife was unfaithful. Period. There are clues to the text that his children aren’t really his, and likely they weren’t model Israelite citizens.

Hosea isn’t fundamentally about Hosea. It is about God. But God’s story is told through the deep pain of Hosea. This prophets life would not have been rosy. I cannot imagine what it would have been like to be married to Gomer. Or to raise troubled children that are not your own. There faces everyday reminding you of your wife’s unfaithfulness. I do not have personal experience with this. Hosea did. And it shaped his message.

That truth has me wondering what would happen if Hosea were a prophet in the 21st century. Before I give my analysis I must confess that I am not a cultural guru. I do not have a Ph.D in postmodern thought. Nor did I pay attention in my college sociology class. But I am “in the trenches” ministering to adults and teenagers in the 21st century. And it seems to me that in our culture if your message is somehow shaped by your personal experiences then it is in the realm of subjective and not objective. It is tainted.

I wonder then what people in the 21st century would say when Hosea says, “you play the whore, O Israel…”

“Bitter much?”

“Come on Hosea, we know you’re just hurt by what is going on in your home life. You’re being too sharp because you’re carrying over the hurt that your harlot wife has caused you. You’re looking for somebody to blame for your pain and trying to spiritualize it by calling us harlots and saying it is a metaphor for how Yahweh feels about us.”

The power of Hosea’s metaphor would be dismissed. His message is shaped too much by his own personal situation. Therefore, Hosea’s truth might work for him or for other people that are struggling like He is, but it is not for everyone. “You can’t call the entire nation a whore just because your wife is one, Hosea.”

For Today

But Hosea was telling objective truth. And he was doing it through his very real personal pain. You better believe that Hosea was impacted by his home life. But Hosea isn’t fundamentally about Hosea. It’s about God. And God is using Hosea’s story to tell His own. God is using the subjective story of Hosea to proclaim His objective truth.

The 21st century preacher finds himself in a difficult spot. The culture tells him that he must be real and he must be authentic. Which is helpful and solid advice. But inevitably the more real the preacher gets the more easily what he is proclaiming can be dismissed. The preacher’s message is effected by the preacher.

I am not saying that the preacher has a license to change the objective truth of God’s Word. Far from it. But what I am saying is that God can use my subjective life story to proclaim His objective truth. The message isn’t tainted because the messenger is deeply impacted by the message. It’s tainted if doesn’t impact the preacher. 

Monday’s Ministry Musing: Turning “Helps” Into Idolatry

Does God wound thy spirit, does he make it sick, and dost thou seek to unlawful means for help?  Dost thou go to thy company, to music, to good cheer, to relieve thee?  Oh this provokes God against thee!…those that in trouble of conscience seek for carnal helps, by their vain tampering only render their condition worse.  (Jeremiah Burroughs commenting on Hosea 5:14)

There is an assumption that Burroughs is making here that some of our readers may not be willing to agree with.  Namely, Burroughs assumes (as I do) that God is sovereign and everything that happens comes from His hand—whether it is directly or indirectly.  This would include “wounds to our spirit” and “trouble of conscience”. 

I have mentioned previously that I battle depression or perhaps the better term would be “fits of melancholy”.  In fact our nation seems to be very much plagued by this malady.  One particular study notes that, "An estimated 26.2 percent of Americans ages 18 and older — about one in four adults — suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year."   That means that when you go to the grocery store 1 of every 4 people that you see suffers from a diagnosable mental disorder.  That is huge.

I understand that any mental disorder is complex and there are usually not simple answers.  But is it possible that part of our restlessness (our depression, our mental anxieties) may stem from the effects of running to lesser gods?  Is it possible that when we have restlessness and anxiety we first seek unlawful means for help instead of going to the Lord?  Is it possible that this brokenness is meant to cause us “in our affliction to not fly from, but humble ourselves before him”? 

I do believe that the Lord by His grace has provided helps to our brokenness.  I believe that there are ripple effects to the accomplishment of Christ on the Cross.  I believe that there is common grace—such as antidepressants—that the Lord may use as a means to calm the effects of our brokenness and provide substantial healing.  But I also believe that these “helps” can subtly become functional saviors and when we principally turn to them not only does our condition worsen but the Lord’s displeasure is aroused. 

God may not fully heal the pain that I feel or the darkness that sometimes seems to overcome me; at least not this side of a Eden Restored.  Am I willing to have shards of brokenness in my life if it means that His glory shines brighter in my weakness?  Is it possible that I am muting God’s glory or defaming His name by going to “other helps” that may work for a season but won’t give ultimate rest? 

The Case in Hosea

Just so you know that all of this is coming from somewhere consider what took place in Hosea’s day.  The Israelite’s were stuck between two super powers: Assyria and Egypt.  They decided that they could go to both of these super powers for “help” and to gain wealth and security from these “lovers”.  They called it wisdom but God called it “playing the whore”. 

God had given Egypt wealth.  God had given Assyria power.  And it is quite possible (though we have no idea of knowing) that had Israel remained faithful to the Lord he would have employed either Egypt or Assyria as helpers—though not likely.  But when “Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah his wound, then Ephraim went to Assyria, and sent to the great king.  But he is not able to cure you or heal your wound.” 

Here is the kicker, the “sickness of Ephraim” and the “wound of Judah” is one that is given by the Lord.  And while the Lord is administering discipline to his children they run to Assyria (and later Egypt) for protection from the Lord.  But he cannot cure them.  He cannot heal their wound.  Only God can.  That is why Hosea entreats them to “return to the LORD; for he has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up.  After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him.” 

The Flaw

Blanket statements are dangerous.  Do not apply this as a “when ___ happens then it means that God is ______”.  There is an assumption that is being made in connecting a “wounded spirit” to the days of Hosea.  They were being wounded because of their sin and their idolatry.  The Lord was ripping out of their hearts idolatry and residue from the fall.  This is what He lovingly does with His covenant children. 

This is true in those cases. Yet, we would be in great error to look out on the brokenness and depression of every person and say, “don’t try to find help” just endure the Lord’s discipline and stop bowing to idols.  That was the foolish council of Job’s friends.  Job wasn’t enduring his suffering because of his sin.  He was enduring suffering because he was going through suffering.  But what Job got right was that his only source of ultimate refuge and rescue was in the LORD. 

It takes wisdom to know whether I am turning “helps” into idolatry or if I’m legitimately using “helps” for the glory of God.  It takes even more wisdom and grace to sit in ashes and cling to the Lord of glory and say as Hosea did, “He has torn us, that he may heal us…let us press on to know the LORD…he will come to us as showers, as the spring rains that water the earth.” 

It takes grace to trust a lion when Assyria and Egypt look so splendid…

None Can Pluck; An Awful and Glorious Truth

To be in the hand of God can be a wonderfully secure thing or an exceedingly horrible thing. 

In John 10 we read these encouraging words from Jesus:

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. (John 10:27-29 ESV)

Here we see the beauty of being secure in the hand of the Lord.  When God has devoted Himself to securing our redemption there is nothing that can thwart Him.  That is a precious and wonderful promise. 

But there is another aspect to being “in the Lord’s hand”:

Now I will uncover her lewdness
        in the sight of her lovers,
        and no one shall rescue her out of my hand.
(Hosea 2:10 ESV)

I am tempted at this point to highlight the woeful state of what happens when the God of wrath is bent on destruction.  That is the message of Joel; what happens when the Almighty is bent on destruction?  Who can endure His wrath?  Indeed, the answer is no one.  But, I’m not convinced that this would apply here. 

Hosea 2 is fundamentally about the Lord’s plan to root idolatry out of his harlot wife.  I think this “out of my hand” may still hold a glimmer of covenant language.  God will not allow any of her other lovers (Baal) to provide prosperity, hope, peace, security, etc.  All of these are going to come up empty.  Nothing will thwart the Lord’s idol smashing work in his people; his bride. 

So I apply this by saying it is an awful and glorious truth to be secure in the hand of the Lord.  It is glorious because He is good and at His right hand are pleasures evermore (Psalm 16).  But it is an awful truth because He is jealously committed to the purity and fidelity of His bride.  And this doesn’t come about unless He “uncovers our lewdness” and the emptiness of our less-wild lovers is painfully exposed. 

C.S. Lewis is correct:

“In awful and surprising truth, we are the objects of His love.  You asked for a loving God; you have one.  The great spirit you so lightly invoked, the “lord of terrible aspect,” is present; not a senile benevolence that drowsily wishes you to be happy in your own way, not the cold philanthropy of a conscientious magistrate, not the care of a host who feels responsible for the comfort of his guests, but the consuming fire Himself, the Love that made the worlds, persistent as the artist’s love for his work and despotic as a man’s love for a dog, provident and venerable as a father’s love for a child, jealous, inexorable, exacting as love between the sexes…It is certainly a burden of glory not only beyond our deserts but also, except in rare moments of grace, beyond our desiring.”  (From A Grief Observed, quoted in How People Change, p24)

You are secure in the hands of the Lord; a precious and awful truth. 

The Day I Was Rescued In the Wilderness

I am prone to forget the gospel.  Sometimes in the midst of my gospel-amnesia I wake up and realize that something is missing.  There are certain parts of Scripture that I continue to return to that has a tendency to wake me up and remind me of the beauty of what Christ has done, is doing, and is going to do.  One particular place is Hosea 2:14-15:

“Therefore, behold, I will allure her,
and bring her into the wilderness,
and speak tenderly to her.
And there I will give her her vineyards
and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.
And there she shall answer as in the days of her youth,
as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt.

If you pull out a Bible and check out all of Hosea 2 verse 14 is ridiculously unexpected.  For thirteen verses the husband describes his harlot wife.  She has taken all of the gifts that her husband lavished on her and has decided to spend them on other lovers. 

Let me try to give you a picture of this.  I buy my wife flowers, perfume, a new dress, the makeup she has been wanting, and a really nice piece of jewelry.  On the next Friday I come home and see my wife getting all gussied up.  I’m excited because I assume that she has something special in store for me. 

So, I get myself ready and put on my best clothes and ask her where she would like to dine out that evening.  To my dismay she informs that she cannot go out to dinner with me because she already has a date with some other dude. 

That is what Israel has been doing to the Lord.  And for the first thirteen verses you see the husbands response.  He is going to strip her of everything that is desirable.  He is going to take back the dress, the perfume, the jewelry, the makeup, EVERYTHING.  And he is going to see if she will be able to attract her lovers now. 

Of course she cannot.  At the end of verse 13 she has nothing that would even turn the eye of a passerby.  Sure, she’s naked.  But she’s such a broken shell of herself that the only emotions she evokes is either pity or disdain.  She’s ready for the taking—problem is nobody wants her anymore.

Then we are shocked by verse 14.  Picture the whore.  She has forsaken her husband, she has been rejected by her lovers, she is broken, empty, she has nothing that anyone in creation would desire.  You expect verse 14 to say “Therefore, behold, I will have taught her a lesson.  I will leave her there and maybe she’ll come crawling back.  I may forgive her but I’ll never trust her again.  I definitely will not be buying her jewelry anymore.” 

But that’s not verse 14.  The husband puts on his best suit, buys some cologne, shaves the beard that sprang from his sorrow, cuts his unkempt hair, and he goes to the store buys some flowers and candy.  He’s acting like a junior high boy trying to attract the cute girl in Science class.  He’s going to win back his wife. 

And there he finds her.  Broken, ashamed, and naked in the wilderness.  The husband goes up to his wife and whispers words that only husbands and wives know.  She has nothing left to desire and the husband goes up to her and says—“I still want you.  You’re still mine.  I know what you’ve done.  I know you have nothing to offer, but I still want you”. 

I wonder what the harlot did that day in the wilderness.  Did she try to hide?  Did she run away?  Did she try to put makeup on her tattered face?  Or did she just sit there awestruck that after all she had done He still loved her? 

Whenever I forget the gospel I go back to stories like this one and I remember the day that I was the whore in the wilderness.  (Not to mention the hundreds of times this story has been relived).