When Israel Was a Child, I Loved Him…

"When Israel was a child, I loved him,

And out of Egypt I called My son.

As they called them,

So they went from them;

They sacrificed to the Baals,

And burned incense to carved images.

"I taught Ephraim to walk,

Taking them by their arms;

But they did not know that I healed them.

I drew them with gentle cords,

With bands of love,

And I was to them as those who take the yoke from their neck.

I stooped and fed them.—Hosea 11:1-4

David in Chapter 18 of Second Samuel becomes blinded by his affection for his graceless son , Absalom, whom he “overloves”.  It is not difficult as parents to find ourselves in the same position as David when our children rebel.  We see them through rose-colored glasses and remember them as guileless, small children.  The truth here, however, is very different from the imaginations of David’s grieving heart.  Absalom desired to have David, along with his sons, daughters, wives and concubines murdered.  David’s desire for traitorous Absalom was that he would be spared...that the leaders of his army would deal gently with him!  David’s desire for mercy toward Absalom  was so very misplaced.  Oh, how much at this moment did both these men need God’s wisdom to enlighten their eyes.  David needed it to see Absolom for the traitor that he was and Absalom needed it to preserve himself from his own rebellion and selfish ambition which had left him literally hanging on a tree (accursed) between heaven and earth.  

David’s grief over Absalom reminded me that being a parent has enabled me to share in a small way in not only the love of Christ but also in the fellowship of His sufferings.  Loving a child opens our hearts to much love but also to the possibility of much hurt.  We see in our own desire to show mercy, love and grace to our children, a tiny smidgen of God’s desire to show mercy, love and grace toward us.  We understand a little more about the great love with which He loves us.  We can even understand a little more how He would die for us when we were yet His enemy.  

God used my own experience as a parent (the good, the bad and the ugly) to bring these truths home to my heart.  Through His word to us (me), He enabled me not only to begin to perceive the beauty of sharing in the fellowship of His sufferings but also to grasp an inkling of my Savior’s sacrificial love for me.  Truly this is how we get to know our Lord...by walking in the same path that He walked....by making, as His word says, His footsteps our pathway.  Very often this path is the despised and rejected path, but even that is a good thing because it gives us the opportunity to follow Christ's example. Whatever difficulty and grief we experience here on earth, our Jesus has been there before and is even there now going through it with us. 

 "WHO COMMITTED NO SIN, NOR WAS DECEIT FOUND IN HIS MOUTH"; who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously.  

Here are just a few of the verses of Scripture God used in my life to give me that tiny window into His heart of love for His children.  Read them from the perspective of the Father's heart of love for you and for your children....read them as a mom or a dad thinking on his child and mourning the loss but hoping for the future. Whatever we go through here on this earth as a believer, our God will use to not only draw us closer to Him but also to transform us into His image.

Jeremiah 31:15-22

 15 Thus says the LORD:

      “ A voice was heard in Ramah,

      Lamentation and bitter weeping,

      Rachel weeping for her children,

      Refusing to be comforted for her children,

      Because they are no more.”

16 Thus says the LORD:

      “ Refrain your voice from weeping,

      And your eyes from tears;

      For your work shall be rewarded, says the LORD,

      And they shall come back from the land of the enemy.

       17 There is hope in your future, says the LORD,

      That your children shall come back to their own border.

       18 “ I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself:

      ‘ You have chastised me, and I was chastised,

      Like an untrained bull;

      Restore me, and I will return,

      For You are the LORD my God.

       19 Surely, after my turning, I repented;

      And after I was instructed, I struck myself on the thigh;

      I was ashamed, yes, even humiliated,

      Because I bore the reproach of my youth.’

       20 Is Ephraim My dear son?

      Is he a pleasant child?

      For though I spoke against him,

      I earnestly remember him still;

      Therefore My heart yearns for him;

      I will surely have mercy on him, says the LORD.

       21 “ Set up signposts,

      Make landmarks;

      Set your heart toward the highway,

      The way in which you went.

      Turn back, O virgin of Israel,

      Turn back to these your cities.

       22 How long will you gad about,

      O you backsliding daughter? 

Because They Trust in Him…

 For I will surely deliver you, and you shall not fall by the sword; but your life shall be as a prize to you, because you have put your trust in Me," says the LORD.'"—Jeremiah 39:18

And they were helped against them, and the Hagrites were delivered into their hand, and all who were with them, for they cried out to God in the battle. He heeded their prayer, because they put their trust in Him.—1 Chronicles 5:20

And the LORD shall help them and deliver them;

He shall deliver them from the wicked,

And save them,

Because they trust in Him.—Psalm 37:40

"Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD,

And whose hope is the LORD.

For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters,

Which spreads out its roots by the river,

And will not fear when heat comes;

But its leaf will be green,

And will not be anxious in the year of drought,

Nor will cease from yielding fruit.—Jeremiah 17:7-8

When are we most protected?  When are we in the very center of the will of God? The answer is when we walk through this world depending on and trusting Him.

The verses above as I read them this morning caused my heart to look back and see the people, circumstances and situations over the course of my life that I, by His mercy, had no choice but to give to Him in complete surrender.

Today I see the evidence of things I couldn’t see then. 

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good testimony.—Hebrews 11:1

Today, I know that none of the good I see in my life is of me but is completely and utterly of Him. In Him is where my fruit is not only found but abounds as well. The only thing I did was the only thing I COULD do…cling to my God.  Truly, I had no other choice. As it turns out, it was also the only thing that was necessary. Oh how gracious and kind is our God to make the only thing necessary be the only choice that I had.

Beloved…He is your way of escape. Bring your broken heart to Him and rest in His love and His care. There is a beautiful and protecting power that accompanies trust in God because it is when we trust Him that…

He can do exceedingly abundantly in our lives.

He brings beauty from ashes…

He turns our sorrow to joy…

And our mourning to dancing…

He gives us the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness

It is when we trust Him that His comforts and consolations will multiply and abound.  

His goal…

That “we” may be called trees of righteousness,

The planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified."

None of us…all of Him

Truly, there is a sweetness beyond compare in simply asking your Father in heaven to undertakefor you. And who better to trust than Your Creator. No one has ever or ever will trust Him in vain. They who look to Him are radiant and their faces unashamed. God's care for those that are His is sure. Spurgeon says that He, Himself, is the guardian of the gracious and that under His sacred wing there is safety even when every danger is abroad.  

One of my own favorite prayers in this regard is very short and originates in Scripture.

Have mercy on me, O LORD, for I am weak; undertake for me!

Beloved…Believe God. Take hold of this promise and watch Him deliver again and again and again.

Trust in the LORD with all your heart,

And lean not on your own understanding;

In all your ways acknowledge Him,

And He shall direct your paths.—Proverbs 3:5-6

Trust in the LORD, and do good;

Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness.

Delight yourself also in the LORD,

And He shall give you the desires of your heart.

Commit your way to the LORD,

Trust also in Him,

And He shall bring it to pass.

He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light,

And your justice as the noonday.

Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for Him;

Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way,

Because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass.

Cease from anger, and forsake wrath;

Do not fret—it only causes harm—Psalm 37:3-8

But the salvation of the righteous is from the LORD;

He is their strength in the time of trouble.

And the LORD shall help them and deliver them;

He shall deliver them from the wicked,

And save them,

Because they trust in Him.—Psalm 37:39-40

I will both lie down in peace, and sleep;

For You alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.—Psalm 4:8

But let all those rejoice who put their trust in You;

Let them ever shout for joy, because You defend them;

Let those also who love Your name

Be joyful in You.

For You, O LORD, will bless the righteous;

With favor You will surround him as with a shield.—Psalm 5:11-12

What Will the Harvest Be?

For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind: it hath no stalk: the bud shall yield no meal: if so be it yield, the strangers shall swallow it up.” —Hosea 8:7

Prudent individuals look before them to see the result of their actions. Their eyes look beyond the present to the future. They look before they leap. Only the foolish person goes blindly on until, at last, he stumbles and has a desperate and probably fatal fall.

We are all sowing; we cannot help it. No one goes forth in the morning without a seed-basket.

As we are all sowing, the great question we have to consider is, “What will the harvest be?” Every wise individual will ask that question. I may have sown little in my small plot, or I may have walked far and scattered the seed over the wider field committed to my charge—but what have I sown and what will I reap? What sheaves will I gather into the harvest—sheaves of fire that will burn into my soul forever or sheaves of glory that I will bring with rejoicing in the last great day? 

If we have believed in Christ and received eternal life by faith in him, and if we are trying to labor for him, we are sowing blessed seed; and if it comes not up today, or tomorrow, yet divine grace ensures a crop that we will gather in one of these days. Therefore, we may be encouraged to labor on. The farmer waits for the precious fruits of the earth through the long and dreary winter, through the checkered days of spring, through March winds and April showers he waits until at last the golden harvest rewards him for all his toil. What we sow, we will also reap. Our Lord has told us so.—Charles Spurgeon

Drawn by Cords of Kindness…

"Therefore, behold, I will allure her,

Will bring her into the wilderness,

And speak comfort to her.

I will give her her vineyards from there,

And the Valley of Achor as a door of hope;

She shall sing there,

As in the days of her youth,

As in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt.

"And it shall be, in that day,"

Says the LORD,

"That you will call Me 'My Husband,'

And no longer call Me 'My Master,'

For I will take from her mouth the names of the Baals,

And they shall be remembered by their name no more.

In that day I will make a covenant for them

With the beasts of the field,

With the birds of the air,

And with the creeping things of the ground.

Bow and sword of battle I will shatter from the earth,

To make them lie down safely.

"I will betroth you to Me forever;

Yes, I will betroth you to Me

In righteousness and justice,

In lovingkindness and mercy;

I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness,

And you shall know the LORD.—Hosea 2:14-20

There has not been a time when I have read these verses from Hosea that my eyes have not filled with grateful tears.  God did this for ME!  He came and drew me away from my hardened, sin-filled path by bringing me into a wilderness of much grief and sorrow.  But He did not leave me there alone.  He drew near to me in love, spoke sweet words of comfort to my heart, and there, He betrothed me to Him forever. Beloved…Truly, it is the goodness of God that leads us to repentance!

I drew them with gentle cords,

With bands of love,

And I was to them as those who take the yoke from their neck.

I stooped and fed them.—Hosea 11:3-4

Spurgeon says it best…

I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her. (Hosea 2:14) 

The goodness of God sees us allured by sin, and it resolves to try upon us the more powerful allurements of love. Do we not remember when the Lover of our souls first cast a spell upon us and charmed us away from the fascinations of the world! He will do this again and again whenever He sees us likely to be ensnared by evil. 

He promises to draw us apart, for there He can best deal with us, and this separated place is not to be a paradise, but a wilderness, since in such a place there will be nothing to take of our attention from our God. In the deserts of affliction the presence of the Lord becomes everything to us, and we prize His company beyond any value which we set upon it when we sat under our own vine and fig tree in the society of our fellows. Solitude and affliction bring more to themselves and to their heavenly Father than any other means. 

When thus allured and secluded the Lord has choice things to say to us for our comfort. He "speaks to our heart," as the original has it. Oh, that at this we may have this promise explained in our experience! Allured by love, separated by trial, and comforted by the Spirit of truth, may we know the Lord and sing for joy!—Charles Spurgeon - Faith’s Checkbook. 

Receive Him as Myself…

 If then you count me as a partner, receive him as you would me. But if he has wronged you or owes anything, put that on my account.—Philemon 17-18

“If thou count me therefore a partner, receive him as myself.” Oh my goodness!  How did I never notice this verse before.  I love how Paul advocates for Onesimus. How beautifully does it point to our Lord Jesus who is our Advocate before our Father in Heaven. Receive him, as Myself.”  We, who believe, are accepted by God in His Beloved Son. When we turn from our sins and believe, God receives us because in us, He sees Christ, His Son. Our sin has been imputed to the One who died on the Cross for our sin in our place. 

Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.—Psalm 32:2

For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.—2 Corinthians 5:21

Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ—Romans 5:1

But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.—Romans 3:23-26

On Being a Good King…

 Jotham was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jerushah the daughter of Zadok. And he did what was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his father Uzziah had done (although he did not enter the temple of the LORD). But still the people acted corruptly.

He built the Upper Gate of the house of the LORD, and he built extensively on the wall of Ophel. Moreover he built cities in the mountains of Judah, and in the forests he built fortresses and towers. He also fought with the king of the Ammonites and defeated them. And the people of Ammon gave him in that year one hundred talents of silver, ten thousand kors of wheat, and ten thousand of barley. The people of Ammon paid this to him in the second and third years also. So Jotham became mighty, because he prepared his ways before the LORD his God.

Now the rest of the acts of Jotham, and all his wars and his ways, indeed they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah. He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. So Jotham rested with his fathers, and they buried him in the City of David. Then Ahaz his son reigned in his place.—2 Chronicles 27:1-9

Being a good king has got to be a tough job.  Being a good and godly king even tougher. Jotham, by preparing his ways before the Lord navigated it well.

So Jotham became mighty, because he prepared his ways before the LORD his God.—2 Chronicles 27:6

As the ruler of the land Jotham faced temptations that those in lower positions do not. What he said and did had far reaching effects not only in his kingdom but in other lands as well. Both his failures and his successes were evident to all.  Beloved…It is the same for us, just on a smaller scale. I so want my own words and my own actions to be a godly example to those that God has placed in my life…be they relative, friend or foe. 

Jotham lived (as all of us do) among a corrupt people, but he did not become like them because Jotham wholly followed the Lord His God.  He did not worry about what other kings may have thought of him.  Neither did he look to satisfy his own fleshly desires.  Jotham looked to please the Lord His God. Jotham purposed to obey his God…and God prospered him. May that be our desire as well. 

Oh, Father!  No matter the position in which You have placed us…may our humble prayer always be, “lead us not into temptation.” May we, like Jotham, depend on Your grace to preserve, prosper and see us through the tasks that you have set before us.

You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.—2 Timothy 2:1

Ending with some verses from Isaiah 50…Jesus is speaking. 

"The Lord GOD has given Me

The tongue of the learned,

That I should know how to speak

A word in season to him who is weary.

He awakens Me morning by morning,

He awakens My ear

To hear as the learned.

The Lord GOD has opened My ear;

And I was not rebellious,

Nor did I turn away.

I gave My back to those who struck Me,

And My cheeks to those who plucked out the beard;

I did not hide My face from shame and spitting.

"For the Lord GOD will help Me;

Therefore I will not be disgraced;

Therefore I have set My face like a flint,

And I know that I will not be ashamed.

He is near who justifies Me;

Who will contend with Me?

Let us stand together.

Who is My adversary?

Let him come near Me.

Surely the Lord GOD will help Me;

Who is he who will condemn Me?

Indeed they will all grow old like a garment;

The moth will eat them up.—Isaiah 50:4-9