Hosea 6:1-7:16
“On the third day he will restore us, that we may live in his presence.” More than nearly any other prophet - certainly more that Amos - Hosea speaks, nay he embodies, the desire of God to draw wretched fools into repentance. He pleads for the rebellious and the unfaithful to come back into relationship with him. If we know we are with sin, if we know we are guilty, if we know we are unclean, then his desire is to restore us, his desire is to heal us, his desire is to come to us like the spring rains that water the earth. Come, let us return unto the Lord. He doesn’t want us to linger. He doesn’t want us to give him some space. If we are in the wrong then we should come and return to him. This isn’t a promise of consequence-free living - oh no, the wounds of our rebellion will not magically disappear. But he will heal them. The Lord will bind them with his love. He will revive us in his presence. We will know forgiveness. No matter how many times this has happened before, the invitation remains as strong and as keen - that we would come and turn ourselves again to the Most High. On the third day he showed us that. On the third day, while we were still in our sins, Christ died for us. He did it to draw us to himself. He did it that we might acknowledge the Lord. He did it that we might press on, and press on again to acknowledge his love. And to watch him appear to us like the sun rises in the sky. Come, let us return unto the Lord.
Romans 7:7-25
I know this passage is a tricky one (is Paul talking about life as a Spirit-filled Christian or as a non-Spirit-filled Jew?) but I think it is fascinating how far Paul goes to try to spare any blushes on behalf of the Law. Paul loves the Torah. Paul thanks God for giving Israel Torah (even including Leviticus!!). Paul doesn’t denigrate Judaism, rather he celebrates the way that it pointed Israel to her need for rescue by Jesus. I think this is a major point. Post Luther and post the reformation there is a danger that we slip into a very non-Jewish idea that Law + human effort = bad, while grace + faith = good. We need to uphold the latter - grace and faith are indeed very, very good - but steer clear of the former - Paul as a Christian Jew saw that the Law was good in the role it played and he continually stressed the importance of effort as the appropriate response to grace. What Paul got narky about (which we’ll cover in Galatians so won’t go into it too much here) was when people tried to mis-apply the Law by trying to impose it on people who had already understood their need of rescue by Jesus and, indeed, had already been rescued by Jesus. Paul got tetchy when people tried to turn a sign-post to Jesus into an instruction manual that took people’s eyes off Jesus. And quite right too. So in terms of what we do with this today? I guess we need to embrace our Jewish heritage, not by adopting Jewish practices but by appreciating that the mind-sets and world-views of the Old Testament are the foundations for our faith. And by embracing Paul’s, and Judaism’s, conviction that faith leads to effort and obedience. We have an obligation to strain after - that we would be led by the Spirit of God.
Psalm 88:9b-18
“Do those who are dead rise up and praise you?”. What answer is he expecting here? I think Heman might be in for a shock.
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