Monday 25 July

Hosea 11:12-14:9

Return has been a repeat theme in Hosea.  As this remarkable prophet closes he exposes the extent of that intrigue for one last time.  Israel’s crime has been to return to Egypt.  God miraculously freed Israel from subjection and slavery, from hopelessness and helplessness.  But now Israel are willingly sliding back to their former task-master.  Israel have literally made an approach to Egypt but they have also metaphorically done so.  Every idol Israel has constructed and every god that they have put their hope in have been like requests to return to their pre-Red Sea state.  But Hosea trumps that return.  He miraculously speaks of God’s desire to overcome their return to captivity with an offer of a return to God.  ‘Come, let us return to the Lord’ is the refrain of this book.  And where the return to Egypt yielded lies and violence, the return to God will yield care and fruitfulness.  Life is always defined by returns.  It just depends where we choose to direct our return.  Will we return to our oppression or will we return to our God?  Hosea makes clear that a return to God is always option, no matter how compromised we are.  And yet that is not the some total of returns that are offered in this book.  In these closing chapters Hosea opens a remarkable final opportunity - a return from the grave.  Could he have sensed what that actually meant?  Could he have perceived Christ’s empty tomb?  I don’t know.  But this final return is the most potent of the lot.  It’s a return to the pre-Fall state of mankind.  A return to an insignificance for death.  That’s where Hosea points us - to return from our sins, to return to God and to trust that he will return us to Eden.  Now that is a prophecy worth giving.

Romans 9:1-21

Often chapters 9-11 are considered to be a slightly odd, slightly tedious aside from the life-changing truth of chapters 1-8 and the life-enhancing application of chapters 12-15.  But I don’t think that is right.  As I said at the start I think Romans is essentially an exposition of Paul’s statement that he is “not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes... those who by faith have been made righteous, shall live”.  Paul has talked about how those who, by faith, have been made righteous shall live.  Now he climaxes his argument by showing that God is faithful and he has power to save everyone who believes.  Some may have suggested that Paul’s gospel showed God was not faithful.  Some may have suggested that Paul’s gospel showed God rejecting promises to Israel and therefore proving himself false.  And if God has broken his word once, what is to stop him doing it again?  This idea could undercut all the glorious truths of chapters 1-8.  So, Paul goes to war against the idea.  He begins to show that God is resolutely and unflinchingly faithful.  This thing has never been about natural descendants.  Anyone who sought to define Israel purely by family trees has always been wrong.  Israel, as in the true chosen people of God, has always been a different set of people from that.  Ruth the Moabite was part of Israel.  So was Rahab the prostitute.  Manassah was king of the 10 tribes but his gross rejection of all of God’s word was proof that he was not a proper Israelite.  God has always remained true to his people.  God has always remained true to his word.  I think many of us today in our heart of hearts doubt God’s faithfulness.  I think many of us today in our heart of hearts doubt the faithfulness of God’s word.  We need to grapple with this idea.  We can’t just skip on to chapter 12.  Chapters 9-11 are where the battle of faith is fought and won.

Psalm 89:9-13

Your arm is endued with power.