Category Archives: Christianity

Arts, Christianity, Culture

Old Testament: The Book of Hosea

OVERVIEW: GOD’S LOVE NEVER ENDS

THE Book of Hosea in the Old Testament equates to Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son, who leaves home with his inheritance, wastes it and returns home penitent, only to be greeted by his father with open arms (Luke 15:11-24). We can identify with it; most of us have been prodigal somehow.

But we may also identify with the father, the real subject of the story. A child or close relative takes off on a road which we know will lead to disaster, and we can only watch and wait. How do you feel in such circumstances?

A few may forget and carry on as if nothing had happened. Most will shed a few tears and quietly carry the hurt. Some will wait with a heavy heart hoping that one day they’ll come home, ready to forgive just to have them back.

Hosea’s story is a personal tragedy which God turns into a powerful message for the people of Israel (the northern kingdom). Hosea married – at God’s direction – someone he knew would be unfaithful. Gomer bore him three children and then sold herself into prostitution. But Hosea loved her. He went and found her and paid a ransom to get her out of bondage. And she came home.

God’s like that, Hosea said. He loves the wilful, prodigal Israelites even though they done the worst to him. Come back home to him, and he’ll forgive you.

But did they listen? No! That’s the real tragedy of Hosea. Gomer humbled herself and returned but the Israelites didn’t. Now God’s pleading love is matched by his righteous anger – a combination we find hard to imagine because we usually experience one but not both at the same time. Hosea shows us two inseparable sides of God’s character.

The doom of which Hosea warned happened and Israel was destroyed by Assyria in 722 BC. But as the people scattered, his words echoed after them: one day there would be a restoration. God’s love never ends and that is true for everyone who belongs to God’s family but runs off in wrong directions. His arms are open. They always are.

There are clear and unambiguous messages from Hosea that apply equally to us today. Finding simple practical ways to consume less of the world’s resources (and enjoying the challenge) is one timeless message; and, that if you want to be fruitful for God, we should programme our minds with his priorities.

Rubbish in, rubbish out

– A narrative on Hosea 7-9

COMPUTER programmers will tell you that if you load rubbish data into a computer, you will get rubbish out of it. It happens also to be a more general fact of life. Hosea’s familiar image of sowing the wind and reaping the whirlwind (8:7) has its application in every generation, and in most people’s personal lives.

Israel’s input into the divine memory was unchecked deceit and unchallenged crime (7:1); sexual licence (7:4); naïve international trade deals and political treaties; desertion of their traditional faith (7:14-16); breach of the covenant agreement (8:1-3); adoption of idol worship (8:4-6); and despising the prophets (9:7,8).

Life was just a load of hot air. It had no substance. So what they reaped was physical, emotional, and spiritual emptiness and despair (8:7-10; 9:1-4,12-17).

A similar emptiness and despair today drive many people to drink, drugs and the addictive pursuit of pleasure in which fun ceases to be a by-product of creativity and relaxation and becomes an end in itself. Christians especially should be sad at the sight because they know there is an alternative: a God-centred enjoyment of the world which comes from responsibility and purposefulness.

However, they must practise it as well as theorise about it, demonstrate it as well as believe it. To do that, we must programme our lives with God’s priorities, which is what the Israelites had failed to do.

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Arts, Christianity, Culture

Free drink for life

NEW TESTAMENT

– A narrative on John’s Gospel 4:1-26; cf. 7:37-39

WATER is a precious commodity throughout the Near East, and today some Arab countries survive only because of desalination plants which pour life into the parched desert. Bible readers in temperate climates take water for granted and may miss the impact of the biblical imagery.

The “water of life” is used in both testaments as an image of God’s renewing, life-giving presence. It is like a stream in the desert, transforming barren terrain into lush forest where animals can play, and people can find food (Isaiah 35:1-7). Therefore, the spiritually “dry” can find satisfying refreshment from God’s bottomless spring of life (Isaiah 55:1-3).

John uses the wordplay between Jesus and the woman at Sychar to show what is this new life that God offers. For the woman, “living water” was a running stream which never stopped flowing, unlike many of the wadis near her home which flowed only in the rainy season.

To Jesus, it was the life of the Spirit (cf. 7:37-39), always present, always flowing on (just as the wind of the Spirit is always blowing, 3:8). The thirst it quenches is the human desire for “something more” than material life and what relationships can bring – the innate thirst for God himself.

However, it is not true to say the thirst ceases when a person becomes a Christian. There is always more of God to discover and so the “stream” keeps flowing and never stops to become a stagnant pool.

John is complementing the other Gospels. The lifestyle of the Sermon on the Mount, when practised spontaneously, is the visible emergence of the bubbling stream from God’s people.

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Arts, Christianity, Culture

Freedom is a relative value

NEW TESTAMENT

– A narrative on Paul’s letter to the Galatians 3:23-4:7; 5  

We all remember the day we left school. Freedom! No more petty rules; you felt grown-up. Paul says that the person who trusts Christ is like someone who has left school. (“Put in charge”, 3:24, means literally a schoolteacher, or guardian.)

He also says it’s like a Jewish boy who’s come of age. There were no teenagers in the ancient world. You were either a child or a member of the adult Jewish community at the age of 13. Through faith in Christ, we have become spiritual adults. We can make God-honouring decisions without the discipline of the nursery.

Faith in Christ frees us from the prison of legalism (3:22,23), the impossible attempt to please (or bribe) God by keeping rules and regulations. John Wesley said of his conversion that he exchanged the faith of a slave for that of a son. He could serve God out of love, not out of fear.

The Galatian legalism had specific Jewish connotations, but we can become slaves too: to superstitions, fear of failure, and specific sins. Faith in Christ offers freedom and the dynamic to live wholeheartedly for God.

But there’s another side to it. “Freedom” was a watchword of the hippie sixties, when people tuned in and dropped out, abandoned taboos, and did their own thing. Echoes of that lifestyle remain. While the pull back to “slavery” is strong, so is the pull towards “lawlessness”.

Freedom in Christ does not give us the right to please ourselves and ignore the wishes of God and other people (5:13-15). We should not impose our “freedom” in such a way that makes others slaves to our whims and desires.

The message of Galatians is clear for today: we should let the Bible be our guide, we should trust Christ and not any of our own works for salvation, and we should live by allowing the Spirit to make us “fruitful”. Paul’s letter also encourages Christians to use their freedom in Christ responsibly.

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