As I sit at the beach this morning, looking upon the beauty that God has created, I am amazed! Dolphins swimming, pelicans flying through the air, water that seems to go on forever, and shells too numerous to count-they are all reminders that He is such a great God! Then I thought, “…and these are only the things that I can see!” How many billions of beautiful shells lie beneath the surface? How many creatures exist only for God to notice and see…to give God alone the glory? Job 28:24 says:
“…for he views the ends of the earth and sees everything under the heavens.”
This same God-the one that carved out the heavens and who alone knows the way to wisdom and understanding (Job 28:23)-knows my heart. Think about that for a moment. He knows what’s truly in your heart; He knows what’s visible for all to see, but also the things hidden from even your closest friend. Psalm 90:8 says:
“You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of you presence.”
You see, when the light of the Holy God is set before our hearts, it can’t help but to expose all the dark corners and secrets. The people of Hosea’s time failed to recognize this. They failed to see that the God that created them and called them His own was a jealous and all-knowing God. He knew their sins and the condition of their heart. Check out our passages from Hosea this morning, and think about the questions that follow:
“I want to heal Israel, but its sins are too great. Samaria is filled with liars. Thieves are on the inside and bandits on the outside! Its people don’t realize that I am watching them. Their sinful deeds are all around them, and I see them all.” (Hosea 7:1-2 NLT)
“They do not cry out to me from their hearts but wail upon their beds. They gather together for grain and new wine but turn away from me. I trained them and strengthened them, but they plot evil against me. They do not turn to the Most High; they are like a faulty bow…” (Hosea 7:14-16a NIV)
- What did God desire to do?
- What did the people fail to realize?
- What are the people truly crying out for?
- To what does God compare them?
These passages kept running through my mind. God wanted to heal them. He desired to see them made whole again…to take away their iniquities. He is the great physician and the only one who can fully remove the presence of sin in our life. So what was the problem? Sure they were sinful…but aren’t we all? Doesn’t the passage say they were crying out to Him?
When you look closer at Hosea 7:14-16, you’ll see the problem. They were not crying out to Him from their hearts…they weren’t truly willing to be saved. During the time of Hosea, it was normal and expected for people to gather together during a time of mourning. The people were doing what they were “expected” to do, however they were NOT seeking the Lord. Instead, they were seeking grain and new wine. They desired temporal things. They wanted God to provide only for their immediate, physical needs, but failed to realize their extreme depravity of heart.
How often does that relate to our own lives? How often do we struggle with wanting God to provide what we think we need, rather than repenting of our own sin and asking Him to fix the depravity of our hearts?
The thing I find most interesting however, is that the people are described as a faulty bow. Think about that…a faulty bow, not a faulty arrow. The original word for sin is the verb chata, which means “to miss the mark or to miss the goal or path of right.” When an archer would shoot an arrow and miss the bullseye, they would call it “sin.” When we miss the perfect goal and God’s best, we sin. The problem is not that we are a bad arrow or fail to measure up; the problem is that we are faulty bows. No matter how straight, how well-crafted, or how perfect the arrow is, if shot from a faulty bow, it will never hit the mark. It will always miss.
What a beautiful picture of us and our sin nature. You see, just like the Israelites in Hosea’s time, we are a faulty bow. We cannot hit the mark and be saved on our own…no matter how beautiful or perfect of an arrow we become. We need Jesus, our Savior, to change and save us. He fixes the bow. He fixes our hearts. The beauty of all of this is that He desires to save and heal us, but we must be willing.
The Israelites had missed the mark. They had missed God’s best and the purpose for their being. From the beginning they were His chosen people, but they allowed idols, selfishness, fear, and pride to get in the way. My prayer is that we no longer miss the mark or our purpose. We were created to serve the Lord, but again, we must be willing. Like the Psalmist wrote, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts…” (Psalm 95:7-8a). He’s waiting…are you willing?