The Lord hears you when you cry. That is such a comforting statement. Think about what that means….when you cry out to God and humble yourself before Him, He hears you! The God of the universe, who holds all power, glory, honor, control, and life, actually loves you and listens to you.
“The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them; He delivers them from all their troubles. The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” (Psalm 34:17-18)
Throughout the book of Hosea, we have become very familiar with the Israelites and their suffering. In fact, if you’re like me you may be thinking, “Why don’t they just cry out to God and repent?!” For us, in hindsight, this is the obvious answer, but what if they were unaware that their suffering was caused by God. Stick with me for a moment…what if they didn’t see that God was the one who was behind it. Yes we’ve seen that ultimately it was their disobedience, decisions, and idolatry that led to God’s punishment, but what if they attributed it to other things? Let’s start today by recapping a passage from Hosea that we touched on last week…
“They do not cry out to me from their hearts but wail on their beds. They slash themselves, appealing to their gods for grain and new wine, but they turn away from me. I trained them and strengthened their arms, but they plot evil against me. They do not turn to the Most High; they are like a faulty bow. Their leaders will fall by the sword because of their insolent words. For this they will be ridiculed in the land of Egypt.” (Hosea 7:14-16)
In verse 14, Hosea states what the Israelites are and are not doing…think about them by filling in the blanks below:
- They do not…
- But they…
- They…
- But….
Hosea says the people were wailing or crying out on their beds, but were not crying out to God from their hearts. The people were upset, maybe even sorry that they had sinned against God, but failed to see that it was God that they needed to turn to. Instead, they kept crying out to other gods and other nations to save them; they were gathering together to perform pagan rituals in order to try and secure God’s blessing and forgiveness. Do you find that sort of strange? Do you ever try to secure God’s blessings without humbly seeking God?
When God used Moses to lead the people out of Egypt, He gave them laws and rules to set them apart from other nations. He wanted His people to be holy and blameless…to be obedient and loyal to Him alone. Look at the following passages from Deuteronomy, where God is speaking about His people:
“The Lord will judge his people and have compassion on his servants when he sees their strength is gone and no one is left, slave or free. He will say: ‘Now where are their gods, the rock they took refuge in…”
“See now that I myself am He! There is no god besides me. I put to death and I bring to life, I have wounded and I will heal, and no one can deliver out of my hand.”
(Deut. 32:36-37; 39)
Do you see what’s happening? The people failed to keep the first commandments in the Law (Deut. 5:6-8), and when they saw that disaster was coming upon them, they had no idea why. So instead of looking into God’s Word and obeying Him, they cried out to other nations and offered up sacrifices to false “gods.” They had what I like to call the “woe is me syndrome.” They saw that their lives were bad and that circumstances weren’t all that pleasant, but failed to seek the one true God who could fix it. It’s not that they weren’t crying out, it’s that they were crying out to the wrong things!
- What are some things in your life that you “cry out” to when things are difficult?
They were shooting arrow upon arrow out, only to miss the target every time. The source of their crying, wailing, and seeking was skewed; their hearts were far from God. Take some time this morning to examine your heart, which Scripture tells us is the wellspring of life! Do you rely on God and His control of your life, or your own? Do you turn to Him when things are out of control and difficult, or do you turn somewhere else? Know that God is God…He alone is worth crying out to!