Fresh Air - What Resurrected Repentance Could Bring: Reflections from Hosea (#9)

Even in the darkest hour.  Even when the the distance seems impossible to traverse.  Even when the heart seems most unresponsive.  Even when sin seems intractably intrenched.  Even when the sealed stone is firmly entrenched over the hole of the grave.

Still, the invitation is offered once again.  "Come!"

When the young man took his share of the inheritance, skipped off to waste it all on his flesh, the father spent daily time on the porch scanning the horizon for any sign of his son's return.  And, when he finally saw the wasted frame approaching, the dad ran to his boy with grace.  That was Jesus' take on things.

Suddenly, in mid-prophesy 7 centuries before, Hosea breaks into surprising verse.

"Come, let us return to the Lord.  For He has torn us that He may heal us.  He has struck us down, and He will bind us up.  After two days, he will revive us.  On the third day, He will rise us up, that we may live before Him" (Hosea 6:1-2).

GOD USES THE DESTRUCTION OF SIN

Nothing could be clearer in the pages of Scripture than this reality - if people want to sin, and taste the bitterness of its consequences, that's a choice God will allow to play out.  Fully.  Sin will tear.  Sin will strike down.  Lust conceives sin, and sin gives birth to death (James 1:13-15).  God can and does use our choices to sin to accomplish a tearing and a striking down.

When His own Son "became sin" for us, it killed him.  He was torn apart, struck down, and buried in the earth.  Isaiah (chapter 53) told the world it would happen to the Messiah.

And yet, death is not allowed to have the final word over the innocent Sin-Substitute.  The Holy Spirit filled Hosea's mouth with a remarkable fore-telling.  "On the third day, He will rise us up, that we may live before Him" (6:2).   No doubt, Hosea was foretelling a coming restoration of Abraham's disciplined descendants -- the nation itself -- but it would be pictured in their Messiah hundreds of years later in Jerusalem.

GOD RESPONDS TO REPENTANCE WITH RESTORATION

"He has torn, that He may heal...He has struck down, He will bind up."   Where sin flourishes, Paul observed, grace super-flourishes.  All God asks is that we turn from our foolishness and make our way back to the Father standing on the porch.

"Let us know the Lord," Hosea continues, "Let us press on to know the Lord.  His going out is as sure as the dawn.  He will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains water the earth" (Hosea 6:3).

There are few things as refreshing and beautiful as the moments following a wonderful spring rain, even as the sun breaks through the clouds again.  The smell of the fresh air, the look of renewed grass and revived flowers.  The touch of God's restoring hand, bringing life and hope and joy.

If you're reading this, pray for someone who needs Gods refreshment in their life.  Perhaps they are far away.  The invitation remains.  Share with them Hosea's appeal.  The life-destroying tearing can stop.  What is struck down can stand up again.  The drought can end.  The showers can begin.

"Come..."