The Joy of Glory

Amos 5:10-15 (click here)
They hate him who reproves in the gate,
and they abhor him who speaks the truth.
Therefore because you trample on the poor
and you exact taxes of grain from him,
you have built houses of hewn stone,
but you shall not dwell in them;
you have planted pleasant vineyards,
but you shall not drink their wine. (Amos 5:10-11)

Reflection
It’s hard to read the prophets sometimes… isn’t it? I mean, all our passages for the past few days have just felt heavy as they have exposed some extremely negative images of community.

However…

We need this don’t we? The Bible is true to life, and not all of life is pretty, easy, and light. There are dark, broken difficulties… even in community. And, God specifically raised up prophets to call his rebellious people back to himself. Amos is no different.

Amos calls out with warnings to a community that hates “justice for all” because they love “just all for me.” They are willing to oppress, abuse, and harm anyone as long as it means gain for themselves, and they will silence anyone who tells them differently.

In ancient cities, the older men of the city often spent much of their day seated at the city gates to observe the comings and goings of the people. From this vantage point, they served as judges in the city. People brought their disagreements and grievances to them in hopes that their wisdom would render a just judgment.

Yet… Amos says that many in the community hate those old men specifically because they speak the truth and reprove them for their abuse of others.

This is a massive sign that cruciform community is breaking down and that people are no longer sacrificing themselves for others, but rather sacrificing others for themselves… the community hates correction.

The despising of wisdom, accountability, and correction is evidence that we consider ourselves our own supreme judges. We are unwilling to hear correction because we believe that we are always correct.

The warning from Amos is that even if we reject the justice of a wise community, justice will ultimately be served by an all-wise God. These people may find success in oppressing others so that they can build fine houses and plant great vineyards, but they won’t get to live in their mansions and drink their wine. In other words, even if they get their way for a little while, they will ultimately lose everything. Justice will be done… and the things they thought would bring them lasting satisfaction will pass away, and they will find themselves not in community with the only one who truly satisfies forever… God.

The question we need to ask ourselves is how do we receive correction from our community? Do we love the faithful wounds of a friend, leader, or church who are after our eternal good? Or, do we reject all correction because we believe that we are always correct?

Correction in community is a gracious gift from God that teaches all of us how to live cruciform lives where we give up sacrificing others for the good of ourselves, and become a people who sacrifice ourselves for the good of others.

*All previous devotionals may be found at www.thejoyofglory.com
*The complete SVCC Lenten reading guide is available here.

Hosea 3 (click here)
And the LORD said to me, “Go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, even as the LORD loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love cakes of raisins.” (Hosea 3:1)

Reflection
God speaks.

Imagine it… you actually, literally hear his voice. This is something you’ve always hoped would happened, but doubted that it ever would… and then… out of nowhere… a voice. And what does God say?

“Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the LORD.” (Hosea 1:2)

Don’t worry… that’s not exactly what I was expecting either.

What would you do? Hosea obeys… he marries Gomer… and she doesn’t quit her adulterous lifestyle. In fact, she runs into the arms of so many lovers and risky situations, that she apparently landed herself in slavery.

What was Hosea to do? What was he supposed to tell their children? What would God have him do?

“Go AGAIN, love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, even as the LORD loves the children of Israel…” (Hosea 3:1)

Hosea buys her back.

Hosea loves Gomer and refuses to let her go. She will be his, and he will be hers. He will pay any price to make sure of it.

Why did the Lord call Hosea to this lot? Why was he called to marry a woman he KNEW would be unfaithful? Why was he called to STAY with her?

WHY?

God has actually been telling Hosea and us why all along. At the end of Hosea 1:2 God said that the reason Hosea was to take a prostitute as a wife was because, “the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the LORD.”

Hosea’s marriage was a living reflection of the relationship that the LORD shared with his adulterous, rebellious people who were constantly seeking after other gods. Hosea was not just going to speak a message to the people about God’s unfailing, faithful love in the face of their faithlessness… no… he was going to live that message!

Hosea would not just declare to the community what was on the heart of God… he would feel the very heart of God. Hosea’s heart and the heart of the LORD would beat in rhythm with one another to the broken beat of love.

Gomer and Hosea are a small-scale picture of a much larger reality… a larger story… the story of the people of God… an adulterous people who continually have a love affair with sin… and whose faithful groom buys her back again… this is the Gospel!

Jesus is the Gospel… and we are Gomer.

We are Gomer? I thought we began this whole “Hosea-story” by putting ourselves in Hosea’s shoes and imagining what it would have been like to hear the voice of God calling us to marry one who would be unfaithful. However, the truth of the matter is that we are not supposed to identify with Hosea… that is not our part in the Gospel story.

We are Gomer.

And to every Gomer out there… Hosea 3 has good news… Gospel news for you… God has come to redeem you and bring you back to himself. He has paid the price for your life with his own blood that you might be his and he might be yours. This is grace… undeserved, unimaginable, unlimited grace…

…and grace is good news… because grace is the only thing that can hold God and Gomer together.

*All previous devotionals may be found at www.thejoyofglory.com
*The complete SVCC Lenten reading guide is available here.

Ezekiel 16:48-49 
As I live, declares the Lord GOD, your sister Sodom and her daughters have not done as you and your daughters have done. Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy.

Reflection
Ego… excess… ease… a dangerous and damning combination.

When we think of the sin of Sodom our minds quickly turn to sexual ethics… and that is not unjustified. However, the story of Sodom is larger than just Genesis 19. The prophet Ezekiel points out their prideful self-indulgence in all areas of life… and the more they centered on themselves, the more harm they did to others.

Much like the exploitation described in Genesis 19 was for their own pleasure at the expense of others, Ezekiel 16 describes their exploitation of wealth and excess for their own ease… all at the expense of the poor and the needy.

And the prophet brings all of this up for the purposes of comparison. He is speaking to God’s people and telling them that for all its sins, Sodom was not nearly as evil as they have become. The people of God mirrored and magnified the ego, excess, and ease of Sodom. They mirrored and magnified Sodom’s exploitation of the poor and the needy.

This should not be the story of God’s people for it is not the story of our God! The Gospel goes against this grain in proclaiming a Christ who left behind his eternal riches and glory to come to us, poor and needy sinners. He humbled himself to the point of death, even death on a cross.

He made himself poor that we might become eternally rich in him!

This is the Gospel, the good news of grace that we embrace by faith! This is the news that God’s people are called to mirror and magnify… not through ego, but humility… not through excess, but sacrifice… not through ease, but at any cost we mirror and magnify the cross as a cruciform community.

*All previous devotionals may be found at www.thejoyofglory.com
*The complete SVCC Lenten reading guide is available here.