Reflecting on Hosea

In the interests of not forgetting what the Lord has been saying to us, Kate Evans asked Ian Laird of Emmanuel Westbury for his reflections on our recent sermon series in the book of Hosea (listen again here)...

Ian Laird tell us about yourself and what brought you to emmanuel?

G’day. As you can probably guess from my stereotypical greeting, I’m an Aussie. After spending 10 years with the Engineering faculty at Sydney uni (first as a student, later as a staff member) I decided it was time for me to move on. I wasn’t planning on moving across the globe but after a year of unsuccessful searching, God opened a door for me to come and work at Bristol University as a research assistant. Before I flew over I asked some people about churches in Bristol, and Emmanuel kept coming up. So I thought I’d better come and check out this “internationally recognised” church.

As a bloke how did you feel about God’s people being pictured as an adulterous wife?

Admittedly it’s not particularly easy for me to relate to this image, and not just because it’s a feminine one. As someone who’s grown up in the church I can find it difficult to see myself as morally bankrupt as Hosea’s wife (if she can even be called that). I personally know men and women whose husbands and wives committed affairs and the immense hurt that it caused them. For the bible to suggest that I am like that is not easy to stomach, and so sometimes I dismiss it or down play it. But it is the truth. If it wasn’t then there is no way God would have given his Son to die for us. The cross is a sobering reminder that we are all disgusting adulterous wives.

God dealt out some horrific (to say the least), punishments to his people because of their spiritual adultery, did this cause you to question God’s goodness?

In all honesty, it didn’t really cause me to question God’s goodness because I tend to think, “Well … I guess Israel kinda deserved it.” And it’s true, they did. Reading through not just Hosea but the entire Old Testament we can see that Israel’s punishment is entirely justified. However, if God was to aim these punishments at me I would quickly change my tune and say, “Hang on, this doesn’t seem fair. God, you don’t have to be that extreme.” But like my self-righteousness blinds me to seeing myself as an adulterous wife that I am, so too does it blind me to seeing how much my spiritual adultery warrants horrific punishment. My selfish desires for money, sex and power, no matter how innocent or socially unacceptable its outward form may appear, are in reality acts of adultery against God himself. The cross is a sobering reminder that a holy and righteous God, a good God, cannot let our awful sin go unpunished. It somehow has to be dealt with … one way or another.

We are told that a true apology and acknowledgement of their sins is what God desired. Once they have returned to him, in his love for them he will bless them once again. Do you think it seems ‘too good to be true’?

Sometimes I wish I thought that way more frequently because so often I just take God’s forgiveness for granted. Because if we acknowledge that we are indeed adulterous wives and that God should unleash horrific punishments on us because of our sin, then this offer of reconciliation is most certainly “too good to be true”. But on the other hand, I do think it is too good to be true, and I know I think this because sometimes I find myself doing “good things” because I think that God’s forgiveness isn’t quite enough. I think, in all my self-righteousness, that I can somehow add that little bit extra to my salvation. But that’s just plain wrong. If I could somehow earn my forgiveness, if even just a little, do I really think that God would have had to resort to sending his Son to die? The cross is a sobering reminder that the forgiveness that God offers is so very good precisely because it is so very true.

Ian Laird

Valentine's Day: A Hopeful Holiday (part 2)

Part 2 of Carolyn Mahaney's blog for Valentine's Day. Click for a link to Part 1 and Part 2 on the blog, or read part 2 below:

'If Valentine's Day magnifies our misplaced hopes [part 1], we must put our hope in God (1 Pet. 3:5). We do this by focusing on all that God promises to be for us in Jesus Christ. Our difficulties will be “unbearable” writes Martin Luther, “if you are uncertain that God is for you and with you.”

God is for you.
You may not feel like your husband is for you. It may even feel like he is against you. If your husband is against you, it may feel like God is too.

Or maybe you don’t have a husband, a man who is devoted to you, who is for you and no one else.

But God is for you.

It is not just that he is not against you. It’s not just that he means you no harm. He is not merely indifferent or neutral toward you. He is for you.

It is not just that he is for you in other ways, but not this one. No, he is working for your good in this Valentine’s Day.

Once he was against you. The full fury of his wrath was set against your sin. But he sent his Son, Jesus Christ, to bear the justifiable “against-ness” of God. Through the cross we have not only received forgiveness but all the “for-ness” of God in Christ Jesus.

Our hope in pain:

You have kept count of my tossings;
put my tears in your bottle.
Are they not in your book?
Then my enemies will turn back
in the day when I call.
This I know, that God is for me.
(Psalm 56:8-9)

No uncertainty here. This I know. God is for me.

God is with you.
That’s all you want, someone to be with you. But you feel alone.

Maybe you lost your husband through death. Maybe he left you. Maybe you still share the same home, but there is a chasm of hurt and conflict between you. Maybe you never had a husband.

There is no greater salve for the wound of loneliness than this: God is with you.

“[F]or he has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’ So we can confidently say, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?’” (Heb. 13:5-6)

He is not watching your pain from a distance, just out of sight. He is “near” (Ps. 34;18). He is near to comfort, near to encourage, near to strengthen, near to bless.

John Piper writes: “When you think he is farthest from you, or has even turned against you, the truth is that as you cling to him, he is laying foundation stones of greater happiness in your life.”

What may seem like a difficult holiday is really another “foundation stone of greater happiness,” lovingly laid by the Savior.

God is with us. He is for us. He is our hope this Valentine’s Day.'

Carolyn Mahaney, Girl Talk Blog

Valentine's Day: A Hopeful Holiday

As we approach Valentine's Day tomorrow, Carolyn Mahaney blogs about the glorious opportunity the day affords.  Click for a link to Part 1 and Part 2 on the blog, or read part 1 below:

'Purveyors of chocolate, makers of plush teddies and tacky pajamas, and restaurateurs everywhere are enjoying the week leading up to Valentine’s Day. But this yearly celebration of romantic love often produces more disappointments than diamond sales.

'For women who are single, the holiday can be a painful reminder of unfulfilled hope. As you rounded the New Year corner and into the January-February stretch, all hopes of a romantic Valentine’s Day once again receded. Another year and your hopes seem more illusive than ever. 

'For women in difficult marriages Valentine’s Day can be a painful reminder of disappointed hope. You had hoped that your husband would be the man of your dreams: loving, caring, and a godly leader. But all the delicate hopes you brought into marriage feel crushed and this holiday only makes it worse.

'Even women in strong, happy marriages can experience deflated hope on Valentine’s Day. You hope that this year your husband will plan something extra special. You hope he might remember to make the dinner reservation or that he will notice your new dress, this time. You hope he will get your hint that “romantic” means more to you than a $17 red-cellophane wrapped box of chocolates from the CVS [pharmacy].

'“Hope deferred makes the heart sick,” says Proverbs (13:12). And that is how Valentine’s Day may leave you feeling: sick to your heart.

'Valentine’s day buckles under the weight of high hopes, just as marriage does. It will never satisfy all our desires and longings, because God created marriage, not as a hope-fulfiller, but as a picture of Christ and the church (Eph. 5:31-32).

'That’s not to say, a happy marriage doesn’t matter. It doesn’t mean we shouldn’t celebrate and strive for the astonishing grace of a joy-filled, godly marriage. It doesn’t mean we should resign ourselves to another Valentine’s Day of hopelessness and heart sickness.

'But our disappointed expectations and our dashed hopes alike reveal that our hope has been misplaced. And God ordains our disappointments—big and small—in order that we may replace our hope on the one person who will never disappoint. Like the “holy women” of the past we are to hope in God (1 Pet. 3:5).

'Hopes deferred aren’t a dead end, but a gracious redirect. They are a pointer to the “living hope:” our Savior, Jesus Christ (1 Pet. 1:3). Hope in God enables us to joyfully face the future, whether or not we get married, whether or not we have a happy marriage, whether or not this holiday is all we hoped for.

'Underneath the cheap red cellophane of a hope-less Valentine’s Day lies a glorious opportunity: a chance to put our hope in God.'

Carolyn Mahaney, Girl Talk blog