I guess I'm not finished with the topic of cheating. Short of the life story of Jesus -- crucified by the selfsame crowds who had hailed Him as their King just days earlier -- you won't find a more excruciating, intense, and humiliating account of betrayal than the one recorded in the book of Hosea.
Hosea 1:2-10 reads, "When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, “Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord.” So he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son. And the Lord said to him, “Call his name Jezreel, for in just a little while I will punish the house of Jehu for the blood of Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel. And on that day I will break the bow of Israel in the Valley of Jezreel." She conceived again and bore a daughter. And the Lord said to him, “Call her name No Mercy, for I will no more have mercy on the house of Israel, to forgive them at all. But I will have mercy on the house of Judah, and I will save them by the Lord their God. I will not save them by bow or by sword or by war or by horses or by horsemen.When she had weaned No Mercy, she conceived and bore a son. And the Lord said, “Call his name Not My People, for you are not my people, and I am not your God.” Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered. And in the place where it was said to them, “You are not my people,” it shall be said to them, “Children of the living God."
It's as if He wanted something that all succeeding generations could point to and say, "Now do you get it?"
So I'm asking: Now do you get it?
God made you. As David says in Psalm 139:13: "For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb." More than than, Paul says in Ephesians 1:4-5, "even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will."
He didn't just make you -- He chose you, with all your scars, tics, secrets, and egocentricities, to be His child for all eternity, to live with Him in unimaginable splendor forever.
You know this next one. You could be an atheist and know it. Since you're here, how about slowing down and actually reading it? John 3:16-17 says, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him."
God allowed His only Son to be tortured to death so that you could have eternal life.
Yet, John continues in 3:18-21, "Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God."
Still don't get it?
Every good thing -- Light -- has come into the world. But you're not ready to give up the sins with marquee value -- sex, drugs, power, prestige, always wanting more, exploring your "dark side", as though you could ever begin to fathom what darkness really is.
You're not even ready to give up the sins that don't make for good scripts: the constant pining after approval from others; the casual, deliberate, and chronic lying; the expanding list of grudges; the argumentative streak that clothes itself in the guise of "being fair", "seeing both sides", or "playing devil's advocate"; the anonymous bullying facilitated by the Internet; the vicious, non-stop gossiping that makes you so proud of yourself that you don't even bother to hide behind the Internet; the drive to be seen with the "right" people; the moodiness, changeability, instability masquerading as "crazy busy" or "that time of the month" (all month long); the dumping on people just because you can -- and because, with all you have, you constantly tell yourself that you're a selfless giver while everyone else in your life takes and takes and takes some more.
"People loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil". He's talking about all those sins and ones I don't even understand.
In spite of all that, "What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."
In spite of everything you've done, God loves you. Right now, even as you're choosing darkness rather than Light, He loves you.
No, He's not going to hold His grace out to you forever. I Thessalonians 5:2-4 says, "For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief."
But we're talking about now -- right now, right this minute. Even though you would crawl off in a corner and wait for death if you experienced a fraction of the betrayal that He has felt from you, God does not do that. He doesn't give up on you. He keeps reaching out for you, offering you all you ever wanted, and things you never even thought of wanting -- if you'll only put Him first.
It almost sounds pathetic, doesn't it? The Creator of the universe, who uses the Earth as His footstool, is reaching out for you.
If that makes you feel powerful and not a little bit smug, read this message from Paul in I Corinthians 1:25-31, if you have the guts: "For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord."
Love hurts, for now, but that won't always be the case -- except for those who have left it too late to come to the Light.
Do it now -- not because you're afraid, or because you don't want to end up in hell. Do it because that nagging feeling in the pit of your stomach, the little voice that won't leave you alone, says now's the time, and your friends can just deal with it, because God has already managed to be a better friend to you on paper than any of them will ever be.
Here's the Brown's Ferry Four -- a pre-bluegrass supergroup that included Merle Travis on guitar, Grandpa Jones on banjo, and the Delmore Brothers -- Alton and Rabon. They recorded some swinging quartets back in the day, and this is one of them -- "I've Made a Covenant With My Lord".
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