Pursue Love and Justice

May 31, 2020 Background Scripture: Hosea 11, 12 Lesson Passage: Hosea 11:1, 2, 7 – 10; 12:1, 2, 6 – 14 Sometimes it takes the brokenhearted to tell the story of one whose heart has been broken. Hosea lived the message of his ministry. No matter how you look at it, when you know the details of Hosea’s life, you know he was headed for trouble. Hosea married an adulterous woman. She didn’t have just one affair. The bible says Gomer had many lovers. Despite the affairs, Gomer bore children for Hosea and he loved her very much. And then Gomer abandoned Hosea. Yes, she left him, but that’s not the end of the story. Later, he found her at an auction. She was part of the merchandise that was for sale. So, Hosea bought his wife at the auction and pleaded with her to be faithful to him. That’s the context for our lesson today. From that context of Hosea’s life, God sent a message to Israel. God declared Himself to be betrothed to Israel as her Husband. God denounced Israel’s actions as being adulterous towards Him. He provided Israel all that she needed, but Israel continued to pursue the worship of idol gods. When Israel bowed down and worshiped those idols, she pursued them as her lovers. God was jealous of the attention Israel gave to the idols although He was the one who supplied all that Israel needed. As the adults of Israel pursued idol gods, their children learned from them. Their children became the offspring of idol worshipers rather than children who sought after God. Like Hosea, God was going to redeem Israel from her adulterous life. However, God wanted Israel to stop pursuing idol gods and to seek to know and worship Him. As the prophecy of Hosea is closing, God reminisces about Israel’s beginning as a nation. Even then, Israel did not understand all that God was doing for her. In a very dramatic way, God displayed the mixed emotions of desiring retribution and yet having overwhelming love towards Israel. Israel deserved punishment but God had too much love for her to not draw her back to Him with lovingkindness. God constantly urged Israel in the direction of pursuing love and justice. No matter how many times Israel failed God, His grace and love towards her remained unending. God desired that His people would be worthy of the love He showered them with. He would give Israel into the hands of her enemy. But like Hosea, God would redeem her, or buy her back, at the auction of life. Hosea could tell God’s story because his heart was knit together with God’s through similar life situations. How can one love another who is so undeserving of such love? How can someone who receives such love not be transformed by that manner of love? These are the questions that torture the soul of one with a probing heart. God reveals Himself in a rather transparent way in the book of Hosea. The reader is given a perspective that allows one to see God’s emotions in a unique way. It is that great divine struggle between the execution of justice and the display of absolute love. Even as Israel, people of God are admonished to pursue love and justice today. Sin has a great price, and justice will be served. God’s love is too great to be limited by anything. There is no wonder that we struggle with trying to comprehend Calvary. Calvary allowed God to obtain justice and to display the greatest act of love ever. God pursued love and justice, and on Calvary He delivered both! Robert C. Hudson May 8, 2020

Repent of Injustice

May 24, 2020 Background Scripture: Jeremiah 22 Lesson Passage: Jeremiah 22:1 – 10 Last week’s lesson examined God’s response to King Zedekiah’s request for deliverance from the Babylonian siege. Part of that response began to outline steps required to demonstrate repentance. When the people of God sin—and not if they sin, God requires repentance to mend the disruption in our relationship with God. This week’s lesson continues to examine repentance. It is difficult for me to imagine the extent of the offense sin has towards the holiness of God. It is just as mind-boggling to witness God begging His people to repent in order to avoid punishment. As a parent, I reflect on my emotions when instructing and correcting a disobedient infant, or young child. It is emotionally painful to deny children something that will temporarily make them happy or bring them joy; however, as a parent, you know how important it is for them to learn the proper way to live in society. So, there is a balance between finding ways to help children have a life filled with joy and disciplining them to help them be well-adjusted citizens in society. Parents do this with no true knowledge about the future state of the society their children will live in. In other words, we can only prepare children for the world as we know it. I don’t know how different my parenting would have been had I known what society would be like for my adult children. But I do know I would have done some things very differently. Children are innocent and unaware of the moral and ethical norms of the society around them. Parents train children to be able to navigate society as the parent understands society to be. There are some elements of that training that we don’t like but we view it as necessary for the best outcome for our children. I say all of that because I believe parenting allows us to at least peek into the door of God’s emotional experience with His children. Unlike human parents, God always has perfect knowledge of the moral and ethical norms of society. Tomorrow’s society is just as clear to God as yesterday’s society. God knows everything that we will ever have to navigate in society—no matter when it will happen! God’s perfect instructions will always give us the proper guidance. This is true for all times. When God begs His people to repent, it is because He sees what the end results of our actions will be. Mankind was created in the image and likeness of God. God loves us, and when He looks at us, He desires to see a reflection of Himself. Sin changes our spiritual image because it keeps us from being in the likeness of God. God is holy. In Him is light, and there is no darkness at all. Sin is darkness. We are saved to become children of light. To sin is to walk in darkness. God is going to destroy all darkness and evil in the final judgment. King Zedekiah and his leaders were part of the covenant people of God. However, they were purposely living evil lives, and as leaders, causing others to go astray from God. God was not going to allow this to continue. God’s people should love mercy and promote justice. To live contrary to this is to live contrary to God. God judges evil, and yet He does not want to punish His children. Therefore, He pleads with them to repent of their injustice. Robert C. Hudson May 7, 2020

Practice Justice

May 17, 2020 Background Scripture: Jeremiah 21 Lesson Passage: Jeremiah 21:8 – 14 Jeremiah had an extremely difficult assignment as a prophet of God. Jerusalem was under siege by King Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian army. Zedekiah had been appointed king in Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar after the Babylonians had captured his nephew, King Jehoiachin, and laid claim to Judah as a Babylonian territory. Rather than fill the role as a puppet king, or governor of the province, King Zedekiah led a rebellion against Babylon. Meanwhile, King Zedekiah did not set the kind of godly example that God expected for the leader of His people, Judah. Because Zedekiah had done evil in the sight of the Lord, God allowed Nebuchadnezzar to besiege the city of Jerusalem, again. Zedekiah responded by sending two of his officers to Jeremiah and requested that he intercede for them by asking the Lord to cause the Babylonians to withdraw from them. No doubt Zedekiah was familiar with how God had responded to the prophet Isaiah during a similar situation in Israel’s past. However, the word the Lord gave Jeremiah to send to Zedekiah was just the opposite of his request. Rather than turn back the weapons of Babylon, the Lord was going to turn back the weapons of war being used by Judah. That’s right! God was not going to fight against the Babylonians on Judah’s behalf. Instead, God was going to use Babylon to fight against Judah! Since Jeremiah was a citizen of Judah, this could not have been a comfortable message for Jeremiah to give the officers of Zedekiah. Yet, Jeremiah knew quite well the evil deeds of Zedekiah and his officers. In fact, because of Jeremiah’s earlier prophecy, he had been tortured severely. Yes, King Nebuchadnezzar was more wicked than King Zedekiah, and the Babylonians were more wicked than the Jews. But God was not grading on the curve. God’s declaration has always called for nothing less than holiness: You be holy because I am holy. On our own merit, we are all doomed. But thanks be to God for His unmerited grace towards those who put their complete trust in Him. And too often, that’s when the water gets a little murky. We recognize and embrace God’s grace without considering that it is not a license to continue living as before. God expects an effort to be made, under grace, whereby we attempt to live up to His standard. Jeremiah’s message to King Zedekiah was not just a cruel cold rejection of his request. There was something else within that message. First, God offered the citizens of Jerusalem an opportunity to preserve their lives by surrendering to the Babylonians. If they stayed within the walls of the city, they would either starve to death or be killed when the walls were broken down by the Babylonians. If they left the city and surrendered, they would be kept alive. Their lives were literally in their own hands. Secondly, God gave instructions to King Zedekiah and his family. God wanted King Zedekiah to practice justice and deliver the oppressed from the oppressor. God was offering the king a reprieve if he would amend his ways by doing the right things. Unfortunately, it sometimes seems impossible to break old habits. An evil king has no earthly authority over him. He has absolute power against people. And it has been said that, Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Practicing the unfamiliar can be very difficult. God was not requiring King Zedekiah to pay for his past deeds, but rather to get his act together and do what is right in God’s presence moving forward. People deserve justice. It is up to civic leaders to ensure that people receive justice, and God demands that godly leaders practice justice. More on this next week. Robert C. Hudson May 5, 2020

Promising Peace

May 10, 2020 Background Scripture: Zechariah 8 Lesson Passage: Zechariah 8:1 – 8, 11 – 17 You know you’re getting older when things that used to seem simple—or even foolish to you, make a whole lot of sense today. The topic of this lesson would not have made much sense to me as a young adult. I would have suggested, quite flippantly, that each person determines their own peace. I would have defended my opinion by saying, "No one should allow another person to determine their personal experience of a peaceful life.” Fast-forward a few decades and an innumerable list of life experiences and my conversation about personal peace is quite different. Today, I am quite attuned to any suggestion that implies a promise of peace. Certainly, this would have been the case for Israel at the time they received this message from the prophet. The prophecy opens by reminding the people about what led to the situation they were living in. Israel was once a very proud nation. They were “God’s people” and they had the documents passed down from their ancestors to prove it. Under King David’s reign, for forty years, they were the greatest nation on earth. Their history was rich, and it was recorded on scrolls and taught to their children. However, generation after generation, they continuously turned from following God. God punished them by allowing them to be destroyed as a nation and taken into captivity to serve the Gentiles as slaves. The time of their captivity was ending, and God began to allow some of them to return to the promised land of Canaan. They were not returning to the splendor and glory of the kingdom they once knew or had heard about. They were returning to the ruins that were stark reminders of how the nation had been brutally assaulted and destroyed by the Babylonians. Perhaps there was no national pride for those returning—just an opportunity to escape enslavement in a foreign land. Some of the returners had started the construction of a new temple but abandoned it and focused more on building houses for themselves. Jerusalem, the city of Zion, was once the national attraction. In fact, it was an international attraction during King Solomon’s reign and foreigners traveled for miles just to see it. Now, it was just a wasteland. Knowing the devastation that occurred in Jerusalem just seven decades earlier, how could they sleep there peacefully at night? Anyone who has lived through a trauma or was born within a few years of a regional or national trauma, has witnessed the effects it left on that society. The Great Depression, the World Wars, the Civil Rights movement, the 911 Suicide Bombers, etc., all left indelible marks on American society. Trauma interrupts peace. The people of Israel were traumatized, but God sent them a promise. God, Himself, was going to come and live in Zion, among His people! People would again grow old in Zion, and their children would grow up enjoying life. God was going to guarantee peace in Jerusalem. He was not going to allow their enemy to come in and assault them and carry them away as slaves. This was great news to the remnant that was returning. They would not be at the mercy of their enemies around them. God would again demonstrate that He would be a blessing to His people. They were traumatized, but God was promising them that they would live in peace. Robert C. Hudson May 1, 2020

Prophesying Restoration

May 3, 2020 Background Scripture: Zephaniah 3 Lesson Passage: Zephaniah 3:14 – 20 Zephaniah descended from a noble lineage of Israel. He was from the line of kings that included King Hezekiah. King Hezekiah is considered historically to be one of Israel’s best kings. Zephaniah is said to have prophesied during the reign of Josiah over Judah. Josiah is also considered one of the best kings of Israel—who incidentally also descended from King Hezekiah. I note Zephaniah’s relationship to two of Israel’s best kings because of the content of his prophetic message. Zephaniah’s prophecy starts out with a very stern warning concerning God’s punishment of the people of the earth. God declared that He is going to remove all living creatures from the earth—mankind, animals, and fish. It would be the day of vengeance of God. The day of the Lord will bring swift punishment upon idol worshipers and those who are indifferent towards Him (atheists and agnostics). People who have trusted in themselves and their wealth will be consumed by the Lord’s anger. Zephaniah called for God-fearing people to seek God so that they may be hidden in the day of His vengeance. Josiah’s reign started when he was eight years old. In his eighteenth year, a copy of the Law was discovered in the temple. The reading of the Law provoked a much-needed reform in Judah. It is likely that Zephaniah’s call for the people of God to repent and seek God came during the early years of Josiah’s rule. Josiah’s two predecessors did evil in the sight of God and led the people astray. Both were idol worshipers and even placed idols in the temple that was constructed during Solomon’s reign. This led to the downward spiral of the spiritual condition of Judah. Josiah began to reign at the age of eight following those two evil kings. There is little wonder why Zephaniah’s prophecy was so stern against the people of God. God will not always turn away from evil without judging it. And if the covenant people of God were warned about the coming judgment, the Gentile nations were in for a greater judgment. All nations, to the west, east, south, and north, would be punished. Zephaniah called the major nations out by name. Then the prophecy turned again to the people of Zion. They would be judged according to their rebellion against God, lack of trust in the Lord, injustice towards others, and general lawlessness. And when the storm of God’s vengeance has passed, then He will send forth blessings. The Lord will gather in the scattered Gentiles who have worshiped Him, and He will purify their lips for praise. The humble will rejoice in the Lord’s presence because he will reign in their midst. The remnant of the Jews will be gathered to celebrate God’s triumph over all their enemies and the end of His wrath towards His people. After the day of vengeance, God is going to restore His people. There will be shouting and rejoicing; for peace will prevail in the land. The reproach of the people of God will be removed and replaced with fame and praise in the earth. Like most prophecy, Zephaniah’s message had an immediate meaning for the recipients of the prophecy as well as a long-term meaning for the end times. Whether it is immediate or long-term, God will judge sin. But along with the prophecy of judgment, God also sends the promise of hope. After judgment, God would bring restoration to His people. Robert C. Hudson April 22, 2020