Making Messes Messier | Sunday, July 14, 2024

Set the trumpet to your mouth! He shall come like an eagle against the house of the LORD, because they have transgressed My covenant and rebelled against My law... Israel will cry to Me, "My God, we know You!" Israel has rejected the good; the enemy will pursue him. (Hosea 8:1–3)

In a world that is always a mess, Hosea confronts us with a hard truth—and a greater hope: God redeems the messes we make of our lives.

Praying in Dangerous Times

We are living in chaotic and increasingly dangerous times. The iconic, historic images from former President Trump's rally in Pennsylvania remind us how fragile things are. We are grateful the assassin's bullet did not strike him, but others were hit and died, and we want to pray for the families caught up in this whole situation.

When we see such things, Christians should be compelled to pray. Paul writes to Timothy:

Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. (1 Timothy 2:1–4)

A few verses later Paul adds, "I desire therefore that the men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting." Whatever our political leaning, it is easy in moments like this to be angry, doubtful, or afraid. But there is no political solution or hope for the brokenness of this world. The only solution is the gospel of Jesus Christ, and we who believe in Him should know it and express it clearly. Our culture needs to hear that.

The World Is a Mess

We're continuing our study through the book of Hosea, in chapter 8. Yesterday morning my wife and I went on a walk, and as we finished, Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire" came up on my 80s playlist—"it was always burning, since the world's been turning." You're welcome; that'll be stuck in your head all day.

That song topped the charts in the second half of 1989, when I was about to turn ten. Soon after, our nation went to war in the Middle East, the Berlin Wall fell, the Soviet Union collapsed, and the internet ushered in a technological revolution. There was great optimism in the 1990s, but at the end of the 1980s, after forty years of Cold War foreboding, the world seemed to be in a mess.

In a later interview, Billy Joel explained the song was inspired by a young man who told him that nothing bad ever seemed to happen in the 1950s. Having grown up in that decade, Joel wasn't so sure. He said it's simply a song that says the world is a mess—it's always been a mess, and it's always going to be a mess. I think he was basically right.

They Did It to Themselves

Hosea lived in the midst of a mess 2,800 years ago. There are times when the mess gets messier, when the chaos increases, and Hosea was living through that among the people of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. And as is so often the case, it was clearly a mess of their own making.

My dad, Ron, has a collection of simple sayings I call "Ron-isms," acquired over a fifty-year career in the steel industry. "If you're paying anything, pay attention." "Don't do work you'll have to tear out or fix." But one of my favorites is, "They did it to themselves." He had a reputation for firing poor workers quickly. When I once commented on how many people he had fired, he said, "Miles, I never fired a single person—they all fired themselves."

That principle rings through Israel's history. About 800 years before Hosea, God told Israel through Moses:

Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the LORD your God... that the LORD your God will set you high above all nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the LORD your God. (Deuteronomy 28:1–2)

That conditional "if" matters. A list of blessings follows, but then comes verse 15: "But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the LORD your God... all these curses will come upon you and overtake you." Those curses are almost "anti-blessings." Moses concludes the discourse:

Moreover all these curses shall come upon you and pursue you and overtake you, until you are destroyed, because you did not obey the voice of the LORD your God... And they shall be upon you for a sign and a wonder, and on your descendants forever. (Deuteronomy 28:45–46)

The Eagle from Afar

This is key to understanding Hosea 8:

The LORD will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flies, a nation whose language you will not understand, a nation of fierce countenance, which does not respect the elderly nor show favor to the young. And they shall eat the increase of your livestock and the produce of your land, until you are destroyed... They shall besiege you at all your gates until your high and fortified walls, in which you trust, come down. (Deuteronomy 28:49–52)

That was written almost a millennium before Israel landed in the desperate straits Hosea describes. After many centuries of disobedience and wickedness, they were in a mess that was getting messier—a mess of their own making.

In Hosea 8:1, the prophet says, "Set the trumpet to your mouth! He shall come like an eagle against the house of the LORD"—the very same Hebrew word for "eagle" used in Deuteronomy 28:49. The enemy who speaks a different language will come fierce and fast like a raptor, "because they have transgressed My covenant and rebelled against My law." They did it to themselves.

So when Billy Joel says, "We didn't start the fire," that isn't exactly true. Point one: most messes are messes of our own making. That was Israel's case.

The Sound of the Trumpet

The word translated "trumpet" is the Hebrew shofar, traditionally a ram's-horn trumpet. It was blown by two groups: the priests calling the people to worship, and the watchmen on the walls. Cities were fortified, and much of the population farmed or tended flocks outside, bringing their food into the city storehouses. When an enemy approached, the watchman would sound the alarm, the people would come in, the gates would shut, and they would try to wait out the siege.

So Hosea says: blow the shofar, because the eagle is coming. The Assyrians are moving with great speed to take over the land. And why are they coming? Deuteronomy 28:45 said it: "because you did not obey the voice of the LORD your God." Along the way, Israel had countless opportunities to change course—and the biblical word for changing course is repentance. God sent prophet after prophet to call them back, because the prophets of Israel were experts in Deuteronomy. They understood the conditional, deuteronomic principle: if this, then that.

Now, not every bad situation we find ourselves in is a mess of our own making. But if we are honest enough to admit it, more than a few are. And often, in the middle of the fix we fell into, we do exactly what Israel does. They cry out, "My God, we know You!"—"we're on a first-name basis, You are Yahweh, we are Your people, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob!" And God's response is, "Israel has rejected the good," time and time again. Point two: God will allow you to make a mess, and He doesn't always immediately move in to make it better.

Kings, Idols, and the Calf of Samaria

What brought this on? It wasn't God's arbitrary anger.

They set up kings, but not by Me; they made princes, but I did not acknowledge them. From their silver and gold they made idols for themselves—that they might be cut off. Your calf is rejected, O Samaria! My anger is aroused against them—how long until they attain to innocence? (Hosea 8:4–5)

For centuries the people of the Northern Kingdom had been content to live without God's input, guidance, and counsel. They installed kings God did not choose—and from their first king, Jeroboam, through every successive king, not a single one was ever good. They were all unholy. The Southern Kingdom occasionally had a good king like Hezekiah or Josiah, but the Northern Kingdom never did; the refrain was always that this king "did more evil than his fathers."

They also chose officials and judges God did not approve of, men who refused to judge the people's wickedness. And God had blessed them with fertile land and great wealth. What did they do with their gold and silver? They made idols—a blatant transgression of the first and second commandments: "You shall have no other gods before Me" and "You shall not make for yourself a carved image."

The calf goes back to Exodus. While Moses was on Mount Sinai for about a month and a half, the people told Aaron to make them a god, and he fashioned a golden calf. God judged them, and Moses destroyed it. Yet several hundred years later, when the nation split, Jeroboam reestablished golden-calf worship in the key cities. You can still see the ruins of the altar at Dan, the northernmost city, and at Samaria, the capital. Alongside Asherah, Baal, and Molech, they bowed to the calf. So God says, "Your calf is rejected, O Samaria"—how long will you be incapable of innocence? You know this angers Me; you know I will not let this idol stand; you know its destruction will be your destruction. Why won't you quit?

Sowing the Wind, Reaping the Whirlwind

They sow the wind, and reap the whirlwind. The stalk has no bud; it shall never produce meal. If it should produce, aliens would swallow it up. (Hosea 8:7)

That phrase—sow the wind, reap the whirlwind—means they did it to themselves. It's the principle of sowing and reaping that Paul echoes in Galatians 6:8: "He who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life." If you've ever planted anything, you know the seed is small but the harvest is great; there is a compounding effect. For at least five centuries the Northern Kingdom had been consistently, continuously, and abundantly sowing to immorality and idolatry—and now the harvest was coming. As Paul says in 2 Corinthians 9:6, "He who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully," and Israel had sown bountifully to the flesh.

Point three: the entropy of messes is that they tend to grow messier. Entropy connects to the second law of thermodynamics—the law that things tend to move from order to disorder. Any parent who has cleaned a child's room knows this law well. Messes get worse on their own.

Stop Signs and the Signs of Our Times

So frequently, in the middle of a mess getting messier, God gives us stop signs. For Israel it was the prophets. Maybe this very confrontation with Scripture is your stop sign today—you've been sowing to the wind, the whirlwind hasn't quite arrived, but it's on the horizon, and God says: stop. Repent. Israel had that opportunity dozens, if not hundreds, of times.

You would think in July of 2024 we would see the signs in our own nation. Jesus said you know how to read the sky but cannot discern the signs of the times. Consider a planned $7.3 trillion budget for fiscal year 2025 against a $34 trillion deficit—you don't have to be a math magician to know that's a bad idea. Consider candidates for office with glaring inconsistencies, on every political side. Consider more money and weapons for foreign wars. Consider unbridled, unregulated experiments in artificial intelligence and social media—billions of dollars chasing artificial general intelligence, with no one able to articulate what happens if they actually succeed in creating intelligence greater than all of humanity's combined. Consider pundits fueling fires of hate and discontent every moment of the day. What could possibly go wrong? Undealt-with messes tend to get messier.

I wrote this before what happened at 3:05 p.m. yesterday: do things appear to be getting less chaotic or more chaotic? Hosea predicts famine and foreign invasion in poetic language. How did he know? He knew Deuteronomy. God had said it:

Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. Cursed shall be the fruit of your body and the produce of your land... The LORD will bring a nation against you from afar, as swift as the eagle... and they shall eat the increase of your livestock and the produce of your land until you are destroyed. (Deuteronomy 28:17–18, 49–51)

So I ask: in July 2024, are your basket and produce not going as far as they used to? Is it more costly to live? Are resources being consumed faster than they're replenished? Is the mess getting messier?

When the Only Option Is to Throw It Out

Point four: if the mess becomes too messy, the only way to deal with it may be to throw it all out.

Israel is swallowed up; now they are among the Gentiles like a vessel in which is no pleasure. For they have gone up to Assyria, like a wild donkey alone by itself; Ephraim has hired lovers. (Hosea 8:8–9)

Hosea foresees the exile—the people removed by the Assyrians and scattered among the nations like something nobody wants. We've all done it: you acquire more things, fill the garage and the closets, and then start throwing out what you don't even recognize. Israel would be cast out like an unwanted vessel.

Why? In the decade before the Assyrians destroyed the Northern Kingdom, their king—named Hoshea, similar to the prophet—decided that rather than turn to God, he would buy the Assyrians off with tribute and make them allies. The prophets had said, "Don't turn to Assyria for help; turn to God, repent, destroy your idols." But it seemed easier to pay money. Fascinatingly, the very same thing was happening in the south, where Ahaz, king of Judah, also tried to appease Assyria. But appeasement rarely works, and it didn't for Israel.

Yes, though they have hired allies among the nations, now I will gather them; and they shall sorrow a little, because of the burden of the king of princes. (Hosea 8:10)

Most of our own attempts to clean up our messes only make the mess messier. The only right response, in many situations, is to turn to God in faith and obedience. But Israel would not.

After Five Centuries of Disobedience

Because Ephraim has made many altars for sin, they have become for him altars for sinning. I have written for him the great things of My law, but they were considered a strange thing. (Hosea 8:11–12)

God gave them His word, and they disregarded it. They brought Him sacrifices, but He no longer accepted their worship—it had become disgusting to Him. "Now He will remember their iniquity and punish their sins; they shall return to Egypt"—not physically, but proverbially, into exile. "For Israel has forgotten his Maker and has built temples; Judah also has multiplied fortified cities; but I will send fire upon his cities, and it shall devour his palaces" (Hosea 8:13–14).

This seems unmerciful—where is God's patience? Remember, this is after five centuries of disobedience. Our own nation has existed only 250 years; Israel had been sowing to the wind continuously for nearly 500.

It's a tale of two kingdoms. In 720 BC the Assyrians destroyed the Northern Kingdom, then turned south. In Judah, Isaiah came to King Hezekiah and said he must not pay tribute but trust in the Lord. Hezekiah wavered between two opinions—because it's hard to trust God when it seems easier to rely on your own ingenuity. Forty-six walled cities in Judah were destroyed, and only Jerusalem remained. Only then did Hezekiah come to the temple, pour everything out before the Lord, and say, "God, we need Your help." What does it take to get us to turn to God? Need I say it again: they did it to themselves.

God Takes No Pleasure in Judgment

It's important to understand that judgment and wrath give God no joy or pleasure. He is not in heaven eager for the chance, the way some of us might be. He is not like us.

As I live, says the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. (Ezekiel 33:11)

Repentance is His desire. But God will allow people—even His own people—to reap the consequences of their choices. I wholeheartedly believe God has sovereignly decreed that we have free will, and He sovereignly allows us to be responsible for our free choices. We see this clearly throughout the Old Testament.

So we cannot forget: most messes are messes of our own making; God will allow us to make a mess and won't always immediately fix it; the entropy of messes is that they grow messier; and if a mess becomes too messy, the only way to deal with it may be to throw it all out.

The Good News: God Redeems the Mess

Where is the hope in all that? Point five: God lovingly redeems and restores the broken-down, messy lives of those who turn to Him in repentance.

God has a bigger objective than the blessing of a plot of land in the Northern Kingdom. He has a greater blessing in mind, and He will allow His people to bear the consequences of their choices because His ultimate desire is to redeem and restore broken, messy lives. Some of you know this personally, because you came to God with a messed-up life that you made yourself—and God restored it, and your life is a testimony. Often the strongest followers of God are those whose messed-up lives have been redeemed; they know something of grace that the half-hearted, "life was always great" person does not.

Jesus is the one who gives beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. He takes my sin and your sin and gives us His righteousness. "He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Corinthians 5:21). That is the good news of the gospel, and that is God's call to you today. Maybe your life is a mess—Jesus wants that mess. He buys it back and restores it to something glorious. That's what He longs to do in individual lives, in our church, and in our culture. That is why the gospel is so essential for such a time as this.

Closing Prayer

Father God, I thank You for Your word. It is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, and sometimes that sharp sword is painful when it cuts to the heart, dividing joint and marrow, soul and spirit, discerning the thoughts and intents of our hearts. But God, that is what we need. In Your lovingkindness and grace, You expose the areas of our lives, our culture, and our country that are against Your nature and Your will, so that we can call out to You in repentance.

Lord, I am convinced that, just as in the days of Hosea and Isaiah, You are looking among our nation for individuals to stand in the gap and intercede. I ask that You would find that heart in Cross Connection Church—that we would stand in the gap, because we have no hope outside of You and the gospel. With every new thing that hits the news, I see more clearly that we have no political hope, no economic hope, no hope in this world apart from You and Your grace. Do a work, God. Thank You that You redeem and restore messes. Take our mess and make it glorious for Your kingdom. For we ask this in Jesus' name, and all those who agreed said, Amen.