Good News!
He’s Gonna Tear Us to Pieces!
Hosea 5:15

†  I.H.S. †

 May the grace of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ encourage you to accept the work of the Holy Spirit, who purifies you and makes you holy!

This News is Awesome!

In the middle of the lesson from Hosea this morning, there is some of the greatest news I can share with you!

God is going to meet a critical need this morning…if He hasn’t already!

As surely as the sun came up, He has either done this, or He is about to do it.

Here is what Hosea credits with God with doing,

“He has torn us to pieces…

He has injured us…”.

Like I said, if God hasn’t done this to you, He will… and that is good is a good thing.

And if you need God to tear you to pieces, I hope this sermon will make you look forward to it!

• A Need to Be Met!
  • Self-inflicted, here and Ezekiel 6:9

Let’s go back to the first verse of the reading, the last verse of chapter 4, “Then I will return to my place until they admit their guilt and turn to me. For as soon as trouble comes, they will earnestly search for me.” 

God tells the prophet Hosea that he’s going to let Israel realize their need for Him. He’s just going to wait for them until they realize they need it!

I think that is what they call “tough love.”  Letting someone walk away as a prodigal, knowing the pain and suffering they would endure.

It is an amazing thing to see God be that patient with us, I mean how patient are we with everyone around us? God has the advantage of being God, and knowing that as Father, Son and Spirit, they had planned to redeem us all, but still, we, every human from every language, culture, age group, have walked away… and chosen sin at times.

But the response is more challenging, ““Come, let us return to the LORD. He has torn us to pieces; now he will heal us. He has injured us; now he will bandage our wounds

It takes a lot to say this! Not only to realize that God will heal us and bandage our wounds, but that He was the One who disciplined us, and did so in a way we might consider harsh.

Though what it often is, is not God’s intent, but what He warned us about. HE won’t always withhold the punishment that we earn with every sin, He will let us experience the consequences.

That is something each of us has to face, to come to the realzieation of the prodigal – that I had it better back home.

What God promised in regard to sin is true, but so is what He promises in regard to grace.

One leads to pain, punishment

• The Doctor is In!
  • Heal, Bandage, Restore

But when we come to our senses, God is right there.

That same verse says he will heal us, that He will bandage our wounds providing long term healing and growth to health and He will restore us to the image of Christ that He created us to shine into this dark world.

This all became true for people starting at Pentecost – and it comes true for us this day as well.

If we are running from God, its time to come home.

It’s time to stop being torn to pieces, its time to stop getting injured by the consequence of sin, it’s time to stop, and let God finally restore us to His image.

• Best News
  • He wants this as much as we do!

The good news in this was that the Lord loves us enough to tear us to pieces, to allow ourselves to be wounded by the sins we so easily choose over him.

The better news – that God will welcome us back, heal us, bandage us,

But here is the best news, a response to the prophet’s plea to his people,

³  Oh, that we might know the LORD! Let us press on to know him. He will respond to us as surely as the arrival of dawn or the coming of rains in early spring.”

That is a critical example of faith, this ability to cry out to know God better, this encouragement to get to know Him, and the confidence that we shall – because we know He shall respond to us, even as we come back to Him.

And here is His response,

⁴  “O Israel and Judah, what should I do with you?” asks the LORD. “For your love vanishes like the morning mist and disappears like dew in the sunlight. ⁵  I sent my prophets to cut you to pieces— to slaughter you with my words, with judgments as inescapable as light. ⁶  I want you to show love, not offer sacrifices. I want you to know me more than I want burnt offerings.   

That God responds to us, knowing what we’ve done, knowing how much we struggle and how our love can be there one moment and not the next, is incredible.

Yeah – He did hit people hard judging them, but doing so with the purpose of reconciling us to Himself – of drawing us back to the only place, to the only One who loves us enough to heal and restore us…

And why?

Because He wants us to know Him, more than anything else.

He wants us to know Him,

Knowledge not is academics, knowledge as in experience, as in understanding how much love there is, of knowing how much He cares, and thinks of us, and wants the best for us, and designed and formed us specifically (mentally, physically, socially, intellectually) to interact with Him.

This is our God, let us return to Him, and dwell in His peace. AMEN!