Part of today's text is Hosea 7:1-2, which I have attached here (NKJV):
1 When I would have healed Israel, Then the iniquity of Ephraim was uncovered, And the wickedness of Samaria. For they have committed fraud; A thief comes in; A band of robbers takes spoil outside. 2 They do not consider in their hearts That I remember all their wickedness; Now their own deeds have surrounded them; They are before My face.
This passage this morning brings to mind the discussion we had last night in our Bible study, in which our topic is Colossians. On tap last night was a section of chapter one that included the following verses (21-22):
And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight
In our discussion, I mentioned the fact that often we see evidence or hear explicit talk of God being someone who 'sits back and lets things go', not truly being active today. Certainly among many, this is believed implicitly if not explicitly stated: God is 'up there' taking no notice, and being totally inert 'down here'. Of course this idea runs counter to innumerable Scripture texts, but this is what many believe, in and out of the church. As we see in Hosea, this is nothing new - Solomon was right - there is nothing new under the sun. The ancient peoples of God are in this text taken to task for believing that God doesn't pay attention to their doings... and this leads to *grievous sin*. This is, as Calvin notes, the 'highest summit of wickedness'. The thought that God takes no account of human action is a thought that makes God out to be a liar, for he clearly states the contrary. So many, SO MANY, are infected with this awful evil... and so many will perish because they are convinced that what they do is of no issue before God.
I add here some of Calvin's comments:
The Prophet shows here that the Israelites had advanced to the
highest summit of all wickedness; for they thought that no account
was ever to be given by them to God. Hence arises the contempt of
God; that is, when men imagine that he is, as it were, sleeping in
heaven, and that he rests from every work. They dare not indeed to
deny God, and yet they take from him what especially belongs to his
divinity, for they exclude him from the office of being a judge.
Hence then it is that men allow themselves so much liberty, because
they imagine that they have made a truce with God; yea, they think
that they can do any thing with impurity, as if they had made a
covenant with death and hell, as Isaiah says, (Isa. 28: 15.) Of this
sottishness then does the Prophet here arraign the Israelites, "They
have not said", he says, "in their heart, that I remember all their
wickedness"; that is, "They so audaciously mock me, as though I were
not the judge of the world; they consider not that all things are in
my sight, and that nothing is hid from me. Since then they suppose
me to be like a dead idol, they have no fear, nay, they abandon
themselves to every wickedness."
...
Let us learn from this place, that nothing ought to be more
feared than that Satan should so fascinate us as to make us to think
that God rests idly in heaven. There is nothing that can stir us up
more to repentance, than when we adorn God with his own power, and
be persuaded that he is the judge of the world, and also when we
walk as in his sight, and know that our sins cannot come to
oblivion, except when he buries them by pardon.
One of the effects of this evil conception, besides the fact that it opens the floodgates to the sin that resides in men and women naturally, is that it makes people unwilling to hear the truth of the Gospel. As Hosea states in verse one above, God actively DISCOVERS (not that he didn't know before, but he DOES seek out and observe) the wicked acts of men. He does this in part when his prophets speak the word of God to people... and in discovering (uncovering?) their sin before their eyes, God causes many to turn away and plug their ears. I envision the word of God being preached clearly, active as a two-edged sword, and people in the pews covering their ears, and crying out "nya, nya, I can't hear you!" This truly goes on in the hearts of many. As Paul writes to Timothy, in 2 Tim. 4:3-4 (ESV),
For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.
In other words, people don't want to hear the truth, because in it God exposes their sin. We should not be surprised when people reject the Gospel message - as sinful men and women, unless their heart is changed by God, they WILL NOT endure that teaching. Christ himself made a statement to this effect as well (when is this EVER quoted when people quote John 3:16) in John 3:19-20 -
And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.
May God be praised that his word is that light that shows us our sin, and declares to us our need for Christ the savior. May more hearts be opened to this truth, and receive the Gospel, and cling to the cross of hope.