Consider Eternity

This week, the sermon was on 1 Corinthians 7.  The pastor said it was a very challenging passage, not just for the singles but also for the married couples in the church.  Toward the end of the sermon, he came to address verses 29-31, where he made this point: "Consider Eternity."

Whether we are married or single, we will not be so forever.  Whether we are excited or mournful, we know--as Christians--that someday we will be in Heaven.  Whether we are wealthy or poor, our souls will outlast our stuff.  This awareness should color everything we do.

I want that awareness now.  I want to ask myself every day if I would live it the same if I knew I would stand before the throne of God tomorrow.  If the answer is no--not just because of blatant sin but also frivolous use of time--should I not change my behavior?  If I do not learn to live with an awareness of eternity every day, I will come to the end of my life and find it has all been for nothing--or I will not find the strength to make it even that far.

I am having some hard times, some hard decisions  I am asked to keep loving someone even though it hurts.  I can't say I'm thrilled with heartache.  There's a part of me that just wants to sever all ties, to give up and run away.  But this pain will not last forever.  Its cause will pass.  Its wounds will heal.  Its memory will fade away like smoke.  The love I give is a picture of the love Christ gives me--even when I hurt Him.  I know that, I know that's why He doesn't want me to give up.  To give this love to another person, another soul, is to do something that will last into eternity.  It may not seem to have any immediate consequence.  It may seem like I'm doing it all for nothing, but God is not mocked (Galatians 6:7-10).  Things will change, and I will be rewarded.  The persistent sacrifices I make here will matter in eternity.

God help me to consider eternity!

Go again, love a woman who is yet an adultress...Hosea 3:1

I was reading today just before the message and I chanced to read the brief chapter of Hosea 3.  It begins:

And the LORD said to me, "Go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, even as the LORD loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love cakes of raisins."

-Hosea 3:1 (ESV)

At the beginning of the book of Hosea, the prophet is told to go and marry a loose woman (Gomer), and that his relationship with her will be a picture of God's rocky relationship with Israel.  It certainly was no cakewalk.  Even though she was married to Hosea, Gomer did not change her promiscuous ways.  By chapter three, she has left him and her three children and gone off committing adultery again.  Her unfaithfulness seems to have gotten her into quite a bind, as well.  Apparently, she's now not only being unfaithful to her husband by sleeping around, she's also somehow gotten herself enslaved, so that she needs someone to buy her freedom.

The situation being what it was, Hosea had no legal obligation to Gomer.  Yes, he'd married her, but even Christ in His sternest denunciation of divorce said that divorce in the case of adultery was permissible (Matthew  5:32).  Hosea would have been perfectly within his rights to divorce Gomer and leave her in her slavery.  More, the law of Moses, which God handed down and which was in full effect at the time, said that adultery was punishable by death: both the adulterer and the adulteress were to be stoned (Leviticus 20:10).  Hosea not only had the right to divorce Gomer, he also had the right to go before the judges of his city and have her and her paramour executed.  This was what the law of the land prescribed.  Certainly, he did not owe his cheating wife any love!

But God says something different.  He says, "Go again, love a woman who is yet an adulteress."  Gomer is still sleeping with this other man.  She's unrepentant, though she is in very deep trouble.  She has no right to expect Hosea's love, but Hosea gives it.  In the verses that follow, Hosea goes and buys Gomer out of slavery and with her he reaffirms their vows.  Hosea did not have to do this.  He could have just let her go, or even had her executed.  Instead, he paid dearly to buy her freedom--15 shekels of silver plus about 430 pounds of barley to equal the full 30-shekel cost of slave (apparently, he didn't have 30 shekels just lying around and he had to scrape together a barter deal)--and he committed himself anew to being her faithful husband.

I wonder how we would have done in his shoes.  Would we empty the savings account to rescue an unfaithful lover from slavery, or would we leave them to rot in it?  Would we love them, even though they're unworthy, or would we have sought justice on the adulteress?  In the end, would we recommit ourselves to the vows our spouse just shattered, or would be go out and sleep around a little ourselves ("Take that, Gomer!  How does it feel, huh?")?  I'm not married, but putting myself in that situation, I think Hosea's love for Gomer is nothing short of amazing!

But the really amazing part is this, the love of Hosea for Gomer is the love of God for Israel.  Israel had turned to other gods, following idols, which God told them not to do, or He would destroy them.  They said they would be faithful, but now here they are bowing down before the idols of the nations that surround them.  They have been unfaithful to God, and as a result, they are about to be carried away as captives, enslaved to the nations around them.  God is within His rights to withhold His love from them, to leave them to rot in their chains, and even to hunt down and destroy every last one of them.  But God does love them, and in the end of the chapter He lays out how He plans to bring them back out of slavery and renew the commitment that exists between them, which they are even now violating.

This same love is the love that Christ extends to us.  Like Israel, we have all sinned.  Our sin might not be bowing to asherim, but we still chose to make idols of our wants, our desires, and our strengths.  We look to them instead of God.  We sin, and it's exactly like cheating on Him.  Our sin separates us from God (Isaiah 59:2).  He has no obligation to remain faithful to us when we sin.  When we sin, we enslave ourselves to sin (John 8:34).  Since we have chosen this slavery ourselves by our wicked actions, God has no obligation to free us.  In fact, our sin against God demands His judgement (Ezekiel 18:4).  He has every right to destroy us for our unfaithfulness to Him.

But God does not!  God loves us instead!  In fact, God loves us so much that He pays the price to set us free, the price of His own life, in order to set us free and revive the commitment between us and Him.  God's love is so incredible!  So amazing!  Let our hearts surrender to Him and revel in this love!  Let our lives reflect it!