Echoes of the Past
Hear the words of Hosea 4:1-2.
“There is no faithfulness or steadfast love, and no knowledge of God in
the land; there is swearing, lying, murder, stealing, and committing adultery.” Can you tell me with certainty about when in
human history these words are written? I
heard those words and I was set back in my chair. Those words are speaking directly into my own
culture!
This is why I love the prophets – as difficult to read as they
are. Are we a nation of steadfast love
for Him? No. Is there knowledge of God in our land? Not really.
Sure, there are a few people who know.
But in general? We have more
people trying to earn salvation through their good works than we have people
receiving salvation and obediently responding.
However, are we a nation of swearing, lying, murder, stealing, and
adultery? There’s a no-brainer!
We haven’t learned the lesson so we are doomed to repeat it. At least that’s how the saying goes. We will fall into a captivity of our own
creating – as did the Hebrew people – if we are not careful.
The Echo Reverbs
Now hear the words of Hosea 4:7-8.
“The more they increased, the more they sinned against me; I will change
their glory into shame. They feed on the
sin of my people; they are greedy for their iniquity.” Really?
Does this also not speak to the human condition as well as American
lifestyle? The more we increase the more
we fall away. The more we have, the more
we feed off of the sinfulness of humanity.
This is capturing the human condition so beautifully!
There’s only one problem.
While it is true about humanity, it is actually being applied here in
Hosea to the priests and prophets of the day!
It’s not that the people have strayed – and oh, how they have! What Hosea is saying is that the religious
leaders have strayed. They have strayed
and now are caught up in the sin of the people.
They are telling people “This is not sin, keep doing it.” In fact, they are telling people, “This is
not sin, here, let me join you!”
You would think that as knowledge increases so would wisdom. You would think that as belief in God spreads
that it would become more stable. But
that isn’t what happened among the Hebrew people. The more faith in God became accepted among
the people, the more people were drawn to that which was “not accepted.” The Hebrew people were drawn to things like
the child sacrifices that were performed by the Canaanites. They were drawn to the religious sexual
promiscuity (temple prostitution) common among religions developing in the
Mediterranean region. As God-fearing
became the norm, it actually became the “overlooked.” People fell away.
The sad part is that this is also true in Christianity. For 300 years after Christ the church was persecuted. In those 300 years, over half of the Roman
Empire actually became Christian. But
then came the Edict of Milan, where Constantine first put the foot forward of
Christianity becoming the state religion.
Suddenly the pastors who were running for their life became
aristocracy. Within 100 years, the
Vandals were at the door of Rome ready to sack the city and lay the groundwork
for splitting the Empire. Over the next
few hundred years the Roman Empire slipped into greater decline. We call that pit into which it declined the “Dark
Ages.”
You see, it is not general acceptance that drives faith. It isn’t “everybody’s doing it” that fuels
true faith. It is actually persecution
that drives faith. When human beings get
comfortable, we become complacent. When
we stop being challenged, we stop growing.
Thing that were once important to us now find themselves getting dusty
on the shelf.
I have news for all of us.
It happened slowly over a period of 200-300 years among the Hebrew
people (1000 BC – 722 BC). It happened
in the first 200-300 years when Christianity was the accepted religion in the
Roman Empire (320 – 520 AD). Here we
find ourselves roughly 300 years of having Christianity be the accepted practice
in America. What is the social context
in which we find ourselves? Christian
religious leaders are now joining the people in promoting sinfulness among the
people and declaring that it’s fine. Supposed
“Christian” spiritual leaders are accepting the practices of the world and welcoming
them into Christ’s church. The reverb of
past echoes rings loud in my ears today.
What will happen? Well,
what happened to the Hebrew people? They
were sent into captivity until faith awakened once more. For Israel, that process would be a few
hundred years. {For Judah, that process would only be about 70 years.} What happened to the Christian Church under
Rome? It suffered long and hard under
the Dark Ages {for as much as a millennium
in some places!} until people like Martin Luther and John Wycliff and Jan
Hus and John Calvin came forward and revived faith.
If throughout history complacent religious people always fall into
captivity until faith reawakens, what do you think will happen to us? We are on the brink of spiritual
captivity. It is a spiritual captivity
that our own spiritual complacency has brought onto ourselves. In fact, I will go one step further. We are on the brink of a spiritual captivity
that our spiritual prostitution has brought upon ourselves. We say we want God, but our hearts lust after
just about anything but God. Christian
religious leaders are not any more immune and will be held just as accountable
if not more. So my question is, what are
you going to do about it in your life?
What are you willing to help me do about it in my life? What can I do to help you about it in your
life?
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