Religion of Our Own Making
I just finished reading yet another article online about “spiritual
leaders who want to attract _____ generation need to listen to this.” Here was the point of the article. Such-and-such a generation needs to see Jesus
in this way and that way. I’m sure you’ve
read that kind of article. Yet another
religious writer saying that the key to attracting people is to show them Jesus
how they want to see Jesus. Apparently
it is up to us to sell Jesus according to how they define “genuine.”
To be truthful, I think reading through the Old Testament prophets
I’ve come to a conclusion. The world isn’t
going to be saved by showing them the Jesus they want to see. People are saved by showing them the Jesus
that they need to see. That sounds
simple, but I think it is true.
People are saying, “I don’t find Jesus when I go to church.” Cynically, I can’t help but ask, “Is it
really Jesus you are trying to find?”
After all, Jesus promises to be wherever two or three of His people are
together. So to say you don’t see Jesus
in a church is basically saying that you don’t think two or three of Jesus’
people are in that place. That’s a
pretty arrogant comment to make.
No, I don’t think the problem is a problem of not showing people
Jesus in the way that they want to see Him.
I think the problem is that people aren’t looking for the real
Jesus. They want to find a Jesus in
their own making so they can follow that Jesus in a way of their own making.
I think if we look into Hosea 13, we see this dynamic loud and
clear. The Hebrew people made their
religion in their own image. They
started with something related to God.
They threw in a little Canaanite child sacrifice and added some Assyrian
animal worship. They tossed in a bit of
other stuff and found the “god” they wanted to worship. They made their religion in their own image
and with their own hands. They found
their own savior who looked like they wanted Him to look like.
Here’s the problem with that.
It’s not our job to worship god-in-the-image-of-our-own-making. We are called to worship God. God is quite capable of defining who He
is. God is quite capable of being
present in our life. When we worship god-in-the-image-of-our-own-making
we are told that we will be like the mist in the early morning or smoke rising
from a campfire. When we base what we do
on things of our own making, we will not last.
No, here is the fundamental truth of the prophets. The answer is not found by turning to
ourselves and figuring out our own problems.
The answer is in turning to God.
The answer is in dropping our agendas and dropping our aspirations. It is in dropping our desires. The answer is found in looking to God and
confessing that His ways are better than our ways. His ways are always better than our
ways. The answer is in coming and
genuinely looking for God rather than looking for the
god-we-have-made-in-our-mind. After all,
God tells us boldly in Hosea 13 that there is no savior except Him.
The Sting of Death
Towards the end of Hosea 13, we find the source for an incredible
passage in the New Testament. In 1 Corinthians
15:50-58 Paul is writing about the change that will occur between this life and
life eternal. In that passage, Paul
quotes Hosea 13:14. “Oh death, where is
your victory? Oh death, where is your sting?”
In Hosea, these passages are dark.
Again we have God speaking rhetorical questions. Will He save the Israelites from the death
that is coming with the Assyrians? Will
He save them from Sheol – the place of the dead?
God’s answer is no, He will not save them. They have brought iniquity upon themselves by
following gods of their own making. They
will bear the consequences of that action.
They have rebelled; they will be punished. They shall fall into judgment.
Salvation
However, salvation need not be far off. Salvation comes with repentance. This is the point of Hosea 14. If people accept their iniquity and accept
how they have been idolatrous, God will forgive and He can redeem. When we cease turning to our idols and begin
turning to our God, He will receive us.
This is the lesson that the Hebrew people will learn in captivity.
When we turn to God, God can heal us. When we turn to God, God can make us fruitful
once more. He can restore to life that
which was once dead. He can cause the
roots of the repentant to spread out and become strong once more. This is where Paul comes up with the
conclusion that he reaches in 1 Corinthians 15.
The sting of sin is death. But
through God we can have victory over death.
I love how this book ends. “For
the ways of the Lord are right, and the upright walk in them, but transgressors
stumble in them.” For me, this brings me
back full circle to where I began this blog post. The ways of the Lord are right. It is not my ways or even the things I think
God is a part of that are right. The
ways of the Lord – something quite external to myself – are right.
The key to the whole of Hosea – or any of the prophets – is in understanding
this principle. My relationship with God
is not about me “redeeming and fixing the parts of me that are broken.” Life is not about “patching up my life.” Life is about realizing how much better God’s
ways are and dropping everything to become His ways. Relationship with God is about letting go of
my agenda and adopting the agenda of God which is inherently foreign and
external to me.
Life is not about me finding the god I want. Life is about me finding the God I need. That God can only be found in humble
submission to His ways.
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