Title Uncounted Repentance/Hos 6:1-11
“Therefore let us know the Lord, let us strive to know the Lord, and his coming out is as steady as the dawn, and he will come upon us like rain, like the latter rain that waters the earth” (6:3).
Return to God. The judgment that judged like a silverfish has been lifted, and the terrible storm that bites and rips like a lion is gone, and God will embrace us again with the heart of Hosea, who bought Gomer with money.
1. a speedy recovery
“Come, let us return to the LORD, and the LORD, who has torn us, will heal us” (6:1).
No matter how long it takes to return, God, who has been waiting for a long time, opens his hand as soon as we repent and return.
The saying, “He raises him up after two days and raises him up on the third day” means that he will recover within two or three days.
Repentance is the restoration of our relationship with God.
My relationship with God has been crooked. Restoring the relationship from a wrong state to a normal state is the restoration of the relationship, and this is the fruit of repentance.
When the relationship is restored, it means knowing that I am a creature.
The deeper the faith, the more sensitive the sense of guilt.
For those who have been forgiven of their sins and have received mercy, their relationship with God is restored.
If we have the only way to live before God, it is to repent before being judged before God.
The principle is simple, but it doesn't work.
Opportunities don't keep coming.
If you do not repent when given an opportunity, and if you miss it, the clouds will pass and rain will fall. You are committing the same foolishness as waiting for the rain after the sun shines.
If the shoulder blade is dislocated and the arm is cut off, however precious it may be, it must be thrown away and buried in the ground.
When we deviate from normal relationships, we lose our role in the sight of God, cause damage to others, and are abandoned by God because we are useless.
Human beings who depart from God become dirty, worthless, meaningless, and unable to raise their heads, inevitably avoiding the gaze of others.
If we don't recognize that we are creatures, we become proud and autonomous, even sinful and shameless.
We who have been depersonalized before God, who depersonalized God and served him like an idol, must now return to God.
Come back, but you have to come back thoroughly.
2. The life force of love
“Let us know the Lord, let us do our best to know the Lord” (6:3a)
Hosea said, “This people perish for lack of knowledge.” (4:6, 5:4)
The ‘knowledge’ here is not ordinary knowledge, but kindness and love, and not the burnt offering, but ‘knowing God’.
God wants us to love Him.
Therefore, to know Jehovah means to love him.
Also, ‘kindness’ means not only to love God, but also to love our neighbor.
God wants us not only to love Him, but also to love our neighbors.
Love is a vital force that spreads into actions that cannot remain in an idea.
“Strive to know” means to put aside everything and run toward knowing the Lord.
It means to follow as a hunter follows the prey without looking to the side or back.
In other words, we are not to love Jehovah in moderation, but to death.
Love to death, not to love with one eye turned sideways, but to keep one eye fixed and love completely.
It is one-sided.
You can serve God right away when you know the heart of God right away.
If you do not have a loving heart, you cannot say that you know the other person completely.
You must work hard, but put in a little effort to love the Lord.
Problems in the family are due to a lack of love.
Make sacrifices, do not treat them humanely, there is no one who will not melt with all your loyalty, love, kindness and strength.
There is nothing that cannot be broken by love.
God's love is such a love.
Don't tell me my toil, but my lack of love.
3. Changing love
“Your kindness is like the morning cloud or the dew that quickly vanishes” (6:4b).
God, who wanted “knowing God” more than burnt offerings, also wants “kindness” more than sacrifices.
But the love of Israel is a love that changes.
Their love is like the morning cloud and like the dew that fades away (6:4).
The morning dew slowly falls. Clouds and dew are incredible things.
Israel's 'charity' is like that.
They try to love God, but they don't last.
We need to have the endurance to love each other, but our love for God is so changeable.
The word ‘violent’ refers to crossing boundaries.
It refers to ignoring God's covenant without thinking at all.
Israel eventually broke the contract.
Like Adam, he broke the covenant and rebelled, so he lacked faithfulness (6:7).
The ‘place’ where the knowledge of God, truth, and kindness should exist has become the city of evildoers.
When one's faithfulness to God is broken, they fall into all kinds of dirty sins.
When it is good, it seems that you love God, and when it is bad, you have to think about whether you are the one who throws away all the love of God.
God loves us unchangingly, but how much does it cost us to love God capriciously, pretending to love him several times a day and then go far away?
It is a world where we are happy even though we suffer losses because we love, and we feel sorry for the hard work of love that is happy despite being beaten.
A person who pays for his hard work still lacks love.
Just like Jesus said, "I am a useless servant".
We need to be faithful to God and work harder and pray so that we do not become unclean in the world. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4. A sin that cannot be hidden
“As a band of robbers waits for a man, so a company of priests murders on the way to Shechem, and they have done wickedness” (6:9).
The Shechem Road was a way to save lives as the 'way of the city of refuge', and it is also a place where the devout saints of northern Israel take a rest on their way up to Jerusalem for the feast.
But it became a way of death because of the priests.
Everyone has an intention to cover up their sins.
Adam blamed Eve, and Eve blamed the serpent.
It is a tragedy that human beings sinned and were cast out of the presence of God, but even more tragic is thinking that sin can be hidden.
But sin is not hidden from God.
God will surely judge that sin.
In the final judgment, “the wicked” will be destroyed and the “remnant” will be saved.
The kernels will go into the barn and the chaff will go into the fire.
God remembered Israel's evil deeds, abominations and lies (6:8-10),
All that evil was in the sight of the Lord.
Without vomiting, are we not confessing and imputing the painful sins of the summer and dryness without confessing?
The Lord will press with his mighty hand day and night until he confesses.
My bones will grow weak, and I will groan and mourn all day long.
Do not think that it is okay to delay sin.
The sooner you vomit, the faster you will recover.
Don't be the protagonist of the greatest human tragedy.
Don't fall for the foolishness of waiting for the rain after the sun shines, don't miss the chance and repent.
Bear the fruits of repentance by using a new heart, a new mind, and a new tongue and new words.
Words represent a person's character.