“Therefore turn thou to thy God: keep mercy (love) and judgment (justice) and wait on thy God continually.”
When I read this verse, I saw a message that should apply to God’s people of all ages. It is originally written by the prophet Hosea to the Northern kingdom of Israel, which had turned away from God and was under God’s judgment. “Therefore” lets us know that a message of judgment had been written before, and now here is what they were to do. The principle given here in the Old Testament has not changed. We still need to heed this message. What is the message? Hosea wrote that they should turn to God. It occurred to me when I read this that Hosea was not calling upon them to turn to religion, but to God. Religious practice was not a problem for Israel. They had plenty of religion, for they worshipped Baal, and all of the other gods of Canaan. They had been warned over and over again about turning to the worship of the Canaanite gods. Their Baal worship included prostitutes. I don’t think that I have to give you details on what this meant. It is the same today. There are many religions that people can turn to, but religion is not the issue. Hosea told them to turn to God, the God who brought their ancestors out of Egypt, saw them through forty years in the desert, enabled them to take the “Promised land,” and called them His people. There is no religion that has a Savior who sacrificed His life in order for people to be saved. Salvation is found only in Jesus; therefore, Hosea would write to us today, “Therefore, turn to your Savior, Jesus Christ.” It is only through Jesus that we can be forgiven and cleansed from our sins. It is not even enough to turn to the church until we have turned to Jesus Christ. Jesus is our gateway into the kingdom, and He is our gateway into His church. Hosea wrote that when they turned to God, they should “keep mercy.” This meant that they should practice mercy towards other people. Modern translations of this word for mercy is love. Mercy and love are one and the same. It is for sure that if we do not love people, we will not act mercifully toward them. The big issue of mercy in the Old Testament was the treatment of widows and orphans. Widows and orphans did not have the social safety nets that they do today. They were at the mercy of the people, and if the people did not love them and treat them mercifully, they would suffer. Israel was not acting mercifully toward widows and orphans or anyone else. There is a sense in our own society that we have become more callous towards people. We do have social safety nets, but individually we are sometimes not very merciful toward each other. We should be loving and merciful in the church at all costs. When we are not, we become stumbling blocks to people who do not know Jesus. Indeed, we should heed Hosea’s message and take it as our own. Hosea wrote that when they turned to God, they should “(keep) judgment.” This meant that they should practice justice. Indications were that the courts in Israel had become corrupt and that it was not unusual for wealthy people to be able to pay their way out of legal entanglements and poor people had to take whatever the court wanted to hand out. But we can’t really do a whole lot about what the courts do. The message for us here is that we should practice justice in our own lives. We should act justly toward other people in our dealings with them. As Christians, our “word should be our bond.” If people can’t trust followers of Jesus Christ, who can they trust? One of the greatest compliments that I can give a person is that I would buy a used car from them. This means that I know that if there is something wrong with that car they will tell me. We should be as good as our word, and if we turn to Jesus and practice mercy and love toward others, we will be as good as our word. Bro. Joe
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AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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