AAA estimates that over forty million people will be travelling over the fourth of July weekend! So it’s appropriate that we chose this weekend to begin a summer series called "Life’s a Trip." This summer is all about travelling and enjoying life and this series is all about travelling and enjoying life with God. Obviously, our culture is a driving culture. At $2.99 a gallon, who could forget? But the Bible was written in a walking culture where people travelled on foot. Imaginea Jewish mothersaying, "Guess what kids?We're going to Disney World. We got each of you ten pairs of shoes." Sound like a lot of fun?
Life is a trip and life can be a trip!
In Bible times, it was not uncommon for people to walk for days. They suffered heat, kicked up sand and small rocks, risked attack from wild animals, or an assault from robbers. The image of a person walking along a path became an illustration for life in general. In every way, life is like a journey or like a person walking down a path. In life, every personchooses his path. Every person chooses his direction. Every person progresses toward a destination of some sort. There are risks. There are rewards.
But not everyone’s journey is the same. Some make wise choices along the way and some make foolish choices. Some take appropriate precautions and remain safe, but some get lost or fall prey to the elements. This is an example of how life can be a trip. Without God, life can be full of blunders, wrong turns, miscalculations, errors, dead ends, frustrations, and even embarrassment.
This year, before Lara and I went on vacation,I bought this streets and trips program for my laptop. Every year it seems we get turned around somewhere, or lost. But not anymore! Not only does this program contain detailed maps of every city and street in the United States, but it has a GPS locator that I put on my dashboard. GPS is a Global Positioning System. And so as I am driving, my laptop is tracking my every move. We can zoom in or zoom out. We can plot alternate routes during traffic jams. We can make the software say, "Turn left. No, turn right. Do a u-turn. You missed your turn again, goofball. We're never going to get there now!" Oh wait, that’s what Lara is programmed to say! Trips are much more enjoyable when you are on the right path and heading toward the right destination! And this is true of life’s journey as well.
What is your destination in life?
In your outline there are a couple of questions. First, what is your destination in life? Fortunately for us, God is not indifferent to our life’s journey. He is concerned that we choose the right path and stay on course, and arrive at the proper destination. The scriptures indicate that God is our destination and righteousness is our path.
In Psalms 16:11 (NIV) the psalmist praises God. "You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand." Nothing compares to the joy of walking in righteousness and walking with God. But Proverbs 14:12 (NIV) provides an important warning about veering from this path. "There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death."
Not every path takes us to the destination we desire. Some paths lead to destruction. In Matthew 7:13-14 (NIV) Jesus says, "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it." Your destination in life matters. And so what is your destination? Are you on the right path? Are you paying attention to your GPS? Your God Positioning System, that is? There’s nothing wrong with being a little cheesy now and then.
Who is your trusted travel guide?
In your outline, there is a second question. Who is your travel guide? A travel guide is a person who can take you to your intended destination. Who do you trust to lead you to God? Who do you trust to lead you on the path of righteousness?
Historically, God would send messengers to his people when they got off track. These messengers were called prophets. The prophets would speak on behalf of God, warning his people, correcting his people, pointing them in the right direction, and providing them with much needed guidance. I like to think of the prophets as travel guides. Because they had heard directly from God, they were competent to point people to God.
Sometimes, people would listen to these travel guides or prophets. But most of the time, these prophets were persecuted and in many cases, put to death. For instance, consider an excerpt from Jeremiah the prophet in Jeremiah 6:16-19 (NIV). "This is what the LORD says: 'Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls.' But you said, 'We will not walk in it.' I appointed watchmen over you and said, 'Listen to the sound of the trumpet!' But you said, 'We will not listen.' Therefore hear, O nations; observe, O witnesses, what will happen to them. Hear, O earth: I am bringing disaster on this people, the fruit of their schemes, because they have not listened to my words and have rejected my law."
Here, God is setting the path of life before his people. He even raises up prophets as watchmen to warn his people and keep them on track. But his people won’t listen to his directions and advice! They’re stubborn and deaf. They ignore the signs God is giving. They continue along the way that seems right. But in the end, the path they have chosen leads to disaster.
Who do you listen to in matters of life and death? In matters of God and eternity? In matters of goodness and righteousness? Who has the credibility to redirect your steps? Who do you listen to? Who do you trust?
One thing is for sure. God wants to be our destination and he wants to direct our steps. Before God sent his only Son, Jesus Christ, into the world, he raised up travel guides. The well-known travel guides were called major prophets. The lesser-known travel guides were known as minor prophets. Over these summer months, we’re going to consider the advice of the minor prophets. Their words are every bit as relevant today as they were back then. Their courageous words are the path of life for us. They point us to God, they direct us along the path of righteousness, and they steer us from disaster.
Travel advice from the prophet Hosea.
One of these better known travel guides was a prophet by the name of Hosea. We know very little about Hosea except what is found in the Old Testament book of Hosea. Hosea 1:2-3 (NIV) says, "When the Lord began to speak through Hosea, the Lord said to him, 'Go, take to yourself an adulterous wife and children of unfaithfulness, because the land is guilty of the vilest adultery in departing from the Lord. So he married Gomer, daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son."
Now you have to dig his father-in-law’s name, Diblaim. "Hosea, why is your marriage such a mess?" "It’s not my fault. It’s my father-in-law's. He’s di’blaim." If you don't get it now, you'll get it later.
A wayward woman.
From a human perspective, nothing about Hosea and Gomer’s marriage made sense. Hoseawas a devout, God-fearing prophet. Gomer was a wayward woman whose adulterous heart was filled with lust. Their marriage was destined for failure. In Hosea 1:3-5 (NIV) Gomer gives birth to their first son and God tells Hosea, "Call him Jezreel, because I will soon punish the house of Jehu for the massacre at Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of Israel. In that day I will break Israel’s bow in the Valley of Jezreel." Jezreel it is!
In Hosea 1:6-7 (NIV) Gomer gives birth to a daughter and God tells Hosea, "Call her Lo-Ruhamah, for I will no longer show love to the house of Israel, that I should at all forgive them. Yet I will show love to the house of Judah; and I will save them— not by bow, sword or battle, or by horses and horsemen, but by the Lord their God."
Hosea 1:8-11 (NIV) continues, "After she had weaned Lo-Ruhamah, Gomer had another son. Then the Lord said, 'Call him Lo-Ammi, for you are not my people, and I am not your God.' " So here’s a quick recap. Take an adulterous woman as your wife. Name one of your children for the judgment about to befall the household of Jehu. Name your daughter "not loved" and your youngest son "not my people."
Big surprise. Their marriage was a disaster. Gomer repeatedly committed adultery. She was unfaithful. She was immoral. She couldn’t be trusted. She repeatedly lied. She chased one man’s false promises after another. She sold herself into prostitution. She’d rather be used and abused thanbe with the one who truly loved her.
Hosea felt betrayed.
And Hosea? He was angry. He felt betrayed. He wanted to disown her and her children. He wanted her to experience the full disgrace and consequence of her adultery. Out of jealousy, he plotted how he might throw thorn bushes in her path and do everything in his power to frustrate her and prevent her from chasing after her lovers. He hoped that her chosen path would become so difficult that she would come back to him.
Listen. In Hosea 2:2-7 (NIV) he says, "Rebuke your mother, rebuke her, for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband. Let her remove the adulterous look from her face and the unfaithfulness from between her breasts. Otherwise I will strip her naked and make her as bare as on the day she was born; I will make her like a desert, turn her into a parched land, and slay her with thirst. I will not show my love to her children, because they are the children of adultery. Their mother has been unfaithful and has conceived them in disgrace. She said, 'I will go after my lovers, who give me my food and my water, my wool and my linen, my oil and my drink.' Therefore I will block her path with thornbushes; I will wall her in so that she cannot find her way. She will chase after her lovers but not catch them; she will look for them but not find them. Then she will say, 'I will go back to my husband as at first, for then I was better off then now.' "
A definition of love- unconditional commitment.
Hosea continues on like this until Hosea 3:1(NIV) when God says, "Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another and is an adulteress. Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites, through they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes." What on earth are sacred raisin cakes?
Hosea 3:2-3 (NIV) says, "So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and about a homer and a lethek of barley. Then I told her, 'You are to live with me many days; you must not be a prostitute or be intimate with any man, and I will live with you.' "
I recently heard a definition of love that I will never forget from Dr. Michael Wilkins. "Love is an unconditional commitment to an imperfect person, in which I give myself, to bring the relationship to God’s intended purpose."
A wayward nation- Israel.
Hosea’s marriage wasn’t about living in eternal bliss with the perfect mate. His marriage was about loving an imperfect person in order to advance God’s purpose. His marriage was about putting God’s unconditional love on display for an entire nation and world to see.Hosea’s marriage was intended to be a sign to a wayward nation. Just as Gomer had been unfaithful, so God’s people had been unfaithful. Just as Gomer had committed adultery, so God’s people had committed spiritual adultery. They were worshiping other gods. They were putting their trust in other nations and kings. They were trusting in things like horses and chariots to provide their deliverance. They would not acknowledge God as their first love, as their husband, or as their father. They would not acknowledge that God had provided them every good thing.
And just as Gomer’s adultery stirred Hosea to jealousy, so Israel’s adultery had stirred God’s jealousy. And God was giving the people every opportunity to return to him. He was putting every possible obstruction in their paths in the hope of them turning back to him. Gomer was imperfect. Israel was imperfect. But God was loving them unconditionally and giving of himself in the hope of bringing them back into a proper relationship with himself. He was loving them in order to fulfill his intended purpose in their lives.
An unmistakeable road sign.
In his love, God was posting an unmistakable road sign in their pathway. That road sign was Hosea’s marriage to Gomer and that sign read, "Come back." In Hosea 14:1-3 (NIV) God pleads with Israel, "Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God. Your sins have been your downfall! Take words with you and return to the Lord. Say to him: 'Forgive all our sins and receive us graciously, that we may offer the fruit of our lips. Assyria cannot save us; we will not mount war-horses. We will never again say 'Our gods' to what our hands have made, for in you the fatherless find compassion.' " In Hosea 14:4 (NIV) God promises Hosea, "I will heal their waywardness and love them freely, for my anger has turned away from them." Signs are designed to be noticed and are meant for our good, to turn us from waywardness.
In Hosea 14:9 (NIV) God says, "Who is wise? He will realize these things. Who is discerning? He will understand them. The ways of the Lord are right; the righteous walk in them, but the rebellious stumble in them."
Getting back on track.
Arewe paying attention to the signs in the scriptures? So how do we get back on track? How do we return to God? How do we get on right path? Hebrews 1:1-3 (NIV) says, "In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven."
Get back on the right track by gettinga grasp on God's love.
The first key to getting back on track is to grasp God’s love. In Ephesians 5:25-27 (NIV) we are described as the bride that Jesus Christ loves. "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless."
Hosea’s marriage to Gomer helps us grasp the depth of God’s love. God doesn’t love us because of who we are. Rather, God gives of himself to make us holy, to cleanse us of our sins, to wash us with his word, and to make us radiant and pleasing to himself. We deserve God’s transformational love about as much as Gomer deserved Hosea’s love. Nonetheless, God offers his love to us through his Son Jesus Christ.
Get back on the right track by returningto God.
The second key to getting back on track is returning to God. It is not enough to acknowledge God’s love. Before God promised the Israelites that he would heal them of their waywardness, he called them to repentance. In Hosea 14:1-3 (NIV) God says, "Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God. Your sins have been your downfall! Take words with you and return to the Lord. Say to him: 'Forgive all our sins and receive us graciously, that we may offer the fruit of our lips. Assyria cannot save us; we will not mount war-horses. We will never again say 'Our gods' to what our hands have made, for in you the fatherless find compassion.' "
Every single one of us needs to come before God and ask forgiveness. We need to acknowledge our sin and idolatry. Like the Israelites, we put our trust in so many different things to save us, but we need to acknowledge that only God can truly save us. And like the Israelites, we worship so many different things. The work of our hands, material things, wealth, power, prestige, and the flesh. God is jealous for our worship. He doesn’t want a divided love or a divided affection. He wants all of our heart.
Get back on track by having a wedding ceremony- be baptized.
The last key to getting back on track is to have a wedding ceremony. Baptism is the believer’s wedding ceremony. Baptism involves pledging our lives to God, visibly, through a new covenant relationship in Christ. 1 Peter 3:21-22 (NIV) describes baptism as the "...pledge of a good conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the God’s right hand— with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him."