Psalm 134 (ESV)1Come, bless the LORD, all you servants of the LORD, who stand by night in the house of the LORD! 2 Lift up your hands to the holy place and bless the LORD!

3May the LORD bless you from Zion, he who made heaven and earth!

Stand, Stoop, Stay: The way of discipleship begins in an act of repentance and concludes in a life of praise. God enters into a covenant with us, he pours out his own life for us, he shares the goodness of his Spirit, the vitality of his creation, the joys of his redemption. That is blessing.

The God who stands, stoops, and stays summarizes the posture of blessing: God stands—he is foundational and dependable; God stoops—he kneels to our level and meets us where we are; God stays—he sticks with us through hard times and good, sharing his life with us in grace and peace.

An Invitation and a Command: Psalm 134 features the word blessing in a form that might be called an invitation and a command. Bless God. Do that for which you were created and redeemed; lift you voices in gratitude; enter into the community of praise and prayer that anticipates the final consummation of faith in heaven. Bless The Lord.

Feelings Don’t Run the Show: Lift your arms in blessing and just maybe your heart will get the message and be lifted up also in praise. Find the right things to do, practice the actions, and other things will follow. By changing our behavior we can change our feelings. This creates an atmosphere where feelings don’t run the show. There is a reality deeper than feelings. Bless The Lord.

Taking God seriously but Not Ourselves: Never take yourself seriously and always take God seriously, and therefore, you will be full of cheerfulness, and exuberant with blessing. Blessing is at the end of this road. And that which is at the end of the road influences everything that takes place along the road. A joyful end requires a joyful means. Bless the Lord.

The Chief End: If you do not convey joy in your demeanor and gesture and speech, you will not be an authentic witness for Jesus Christ. Delight in what God is doing, is essential in our work. The main thing is not work for the Lord; it is not suffering in the name of the Lord; it is not witnessing for the Lord; it is not teaching Sunday school for the Lord; it is not being responsible for the sake of the Lord in the community; it is not keeping the Ten Commandments; not loving your neighbor; not observing the golden rule. The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. This is the destination of our ascent as Christians; God’s glory in our enjoyment of God. Bless the Lord.

(This post is a summary and partial abridgement of Eugene Peterson’s book “A Long Obedience In The Same Direction.” It is based solely on Peterson’s work and any help that this content gives should be credited to God’s grace through Peterson’s effort. In other words, give God glory, thank Eugene Peterson and consider buying the book.)

Psalm 133 (ESV)
1Behold, how good and pleasant it is
when brothers dwell in unity!
2It is like the precious oil on the head,
running down on the beard,
on the beard of Aaron,
running down on the collar of his robes!
3It is like the dew of Hermon,
which falls on the mountains of Zion!
For there the LORD has commanded the blessing,
life forevermore.

Our membership in the church is a corollary of our faith in Christ. We can no more be a Christian and have nothing to do with the church than we can be a person and not be in a family. When we become Christians, we are among brothers and sisters in faith. No Christian is an only child.

Not Like Paying Taxes:
This Psalm puts into song what is said and demonstrated throughout Scripture: community is essential. God never works with individuals in isolation for isolation, but always with people in community. How great it is to have everyone sharing a common purpose, traveling a common path, striving toward a common goal, that path and purpose and goal being God.

Two Ways to Avoid Community:
Living together in a way that evokes the glad song of Psalm 133 is one of the great and arduous tasks before Christ’s people. Nothing is more difficult. A common way to avoid community is to deal with people as problems to be solved rather than see them as brothers and sisters to serve. Christians, rightfully understood, are a community of people who are visibly together at worship but who also remain in relationship through the week in witness and service. Another common way to avoid community is to turn the church into an institution. In this way people are treated not on the basis of personal relationships but in terms of impersonal functions.

Every community of Christians is imperiled when either routes are pursued: the route of defining people as problems to be solved, the way one might repair an automobile or the route of lumping people together in terms of economic ability or institutional effectiveness, the way one might run a bank. Somewhere else lies community—a place where each person is taken seriously, learns to trust others, depend on others, be compassionate with others, rejoices with others.

Each Other’s Priest:
The first image of this Psalm is one of anointing with costly oil. The oil was being used symbolically to represent marking a person as a priest. Living together means seeing my brother and sister as my priest. When we see the other as God’s anointed, our relationships are profoundly affected. It is not what a Christian is in themselves, their spirituality and piety, which constitutes the basis of our community. What determines our brotherhood is what a man is by reason of Christ. Our community with one another consists solely in what Christ had done to us and what Christ makes us.

The second image of this Psalm is the dew on Mount Hermon flowing down the slopes of Zion. Symbolic of the renewing spirit that God provides us. Important in any community of faith is an ever-renewed expectation of what God is doing with our brothers and sisters in the faith. When we are in community with those Christ loves and redeems, we are constantly finding out new things about them. They are new persons each morning, endless in their possibilities, renewed by the love of Christ.

The oil communicates warm, priestly relationship. The dew communicates fresh and expectant newness.

Rousing Good Fellowship:
Christians are always attempting and never quite succeed at getting a picture of the life everlasting. Psalm 1333 throws out just a hint of heaven. It is where relationships are warm and expectancies fresh, we are already beginning to enjoy the life together that will be completed in our life everlasting.

(This post is a summary and partial abridgement of Eugene Peterson’s book “A Long Obedience In The Same Direction.” It is based solely on Peterson’s work and any help that this content gives should be credited to God’s grace through Peterson’s effort. In other words, give God glory, thank Eugene Peterson and consider buying the book.)

Psalm 132 (ESV)1Remember, O LORD, in David's favor, all the hardships he endured, 2how he swore to the LORD and vowed to the Mighty One of Jacob, 3 "I will not enter my house or get into my bed, 4I will not give sleep to my eyes or slumber to my eyelids, 5until I find a place for the LORD, a dwelling place for the Mighty One of Jacob."

6Behold, we heard of it in Ephrathah; we found it in the fields of Jaar. 7 “Let us go to his dwelling place; let us worship at his footstool!”

8 Arise, O LORD, and go to your resting place, you and the ark of your might. 9Let your priests be clothed with righteousness, and let your saints shout for joy. 10For the sake of your servant David, do not turn away the face of your anointed one.

11 The LORD swore to David a sure oath from which he will not turn back: “One of the sons of your body I will set on your throne. 12If your sons keep my covenant and my testimonies that I shall teach them, their sons also forever shall sit on your throne.”

13For the LORD has chosen Zion; he has desired it for his dwelling place: 14 “This is my resting place forever; here I will dwell, for I have desired it. 15I will abundantly bless her provisions; I will satisfy her poor with bread. 16Her priests I will clothe with salvation, and her saints will shout for joy. 17There I will make a horn to sprout for David; I have prepared a lamp for my anointed. 18His enemies I will clothe with shame, but on him his crown will shine.”

True knowledge of God is born out of obedience. (John Calvin)

Stable, Not Petrified: We want Christian faith that has stability but is not petrified, that has vision but is not hallucinatory. Psalm 132 is a psalm of David’s obedience. The psalm shows obedience as a lively, adventurous response of faith that is rooted in historical fact and reaches into a promised hope.

Obedience with a History: The first half of Psalm 132 is the part that roots obedience in fact and keeps our feet on the ground. There is a vast, rich reality of obedience beneath the feet of disciples; and if we are going to live as the people of God, we need more data than our own experiences to draw from. Biblical history is a good memory for what does and does not work. Psalm 132 activates faith’s memory so that obedience will be grounded.

Hope: A Race Towards God’s Promises: Psalm 132 doesn’t just keep our feet on the ground, it also gets them off the ground. For obedience is not a stodgy plodding in the ruts of religion, it is a hopeful race toward God’s promises. Obedience is fulfilled by hope. Psalm 132 cultivates a hope that gives wings to obedience, a hope that is consistent with the reality of what God has done in the past but is not confined to it. All the expectations listed in Psalm 132 have their origin in an accurately remembered past. Christians who master Psalm 132 will be protected from the danger that we should reduce Christian existence to ritually obeying a few commandments that are congenial to our temperament and convenient to our standard of living. It gives us, instead, a vision into the future so that we can see what is right before us. Obedience is doing what God tells us to do in it.

The Strength to Stand, the Willingness to Leap: In such ways Psalm 132 cultivates the memory and nurtures the hope that lead to mature obedience. For Christian living demands that we keep our feet on the ground; it also asks us to make a leap of faith. What we require is obedience—the strength to stand and the willingness to leap, and the sense to know when to do which. Which is exactly what we get when an accurate memory of God’s ways is combined with a lively hope in His promises.

(This post is a summary and partial abridgement of Eugene Peterson’s book “A Long Obedience In The Same Direction.” It is based solely on Peterson’s work and any help that this content gives should be credited to God’s grace through Peterson’s effort. In other words, give God glory, thank Eugene Peterson and consider buying the book.)

Psalm 131 (ESV)1O LORD, my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me. 2But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me.

3 O Israel, hope in the LORD from this time forth and forevermore.

Humility is the obverse side of God, whereas pride is the obverse side of confidence in self. (John Baillie)

Psalm 131 is a maintenance psalm. It gets rid of that which looks good to those who don’t know any better, and reduces the distance between our hearts and their roots in God. The two things that Psalm 131 prunes away are unruly ambition and infantile dependency.

Aspiration Gone Crazy: All cultures throw certain stumbling blocks in the way of those who pursue gospel realities. The way of faith deals with these realities whenever and in every culture. One stumbling block that has become prevalent is ambition. Our culture encourages and rewards ambition without qualification. To be on top, no matter what your on top of, is admired. It is hard to recognize pride as a sin when it is held up on every side as a virtue, urged as profitable and rewarded as an achievement.

We are caught up in a way of life that, instead of delighting in finding out the meaning of God and searching out the conditions in which human qualities can best be realized, recklessly seeks ways to circumvent nature, arrogantly defies personal relationships and names God only in curses. Those who yield themselves up to the influence of ambition will soon lose themselves in a labyrinth of perplexity.

As Content as a Child: Having realized the dangers of pride, the sin of thinking too much of ourselves, we are suddenly in danger of another mistake, thinking too little of ourselves. There are some that believe since the great Christian temptation is to be everything, the perfect solution is to be nothing. These people then compensate for their lives by weepily clinging to God. But Christian faith is not neurotic dependency but childlike trust. We do not cling to God desperately out of fear and the panic of insecurity; we come to him freely in faith and love. Our Lord gave us the picture of a child as a model for Christian faith, not because of the child’s helplessness, but because of the child’s willingness to be led, to be taught, to be blessed. For God does not want us neurotically dependent on him but willingly trustful in him.

The Plain Way: We are always, it seems, reeling from one side of the road to the other as we travel in the way of faith. We are first incited into being grandiose and then intimidated into being infantile. But there is another way, the plain way of quiet Christian humility. As we learn this Psalm we discover the quietness of the weaned child, the tranquility of maturing trust. Psalm 131 nurtures: a quality of calm confidence and quiet strength that knows the difference between unruly arrogance and faithful aspiration. This song teaches us not to seek our glory but to be about God’s glory as the one we trust, the one we love to be with, and the one we hope in from this time forth and forevermore.

(This post is a summary and partial abridgement of Eugene Peterson’s book “A Long Obedience In The Same Direction.” It is based solely on Peterson’s work and any help that this content gives should be credited to God’s grace through Peterson’s effort. In other words, give God glory, thank Eugene Peterson and consider buying the book.)

Psalm 130 (ESV)1Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD! 2O Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy!

3If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? 4But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared.

5I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I hope; 6my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning.

7O Israel, hope in the LORD! For with the LORD there is steadfast love, and with him is plentiful redemption. 8And he will redeem Israel from all his iniquities.

To be human is to be in trouble. Man and woman, alone in creation, suffer. For suffering is pain plus: physical or emotional pain plus the awareness that our own worth as people is threatened, that our own value as creatures made in the dignity of God is called into question, that our own destiny as eternal souls is jeopardized. A Christian is a person who decides to face and live through suffering. Psalm 130 grapples mightily with suffering, sings its way through it, and provides usable experience for those who are committed to traveling the way of faith to God through Jesus Christ.

Giving Dignity to Suffering: By setting the anguish out in the open and voicing it as a prayer, the psalm gives a dignity to our suffering. We should set suffering squarely, openly, and passionately before God. The Gospels offer this view of suffering: in suffering we enter the depths; we are at the heart of things; we are near to where Christ was on the cross. Psalm 130 focuses on immersing suffering in God as all the suffering is spoken in the form of prayer, which means that God is taken seriously as a personal and concerned Father.

Employed to Wait: Such are the two great realities of Psalm 130: suffering is real; God is real. We will cry from the depths and our cry will be heard. Suffering is a mark of our existential authenticity; God is proof of our essential and eternal humanity. We are to wait and watch, and through this will find hope. This means going about our assigned task of suffering with the knowledge that God will provide the meaning and the conclusions.

An Eye Specialist and a Painter: When we suffer we attract counselors as money attracts thieves. Everybody has an idea of what we did wrong to get into this situation and also how to get out. But what we truly need is hope; hope from God. We need to know that suffering is part of what it means to be human and not something alien. We need to know where we are and where God is. We need to know that God understand and cares about our suffering.

Psalm 130 is essential equipment, for it convinces us that the big difference is not in what people suffer but in the way they suffer. This psalm is a powerful demonstration that our place in the depths is not out of bounds from God. This Psalm shows us that our hope comes not from our holiness, our performance, or our abilities, but is grounded in God’s steadfast love, in His plentiful redemption, in His sanctifying work. Cry out from your depths. Cry out to the LORD who hears. Cry out knowing He hears not because your sinless but because He forgives. Cry out and wait for His redemption not for worldly council. Cry out and wait in hope “For with the LORD there is steadfast love, and with him is plentiful redemption. And he will redeem Israel from all his iniquities.”

(This post is a summary and partial abridgement of Eugene Peterson’s book “A Long Obedience In The Same Direction.” It is based solely on Peterson’s work and any help that this content gives should be credited to God’s grace through Peterson’s effort. In other words, give God glory, thank Eugene Peterson and consider buying the book.)

FAITHLESS TO EACH OTHER (10) God loves His people. It is clear in so many ways. For Malachi, the claim of God's love is immediately grounded in His choosing of Jacob. God's pursuing, electing, covenantal love for His people is without question. But do God’s people love Him? Often, the answer to that question is sad and tragic. Up to this point in Malachi we see God’s love answered with weak worship, spotted offerings, lame leaders, and dung and death. In Malachi 2.10-16 we see the condition of faithlessness added to that of lovelessness. In these few verses we find a people faithless to their covenant community, faithless to God, and faithless to their spouse.

Three Questions, And Three Reasons, To Be Faithful Malachi 2.10 lists three questions that provide three reasons, or motivations, to be faithful. We have one Father, one Creator, and one covenant. The questions posed by God, through Malachi, touch on some of the reasons faithlessness was such an offense. Having one Father made the people one family. Their faithlessness to each other didn’t exist between strangers, but brothers and sisters. Their lack of love for each other was the result of siblings separating. The people also had one Creator. They were dependent creatures made by the One God to function under His reign and rule according to His design. In being faithless they were ignoring the call of God for them to be a people together as a community not just individuals. Related to this is the one covenant. They were a called out people in covenantal relationship with God and each other. Their faithlessness profaned this covenant by destroying unity in favor of selfish living. All too often the church today finds herself in the same place as the people of God during Malachi’s day. We fight, divide, disconnect, and ignore one another.

* What three foundational questions does Malachi provide as three reasons faithlessness was so intolerable? * How often do you think about your church as your family? What would change right now in your commitment to your church if you embraced the people as brothers and sisters?

Faithless To Each Other Malachi says we are faithless and by being this way we profane the covenant. We do damage to relationships and we wreck unity. In the church this faithlessness can be seen far too easily. We find churches packed with consumers instead of contributors, spectators instead of servants, guests instead of family. While any church longing to see their city reached and souls saved will be a visible mix of people and their covenantal connectedness, sadly, those who profess faith in Christ and claim to be His followers stay loosely connected as well, spending their lives consuming, watching, and basically doing nothing.

* Do you consume more than you contribute to your local church? Do you even have a local church that you are devoted to? * Are you more a spectator than a servant to your local community? * Would the elders, or other leaders, of your church see you as a guest or as family?

There are many consequences to covenant faithlessness, with one of the most glaring and deadly, being the weakening of the local church. Covenants are understood to be, at least, a defined relationship between two people and God involving responsibilities and confirmed with a vow. Far too often in churches today we find a loosely connected collection of individuals, using churches, leaving churches, and redefining church. If you are consuming more than you give you may be in danger of using the church. If you are constantly moving from church to church in search of “something better” you are most likely violating the unity of the church. If you have turned the church into something you just attend, can do without, aren’t devoted to, then you have redefined the church to be something other than the Bride of Jesus, His Body, God’s Temple, the dwelling place of the Spirit, a family, etc.

* If you stopped being a part of a church would anyone care? If you left a church would you leave a hole that needs to be filled? * Do you find yourself switching churches often? Have you ever left a church for unbiblical reasons? If you have left a church, why did you leave and what did you do before leaving? * What is the church? What do you think about the church? How central in your life is the church?

FAITHLESS TO GOD (11-12)

Malachi shifts from the general faithlessness of God’s people to each other and directs attention to what is labeled an abomination.

The Abomination Of Rejecting God (Daughter Of Foreign God) Malachi targets the men who were marrying foreign women, daughters of a foreign god. The abomination and profaning of the sanctuary was not about ethnicity, it was theological. Men were taking wives for themselves who didn’t love God, serve God, follow God, fear God, honor God. This would be equivalent today to a Christian marrying a non-Christian, pursuing the most intimate of relationships you can have with another person who has no love for the Savior who bled and died so you could live. In effect, the abomination was rejecting and forsaking God for the affections of a forbidden woman. In other words, trading devotion to God to be devoted to someone who isn’t devoted to God. The result so often of this sort of activity is a weakening of faith, an increase in compromise, and a lack of mission and purpose in life. Your affections are split, your devotion divided, and your life fractured.

* What are some of the implications for a Christian who chooses to marry a non-Christian? * What should a Christian do if they are currently married to a non-Christian? (see 1 Corinthians 7)

Succumbing To Syncretism (Profaning The Sanctuary) While the focus of Malachi 2.11 and following is about marriage, we find a principle of syncretism laid out. Whatever you give room to, in your heart and your life, will have your heart and your life. You can love the sanctuary and still profane it. You can love the church and still leave Her. As Christians in love with Jesus we don’t separate from the world, but we better not marry the world. You need to love the world as John 3.16 states (people who need a savior) but as 1 John 2.15-17 says, you better not love the world for the things the world offers (desire of the flesh and eyes, possessions, the world that is passing away). In fact, loving the world, marrying yourself to the world, is a declaration that you do not love God. Tragically and seductively, this drifting from love and devotion and faithfulness to God often happens over time as you become more entangled in the world, seeking satisfaction from the world. This is what happened during Malachi’s day when men married women that didn’t love God. Eventually their love for God just grew cold. Unfortunately, this is what happens to many in the church, they marry the world and begin to look more like the world. They end up profaning the sanctuary by succumbing to syncretism.

* Why is marrying the world, or the things of the world, in effect rejecting God? * What is the difference in love and engagement in the world between John 3.16 and 1 John 2.15-17? * In what ways are you currently married to the world? Think about what you spend money on, the media you consume, the lifestyle you live. How different from the world that doesn’t love Jesus is your life? Is there any distinction?

Cut Off From God, Even While Bringing Offerings In verse 12 we see a prayer and petition that those who commit the abomination of rejecting God, so they can fornicate with the world, would be cut off. Malachi is praying that the church would not be infested with half-devoted nominally faithful people. A detail even more shocking than the prayer for the removal of these faithless men, is that it is directed to those who were bringing in offerings. What you have in this verse is someone who says they love God, does certain religious activities that appear to honor God, all the while having hearts married to those who hate God. Just because you attend a church, read your Bible, give offerings, serve, does not mean you are devoted to God or not guilty of the abomination that Malachi speaks of in these verses. In some sense, this verse looks more at who you love than what you do, where your heart is, not what your offering is. You can do many religious things but do them with a heart far from God and ultimately end up far from God.

* What does Malachi pray for in this verse? * Do you love God? Do you have affections for God in addition to bringing offerings?

FAITHLESS AND FAVORLESS (13-16)

Malachi continues his discourse on faithlessness by turning attention to men who have left their wives, broken covenant, and offended God.

Weeping For The Wrong Reasons While Being Religious In Malachi 2.12, we see men weeping, covering the altar of their offerings with tears, wondering why God shows them no favor. On first glance, these tears appear like a good sign, an evidence of repentance, confession, and Godly grief. But as we look at the context of the passage we see men weeping for the wrong reasons even while being religious. What we have in these verses is men bringing offerings to God in postured devotion while forsaking their wives. What caused the tears is not their lack of integrity, character and covenantal faithlessness to their wives, but rather, the lack of God’s favor. Their crying was not confession. They are showing sorrow for the situation, not for their sin. They want God’s favor, His faithfulness, but don’t care about their own faithlessness. These men are crying for consequences not for offending God. This is regret not repentance. Put even more bluntly, their tears started when the “treasure” ceased. If God hadn’t withheld favor it seems that the tears would have never started. All too often this is the sort of “repentance” we practice. Tears shed for the situation not for our sin, for consequences not for crucifying Christ. We grieve over the results of sin but not the offense. In other words, we don’t hate sin, we hate that we can’t get away with sin.

* How often do you confess sin? How often do you confess sin prior to the sin being found out by others? When you confess sin do you grieve over the offense to God or is your confession more motivated by guilt or concern of the consequences of your sin? * Read Psalm 51. How is all sin ultimately against God? How does this Psalm impact how you come to God for forgiveness?

A Companion By Covenant God’s favor was withheld because faithfulness was forsaken. When God unites a man and women in marriage He does so in a covenant. This binding one-flesh union is never meant to be broken and faithlessness in marriage is ultimately an offense against God, your spouse, and even the following generations. When we are faithless to our spouse we are forgetting our vows. The vows I made with my wife, my pledge, my oath, have nothing to do with her obedience to me. No. I said I would love, be committed, be faithful, no matter what happens until death. Whatever she chooses to do in our marriage I can be faithful to her and ultimately to God. If I trade the wife of my youth in for a newer version I am not just forsaking her, I am offending God, and I am damaging my kids. Practically, modeled faithlessness often passes to the fowling generations. God is seeking godly offspring, not faithless fathers making faithless followers.

* What vows did you say on your wedding day? How often do you think about your vows? Where are you right now breaking those vows? * Why is God’s judgment on faithlessness so severe? What are some consequences of faithlessness in marriage?

Guard Yourself Or Wear A Violent Garment Those who hate and divorce put on a garment of violence. In other words, they bring destruction and pain. The fallout of a faithless spouse damages families and decays communities. Marital covenantal faithfulness is not just a private issue concerning a husband and wife, but includes children and grandchildren, cities and societies. Sometimes the “violence” seems small but in every case of faithlessness there is pain. It is inescapable. To separate and sever a marriage union is to rip and tear two lives that have been melded into one. There is always damage. Divorce is violence.

* In what ways does divorce bring violence? What are some of the specific results of divorce? * Who does divorce effect?

THE FAITHLESS FINDING FAVOR (Jesus Is Faithful)

Malachi 2.10-16 ends with the command to guard our spirit and to not be faithless. As we have seen faithlessness is destructive. Is does damage to relationships with each other, with God, with our spouses, with our children, and with our society. If we are honest, all of us are guilty of faithlessness in some way. All of us must receive the rebukes of this passage for we have not guarded and we have not been faithful, at least not perfectly. The hope we need for our faithlessness is the faithfulness of the One who is always faithful. If we look inside, or look to others, we will find faithlessness. What we need is the Faithful Husband of a Faithless Bride.

The Faithful Husband Of A Faithless Bride Read Hosea 1 and Hosea 3. In chapter 1 we see God’s call to Hosea to marry Gomer, a wife of whoredom. Hosea is faithful to God’s command and takes to himself a faithless bride. Hosea marries Gomer and has children with her. Sadly, by Hosea chapter 3 we see that Gomer has returned to her previous lifestyle. God commands Hosea to “go again, and love a woman who is loved by another man and even is an adulteress.” I still remember vividly reading through these chapters in January 2008. My devotional time for weeks had been in the book of Hosea and as I sat in a Starbucks reading through these chapters again I was praying that I would be a faithful man like Hosea. I was asking God that no matter what happens in my life with my spouse, my kids, family or friends, or church that I would be faithful. Even if everyone around me was faithless that I would be faithful, that I would “go again” and love those who didn’t love me or who had forsaken me. And as I sat there praying I was leveled with this reality; I am not Hosea, I am Gomer. It felt as if God spoke to me, “You are not faithful, your are faithless, your are not Hosea, you are Gomer.” And I wept. I cried out to God saying “I don’t want to be Gomer. I don’t want to be a whore. I don’t want to run from you or forsake you to fornicate with others.” Still praying the Spirit continued to apply the text and said; “until you know you are Gomer you will never get the Gospel.” I wept again. What I was learning is I will never know what Jesus has done for me on the Cross, until I know how my faithlessness put Him there. Jesus, the perfect faithful husband came and saw a faithless bride and married her anyway. He bought her with His blood and covered her in the wedding garments of His righteousness.

* Where do you find yourself in Hosea chapters 1 and 3? Do you believe you are like Gomer? * How would you explain the Gospel from Malachi 2.10-16? How is Jesus the hero of these verses?

Faithful From Faithfulness I am unfaithful, but Jesus is not, and by His faithfulness I find hope and strength to be faithful and I find grace and forgiveness for when I am not. As I learn and remember that I am Gomer God makes me more like Hosea. As I see what Jesus has done for me in my unfaithfulness I learn to be faithful. When I see the forgiveness He grants to me, at the cost of His life, I can forgive lesser offenses, whether my spouse, my kids, my family or friends, or my church. When I remember His commitment to His Bride, I stay committed to mine. As I see how Jesus loves the church and gave up His life for her, I follow in love for my wife. When I am faithless I remember I have a faithful Husband who will never leave or forsake his bride. Jesus will not profane the covenant. Jesus will not forsake the wife of His youth. Faithlessness brings violence and destruction but Jesus by His faithfulness brings peace and restoration, with God and with each other.

* How does experiencing Christ’s faithfulness make you more faithful? * How does knowing the Gospel allow you to find forgiveness for unfaithfulness and grow you to be more faithful? * What do you need to seek forgiveness from for being unfaithful? * Who do you need to forgive that has been unfaithful to you in light of the forgiveness you have received for being unfaithful to God?