The Sting of Death

I was reading through Hosea this morning and came across a short passage that caught my eye and reminded me of another passage from the book of 1 Corinthians.  Today, in our Bible Time I want to look at both passages to see how they compare and what we can learn from them. 

Background:

Hosea is a great Old Testament book written by a prophet during some difficult days in Israel’s history.  The easy premise of the book is that the people of Israel have been unfaithful to the Lord their God.  Over the years the people had started to worship other false gods making idols out of wood and metal.  The people had also sought “salvation” or protection from other countries like Egypt or Assyria instead of seeking salvation and protection from the Lord.  Hosea is told to live out a metaphor of what the relationship is like between Israel and the Lord.  Hosea marries an unfaithful wife and ends up having to buy her back and forgive after years of adultery and unfaithfulness…just like the Lord buys his people back and forgives them after years of idolatry and unfaithfulness.  We pick up our passage toward the end of the book in the context of God dealing out judgment for Israel because of their sin, yet it is a judgment in love and with redemption and forgiveness built in.  Let’s take a look.

Hosea 13:10-14

Where now is your king, to save you in all your cities?
    Where are all your rulers—
those of whom you said,
    “Give me a king and princes”?
¹¹ I gave you a king in my anger,
    and I took him away in my wrath.

¹² The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up;
    his sin is kept in store.
¹³ The pangs of childbirth come for him,
    but he is an unwise son,
for at the right time he does not present himself
    at the opening of the womb.

¹⁴ I shall ransom them from the power of Sheol;
    I shall redeem them from Death.
O Death, where are your plagues?
    O Sheol, where is your sting?
    Compassion is hidden from my eyes.

Things to think about:

• The people had placed their hope and security in kings, cities, peoples.  Where do you place your hope?  Do we trust in the Lord and rely on Him or do we count on the systems of this world to save us?
• Verse 13 is strange…what’s the deal with childbirth?  I think the metaphor is that God dealt out punishment and pain in order to bring the people back to himself, but instead of responding to the “pain” by running to the Lord, they held tightly to their sin and just endured the pain.  They were left unchanged and failed to repent.
• Read verse 14 again…does that remind you of a different passage in the Bible?  It certainly did for me.

1 Corinthians 15:54-58

When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:

“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
⁵⁵ “O death, where is your victory?
    O death, where is your sting?”

⁵⁶ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. ⁵⁷ But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

⁵⁸ Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

More things to think about:

• I love it when God asks questions that he already knows the answer to…which, I guess, would be all questions.  The point of God asking these questions is to point us to the truth that is so obvious.  “O death, where is your victory?”  In Christ, death has NO victory!  That is the obvious answer.  The same was true for the people of Israel in the days of Hosea.  “O death, where are your plagues?”  They are gone!  Because the Lord “shall ransom them” and “redeem them” and if that is what the Lord does “death”, “Sheol”, “sin” can’t do anything about it.  Praise God!
• Our sin brings death and gives it power over us.  Jesus Christ brings life and forgiveness and He has the power over it all.  Let’s think about that all week!  God bless.

Confession and God's Faithfulness

In church we are in the middle of a preaching series through the book of Nehemiah.  It has been a great encouragement so far.  Last night I was reading and thinking through the text that was preached on Sunday and what will be covered this upcoming Sunday.  “Don’t tell anyone I read ahead a little bit…”   I came across a great text from chapters 9 & 10.  But first a little background:

Background:

The nation of Israel was a chosen people.  They were supposed to live differently than the rest of the world and put on display the Character and glory of God.  The LORD was going to live in their midst and dwell with them in a unique way.  That required them to be obedient and live a “holy” life.  This agreement between the Lord and the people was called a covenant.  If you read through the Old Testament of the Bible you will quickly discover that they didn’t quite live up to their end of the deal.  Long story short God used foreign nations like Assyria and Babylon to come and destroy/judge the people of Israel for their unfaithfulness.  Over the span of a couple hundred years the nation was almost completely wiped out and the walls of Jerusalem were destroyed, the Temple was burned to the ground, the city was in ruins…Nehemiah is leading a group of Israelites in a rebuilding campaign to fix the wall and restore the people to live according to the covenant they have with God.  Today, I want to look at the passage where the people confess their sin and see if we can’t learn something from their experience.

Nehemiah 9:1-3

Now on the twenty-fourth day of this month the people of Israel were assembled with fasting and in sackcloth, and with earth on their heads.² And the Israelites separated themselves from all foreigners and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers. ³ And they stood up in their place and read from the Book of the Law of the Lord their God for a quarter of the day; for another quarter of it they made confession and worshiped the Lord their God…

Nehemiah 9:6-8

“You are the Lord, you alone. You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them; and you preserve all of them; and the host of heaven worships you. ⁷ You are the Lord, the God who chose Abram and brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans and gave him the name Abraham. ⁸ You found his heart faithful before you, and made with him the covenant to give to his offspring the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Jebusite, and the Girgashite. And you have kept your promise, for you are righteous…

Nehemiah 9:32-38

³² “Now, therefore, our God, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love, let not all the hardship seem little to you that has come upon us, upon our kings, our princes, our priests, our prophets, our fathers, and all your people, since the time of the kings of Assyria until this day. ³³ Yet you have been righteous in all that has come upon us, for you have dealt faithfully and we have acted wickedly. ³⁴ Our kings, our princes, our priests, and our fathers have not kept your law or paid attention to your commandments and your warnings that you gave them. ³⁵ Even in their own kingdom, and amid your great goodness that you gave them, and in the large and rich land that you set before them, they did not serve you or turn from their wicked works. ³⁶ Behold, we are slaves this day; in the land that you gave to our fathers to enjoy its fruit and its good gifts, behold, we are slaves. ³⁷ And its rich yield goes to the kings whom you have set over us because of our sins. They rule over our bodies and over our livestock as they please, and we are in great distress.

³⁸ “Because of all this we make a firm covenant in writing; on the sealed document are the names of our princes, our Levites, and our priests…

Nehemiah 10:28-29

²⁸ “The rest of the people, the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, the temple servants, and all who have separated themselves from the peoples of the lands to the Law of God, their wives, their sons, their daughters, all who have knowledge and understanding, ²⁹ join with their brothers, their nobles, and enter into a curse and an oath to walk in God's Law that was given by Moses the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of the Lord our Lord and his rules and his statutes…

Things to think about:

• Notice the heart of the people.  They felt their sin.  They fasted, put on uncomfortable clothes, threw dust on their heads…and they confessed their sins to the Lord.  Do we take sin as seriously as they did?  When you confess your sins to the Lord are you flippant and dismissive about it full of excuses and reasons for why it wasn’t as bad as it could have been?  I know I am that way sometimes. 
• Read the brokenness of the people and take some time today to be broken before the Lord confessing sin and feeling the weight of our failure before a faithful God.
• But, do not stay there too long.  Read verse 8 and verse 33 again.  In the midst of our unfaithfulness and sin God is forever faithful and forever keeping his righteous promises.  What promise?  The promise to forgive and to redeem.  The promise to accept you and I as broken people and make us new through the power of His Son, Jesus Christ.  When you are done confessing your sins, dwell on one final verse from 1 John.

1 John 1:9

⁹ If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

What Do You Pray For

      Are there people in your life who you pray for on a regular basis?  Are there people who pray for you?  If you were to ask for prayer what would you ask for?  Think back over the past few weeks and consider all the prayer requests that you have heard people share and all the requests you have shared with others.  What kinds of requests dominate our conversations?  Does what we ask for reveal to us what we really care about most?  Does the frequency and fervency of our  prayers reveal what we value most?  Today in our short passage from 2 Thessalonians Paul asks for prayer, but he asks for something that we don’t really pray about all too often.  Let’s read this passage and then a follow up challenge would be to read through the prayers of Paul and see what sorts of things he values.

2 Thessalonians 3:1-5

Finally, brothers, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored, as happened among you, ² and that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men. For not all have faith. ³ But the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one.⁴ And we have confidence in the Lord about you, that you are doing and will do the things that we command. ⁵ May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.

Things to think about:

• What does Paul want the Thessalonians to pray about?  Have you ever asked someone to pray that for you?
• It seems as if Paul asks for prayer, but then gives confidence to the people that their prayers will be heard because the “Lord is faithful.” (vs. 3)  Are you that confident when you pray?
• Paul shifts from asking for prayer to actually praying in verse 5 where he asks God to do something for the church in Thessalonica.  What does he pray for?
• I pray this for you today – “May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.”  Amen. And Amen.