I’ve been asked several times whether or not I believe COVID-19 is the judgment of God upon our world. I don’t believe I have the wisdom to fully answer that question. I do know that typically in Scripture when judgment falls upon a land it’s specific and not speculative. In other words, the people who have eyes to see and ears to hear know why God’s chastisement is upon them.
So I’m not willing to say that this is God’s judgment nor am I willing to say that it is not. But what I will say is that it appears to me that God is taking us to the wilderness. He is, in this season, pleading with us and fighting for our heart. The wilderness will expose us. But God is doing what He always is doing; moving us towards the new Jerusalem.
I am reminded once again of God’s words through the prophet Hosea:
For their mother has played the whore; she who conceived them has acted shamefully. For she said, I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink. (Hosea 2:5)
The people in Hosea’s day were living in affluence. Through shrewd political maneuvering they were experiencing the fruits of Assyria as well as the fruits of Egypt. They were prosperous. And at the end of the day, even though they might have given lip service to YHWH, their hearts true love was found in their idols (Assyria, Egypt). It was to them that she sought provision.
When ‘Mine’ is Taken
I can’t speak for the rest of the world, but here in America we’ve certainly been prone to give our hearts to other lovers.
The procurement of our bread and water, our basic nourishments, can too easily be attributed to our jobs, our government, or our work-ethic. But what happens when those are shut down or slowed to a screeching halt? We’ve quickly come to realize the fragility of our economy.
Where will we get our wool and flax in such a season? From the moment of the fall humanity has sought covering. And we’ve done a fine job of finding fig leaves to distract us from the reality of our nakedness. We’ll take our wool and flax from any quarter so long as we don’t have to hear the penetrating voice of the Father, “What is this you have done?”
The very fact that many are fearing suicide rates due to a flailing economy tells us much. We’ve clothed ourselves in our portfolios. For some we’ve gotten warmth from our political parties, fighting and scratching to make sure our party stays in power. Even at times compromising long held Christian principles for the sake of making sure that other party doesn’t assume power. (And just to be clear, my denouncement is bi-partisan. All parties are man-made wool and flax).
And our churches have often warmed ourselves with oft-inflated numbers, expanding campuses, and increasing budgets. We’ve learned to measure discipleship by whether or not you’re attending a meeting and perhaps neglected to measure it by whether or not our shoes are contorting to follow in the foot-steps of Jesus.
But what happens when our buildings shut down, our economy withers, and our emperors are shown to be without clothes? Will we fight to make sure the lights stay on, open up economy at great risk to the vulnerable among us, and try to pretend that parties aren’t still scrambling and grasping to show power or posturing for extending platform as we’re crippled by an invisible warrior?
Yes, this shut down is also exposing how deeply our comforts and joys have come from things like sports and the entertainment industry. And it’s exposing for many that our families aren’t as strong as we thought. We find ourselves scrambling to relate and deepen relationships that weren’t the priority we thought they were. How many of us parents had given countless nights and weekends to these things and now find themselves in the foreign place of trying to give some sort of discipleship to our families?
Therefore I will hedge up her way with thorns, and I will build a wall against her, so that she cannot find her paths. She shall pursue her lovers but not overtake them, and she shall seek them but shall not find them. (Hosea 2:6-7)
Is that what God is doing in this season? Is he graciously hedging up our way with thorns. As we keep trying to pursue our other lovers and “get back to normal” will God keep pursuing us into the wilderness?
This is truly a concern that I have for us in this season. I’ve said for awhile that we have not learned the language of lament. We don’t see the tender mercies of the wilderness and so we run from it. And so we’ll try to get stuff back to “normal” as quickly as possible or to make it as close to normal as we possibly can. We’ve lost the capacity to sit in the dust and mourn and learn.
The Wilderness Voice We Need To Hear
God is doing something in Hosea. He isn’t hedging up her way because He is cruel. No, this happening because God is profoundly good. You have to notice the beauty of Hosea 2.
Hosea 2:10 at first glance sounds like one of the cruelest and most vindictive verses in the Bible.
Now I will uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and no one shall rescue her out of my hand.
He is taking away all of His gifts and all of His provision for her. And now she has absolutely nothing which with to barter with her lovers. When she cannot pay Assyria or Egypt they all of a sudden aren’t as passionate of lovers. She was being used. There wasn’t real love there. There wasn’t tenderness. No compassion. No true joy in her.
Your idols don’t love you like you love them.
And so if you can picture a woman, Israel, out in the wilderness and her whole being is covered in shame. There is nothing in her that is desirable. Nobody likes her. To even go near her would not only create revulsion for you but it’d make you part of the outcast of society as well.
And that’s us. We’ve prostituted ourselves. We’ve bowed to other lovers and they’ve all come up empty. We might not be in a spot to feel the weight of this yet. We still have a few tidy garments, a loaf or two of bread, and a stimulus check on the way. And maybe it won’t be necessary for us to be quite so broken before we get it. Maybe the pleading won’t need to be so forceful. I don’t know. But what I do know is where God is taking us and what He is doing.
In the wilderness…nothing to be desired…and hear these words, “Therefore I am now going to…”
Pause.
What do you expect there? How does God respond to a people who have given themselves over to idolatry and have ran themselves head long into the consequences of this thing?
Here it is:
“Therefore I am now going to allure her;
I will lead her into the wilderness
and speak tenderly to her. (Hosea 2:14)
Tender. Compassionate. Alluring words. This is unthinkable. Nobody else wants her and yet you hear the Greatest Lover say, “I still want you”.
This is why He has us in the wilderness. It’s not to shame us for the sake of shame. It’s to strip these lesser lovers of their luster. It’s to convince us that our Savior isn’t a political party—not even close. It’s not even in a thriving congregation. It’s not in a bustling economy. All these are fig leaves.
The only thing lasting is the love of the Father, Son, and Spirit. Here is our nourishment. Here is our clothing. Here is our joy and comfort.
So let us learn the ways of the wilderness. Let us not pursue setting up a table in the wilderness unless the Almighty prepares the banquet. We don’t need to get back to normal. Normal is broken. We need to get back to Eden…or rather the new Jerusalem. And good news, that’s where the Father is taking us.
Be encouraged. This wilderness will definitely expose our brokenness and patterns of our rebellion. But God is gracious and compassionate.
His tender and alluring words speaks decibels above our the brokenness from our rebellion.
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Photo source: here
Much of my thoughts here were originally found in my book Torn to Heal
