#DailyDevotion Only Jesus Is Our Hope Against All False Hopes
Heb. 2 5Their mother lived as a prostitute; she who conceived them did shameful things, saying, “I’ll go after my lovers who give me my food and water, my wool and flax, my olive oil and wine.’ 6For that I will hedge up herb way with thorns and build a wall for her to keep her from finding her paths. She will run after her lovers and not catch up with them. 7She will look for them and not find them. Then she will say, I’ll go back to my first husband because I was happier then than now.’ 8She doesn’t know that I gave her fresh grain, wine, and olive oil, and much silver and gold, which the people used for Baal.
Verse five refers back to the children born in adultery of the previous verse. Now the mother is Israel. She was married to the LORD. However, she prostituted herself with the false gods of people of the land she took over with the help of the LORD. She imported new gods from her neighbors. She did shameful things. But remember, Gomer is acting (not in a pretend way) out in her marriage to Hosea. Kind of rough on Hosea. She was an adulteress and a prostitute. Her being married to Hosea didn’t prevent her from living out her old life.
Both Israel and Gomer went after her loves to provide them with food, water, flax, olive oil and wine. The LORD was planning on putting up a hedge of thorns and herbs and a wall to keep her from finding her paths. They will run after their lovers but not be able to catch up to them. The LORD is going to hide the lovers from them. On the prophetic side Gomer’s going to run out of customers. On the fulfilled side, everything the Israelites were thinking they were getting from worshiping the false gods is going to dry up. Their false worship will not provide for them what they thought they were getting from it. Because of this, they’ll get the bright idea to go back to their husbands. They realize things were better then. But their hearts are not really in it.
Gomer and Israel thought they were getting all these good things from the LORD. They thought it was from their false gods and their lovers. Israel even offered up to the false gods the good things the LORD provided them. Gomer had no need to go to her lovers for these things, Hosea would have provided her with them. Certainly, this is looking forward to Gomer’s later redemption by Hosea. The LORD would redeem Israel when He took on human flesh and died for their and our sins.
Practically every addiction and sinful behavior on our part follows the path of Gomer and Israel. We have a God, who with His providence provides us with every good thing. Instead of thanking God and recognizing every good thing is from Him, we attribute our good things to other created things. We may even worship/serve the good things as our idols. We use and abuse the good things the LORD provides. We start thinking these good things are the ultimate object. When we do this, the LORD often hands us over to our sinful nature (cf. Rom. 1:17ff). In doing so we start digging a hole for ourselves we can not get out of by our own machinations. Instead of created things serving us we end up serving them. We may say a foxhole prayer life Gomer does above, but our hearts are not in it. It may be a bright idea, but unlike the prodigal son, we don’t mean it. The things in our lives keep beckoning to us. The Law must do its work on us. We must give up all hope in the created things we have put our trust in. Only then will we hear the good news, the One True and Living God forgives us and accepts us on account of Jesus Christ. Jesus is our hope against all other hopes that ended up failing us and enslaving us in misery.
Merciful God and Father, grant that we may see the errors of our ways, place our hope only in Jesus Christ our Savior and receive all good from You. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.