Deep Thoughts

Remember those silly “Deep Thoughts” sketches from SNL? Well, here’s a deep thought I had today about COVID19: It is interesting how this pandemic has leveled civilization. This invisible force has done what no amount of Social Justice could accomplish. It has no regard for wealth or fame. There is no gender, class, race, or political identity that gets preferential treatment over another by this virus. It presents itself in the same way to everyman.

And so does eternal life. The ground is level at the foot of the cross. Everyman can kneel, and whatever his/her history of sin, can ask forgiveness, repent, and be born again as a fellow heir with Christ of an eternal kingdom.

Accompanying my Bible Sampler quilt border block today is a Cecile Brunner rose. The bush climbs up my entryway wall and the buds are going to pop any minute. They smell as sweet as they look.

I finished reading the book of Hosea. This strange story lived out by the prophet Hosea reveals the relationship between God and his people. Hosea was commanded to take a wife, Gomer, knowing ahead of time that she would be hostile, disrespectful, and unfaithful time and time again.

Which brought to my mind this passage from Romans 5 – “But God demonstrates His love for us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

And it says in first John: We love, because He first loved us. God knew we would be foolish and fickle, just like Gomer, but He still loved us first. And like the book of Hosea, although we must be punished for our wrongdoings, He also gives us unlimited chances to love Him in return.

And that’s what happens in chapter six: “Come, let us return to the Lord. For He has torn us, but he will heal us; He has wounded us, but He will bandage us. He will revive us after two days; He will raise us up on the third day that we may live before Him.”

Wow, did you see that? He did it again. God sent a clear message of the work of the resurrection of Jesus Christ nearly 800 years beforehand.

When Paul wrote these words to the Corinthians, chapter 15:3 – “Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the scriptures” he was referring to these very words in the book of Hosea.

Jesus Christ Himself also referred to the book of Hosea (6:6) in Matthew 9:13 when he told the Pharisees that God desired mercy over sacrifice. (I wrote about this in my last post.)

I’ve heard these books of the Minor Prophets referred to as the “sticky pages” of the Old Testament. After all, when’s the last time we opened our Bibles to look up something in the book of Nahum or Haggai? It’s exciting to read through them one by one and see their importance in the whole gospel message. Stay tuned; next up, the book of Joel.