Episode Details

Remsen Bible Fellowship; 06/25/2023

Introduction

One of the most interesting descriptions of God, in my view, is the one given by the apostle Paul in Romans 15:13: “the God of hope.” Do you think of God - God the Father, God the Creator, God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ - as the God of hope? 

Earlier in our series I gave the following definition of hope: “hope is a settled conviction of the future fulfillment of the promises of God.” And if God is the one who both gives the promises and assures of their fulfillment, then our confidence - our hope - is only as good as his character. Hope only makes sense if we serve a trustworthy God. 

This is why we need this truth: God is faithful. This means that no matter what life looks like, and no matter how I feel at any given moment, I can trust that the Lord is at work bringing his perfect and sovereign will to pass; a will that is bent toward the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28). 

  There are times in this life when you feel abandoned by God. When you feel alone. When you sit, with Job, on the ash heap of despair, trying to decide if you are more miserable because of the pain that you’re experiencing or because of the worthless “friends” who can’t seem to comfort you. Those are hard times. Times when hope is not just wanted - but needed. 

But there is another class of circumstance when hope is an even more desperate need. Those times when you know that the desperate or heartbreaking circumstance you are sitting in is your own fault. This is perhaps when we need hope most of all. How can sinners find hope?

Bleak Circumstances

We read of just such a bleak circumstance in our reading from Ezekiel 16. Though the people of Israel had been chosen by God and clothed in beauty, given gifts of a marriage covenant and a land, she did not see these as the gracious gifts they were. This kindness did not provoke the faithfulness and love which they should have. Instead Israel gave herself over to the nations around her, welcoming in their false gods and vile lifestyles.

We read a chapter like Ezekiel 16 and are taken aback. Can we say those words out loud, let alone in church? And yet God speaks, through the prophet, in devastatingly explicit language in order to make clear the depths of Israel’s depravity and sin. God uses the metaphor of a wife who pays other men to come in and ravage her; disregarding her husband, her marriage, her vows. She doesn’t even have the dignity of a prostitute. At least a w***e would have received payment for her body. 

That language offends our ears because we don’t see sin and idolatry for what they are. When you sin against God, you are paying other lovers to take what belongs only to God. Your obedience, your worship, these belong to God. Marriage is meant to picture this exclusive relationship, as you give yourself only to your spouse in that intimacy of body and soul. And so the language of w****s and adulterous wives is exactly appropriate when it comes to God’s people choosing to turn away from him. When you sin, you are turning, like an adulterous wife, away from the covenant Redeemer who has purchased you with his body and blood. You are turning away from the one who gave everything for you. You are turning instead to lovers who are only looking to take.

Consequences

And this sort of rebellion brings about severe consequences if you or I persist in it. For the nation of Israel it meant being carried away into exile. Ezekiel 16:56-58 says,

Was not your sister Sodom a byword in your mouth in the day of your pride, before your wickedness was uncovered? Now you have become an object of reproach for the daughters of Syria and all those around her, and for the daughters of the Philistines, those all around who despise you