Tag: mercy

The Gift of Love

I have been struck by the revelation of Christ in the book of Hosea.

I have been reading Ann Spangler’s “Praying the Names of God,” and was struck by this phrase, “Praise God because he is not power, knowledge, or wealth, but he is love.”

I have been struck by the revelation of Christ in the book of Hosea.

Contextually, Hosea is a prophet and God gives him a terribly difficult assignment to marry a prostitute who is adulterous and will bear children out of her unfaithfulness. Hosea is to deliver a prophetic judgment against Israel and Judah for their spiritual adultery in departing from the Lord.

Hosea 1:2

2 When the LORD first spoke to Hosea, He told him, “Go, take a prostitute as your wife and have children of adultery, because this land is flagrantly prostituting itself by departing from the LORD.”

Most readers and commentators will make this book as historical regarding the judgment of Israel, of which it is, and yet they miss Christ in the text. I believe if we look a little closer, the text has very clear language about promises that are fulfilled in Christ. Charles Spurgeon once said “A sermon without Christ in it is like a loaf of bread without any flour in it.”

Let’s look at the meaning of the names of our cast and finish with words of redemptive fulfillment.

Gomer

1) Gomer, the name of Hosea’s unfaithful wife comes from the Hebrew word ‘gamar’, meaning complete! What? I think many times people are given names which signify their calling in spite of how their lives seem to be anything but. For example, my name Timothy means Honoring of God. I’m still working on that one, lol! In the beginning of our story, Gomer is far from complete, looking for love in all the wrong places. Yet, with salvation offered to her through Christ (Hosea is a type), she can become complete through sacrifice, mercy (Hosea bought her back for fifteen shekels, the number of mercy), and everlasting love.

Aren’t we all like Gomer, continually running after the things that we think will make us complete, but leave us empty?

Jezreel

2) Jezreel, their first son’s name means “God sows.” I have been to the Jezreel valley which has become the breadbasket for modern day Israel. It’s now lush and fruitful. Yet, there’s more. God would sow a seed which would make the promises given to Abraham come to pass.

Hosea 2:22-23a (NASB)

And the earth will respond to the grain, to the new wine and to the oil, And they will respond to Jezreel.

I will sow her for Myself in the land.

Hosea 1:10

Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered. And in the place where it was said to them, “You are not my people,” it shall be said to them, “Children of the living God.”

This first portion of Hosea 1:10 was a prophetic promise given to Abraham and fulfilled in Christ.

Galatians 3:29

And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise.

Lo-Ruhamah

3) Gomer’s second child is a daughter, named Lo-Ruhamah, meaning not loved or no mercy. We don’t know if the child was conceived out of unfaithfulness or not. What kind of name is that for a child? And yet, there’s something here for all of us who have felt like we weren’t loved or times where we received no mercy.

Hosea 1:6-7

6 She conceived again and bore a daughter. And the LORD said to him, “Call her name No Mercy,a for I will no more have mercy on the house of Israel, to forgive them at all. 7 But I will have mercy on the house of Judah, and I will save them by the LORD their God. I will not save them by bow or by sword or by war or by horses or by horsemen.”

Mercy did come through the house of Judah through Christ, and the salvation that has come did not come through military might but through Jesus as Lord and the one who offered himself up as a gift of love and the way to salvation.

In the day of Christ, we can assure our brothers and sisters in Chris that they have received mercy and they are no longer unloved, but fully accepted and loved (Eph 1:6).

Hosea 2:1

Say to your brothers, “You are my people,”and to your sisters, “You have received mercy.”

Lo-Ammi

4) Lo-Ammi was the name Gomer was to give to her second son, meaning not my people. While slightly less egregious than Lo-Ruhamah, we all have a need to feel like we belong. People even join gangs out of this strong need to belong.

Hosea 1:9

9 And the LORD said, “Name him Lo-ammi, for you are not My people, and I am not your God.

Wow, this is the language of disownment, and yet, God promises that this will be reversed.

Hosea 1:10

10 Yet the number of the Israelites will be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered. And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not My people,’ they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’

This is the language of covenant and the phrase ‘not my people’ is a phrase that prophetically points to the time of the Gentiles. Apostle Paul writes the following:

Romans 9:22-26

22 What if God, intending to show His wrath and make His power known, bore with great patience the vessels of His wrath, prepared for destruction? 23 What if He did this to make the riches of His glory known to the vessels of His mercy, whom He prepared in advance for glory— 24 including us, whom He has called not only from the Jews, but also from the Gentiles? 25 As He says in Hosea:

“I will call them ‘My People’ who are not My people,

and I will call her ‘My Beloved’ who is not My beloved,”

26 and,

“It will happen that in the very place where it was said to them,

‘You are not My people,’

they will be called

‘sons of the living God.’”

Hosea

5) Hosea comes from Hoshea or Joshua and means salvation. In the story, Hosea’s marrying an unfaithful bride is a picture of Jesus offering the gift of love and redemption to those who accept this offer.

The Hebrew word will look at here is ‘Ish’ meaning husband. ‘Ishi’ is first person for ‘my’ husband. In the day of Christ, our relationship has gone from knowing God as master or Lord to one that’s much more personal, my husband.

Hosea 2:16-17, 19-20

16 “And in that day, declares the LORD, you will call me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal.’ 17 For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more.

19 And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. 20 I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the LORD.

Hosea still has to keep running after his wife, even after providing for her and giving her children.

Hosea 3:1-2

1 And the LORD said to me, “Go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, even as the LORD loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love cakes of raisins.” 2 So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a lethecha of barley.

What kind of husband is this that goes after us in our adultery and unfaithfulness, and buys us back in love and out of his mercy? His name is Jesus.


Conclusion

If I look to the end of Hosea, I see language referring to a ‘He’, whereas Israel is always referred to as a woman in the scriptures.

Hosea 14

1Return, O Israel, to the LORD your God,

for you have stumbled by your iniquity.

2Bring your confessions

and return to the LORD.

Say to Him: “Take away all our iniquity

and receive us graciously,

that we may present

the fruit of our lips.

3Assyria will not save us,

nor will we ride on horses.

We will never again say, ‘Our gods!’

to the work of our own hands.

For in You the orphan finds compassion.”

4I will heal their apostasy;

I will freely love them,

for My anger has turned away from them.

5I will be like the dew to Israel;

he will blossom like the lily

and take root like the cedars of Lebanon.

6His shoots will sprout,

and his splendor will be like the olive tree,

his fragrance like the cedars of Lebanon.

7They will return and dwell in his shade;

they will grow grain and blossom like the vine.

His renown will be

like the wine of Lebanon.

😯 Ephraim, what have I to do

anymore with idols?

It is I who answer and watch over him.

I am like a green cypress tree;

your fruit comes from Me.

9Whoever is wise, let him understand these things;

whoever is discerning, let him know them.

For the ways of the LORD are right,

and the righteous walk in them,

but the rebellious stumble in them.

The shoots of Christ have sprouted and have spread. His fragrance is the spirit of salvation available to all who take it in. It’s the gift of love.

Turning of the Cherubim

I was mentored in spiritual dream interpretation for five years. For many years, I taught courses and mentored many people in how to interpret dreams. I qualify dream interpretation with the word “spiritual”, as I always want to make room for God to be present and to speak. Interpretations belong to God (Gen 40:8).

I love understanding the patterns and richness that come through contemplating what a symbol might mean in scripture or a dream (1 Cor 2:14).

The scriptures are full of symbols. One look at the description of the tabernacles should convince you that is true.

Recently, I came across the idea that the wings of a cherubim are a symbol of God’s glory. Let’s look and see if that fits.

One important principle in understanding scripture and dream interpretation is that of context. At the same time, it does not negate the place for a sanctified imagination.

Exodus 25:20 (NASB) “The cherubim shall have [their] wings spread upward, covering the mercy seat with their wings and facing one another; the faces of the cherubim are to be [turned] toward the mercy seat.”

In context, the tabernacle was to be built according to these instructions as a shadow of the heavenly one.

Let’s look at some interesting and intriguing symbols and language around this text.

1) Cherubim

Let’s first use our sanctified imagination regarding the cherubim. While they are formed in beaten gold, we discover that this is a limited representation. In Solomon’s temple for example, the cherubim were 15 feet tall and their combined wingspan filled the entire 30 foot room (1 Kings 6)!

They are the same as the four living creatures (ref Ezekiel 10) in the following passage:

Ezekiel 1:5-11 (HCSB)
5 The form of four living creatures came from it. And this was their appearance: They had human form,
6 but each of them had four faces and four wings.
7 Their legs were straight, and the soles of their feet were like the hooves of a calf, sparkling like the gleam of polished bronze.
8 They had human hands under their wings on their four sides. All four of them had faces and wings.
9 Their wings were touching. The creatures did not turn as they moved; each one went straight ahead.
10 The form of each of their faces was that of a man, and each of the four had the face of a lion on the right, the face of an ox on the left, and the face of an eagle.
11 That is what their faces were like. Their wings were spread upward; each had two wings touching that of another and two wings covering its body.

We get the basic idea that one pair of wings would be used as a covering, and the other pair of wings would be used to glorify the presence of God.

While the word origin of cherub is unclear, possible word origins from other ancient languages suggest that the word means to be gracious to, to bless, and to make great and mighty.

2) The number two

Numbers have meaning in scripture. Why are there two cherubim and not some other number like three? In context, two cherubim suggests the number of witness. A requirement of Mosaic law says let every fact be established by two or more witnesses (Deut 19:15). The cherubim are bearing witness to the presence of God.

3) The mercy seat

The mercy seat is a single Hebrew word kapporeth, meaning mercy seat of or place of atonement. Under the Mosaic covenant, a high priest would sprinkle this seat 7 times on the annual day of atonement for the forgiveness of sins and reconciling God with His people. The number seven was used to signify fullness in scripture. Under the new covenant of Jesus, His own blood was used to atone for or cover the mercy seat once and for all eternity (see the book of Hebrews). We are reconciled with God through acceptance of His gracious sacrifice.

The first interesting question is why the mercy seat would be covered. The Hebrew root is calak (translated covering), which also means to hedge or screen. In the Hebrew, the form of the word calak is the plural calakim, suggesting that there are multiple wings forming that hedge.

I would suggest to you that how God transacts mercy with you is very personal and intimate. It is not for anyone else to see.

4) The face

In the text, the cherubim are facing towards each other. Why is that important?

In a Hebraic understanding, the face of God is analogous with God’s favor.

When Adam fell into sin, the face of the cherubim faced outwards, forming a hedge of protection guarding against anyone being able to get back into Eden (Gen 3). In Exodus and subsequent tabernacle depictions, they are not facing the door as a guard, but are facing the mercy seat. The text indicates they are facing each other, but that imagination leaves God out of the picture. They are facing God and protecting an altar of mercy. The cherubim are witnesses of God’s mercy transacted in the presence of God.

Hebrews 4:16 (NIV)

16 Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

5) Wings

Wings are represented by the word Kanaphim in Hebrew, which also refers to the edge of a garment (tzi-tzi of a prayer shawl).

A Hebraic way of thinking is looking at the function of a symbol. What do wings usually do? They cause one to ascend higher. In this case, though I would suggest that the function of the wings are to glorify God.

The Hebrew word for upward in our text is ma’al which has the context of higher.

The wings stretched upward reminds me of praise as hands lifted high to glorify the one who is in their midst and above them.

Isaiah reflects on this in his declaration, that it’s God who is enthroned by the cherubim.

Isa 37:16
16 LORD of Hosts, God of Israel, who is enthroned above the cherubim, You are God — You alone — of all the kingdoms of the earth. You made the heavens and the earth.

Hebrews 9:5 (NLT)
Above the Ark were the cherubim of divine glory, whose wings stretched out over the Ark’s cover, the place of atonement.

Their role is to glorify the LORD.

So, what does this mean to me? In His presence you can find mercy. In His presence you can find rest and healing for your souls.

I would encourage you to use your sanctified imagination to find yourself receiving God’s mercy. Just you and God in the presence of His cherubim and covered in the wings of mercy. Imagine yourself seated on the mercy seat. The blood of Jesus shed for you has made a way for you to be forgiven, accepted, at peace, and made whole.