Lent 2025 Day 17: Mon 24 Mar
Hosea 8:1-7
8 ‘Put the trumpet to your lips!
An eagle is over the house of the Lord
because the people have broken my covenant
and rebelled against my law.
2 Israel cries out to me,
“Our God, we acknowledge you!”
3 But Israel has rejected what is good;
an enemy will pursue him.
4 They set up kings without my consent;
they choose princes without my approval.
With their silver and gold
they make idols for themselves
to their own destruction.
5 Throw out your calf-idol, Samaria!
My anger burns against them.
How long will they be incapable of purity?
6 They are from Israel!
This calf – a metalworker has made it;
it is not God.
It will be broken in pieces,
that calf of Samaria.
7 ‘They sow the wind
and reap the whirlwind.
The stalk has no head;
it will produce no flour.
Were it to yield grain,
foreigners would swallow it up.
How often, I wonder, do we deceive ourselves that we are doing God’s work, when in reality we are fashioning idols for ourselves? It is — I suspect — not always as obvious as the difference between worshipping the living God or a golden calf. Saul thought he was doing Heaven a great service in persecuting the Church, so did the Church of old when it was at the forefront of great evils that make us shiver today.
If we think Israel silly for not simply listening to Hosea the prophet, we would do well to remember that there must have been people promoting the idol-worship at the same time, and had we been there, we might have thought their arguments far more convincing that the words of (perhaps) a lone man shouting at us… A well presented argument, a good public speaker, might be pleasing to us, but tell nothing about the value of the message.
Like “wrath” in our previous passage, this is something that is much easier to recognise with hindsight: who knows what idols we are viciously defending today, which will look as silly as bejewelled cows to the next generation? Our best protection is a humble heart and a mind open to listening to the quiet promptings of the Spirit, which we must practice a little every day, and pray often for. Holding fast to Christ, but to everything else loose is a life-long practice, but one that we would do well to try.
Lord, you reveal yourself in gentle whispers. Grant us the wisdom to hold everything but Yourself lightly, that we might not grow insensitive to Your promptings.
1:03:38 O Mensch, bewein (Choral)
29. Chorale
O mankind, mourn your great sins,
for which Christ left his Father's bosom
and came to earth;
from a virgin pure and tender
he was born here for us,
he wished to become our Intercessor,
he gave life to the dead
and laid aside all sickness
until the time approached
that he would be offered for us,
bearing the heavy burden of our sins
indeed for a long time on the Cross.
Ends at 1:09:16
Paul