Monday: Spiritual Adultery
When Hosea’s wife, Gomer, committed adultery against him, he suffered the agony of betrayal, humiliation, and shame.
Image © Standard Publishing from GoodSalt.com
To the neighbors and friends who saw his pain, Hosea delivered a divine message through words and actions: Israel, God’s wife, was just like Gomer. The chosen people were committing spiritual adultery.
The prophet Jeremiah compared God’s unfaithful people to “a prostitute” who lived with many lovers despite everything that God provided for them (Jer. 3:1, NIV). In a similar way, the prophet Ezekiel called idolatrous Israel “an adulterous wife” who had departed from her true husband (Ezek. 16:32, NKJV). For this reason, idolatry in the Bible is viewed asspiritual adultery.
Read Hosea 2:8-13. What warning is given here? In what ways could we, as Seventh-day Adventists, be in danger of doing the same thing in principle?
The expression “grain, new wine and oil” also is used in the book of Deuteronomy (Deut. 7:12-14, NIV) to describe Israel’s staple produce that people enjoyed in abundance in accordance with God’s promises as given through Moses. In Hosea’s time, the people were so ungrateful to God, so wrapped up in the world around them, that they were presenting these gifts, originally given them by God, to their false idols. What a warning this should be to all of us that the gifts we have been given should be used in the service of the Lord, and not in ways that never were intended for them (Matt. 6:24).
“How does God regard our ingratitude and lack of appreciation of his blessings? When we see one slight or misuse our gifts, our hearts and hands are closed against him. But those who received God’s merciful gifts day after day, and year after year, misapply his bounties, and neglect the souls for whom Christ has given his life. The means which he has lent them to sustain his cause and build up his kingdom are invested in houses and lands, lavished on pride and self-indulgence, and the Giver is forgotten.”—Ellen G. White, Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, December 7, 1886.
Think about how easy it is to take the gifts given you by God and use them selfishly, or even in an idolatrous manner. What are practical ways of preventing this sin in our lives?
(0)
Spiritual idolatry is very rampant these days in our daily lives. Our quest for worldly materials has taken all our attention. We now love and worship our possesions more than the one who provided them for us. We have religated God to the background behaving like the Isrealites of old who before their very eyes God performed miracles. The interesting thing is that the one we are offending has his arms widely opened to recieve us into his fold
According to the law Gomer should be punished. Divorce is one of the solutions to handle an adulterous wife. However, God has given a better solution. He asks Hosea to forgive his adulterous wife and bring her back to his house. To err is human. To forgive is divine.
[Moderator Note: Please use full name when commenting]
The prophet Nathan once confronted King David after his heinous sin with Bathsheba with a stern rebuke, "thou art the man." (2 Sam 12:17) As we read Gomer's story, we are simply being rebuked, "thou art Gomer!" We may fume with rage against Gomer like David to the rich neighbour, oblivious of the fact that we are actually the subject of the story. The moral of the this story is: Let us quit cheating on God and individually repeat David's Psalm 51 for pardon. God created in him a clean heart as he pleaded. No wonder God testified that he was "a man after His own heart" (Acts 13:22). Brethren, marriages are matters of the heart, spiritual or literal. 99% of love texts are an update of the heart. David's reunion with God was perfect. Let us return to God and receive the life changing text, "Sister X, you are after my own heart!"
I was really struck by Hosea 2:8. How often do I take what God has given me (money, time, talents and intellect) and offer them up to the things that He hates? And He only hates those things because they ensnare me and degrade me, and prevent me from being a channel through which His love can flow to others.
His withdrawal of these things is out of love and mercy - so that His people would understand that He supplies these things, not anything/anyone else. That way we can come back to Him for restoration.
Practical ways? I think maybe, we can ask God to help us be thankful every day and do something large or small for someone else every day. Making a habit of thankfulness and generous giving is something God must help us with, but these two habits in the life can guard us against selfishness and taking His gifts to us for granted. Praise and worship in our hearts throughout the day would help as well.
It's in deed true that if there is a generation that has abused the LORD's mercies, ours is worse. And worst of all, we re deceived of our true condition(Rev 3:17,18). 'Be afflicted, and mourn, ..let your laughter be turned to mourning..' Jam 4:9
Spiritually we are adulterous when we sined against God.The Israelites went away for foreign gods as we are also doing in our era.O let us not be like our ancestors so that nothing punishment will come upon us
God has been so good to us as Seventh-day Adventist. He has blessed us with all the truths about life as well as all needed to have a lasting relationship with Him. But we have moved away by comparing ourselves to the world and rejecting the quality of life that God has given to us for that of the world. We seek the applause of men instaed of the service of God. Our intentions are towards worldly upliftment but not of spiritual advancement. We seek self other than selflessness. This lesson should build us to know the times that we are in the need to change and sacrifice the world for Christ sake. Amen