The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him in Hosea 11:8,
"How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel? How can I treat you like Admah? How can I make you like Zeboyim? My heart is changed within me; all my compassion is aroused. "
Admah and Zeboyim were towns local to Sodom and Gomorrah. As cities of the plain where Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed, they suffered the same fate when the Lord brought his judgment, Genesis 10:23-29. As the Lord contemplates his destruction of Israel, he asks how he can treat Israel like the plain of Sodom and Gomorrah.
After recounting his tender love for his people, likening himself to a loving parent teaching a child to walk, treating them with "cords of human kindness" and "ties of love", the contemplation of bringing his horrific judgment to his people who have rejected him brings a stirring of conflict to his heart. He says his heart is changed, that all of his compassion is aroused.
These are not words that sit well with the theology of many today. Yet, they form the expression of the innermost feelings of our God. His heart is changed within him and he experiences the arousal of his compassion as he speaks of the judgment he contemplates for Israel.
I marvel at the way God reveals the intimate emotions he experiences as he interacts with his people. Our God is a real person with real emotions and a real heart. We are but a reflection of what God is like as we are made in his image and so it is not surprising to find him wrestle with his emotions as he reveals to us here. I don't suggest that God was conflicted about what he intended to do, just that he reveals how the turn of events impacts his heart.
This causes me to think of the great white throne judgment,at the end of the age, where all who have not embrace him in faith will be cast into a fiery lake of burning sulfur. The very ones he loved so much that he sent his Son to die for, to pay the penalty of sins for, he will cast into an eternity of torment. I suspect that on that day our God of both justice and loving kindness will again experience the same emotional conflict as he does here in Hosea.
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your thoughts of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We'd love to hear from you!
Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com
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