Title: THE HARDEST PRAYER TO PRAY

Focus: Having been called to holiness and to fellowship with Christ, Christians may no longer live in sin, for in Christ we have died to sin.

Function: To move the people to come to grips with the call to die to sin.

Text: Hosea 9:1-17

At the very beginning of his masterpiece The Institute of the Christian Religion, the great Reformer John Calvin tells us that without knowledge of self there is no knowledge of God, and without knowledge of God there is no knowledge of self. The two go together.

Personally, I find it very challenging to know myself—that is, to take a hard look at the inside. Sometimes, it frightens me to look at inner impulses that are poisoned by my sinful nature. I believe that my struggle with coming to grips with myself is universal. If we muster the courage and be honest with ourselves, we will acknowledge together: yes, we all feel this inner tension when we examine our hearts and explore the depths of our souls. Often, that very inner tension leads to a reluctance to face our wrongdoings and confess our sins.

In Romans 6 we find the Apostle Paul dealing with our status in Christ and with our sinful human nature: “Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” The truth, however, is that we do sin and that we do find, at times, a perverse pleasure in violating God’s holiness and Word.

In I Corinthians 1 we learn that Christians are called to holiness and to fellowship with Christ. And therefore we may no longer live in sins, for in Christ we have died to sins.

All of these thoughts and Biblical teachings came to my mind when I began to read and ponder Hosea’s prophecy in chapter 9. Hosea’s prophetic word to the Israelites contains a scathing sermon and a horrific prayer.

Tonight we must brace ourselves and face some very difficult and unpopular truths about God, about people in general, and in particular about ourselves as Christians who belong to the people of God. We must face the darkness in the text, so that we may come to grips with the grace of God in Christ Jesus. This much is clear: having been called to holiness and to fellowship with Christ, Christians may no longer live in sin, for in Christ we have died to sin.

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Hosea’s scathing sermon in chapter 9 begins with these words: “Do not rejoice, O Israel; do not be jubilant like the other nations. For you have been unfaithful to your God; you love the wages of a prostitute at every threshing floor.” That’s not how we are supposed to do evangelism in North America’s churches today. But Hosea does not mince any words. He calls a spade a spade. He is not afraid to crash Israel’s party: “Do not rejoice…do not be jubilant like the other nations.’

It appears that Hosea gives his sermon at the time of the Feast of Tabernacles. That’s the time when Israel’s harvest is gathered in. It’s a time for celebration and rejoicing. Thus we find references in Hosea’s sermon about “threshing floors and winepresses and new wine.” So while the people are having a good time, feasting and eating, Hosea appears on the scene and delivers a devastating sermon: “Do not rejoice, O Israel.”

Clearly, Hosea is crashing Israel’s party. He sobers up the people of God by speaking of misfortune: (Vs. 2) “Threshing floors and winepresses will not feed the people; the new wine will fail them.” In other words, hunger and starvation are around the corner.

Misfortune is coming: (Vs. 3) “(You Israelites) will not remain in the Lord’s land; Ephraim will return to Egypt and eat unclean food in Assyria.” In other words, you will face exile; you will be banished from the Promised Land of milk and honey.

Misfortune will be yours. Listen again: (vs. 4) “(You Israelites) will not pour out wine offerings to the Lord, nor will (your) sacrifices please him. Such sacrifices will be to (you) like the bread of mourners; all who eat them will be unclean. This food will be for themselves; it will not come into the temple of the Lord.” In other words, the established religious institution with its sacrificial system and the temple or house of God in Jerusalem will also disappear. The temple will be destroyed.

Surely, Hosea’s sermon is scathing. It crashes the Israelites party spirit and throws cold water upon their festivities. Listen again: (vs. 7) “The days of punishment are coming, the days of reckoning area at hand. Let Israel know this.”

That prophet Hosea is such a “party pooper.” Can he truly be a man of God? Oh, Hosea knows the reaction of God’s people. He knows what they are thinking. Listen (vs. 7b) “Because your sins are so many and your hostility so great, the prophet is considered a fool, the inspired man a maniac.” That’s what Hosea’s congregation is thinking. They think that Hosea is a fool. But Hosea does not blink an eye. He says: “The prophet, along with my God, is the watchman over Ephraim, yet snares await him on all his paths, and hostility in the house of God.”

Hosea’s congregation is not pleased with their prophet. They think of him as an enemy. They oppose him as a lunatic, a maniac, or fool. But it is God who looks at the Israelites as his enemies. They oppose and rebel God’s commandments.

Here’s what so striking: The Israelites in Hosea’s days (and Christians today) tend to think of God’s enemies as being outside the community of faith, outside the covenant promises of God, outside the church. But here we notice that hostility against God also comes from inside the covenant community or the church. That’s the shocking part in Hosea’s sermon. The Israelites think that God’s judgments are against the nations; that God favors the Israelites; that they are the apple of God’s eyes.

Here’s where we need to examine ourselves: As Christians we are called to holiness and to live in fellowship with Christ. We may no longer live in sin, for in Christ we have died to sin. Is it possible, then, that I, you, or some of us, still deliberately, consistently, publicly or secretly express hostility to God by disobeying his Word, by doing our “own thing?”

Yes, it is possible. The apostle Paul, for example, in Philippians 3 refers to many Christians as “enemies of the cross.” Listen: “…many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven.”

In the days of Hosea, the Israelites assumed a worldly, pagan posture. They adopted many ungodly practices and sinful ways as normative in their daily lives. What about us today? Do we, members of the church of Christ, dare to take a hard look at ourselves and come to grips with the call to die to sin?

Do I have the courage as a pastor to emphasize to you that you must die to sin? And do I have the courage and integrity to model to you and others how to do that in our culture today? It is easy to have a critical attitude toward the church, her leaders, and toward other members. Finding fault is easy. But how about being critical of ourselves? The hardest thing to do, I think, is to pray against myself: “Lord, have mercy! For I am a sinner! I’m in need of forgiveness! Lord, teach me, empower me, make me willing to die to sin and self and to live for Christ and your kingdom alone!”

Moving away from Hosea’s scathing sermon, we now must pause for a moment at Hosea’s horrific prayer. When God, using Hosea as his mouthpiece describes the judgment that is to come upon his people Israel, God paints a dark picture of exile, of military conquest by Israel’s enemies, of death and the slaughter of children. There will be mourning and sorrow in Israel once God abandons his people into the hands of their enemies.

Having spoken God’s dreadful judgment, Hosea follows through with this prayer: (vs.14) “Give them, O Lord—what will you give them? Give them wombs that miscarry and breasts that are dry.” That sounds more like a curse than an intercessory prayer. How can Hosea do such a thing? Has this prophet gone mad...or is he teaching us something about God’s holiness and God’s wrath and God’s displeasure about our sins?

When God was about to destroy the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, we notice that Abraham interceded for righteous people who might live in the midst of Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham did not curse. Surely, his intercessory prayer revealed the Spirit of Christ within Abraham.

Likewise, when the Israelites made their golden calf and God was ready to “wipe them off the map,” it was Moses who prayed, (Ex. 32:11) “O Lord, why should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand…Turn from your fierce anger; relent and do not bring disaster on your people….” Surely, the Spirit of Christ showed up in Moses’ prayer—Christ, the One who prayed “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”

Those kinds of prayers we can “dig.” But what about the prayer curse from Hosea? Does Hosea reveal to us here something that we refuse to face, or is he way out of line with the Spirit of Christ’s mercy and grace?

We tend to close our eyes to a cursing Christ. But Christ did curse. He cursed the barren fig tree in Jerusalem just before his crucifixion and death. And the barren fig tree was an emblem, a metaphor or parable of a rebellious, unbelieving nation called “the Israelites, the people of God.” And Jesus warned his people time and time again about the judgment that is to come in response to unbelief and rejection of him, the Messiah or Savior of the world.

When sin entered the world, it was God himself who cursed, saying to Satan personified in the form of a snake: “Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”

God’s holiness and justice lead to curses and judgment upon all his enemies—inside and outside the nation of Israel, inside and outside the body of Christ. Anyone who chooses to live in rebellion projects hostility or enmity to God—and the final consequence of such folly is the curse of barrenness, of eternal punishment and eternal death.

All of this means that we must learn to come to grips with the severity of God’s wrath upon sin, with the nature of our rebellion against God, and with the relentless temptations and lures of sin each day. Having been called to holiness and to fellowship with Christ, we may no longer live in sin, for in Christ we have died to sin.

I know: in our own strength we cannot die to sin. That’s where the good news comes in spoken by the Apostle Paul at the end of his critical self-examination in Romans when he says: “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!” It is in Jesus Christ that we are no longer condemned. In him there is forgiveness, freedom and salvation from eternal judgment and death.

This is what happened to me this week when I pondered Hosea’s scathing sermon and horrific prayer curse: I ended up asking a number of questions of myself and wrestling with the answers:

Do I really believe and understand that God is holy, and that my sins are a terrible offence to God? Am I truly aware of my own sins and sinfulness every day? Am I, as a follower of Christ, committed to live a holy life? Am I in daily fellowship with Christ?

I hope and pray that you, too, will be convicted of God’s holiness and dare to pray against yourself. For having been called to holiness and to fellowship with Christ, we may no longer live in sin. We have died to sin.

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.