Tag: purity

Purity (Part Two)

Hosea 4:10-19

Occasionally, people become interested in the environment, usually when there is some “health scare” or someone suggests putting a landfill for toxic waster in their immediate area or they watch a video about environmental disasters. Suddenly everyone becomes an environmentalist… for two weeks or a little more! “We must keep our land or air or water pure!” But our subject of purity is hardly one that will excite much interest in our time.

Previously, we considered the Biblical concept of covenantal purity, as seen from God’s design in creation and God’s law (his word).  As God made man and woman to commit to a covenantal relationship with each other and to remain faithful to each one in the marriage relationship, so God has called his people into a covenant relationship with him, and we are to be faithful to the Lord. In both cases we need a high “marriage esteem”.

Hosea wrote about Israel’s violation of covenant purity. He set forth Israel’s transgressions.

  • Israel was unfaithful to the Lord (4:10-13). Israel was married to the Lord in the old covenant, but they were turning away to false gods. To grasp the foolishness of their action, read Isaiah 44:9-20, where idolatry is graphically exposed. They had a spirit, a heart desire for prostitution. This was deep within them, influencing their inner person. Their core was in terrible shape.
  • Israel was deeply involved in sexual immorality. The pagan religions of their day practiced sexual immorality as part of their worship. They believed it was a way to seek favor from their gods (4:13-14). Note the equal treatment of men and women before God’s law. Males throughout history have tried to hide their sexual sins by setting up a low standard for males and another, purer standard for females. The living God has no part in such foolishness and hypocrisy.

Israel’s judgment: God abandoned his people to her sins.

First, Israel’s place of worship, Bethel (“house of God”), was renamed Beth Aven (“house of wickedness”, 4:15). God rejected any pretense that they worshipped him. People in our time need to realize that much of what they call the worship of God is really empty worship, because worship that is not in conformity with the Scriptures is empty worship (Matthew 15:7-9). To worship in conformity with human traditions is empty worship. To worship while condoning sexual immorality is empty worship (Ephesians 5:3-7).

Second, God rejected Israel (also called Ephraim, after the prominent northern tribe) by abandoning her to the idols she had chosen to love. Let them deliver her from the coming whirlwind of judgment (4:17-19)!

  • The word in verse 17 is chilling! How hopeless is someone’s situation when God abandons that person to his or her sins!
  • Notice carefully that physical troubles failed to move people to repentance. The drinks might be gone, but the spirit of prostitution in the heart is deeply seated. After the Black Death of 1347-1350, also called the Great Mortality, people did not live in a godly and holy manner. They might have become religious, but their lifestyle was wicked. Do not expect judgment to reform the western world. Our only hope is a new great awakening.
  • The only expectation for unrepentant people is judgment. A whirlwind would sweep the northern kingdom of Israel away.

God warned Judah to stay clear of Israel’s guilt (4:15). Building your house near a toxic waste site is a poor idea, regardless of how cheap the land is. People have been making human life cheap by pursuing cheap religion and cheap sex. Why not invest in something really worth having, instead of what makes you cheap and useless and empty?

Consider our current crisis. We must understand how deep our problems actually are.

Spiritually, since the 1960s, there has been a growing fascination with eastern religions among Americans. The greedy and the pleasure-seeking and those longing for physical wholeness have heard them promise peace and prosperity without consideration. However, a careful look at the poverty and degradation of the east would have disclosed the emptiness of their promises. Now what should we say about the American evangelical? If the Lord has designed us for a covenant relationship with him, our covenant Lord, do people sense this? Do we know what this means?

For example, a married woman is concerned about how she can please her husband (1 Corinthians 7:34). Since the church is married to Christ, we should be showing such love to him. Are we? Or has the church become a woman separated from her professed husband, more concerned about her career than her husband? Think on Colossians 2:19.

Sexually, our people accept and approve of sexual immorality that opposes God’s design and God’s laws. Such immorality is not an alternative lifestyle but rebellion against God. We must know what is contrary to God’s purposes and reject it. God’s purpose is our holiness. When I go to Citizen’s Bank Park in Philadelphia, I want to watch a major league baseball game. I do not want to watch people acting silly who are dressed in clown suits, who hit a volleyball with a broomstick and run the bases backwards. Neither does God want to watch us make a mockery of his worship and human life.

What is the way out? First, there must be repentance, a change of mind. We must understand that what we believe about God determines our moral character. God cannot be treated with contempt. He does punish people by letting people experience the depths of their rebellion against God (Romans 1:24-27).

Second, true repentance produces reformation. We must practice pure devotion to the Lord. This includes recognition of his ruling providence, instead of luck or astrology. It also means the pursuit of sexual purity (1 Corinthians 6:13b-20).

The only way to purity is through Jesus Christ and his shed blood. Today is the day to have Christ purify your heart and life.

Grace and peace, David

Purity (Part One)

Hosea 4:10-19

They will eat but not be satisfied; they will be promiscuous but not multiply. For they have abandoned their devotion to the Lord. Promiscuity, wine, and new wine take away one’s understanding (4:10-11 CSB).

What we believe about God and the world directly influences how we live. We all live according to our worldview. Whether it is true or false, we make choices that we suppose are consistent with our basic presuppositions. For example, if you believe that good nutrition is crucial for your health, your diet will show it.

However, most people will not (or do not) consider that their doctrine of God affects their ethics and morals. They mistakenly assume that people can believe whatever they want about God and still maintain respect for human life, human rights, and some measure of order in society. God’s word reveals that doctrine, especially what we believe about God, produces moral or immoral conduct. When people reject God, they enter onto a dark path that leads to the oppression and abuse of others.

Let’s think about the Biblical concept of covenantal purity. First’ God’s design in creation was to demonstrate the glory of purity.

  • As a spiritual being, God made people for his pleasure. He made us to display his glory as a personal, sovereign being (Genesis 1:27-28). Mankind would honor God by faithfulness to God, as shown by fulfilling God’s purpose. God has designed you and me for worship, fellowship, discipleship, service, and mission. This is not a list that you can check one or two that sound interesting. Every Christian is to do all five.
  • As a physical and sexual being, God made the woman out of the man to be man’s helper and companion. God created male and female to join together to glorify God in love (Genesis 1:27; 2:18-25). Any rivalry and strife between the sexes arises from our rebellion against God, because what God has designed is very good (Genesis 1:31). Therefore, if males and females pursue the pleasure of God together, they will have harmonious relationships.

Now if you are going to work on a project with other people, what must you do? Communicate! Communicate in planning, in working, in project updates, in encouragement, in correction, etc.

Some of us might need more organized communication in our marriages and families—and our churches.

Second, God’s law (instruction, revelation of his will) reinforces this idea.

  • Spiritually, God requires us to honor God exclusively and faithfully. This is set forth in the first great commandment, to Israel in the first four commands of the law, and to us in the example of Christ and the repetition of the first three commands of the law covenant, in the Lord’s Supper, and in many commands to keep our minds focused on the Lord (Colossians 3:1-4). God by his grace has put us into a covenant relationship with our covenant Lord, Jesus Christ. The Lord calls us to relate to him by faith and love (1 Thessalonians 5:8) wholeheartedly and exclusively (1 Corinthians 6:17; cf. Romans 7:4).
  • Sexually, God requires us to honor him by only having sexual relations within the bond of a marriage covenant between one man and one woman (Deuteronomy 5:18; 1 Corinthians 6:12-20; Ephesians 5:3). Sexual relations between a man and a woman married to each other are very good. God is not against sexual desires and relations. God created both! But he also ordered marriage between a man and a woman as the proper expression of both.

We need a high “marriage-esteem”. It is very good! Why would you want anything else? We need to remember that Christ’s people are related to him as his bride (Ephesians 5:25-32). We need to hold our spiritual relationship to the Lord of all as very precious.

Grace and peace, David

From Risqué to Righteous

DSCN0860Ruth 3:5-9

In our previous article we saw that Naomi took a risk to carry out her plan. Certainly, life is filled with risks, but we need to be wise in taking them. Naomi hopefully considered the character of both Ruth and Boaz before she set forth her idea. Whether she did or not, it led to a risqué scene (3:5-7).

The account is filled with euphemisms and suggestive sexual innuendo. Though there is no reason to suspect any immorality between Ruth and Boaz, the words used in the Hebrew text were used with sexual meaning. For “feet” compare Exodus 4:25; and for “uncover” compare Leviticus, chapters 18 and 20. And then there is the suggestive word “lie down” (Genesis 19:32-35; Exodus 22:16; etc.)  I think that these words were chosen by the Holy Spirit to set forth the sexually dangerous situation that Naomi put Ruth and Boaz in. Ruth followed Naomi’s instructions and lay down next to Boaz, as a wife would next to her husband. Obviously, this would place tremendous stress upon Boaz to restrain himself and to act honorably. In the family of God, we must maintain an atmosphere of absolute purity (1 Timothy 5:1-2). We live in a culture that is increasingly sexually immoral and provocative, like the situation that existed in Corinth (cf. 1 Corinthians 6:12-20). Each of us is affected in some way by the immorality that surrounds us. Therefore, we need to act with godly wisdom toward others.

Ruth followed Naomi’s plan precisely. She waited till Boaz had enjoyed a good supper and had stretched out near his pile of threshed grain. He probably did this to protect it and to get an early start the next morning. She noticed the place where he was lying. This was important, since there might have been other men at the threshing floor. Over the years of being a pastor, I saw a few humorous situations about men who did not pay careful attention to where they were about to sit. One man who wasn’t alert even stretched out his arm as he sat down and put it around a woman that he assumed was his wife. You can imagine the scene when she left him know of his mistake in a nice sisterly way. Men, know where your place is!

Ruth took a place beside Boaz and waited for him to speak. Imagine the excitement in her heart! “Okay Naomi, what happens next? Just what am I waiting for him to say?” She had reached the end of Naomi’s plan and needed the Lord to do something. It was a good time to pray. There are times that you have done all that is humanly possible. Ruth, a stranger to Israelite customs and ways, had obeyed her mother-in-law and the outcome was in God’s hands. At times like that, we must wait on the Lord about the matter.

God graciously led them to a righteous outcome (3:8-9). Something awoke Boaz in the middle of the night. The Hebrew can mean “to tremble with fear”, but it simply might mean that he shivered. It seems that Boaz turned to reach for his cloak to cover himself and discovers Ruth lying beside him. You can imagine his surprise! Immediately, he is fully awake. Even in the darkness, he knew that it was a woman beside him (think perfume, etc.), and he naturally asked, “Who are you?” God alone now knows what went through his mind as he waited for her answer, but I can imagine it provided Boaz and Ruth with some humorous conversation years later. For example, “Dear, remember how we met that night at the threshing floor? What were you thinking?”

Ruth made a bold request. She answered his question, but used a different word for servant than at their first meeting. This one identified her as a servant who would be eligible to become his wife or concubine. She also didn’t mention being a foreigner, but simply gave her name. She proposed marriage to Boaz, which is the meaning of spreading the corner of his garment over her (cf. Ezekiel 16:8). I have read that phrase is still used by some Arab tribes today. In addition, it is related to the phrase in 2:12 about taking refuge under his wings. “In essence, Ruth asked Boaz to answer his own prayer!” [Hubbard]

The key idea is that Ruth asked Boaz to be her kinsman-redeemer. She requested that he would pay the price to set her free, as well as to be her husband. This was very daring. She risked total rejection, but she needed a kinsman-redeemer!

In a previous article, we saw that Boaz is a type or shadow of the true kinsman-redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ. Each of us by nature is in bondage to sin and death and our own evil choices. But the Lord Jesus died on the cross to pay the full penalty to set us free. So then, have you asked Jesus to be your kinsman-redeemer? Consider the room where you now are to be your threshing floor. Christ is near to you in his word by the Spirit. In the quietness of this day, boldly confess your need to be set free. Trust his shed blood to be your ransom, and confidently ask him to be your Redeemer. He will grant your request. Read his assuring words: All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. (John 6:37).

Grace and peace, David