Where, O Grave, Is Your Destruction? (Hosea 13:14)

 


Tuesday, August 13, 2024


Psalms 101; 102:1-11

Hosea 13

Romans 9:14-24


Observance: Jeremy Taylor, bishop and spiritual writer (d. 1667)


Where, O Grave, Is Your Destruction? (Hosea 13:14)


We’re now getting to the end of Hosea, and what a climactic build-up we are getting! Once again there is the horror of war, but now it is shrouded in the glory of the Mighty Creator; the wind is building up in the desert and crashing into the fortified cities, blown by the mighty breath of the Lord; kings have been raised and are being brought low, each time by the power of the one God who rules in heaven.


We shouldn’t allow ourselves to be bogged down in the details. Hosea is sweeping up all his prophetic warnings into one big over-arching message: that God is supreme. Let go of the hand-rails of your human sensibilities; God is speaking now, and we ought to listen. God has made this world, called it good, rescued and saved a people for himself, and brought them out of slavery and safely through the wilderness. But they have rejected his loving-kindness, over and over again.


Look at things from God’s point of view; this is how he feels about human pride and selfishness.


St Paul, several hundred years and half a Bible away, says much the same thing. God is supreme; God is in control. God made us; we are mere creatures standing before our infinite Creator.


It is one thing for God to wield his mighty power when he brings down sinful nations. It is another entirely for him to wield the mightier power of resurrection. Where, O death, are your plagues? Where, O grave, is your destruction?


Christ Jesus proved God right when he came to earth and joined himself to a human nature. His death on the cross was the destruction of death; his resurrection was the mightier power of God to bring life out of death.


We want God to come to our people and show his mighty power; to give us the strength to pick up our sword and trowel and build the kingdom of heaven. What kind of might do we want God to display? His power of destruction? Or his mightier power of resurrection? Are we ready for the fact that God will probably do a bit of both?


Lord of Life, work again your great miracle of resurrection in the life of our nation. Make a powerful display of your mighty works in bringing about your kingdom here among us.

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