#2 - Killing Krytonite - disobedience

One evening, Justin returns home from work and finds his wife, Angela, all made up and slipping into a beautiful outfit. He concludes she must have planned something special for them and offers to get dressed up as well. 

Angela, a bit confused, responds, “Oh honey, I’m going out with Tony tonight. We’re going to get dinner, catch a movie, and check into the Fairmont Hotel. I should be back by midmorning.” 

“Who’s Tony?!” Justin fires back.

“He’s my boyfriend from high school,” she replies.

“What! You can’t go out with him!” 

“Why not?” 

“Because we are married; we are committed to each other. We don’t date other people!” he says, stating what he assumes should be obvious.

“Hold on, honey!” Angela replies. “You are my favorite. I love you more than any of my old boyfriends, but you really can’t expect me to not see them any longer. I’ve been close with some of them for years, I still love them, and I want to enjoy time with them. What’s wrong with that?”

Obviously, this is not a real couple. We can’t even imagine someone not understanding that marriage means an exclusive relationship.

Certainly, none of us would marry someone like Angela who expected to continue dating old boyfriends.

Well but there is a man called Hosea that did just that!

He was commanded by God to find a wife and told him ahead of time that she would be unfaithful to him.

Hosea 1:2 NIV

2 When the Lord began to speak through Hosea, the Lord said to him, “Go, marry a promiscuous woman and have children with her, for like an adulterous wife this land is guilty of unfaithfulness to the Lord.”

In obedience to God Hosea marred Gomer. His relationship with her, her adultery, and their children became living, prophetic examples to Israel.

The book of Hosea is a love story - real, tragic, and true. Transcending the tale of young man and wife, it tells of God´s love for his people and the response of his “bride” .

A covenant had been made and God had been faithful. His love was steadfast and his commitment unbroken.

But Israel , like Gomer, was adulterous and unfaithful, spurning Gods love and turning instead to false gods.

Just as Hosea’s wife , Gomer, was unfaithful to him, so the nation of Israel had been unfaithful to God. Israel’s idolatry was like adultery. They sought illicit relationships with Assyria and Egypt in pursuit of military might, and they mixed Baal worship with the worship of God.

Yet this is how so many of us treat our relationship with Jesus. 

Like Gomer, we can chase after other loves - love of power, pleasure, money, or recognition .

Throughout Scripture, God compares our relationship to Him to the relationship of marriage.

It is also how God spoke of His relationship to Israel in the Old Testament.

Interestingly, every time God spoke to Israel through the prophets about how they committed adultery against Him, it had to do with the issue of idolatry. 

We might think of idolatry as bowing down to statues, but the heart of it is worship.

God defines worship the first time we see it mentioned in Scripture, in the story of Abraham and Isaac. Here, we see that worship is obedience. 

Genesis 22:1–5 ESV

1 After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 2 He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” 3 So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. 4 On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar. 5 Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.”

Worship is not some slow, beautiful song; it is obedience.

No matter how we “perform” in church, if we do not obey God in our daily lives, we are not worshiping Him and are, in fact, living in adultery like Gomer, Hosea’s wife. 

Just as Gomer lost interest in Hosea and ran after other lovers, we too can easily lose appreciation for our special relationship with God and pursue dreams and goals that do not include Him.

When we compromise our Christian lifestyles and adopt the ways of the world, we are being unfaithful.

How does this understanding of worship change the way you think about Christian living? 

1 Samuel 15:22 ESV

22 And Samuel said, “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.

Conclution

Killing Disobedience