Path of Thorns
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Chasing Pleasure in The Wrong Direction
Chasing Pleasure in The Wrong Direction
Often when I am looking for fulfillment, the earthly things in my life offer the distractions that prevent me from being filled with God.
Our desires and needs are met in God alone. However, when we are hungry, angry, lonely, or tired, we often find ourselves searching for something other than God to fulfill our wants and needs.
When we worry about the necessities of life and chase those needs in political alliances, friends and family who do not have our best interests at heart, we may find ourselves in a situation where we are looking in the wrong direction for help.
When I look for other things to fulfill the desires and needs that only God can provide, it is saying that God is not trustworthy. Worry causes us to look elsewhere for fulfillment instead of our protector.
When Have You Found Yourself Lost and Exposed?
When Have You Found Yourself Lost and Exposed?
Thankfully, God pursues us continually and offers us redemption. Think through your life and see the times where your path has been frustrated because you have been chasing your own way.
If you are able to see that you are being hedged in from all directions so that your path is difficult to follow, perhaps God has a different path for you. He works in this way to ensure that we do not get lost attempting to follow our own way.
God knows best what is for us and is committed to providing and protecting His people.
Have you found yourself relying upon your family to get you through life only to have them let you down?
Do you live in a country that places its security on its alliances with those that provide food, security, and the things that are needed for a good life?
There are many addictions that thwart our paths to returning to God also. Search your heart to understand that unless it is being filled with God then something else is is there.
It is the focus of your heart because of the worry and distrust that creeps in.
God Provides a Path of Frustration
God Provides a Path of Frustration
When we attempt to find our own way without God our path will become frustrating. At times it may seem like it is easier but in the end we will realize there are thorns of hedges to block our way.
God provided the same thing for the Israelites, the Samaritans, and the sons of Ephraim.
Hosea speaks about these throughout his book.
Say to your brothers, “Ammi,” and to your sisters, “Ruhamah.”
“Contend with your mother, contend, For she is not my wife, and I am not her husband; And let her put away her harlotry from her face And her adultery from between her breasts,
Or I will strip her naked And expose her as on the day when she was born. I will also make her like a wilderness, Make her like desert land And slay her with thirst.
“Also, I will have no compassion on her children, Because they are children of harlotry.
“For their mother has played the harlot; She who conceived them has acted shamefully. For she said, ‘I will go after my lovers, Who give me my bread and my water, My wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.’
“Therefore, behold, I will hedge up her way with thorns, And I will build a wall against her so that she cannot find her paths.
“She will pursue her lovers, but she will not overtake them; And she will seek them, but will not find them. Then she will say, ‘I will go back to my first husband, For it was better for me then than now!’
“For she does not know that it was I who gave her the grain, the new wine and the oil, And lavished on her silver and gold, Which they used for Baal.
Hosea 2:1-8
Hosea 2:1-8
Say to your brothers, “Ammi,” and to your sisters, “Ruhamah.”
“Contend with your mother, contend, For she is not my wife, and I am not her husband; And let her put away her harlotry from her face And her adultery from between her breasts,
As mentioned before about God’s marriage between Israel and Himself as their husband we see a proclamation of possible divorce. If someone during this time had said you are not my wife and I am not your husband, then it would mean either that a divorce was on the way or the person could change their ways in order to return to the marriage.
To contend with is to accuse the one who is doing the wrong. If we are to rebuke those that are going astray and speak to them, we should point out what they are straying from. The reliance upon God for who He is means more to Hosea than just the turning around.
Or I will strip her naked And expose her as on the day when she was born. I will also make her like a wilderness, Make her like desert land And slay her with thirst.
Being exposed with the things that we are chasing after instead of God is humiliating at times. Whatever sin is at your heart, God knows it and calls us to witness for owning up to all things we chase after besides Him.
There is a God sized hole in each of us that no matter how desiring we are for it, if we attempt to fill it with anything else, we will thirst and thirst and thirst exactly as the adulterer who was made like a desert.
“Also, I will have no compassion on her children, Because they are children of harlotry.
“For their mother has played the harlot; She who conceived them has acted shamefully. For she said, ‘I will go after my lovers, Who give me my bread and my water, My wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.’
Provisions mentioned here are interesting in that they are also mentioned within the marriage arrangements during the time of Hosea.
If a husband were to go away from His family without leaving these provisions, the wife would be allowed after a time to seek these to provide for her family.
However, God does provide these things and even though we may not see His presence before us does not mean He is not there.
God proclaims through Hosea that the provisions of the earth are only there because God has allowed them to be.
“Therefore, behold, I will hedge up her way with thorns, And I will build a wall against her so that she cannot find her paths.
When the adulteress looks for these things along her way, it is a blessing that the path becomes difficult for her so that she must seek a better way.
In our own lives if it is so frustrating for us to seek what we want it is because God desires to redeem you for Himself to a better path.
“She will pursue her lovers, but she will not overtake them; And she will seek them, but will not find them. Then she will say, ‘I will go back to my first husband, For it was better for me then than now!’
Lim and Castelo mention here that the woman only turns back reluctantly because she is unable to find that which she was searching for. It is a reluctant repentance.
Lim, Bo H., and Castelo, Daniel. 2015. Hosea. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. Accessed October 30, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central.
If we find ourselves lost in the same manner and return to the good path which God has for us and then continue to search for worldly desires outside of that path our repentance is reluctant and not genuine.
God’s path is better and we must love Him for that. If we only accept His path and then desire for ourselves what we want we are searching for our will be done instead of His will be done.
“For she does not know that it was I who gave her the grain, the new wine and the oil, And lavished on her silver and gold, Which they used for Baal.
God desires that each of us recognize that He alone provides for all our needs and desires. Others may temporarily give us things and proclaim they can continue to do so but that is a lie.
Only the eternal God can continually provide for His bride.
God Wants You to Look At Your Path
God Wants You to Look At Your Path
Assessing where you are continually along your path should be something that allows us to see where we are in relationship to God.
The danger here is that the enemy may attempt to make our path appear easier than God’s path but in the end the frustration will come when the earthly path and fulfillment will be done away with.
At that time, we must come to recognize God as the author of all things good and holy.
In the context of calling out an adulteress, the Israelites often were alluding to cities or nations who had gone astray.
It is said here that Hosea is speaking out against not only Israel but Samaria as well.
In John 4, when Jesus is speaking with the Samarian woman, she too was one with many husbands and she was with one who was not her husband at the time.
Jesus is offering redemption to both the Samarian woman and the Samarians in general. Later when He mentions how they celebrate upon the mountains, Hosea too speaks of how the Samarians sacrificed to the Baals there.
God Wants the Church to Maintain the Relationship for the Good Path
God Wants the Church to Maintain the Relationship for the Good Path
If we the church see someone on a rocky path it is our duty as those who love those people to help them find their way again. We too must recognize what path we are on as well.
If we as a church follow in the ways of seeking security elsewhere then we become as the adulteress. Our path too will become frustrated and a hedge of thorns will block our way.
Instead, we seek to reconcile all through Jesus to the right path of life. We must speak out in love and restoration to those who are going off that path. We can have those conversations. And in the severity of the consequences that would follow, it is alright to mention where the path leads that continually turns away from God’s redemption.