Nov 9 2021 Day 224 Hosea 6:1–10:15



They made kings, but not through me; they set up princes, but without my knowledge.

Hosea continues his rant against Israel and Judah. God is pretty upset, putting it mildly. The accompanying reflection is from Dallas Willard, and focuses on the problems that happen when we allow wrath to overcome us. We do all sorts of evil, once we’ve been whipped into a wrathful state. While I believe that to be true, I’m ill-equipped to reflect on it. When I was originally being examined to start the process, one of the questions we aspirants were asked was, “What makes you angry?” Answers covered the gamut of social ills – racism, violence against children, poverty. I struggled to answer, because although I definitely react to all of these ills, anger isn’t my go-to emotion. Rather, I get sad, then determined. But not angry. I was challenged on this response, and have thought about it since then. I still don’t think anger is my go-to reaction, nor do I think it’s a perquisite for being an empathetic human. So try not to let anger and wrath eat you up.

But what I can speak with some authority about is the idea that people are made kings and princes, but not through God. We seek all sorts of affirmation and accolades, and sometimes we even find them. This rewards our desires and seeking, and reinforces us to seek more. Eventually, we’re like a well-trained dog, seeking rewards, receiving them, and then seeking more.

But there’s a problem with this, at least one. When we seek earthly rewards and titles, we are stuck with earthly enticements. In order to become a prince or king, I suspect there’s a good amount of back-stabbing and intrigue to climb to the top of that mountain. To get the promotion, we sacrifice home and health. To achieve earthly beauty, we sacrifice time, treasure, and sometimes health. There are always negative trade-offs, and when we aspire to earthly rewards, we frequently sacrifice the wrong things. That’s not to say that God’s rewards don’t ask us for sacrifice too. But I suspect they are net gain, rather than net loss sacrifices. This morning, I’m thinking about the worldly rewards I seek. I want to be precisely clear about what’s being asked of me to achieve those awards. To be safe, I’d like to seek rewards from the God of mercy, love and justice.