The Wildnerness

"Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her." -Hosea 2:14 (ESV)

I really like this verse, and I have for a long time.  I specifically like it in context of the entire book of Hosea.  Hosea was a prophet sent to Israel to try to convince them to turn back to God.  Israel had this habit of following God for a while and then for various reasons going off and doing their own thing.  They would worship the gods of the people around them, they would stop following God's laws.  It was an awful lot like us as individuals.  We do good at something and then we get discouraged, forget how good it felt to succeed, and we fall back into old, bad habits.  And we forget to learn from those around us and those who came before us.  Israel knew what God did to the people who weren't following Him, and they had their own history to look to in order to see examples of what happened when they followed God and when they didn't.  But they still messed up.

So God sent prophets to encourage Israel to turn back to Him before He had to take more dramatic measures.  Hosea was one of these, but he didn't just tell the people what God was going to do, his life became a living example of Israel and God.  God called him to marry a particular woman, Gomer; based on the context, she was likely a prostitute.  They had children together.  She left him and went back to her life of prostitution.  Hosea went and brought Homer home.  She left again.  It was a nasty cycle.  His life, particularly his relationship with his wife, served as an example of God's relationship with Israel.

God formed the nation of Israel, starting with pulling a guy named Abraham out of his homeland, likely a rather godless culture, and putting him in a new land.  Abraham didn't always trust God to do things His way so tried to take control back and do things his way.  When he did, things didn't work out quite as he had hoped and he would turn away from his destructive behaviors and back toward God.  Over time, this turned from an individual into a much larger group of people doing similar things.  They would believe God in big ways, have great victories, and then somewhere along the way forgot their victories and turn back to their own devices, which didn't work out so great.

God used various methods to deal with this.  Sometimes it was loosing a battle.  Sometimes it was being taken captive.  But eventually, He upped the ante.  He sent His Son, Jesus, to earth to live a life perfectly pleasing to God, die a horrible death, and rise three days later.  This opened the door for not just Israel but all people to have eternal salvation and a right relationship with God.

So back to Hosea... this verse has some pretty great (in my opinion) words in it.

Allure

I was surprised to discover that the Hebrew word here translated allure is not used very often in the Bible, and when it is, it typically is not used in reference to God.  In fact, in my very brief word study (so if you're digging into this more, you might find I missed something), it looked like this was the only instance where that specific word was used in the context of God being the one to do it.  Basically, allure carries with it the idea of making something pleasing so as to encourage a desired response.

Tenderly

In the King James Version, this reads "comfortably." The Hebrew here seems to convey the idea of something being close to the heart.  Which makes perfect sense if we're talking about alluring someone into the wilderness.  You don't do that for a casual conversation.  You do that for a much deeper, more intimate conversation.

Think about this: if I have a relationship that needs some work, I'm not likely to have the conversation in public, and my best bet for resolving the issue is not to talk it over with other people.  It's to pull aside the person with whom I have the relationship and talk to them one on one.  The more intimate the relationship, the more important the conversation take place privately.  So if this is a pretty serious issue, I'm probably going to have to make it palatable to have this conversation elsewhere.  And I'm going to want it to be somewhere where we are not likely to be interrupted.  And when I have this conversation, my best way of resolving it is not going to be rudeness.  Gentleness is going to be a much better course of action.  But don't take gentleness to be only mild-mannered sweetness.  No, gentle people are able to be firm and direct while still being tender and compassionate.

So this verse came to mind today as I was thinking about leaving in just a few days.  I was questioning God as to why He would want to take me away from everyone and everything I have ever known and this verse popped into my head.  I was thinking recently about how, by God's grace, my heart has still been soft despite the years as a foster care worker.  But I was also thinking about the ways where I did become hardened.  Ways that I saw myself changing that I didn't like.  And I realize why the thing I am most excited about in going back to school is diving into the Bible and getting to know God better.  I think He is leading me away from everything I have known so that I have to rely wholly on Him, so I have to focus on my relationship with Him.  I think this is a golden opportunity to come to a place where instead of straining to hear God above all the other voices shouting around me, I can only hear God's voice.  Think about it, a tiny town where there isn't really anything to do and the closest towns are a good hour away, what would be the value in that other than to weed out everything else so I have to listen solely to God.  So this sabbatical, vacation, wilderness, insert your word of choice here, is not necessarily God saying, "You screwed up, we need to fix you," but a chance to weed a lot of unnecessary stuff out of my life.

God's taking me into the wilderness so that we can grow closer together.  And I am so glad.  I'm terrified of being that far away from my family.  I still struggle with letting Him take care of finances.  I question my sanity at times.  But in the still, quiet moments, where fear should probably be my first thought logically speaking, my first thought is: "I get to spend more time with God!" I am spending more time with Him now than I have in a long time, but I am really looking forward to being at school, away from all the distractions around me now.  And they are good distractions.  Time with friends and family has been amazing.  But I don't think I can reset my priorities and take good care of my human relationships before I step back and take care of my spiritual relationship first.