Starting Over
Jim Cymbala preaches at a church in the slums of New York. He tells the following story:
“It was Easter
Sunday and I was so
tired at the end of
the day that I just went to the edge of the platform,
pulled down my tie and sat down and draped my
feet over the edge. It was a wonderful service with
many people coming forward. The counselors were
talking with these people.
“I keep in my back pocket a money clip that also
holds some credit cards. I fumbled to pick one out
thinking; I’ll give him some money. I won’t even get
a volunteer. They are all busy talking with others.
Usually we don’t give money to people. We take
them to get something to eat.
“As I was sitting there I looked up the middle aisle,
and there in about the third row was a man who
looked about fifty, disheveled, filthy. He looked up
at me rather sheepishly, as if saying, ‘Could I talk to
you?’
“I took the money out. David pushed his finger in
front of me. He said, ‘I don’t want your money. I
want this Jesus, the One you were talking about,
because I’m not going to make it. I’m going to die
on the street.’
“We have homeless people coming in all the time,
asking for money or whatever. So as I sat there, I
said to myself, though I am ashamed of it, ‘What a
way to end a Sunday. I’ve had such a good time,
preaching and ministering, and here’s a fellow
probably wanting some money for more wine.’
“I completely forgot about David, and I started to
weep for myself. I was going to give a couple of dollars to someone God had sent to me. See how easy it
is? I could make the excuse I was tired. There is no
excuse. I was not seeing him the way God sees him. I
was not feeling what God feels.
“He walked up. When he got within about five feet
of me, I smelled a horrible smell like I’d never
smelled in my life. It was so awful that when he got
close, I would inhale by looking away, and then I’d
talk to him, and then look away to inhale, because I
couldn’t inhale facing him. I asked him, ‘What’s your
name?’
‘David.’
‘How long have you been on the street?’
‘Six years.’
‘How old are you?’
‘Thirty-two.’ He looked fifty--hair matted; front
teeth missing; wino; eyes slightly glazed.
‘Where did you sleep last night, David?’
‘Abandoned truck.’
“But oh, did that change! David just stood there. He
didn’t know what was happening. I pleaded with
God, ‘God, forgive me! Forgive me! Please forgive
me. I am so sorry to represent You this way. I’m so
sorry. Here I am with my message and my points,
and You send somebody and I am not ready for it.
Oh, God!’
“Something came over me. Suddenly I started to
weep deeper, and David began to weep. He fell
against my chest as I was sitting there. He fell
against my white shirt and tie, and I put my arms
around him, and there we wept on each other. The
smell of His person became a beautiful aroma.”
Starting over can seem impossible—but God does the impossible. Helping someone start over can be very messy - but that’s
where God works. You will find God most at work in your own messy places.
FOR
DISCUSSION
Nearly everyone has something they wish could be erased,
or for some reason they wish they could start over.
What do you wish could be changed or undone in your life?
“Starting Over”  Taking Strides - Starting Over  January 14-20, 2013
ENCOUNTER -
Read God’s Word so that He can speak to you.
Hosea 2:8-9, 13-23
“She has not acknowledged that I was the one who gave her the grain, the new wine and oil, who lavished
on her the silver and gold-- which they used for Baal. 9 Therefore I will take away my grain when it ripens,
and my new wine when it is ready. I will take back my wool and my linen, intended to cover her nakedness.
13 I will punish her for the days she burned incense to the Baals; she decked herself with rings and jewelry, and went
after her lovers, but me she forgot," declares the LORD. 14 Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her
into the desert and speak tenderly to her. 15 There I will give her back her vineyards, and will make the Valley of
Achor a door of hope. There she will sing as in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt. 16 "In
that day," declares the LORD, "you will call me 'my husband'; you will no longer call me 'my master.' 17 I will remove the names of the Baals from her lips; no longer will their names be invoked. 18 In that day I will make a
covenant for them with the beasts of the field and the birds of the air and the creatures that move along the
ground. Bow and sword and battle I will abolish from the land, so that all may lie down in safety. 19 I will betroth
you to me forever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion. 20 I will betroth you in
faithfulness, and you will acknowledge the LORD. 21 "In that day I will respond," declares the LORD-- "I will respond to the skies, and they will respond to the earth; 22 and the earth will respond to the grain, the new wine and
oil, and they will respond to Jezreel. 23 I will plant her for myself in the land; I will show my love to the one I called
'Not my loved one. 'I will say to those called 'Not my people, ''You are my people'; and they will say, 'You are my
God.'"
EXAMINE -
what the passage says before you decide what it means.
 Draw a box around “not acknowledged” and “forgot”
 Underline “take away,” “take back” and “punish”
 Circle “allure,” “giver her,” “betroth,” “plant her,” and “show my love”
EXPLORE -
1)
God’s Word by asking questions of what you saw. The notes
which follow may help you to think through these questions.
Scan Hosea 1-3. Israel pursued the things she thought brought her comfort, security, blessing.
What were those things?
What are you pursuing? And why?
2)
God says both blessing and loss come from Him; even if you don’t realize it.
Why does He give good things?
Why does He take them away?
Have you seen the reason behind the loss of something? Explain.
3)
4)
God promises to “start over” with people and creation. What does that mean? What does that mean to you? What
will it look like?
Why would God want to get so “messy” with you to give you a new beginning?
5)
If you are to know a new beginning from God, what must you do?
6)
Do you know somebody else who needs a new start? What might it take from you to be involved with God in that messy
work?
NOTES ON
(Adapted from Thomas Constable, Expository Notes)
THE PASSAGE
Summary of chapters 1-3:
God instructed the prophet Hosea to marry a prostitute—
an unfaithful wife. She is like unfaithful Israel. God describes how He will frustrate Israel's efforts to court false
gods and take away His faithful provisions given even during her unfaithfulness, in order to bring her to repentance
and restoration to Him (2:2-23). The imagery slips back
and forth between Yahweh and Hosea. Parallel to Gomer,
Israel deserted Yahweh, committing adultery through her
worship of false gods. Yahweh promises to "hedge her in" so
that she will finally say, "I will go back to my first husband,
for it was better for me then than now!" (2:2-7). In addition, He will discredit the fertility god Baal, whom Israel
loves, by removing the fertility of the land so that Israel will
have to acknowledge Yahweh's lordship (2:8-13). Finally,
He will woo Israel back to Himself by providing her with
riches, after which she will sing His praises (2:14-20). She will
then recognize Yahweh as her husband (Ishi) rather than
just her master (Baali). At that time, the judgment symbolized by the three children will be reversed (2:21-23). As a
picture, and perhaps seal, of Israel's promised restoration,
Yahweh commands Hosea to love again his wife and restore her (3:1-5). Gomer is to be redeemed from slavery, her
debts paid, and she is to be quarantined from men. Similarly, Israel will be removed from her king and her idols
during a time of exile; after which she will come trembling
to Yahweh and return to David her king (3:5).
8-9
- Israel failed to acknowledge that it was Yahweh
who had provided for her and had given her all she needed
when she was pursuing pagan gods (cf. Deut. 7:13; 11:14;
26:10). The Israelites used the silver and gold that the Lord
had bestowed on them to make idols of Baal, which they
credited with their agricultural blessings. Hosea spoke frequently of knowledge. He traced Israel's declension back to
her lack of knowledge about Yahweh's bounty. In the future the Israelites would know the Lord (v. 20). The
prophet bemoaned the lack of knowledge of God that
presently existed in the land (4:1). The Israelites' destruction
was due to this lack of knowledge (4:6). The fact that they
had not known the Lord stood in the way of their return to
Him (5:4). But when repentance came, they would know
and follow on to know the Lord (6:3). They would learn
that knowledge of the Lord is more important to Him than
burnt offerings (6:6). The last verse in the book calls the
wise to know these things (14:9).
13 - Yahweh would also punish Israel for observing sacred
days in honor of the Baals and offering sacrifices to them.
"Baal" means "lord." The Canaanites considered that there
were many local representations (Baals) of the one deity
(Baal). The Israelites had worshipped at many different
shrines to Baal—they had pursued the Baals—as a harlot
pursues many lovers. Israel had gotten dressed up to impress her idols and to celebrate these occasions, but she had
forgotten Yahweh, in the sense that she had refused to acknowledge Him (cf. Deut. 4:9; 8:11; Judg. 3:7; 1 Sam. 12:9- 10;
Ps. 78:9-11; Jer. 23:27).
14 - Following Israel's decision to return to Yahweh after
her punishment (v. 7), the Lord promised to woo her back
to Himself. He would appeal to her with tender and attractive words, lead her into a place where there would be
few distractions (cf. 13:5; Jer. 2:2-3), and speak kindly to her
heart.
15
- The Lord promised that He would restore the blessings
of vineyards to the Israelites. He would turn the valley of
Achor (lit. trouble, the site of Achan's sin, Josh. 7:24-26) into
a door of hope (cf. 1:11). This memorial site would no longer
remind the Israelites of past sins but would appear to them
as the gateway to a new and better future in the land. She
would sing again, as the Israelites did when they had
crossed the Red Sea (Exod. 15). It is as though Israel would
start over as a nation, as she did when she came out of
Egypt and the wilderness into the Promised Land.
16-18
- They would not even mention the name of Baal
by referring to Yahweh as their Baali. In that day the Lord
promised also to make all the animals in the Promised
Land safe and secure (cf. v. 12; Lev. 26:5-6, 22). He would
make it safe for the animals to live there by removing war
from the land. This is a way of saying that the Israelites,
and even the animals in Israel, would dwell in peace and
security.
19-20
- It would be as though Yahweh and Israel began
23 - The Lord will also plant Israel in the Promised Land;
life anew as husband and wife. They would return to the
courtship days and start again as an engaged couple. In the
ancient Near East a man paid a price to seal the agreement when he became engaged (cf. 2 Sam. 3:14), and people regarded the couple as good as married in the eyes of
the law. What the Lord vowed to give Israel to seal this
nuptial agreement was righteousness (what was right), justice (fair treatment), loyal love (unswerving commitment),
compassion (tender affection), and faithfulness
(dependability). This was God's marriage vow for Israel. In
response, Israel would recognize her special relationship to
Him and show this by faithfully obeying Him (cf. Jer. 31:3134).
He will plant her there securely where she will grow under
His care and blessing. He will show compassion to the people whom He formerly said were "not loved," and He will
reclaim as His own the people whom He formerly called
"not my people" (cf. 1:6, 9). They will then acknowledge
Yahweh as their God, not Baal. The names of all three of
Hosea's children come together again in verses 22-23.
21-22
- In that coming day of blessing the Lord will re-
store agricultural productivity to the land. He will respond
to the heavens, personified as crying to Him to send rain.
The cry of the heavens will be in response to an appeal that
the earth made to it to send rain. The earth will ask for
rain because the grain, new wine, and oil had told the
earth they needed rain. These crops will appeal to the
earth because Jezreel had appealed to it. Jezreel ("God
sows or plants") here personifies the nation of Israel as a
whole, though its area was also the traditional
"breadbasket" of the Northern Kingdom. Israel in the past
had cried to Baal, the Canaanite god of rain and fertility,
but he had not helped. Having returned to the Lord, the
Israelites will now appeal to Him as the true God of fertility,
and He will respond by sending rain.
GOING
FURTHER
One thing we can do to train ourselves to remember, is to memorize a
part of what our Father has said to us. The Holy Spirit can use this
to change our thinking so that our “heads” are more like Jesus.
This week, memorize Hosea 2:23.