Skip to main content

Forgiven and Redeemed



     In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us.  (Ephesians 1:7-8a)
     
        But the king said, “He must go to his own house; he must not see my face.” So Absalom went to his own house and did not see the face of the king. (II Samuel 14:24)
      
     The Lord said to me, “Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another man and is an adulteress. Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes.”
      So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and about a homer and a lethek of barley. Then I told her, “You are to live with me many days; you must not be a prostitute or be intimate with any man, and I will behave the same way toward you.” (Hosea 3:1-3)

       After I rambled on yesterday, I realized that I hadn’t addressed something important. We learn in this passage that we have redemption and forgiveness. Two stories came to mind. The first was of Absalom, who murdered his half-brother for raping his sister. He had run away, and lived for several years in another country. Because of the machinations of a prophet, David was convinced to allow Absalom to come back home, but, he was to return to his own house and never darken David’s door again. Eventually, David relented and welcome Absalom back… and Absalom promptly subverted the people of Jerusalem, declared himself king, and forced David to flee for his life. 
      The second was of Gomer. She had left her husband and become a prostitute. Hosea had gone to her pimp and payed him for Gomer. Can you imagine paying a pimp for exclusive rights to your spouse? Can you even imagine being willing to look at her after she’d run away and become a prostitute (again)?
Absalom’s story is one of forgiveness – not instantaneous. It happened in stages. It’s also the story of what may be the hardest sort of forgiveness. Absalom used the forgiveness he was given treacherously.
      Gomer’s story is one of redemption – Hosea purchased her freedom and took her back home. I don’t remember whether she remained faithful, but I suspect she didn’t. Both David and Hosea, the redeemers, were stabbed in the back. In David’s story, he was so forgiving of Absalom that his military commander had to rebuke him  because he was leading his men to  regret having restored the throne to David.
        Redemption and forgiveness aren’t the same, but they often walk hand-in-hand. Neither is deserved those who receive them may prove that by their continued treachery. This isn’t a suggestion that we should not forgive or redeem others – but a warning about our own behavior since God has forgiven and redeemed us

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The List

              Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,   through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;   perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. (Romans 5:1-5)           Think about it. We have been justified. At least, we could be justified if we stopped insisting that our justification be based on our merits. We have peace with God, or could have peace if we stopped throwing temper tantrums. We have gained access into grace i...
Post a Comment
Read more

Meditations of the Heart

  May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm19:14)           As I started writing this post, I noted that the meditations of my heart are all over the mental landscape, from a hub where eight superhighways come together to a lunar or nuclear landscape. Do you see my error? The moment I read the word meditation , I think about thoughts. But what’s described here is the meditations of our hearts ; our wills.           While the meditations of our minds may be all over the place, the meditations of our wills tend to be a little more stable by the time we are adults. We no longer tend to want to pursue the ten separate careers we did in any given day as children. Part of this is humble acceptance of reality. We come to understand that we can’t do it all. I think another part of it is disappointmen...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Way, The Truth, and The Life

              Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me . (John 14:6)           If “I am the gate of the sheep…I am the good shepherd” from chapter 10 is a double whammy, this verse is a triple whammy. And its first victim is the notion that any other so-called god was acceptable or the same as Jesus. He, and He alone is the way, the truth, and the life, and the only way to get to the Father. There is no other Savior, or Redeemer, according to Jesus. Now, to be fair, other religions will claim that their religion or god(s) are the only way. That is the nature of gods and of religions. If this and that are equally good and agree on what’s necessary, then this and that are the same thing, so there’s no need to from the other to one. If that’s the case, then why speak against the other or promote the one? There’s a song I’ve been listening to i...
Post a Comment
Read more