‘Lord, may You recapture our hearts!’

‘Lord, may You recapture our hearts!’

 

 

 

 

 

“I will do this to recapture the hearts of the people of Israel, who have all deserted me for their idols” (Ezekiel 14:5).

 

 

 

My heart is wavering.  My relationship with my husband is already not good, and now another man is approaching me and treating me warmly.  Because of this, my heart is now more occupied by him than by my husband.  I actually prefer being outside the house with that man rather than being at home with my husband.  My heart has already moved more toward that man than my husband.

 

One of the causes of committing the sin of adultery is that we do not love only our wives (Proverbs 5:15).  To be more specific, the reason we commit the sin of adultery is that we fail to make our wives happy and we do not enjoy being with them (v. 18).  If we cherish and admire our wives, and if we are always satisfied with their embrace and continually long for their love (v. 19), we would never give our affection to another woman or embrace someone else's wife (vv. 16, 20).  Another cause of committing the sin of adultery is greed (Ecclesiastes 7:7).  When greed is within us, we fail to be satisfied with our wife's embrace (Proverbs 5:19).  Furthermore, we are led by the lust of the eyes and, beyond what is appropriate, we look at other women, think about them constantly, and listen to their words (Ecclesiastes 1:8).  And we are led by the lust of the flesh to sleep with our wives in the house, but sleep with other women outside the house as well (see 2 Peter 2:18).  This insatiable greed (Isaiah 56:11) not only prevents us from being satisfied with our wives (Proverbs 5:19) but also causes us to covet our neighbor’s wife (Exodus 20:17), leading us to commit the sin of adultery.  When we commit the sin of adultery, what is the heart of our wives?  Wouldn’t they feel betrayed?  From her perspective, how could she not feel betrayed when her husband, whom she trusted, is being captivated by another woman and committing infidelity?

 

In today’s passage, Ezekiel 14:5, God says to the people of Israel, "The people of Israel have all rebelled against Me because of their idols."  Why did God say this?  The reason is that God felt betrayed by the people of Israel. God had chosen and loved Israel, making them His own people, but they disobeyed His commands, pleasing themselves with other gods (v. 3), and were serving idols (Exodus 20:3).  Seeing this, God felt betrayed.  From God's perspective, He had every right to feel betrayed (Ezekiel 14:5).  Particularly, from God's point of view, the people of Israel were coming to the temple, saying with their mouths that they were drawing near to God and honoring Him with their lips, but their hearts were far from God (Isaiah 29:13).  In God's eyes, they were committing abominations by oppressing foreigners and orphans, shedding innocent blood, serving other gods (Jeremiah 7:6), stealing, murdering, committing adultery, bearing false witness, burning incense to Baal, and following gods they did not know (v. 9).  They entered God's temple and proclaimed that they had salvation, yet continued to do evil in God's eyes (v. 10).  This was something they brought upon themselves (v. 6).  Nevertheless, the people of Judah, in their ignorance, entered God’s temple, worshipped Him, and claimed that they were safe because they had salvation (v. 4).  Then, when they left the temple, they continued to commit all kinds of abominable acts in God's sight.  Among the abominations, the most glaring was that while they came to the temple and performed all religious rituals, claiming with their lips to honor God, when they left the temple, they burned incense to Baal and worshipped idols.  In God's eyes, this was a betrayal of God because of their idols (Ezekiel 14:5).

 

As I meditated on this passage, I thought about the relationship between the bridegroom, Jesus Christ, and His bride, the church (Ephesians 5:32).  The church, which is the bride, does not love the bridegroom, Jesus, with all her heart, soul, and mind (Matthew 22:37).  Instead, she has idolized wealth and serves both Jesus and money (6:24).  Jesus clearly said that no one can serve two masters, but the church is currently serving two masters.  The love of money is the root of all evil (1 Timothy 6:10), and we should hate money, disregard it, love the Lord, and be loyal to Him (Matthew 6:24).  Yet, the church, with her heart, loves money and is loyal to it, while with her lips, she says that she loves the Lord and will be loyal to Him.  When the bride, the church, loves money, idolizes it, and is loyal to it, how do you think the heart of the bridegroom, the Lord, feels?  Surely, the Lord will feel betrayed.  When He sees the unfaithful bride, the church, He will undoubtedly feel a deep sense of betrayal.  However, the amazing love and grace of the Lord is that even though we constantly betray Him, He still calls us. And the Lord continues to show us true love.  I found this true love of the Lord in the relationship between the prophet Hosea and his wife, the unfaithful woman Gomer, as recorded in the Old Testament.  First, God commanded the prophet Hosea, “Go, take yourself a wife of harlotry and have children of harlotry” (Hosea 1:2).  This is truly an incomprehensible command of God, I believe.  The reason is that in Leviticus 21:14, it is clearly stated that a consecrated high priest must marry a virgin.  So, how is it that the Lord instructed the anointed prophet Hosea to marry a woman who was not a virgin, but an unfaithful woman?  I do not fully understand this.  Nevertheless, Hosea obeyed God’s command and married Gomer (Hosea 3:3).  However, even after marrying Hosea, Gomer continued to act as a prostitute (2:5).  Even when she was pregnant with an illegitimate child, she shamefully said that she would go after those she loved (v. 5).  But then God told Hosea, “Go, love again a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress” (3:1, Korean Modern Bible).  The prophet Hosea obeyed this command without any complaints or grievances.  So, Hosea said, “I bought her for 15 shekels of silver and about 9 bushels of barley, and I said to her, ‘You are to live with me for many days.  You must not be a prostitute or be with any other man, and I will behave the same way toward you’” (vv. 2-3, Korean Modern Bible).  This is the love of the bridegroom, the Lord, toward His bride, the church.  The true Hosea (meaning "God is salvation") is the bridegroom, Jesus (also meaning "God is salvation"), who obeyed the will of God the Father and came to this earth.  Although Jesus originally had the nature of God, He did not consider equality with God something to be grasped.  Instead, He gave up all His privileges and took the form of a servant, becoming like one of us in human likeness.  He humbled Himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross (Philippians 2:6-8).  The reason is that Jesus loves our church, like the adulterous woman Gomer, and He loves us to the point of giving His life on the cross.  That is why the Lord continues to call us, even though we constantly betray Him, leading us to confess our sins, repent, and turn back to Him.  Right now, the Lord is recapturing our hearts, turning us from the path of betrayal to the path of obedience.  The bridegroom, the Lord, is reclaiming the hearts of His bride, the church, so that we no longer live lives that idolize and chase after money, but instead live lives that love and follow the Lord.  It truly is the great grace of God.

 

I would like to conclude this reflection on the Word.  In a marital relationship, infidelity or adultery can cause great feelings of betrayal in the spouse.  Especially when we find out that the wife, whom we trusted and believed in, has let another man into her heart and formed an adulterous relationship with him, it is easy to feel deeply betrayed.  Despite this, can we continue to love a spouse who has betrayed us?  Can we love that spouse with the Lord's love and try to win her heart back?  Or will we simply separate (divorce)?  The Israelites, like an adulterous woman, brought idols into their hearts and worshiped them, thus betraying God.  God told them, "You have all betrayed Me through idols."  I believe that right now, the bridegroom, Jesus, who is the head of the church, is telling us, His bride, the Christians, "You have all betrayed Me through idols."  One of the reasons for this is that we are currently violating Jesus' teachings by idolizing money, harboring a love for it in our hearts, and serving both money and the Lord at the same time.  Right now, we are serving two masters. On Sundays, we serve the Lord, but during the week, we go out into the world and serve money.  Living this double life, straddling two worlds, is detestable in God's eyes and is a betrayal of the Lord.  Nevertheless, the Bridegroom, Jesus, continues to call us, His bride, who chase after money like the adulterous Gomer, and He desires for us to confess our sins and repent.  Especially, knowing our weaknesses, the Lord is holding our hearts again, causing us to turn away from idols and all abominations.  This is the full grace of God. As the bride, the church, comes to realize this grace, we must earnestly ask the Bridegroom, Jesus, "Lord, please hold our hearts again."  Therefore, until the day the Lord returns to this world, we pray that He would hold our hearts once more, causing us to turn away from all idols and abominations, and helping us to become more like the holy Jesus, preparing His bride to be a glorious church. 

 

 

 

Purifying our dirty and ugly idolatrous hearts with the precious blood of Jesus' cross, we are able to love the Lord even a little. 

 

 

James Kim (August 31, 2018, Even though I betray the Lord every day, I am still called, and I thank the Lord for His true love and grace. I pray that I may fully follow the Lord with a grateful heart for His grace and love.)