I’m an adulterer. My heart bleeds lust. I pay a lot to get quick and momentary pleasure. Many days I struggle to stay away from brothels. And I’m not alone.
Throughout Scripture God’s people continue to prostitute themselves. Instead of the true God, they prefer to serve trendy gods they can see and touch.
Perhaps most vividly in the story of Hosea God gives us a living picture of how He experiences His relationship with Israel. God tells Hosea, a righteous man to marry Gomer, a prostitute. Though he pursues and cares for her, she refuses to rest in his love. Instead she leaves the safety, comfort and provision of her husband to pursue lovers who abuse. She exchanges love for lust, met needs for insatiable desire, union for loneliness.
I see myself in Gomer. I see my friends and fellow churchgoers too. The human heart seems to beat in accord with Gomer the whore. While most of us don’t literally sell our bodies in return for money, we give our hearts to lovers who end up taking all we have, leaving us empty. Desperate and foolish we keep returning thinking this time it will be different. It seems God’s people have not changed much over the centuries.
But why? Why do we stray? Perhaps one reason is because at our core we hate faith. We prefer something tactile. Something our five senses can perceive. Something we can manipulate to do our bidding.
Like the people of old we make our own golden calf. Our calves just look different. Perhaps like a spouse we beg to give us our identity; we speak words that will elicit a desired response. Or alcohol we down to drown out a painful existence; we decide when and how much to drink to numb our emotions. Or a country-club membership to make us feel valuable; we name-drop to friends and co-workers, feeling alive and desired as their eyes respond with envy.
When we look to created objects, however, to bring us hope, healing and salvation we abandon Christ, and He becomes of no value to us. (No wonder Sunday morning worship seems so quiet, so tame. We have lifted our hands and voices to countless others throughout the week.)
In this world, though, we must hope for some sort of salvation to continue on. It could be salvation from pain, loneliness, meaningless, insecurity, monotony. If we are honest not many of us actually long to be rescued from sin. The effects of sin done to us, yes. But to admit we have contributed to the ravages of sin and affronted God with our dirty infidelity is another matter. We expect God to fix our pain, make our lives work, bless us with good things. But to suggest that in our confusion and longing what we may need most is repentance seems offensive.
But what Gomer needed was not to find a lover who paid her enough, or excited her pleasure to another level, or soothed her insecurity with vain words about her beauty. What she needed was the presence of her husband. She needed to repent of her harlotry.
So what do we think we need to have peace? To have value? To feel secure? Perhaps freedom from pain. Or close and fulfilling relationships. A steady income. Meaningful work. Verbal validation. While all these things are good, they will never fulfill. And when we demand that they do, we commit adultery.
So if we answer the question with any other answer besides Christ we are sleeping around. Instead of placing our hope and trust (our faith) in what is seen, we must look to the God we cannot see. Even now He invites us, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heave-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matt 11:28).
So let’s leave the brothels. Let's abandon our current lovers who promise healing but leave us wounded (Jer 2:13). Let’s come home to the one true Savior. Let us rest in His grace, in His sacrificial provision, and in the promise of paradise to come. And in doing discover in Him our heart's exceeding joy.
