Hosea 6:3: “So let us know; let us press on to know
the Lord. His going forth is as
certain as the dawn; and He will come to us like the rain, like the spring rain
watering the earth.”
Hebrews 3:6, 14: “Christ was faithful as a Son over
His house—whose house we are, if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of
our hope firm until the end. . . . For
we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our
assurance firm until the end.”
Observation: Twice in this chapter of Hebrews we are
presented with the same phrase, “Hold fast . . . until the end.” In verse 6, we
are to hold fast our confidence in Christ and the boast of our hope. In verse
14 we are to hold fast the beginning of our assurance. In Hosea, an apostate
out for restoration to the God they had abandoned. They did not “hold fast” and
had lost fellowship with God. God was here described as one whose presence is
as certain as the dawn, as refreshing as spring rain on a receptive earth, yet
Israel was far from experiencing Him like that.
Application: The
book of Hosea is a powerful prophetic picture of the devastation and utter
purposelessness of a life that has rejected Christ. To be separated from Him by
our overt rejection of His precepts brings only the awful harvest of a life
lived aimlessly. That is followed by God’s eternal punishment. But not all
rejection is overt. Paul, in Hebrews, reminds us that our spiritual condition
is the direct result of choices we make. The choice to hold firm until the end
surely suggests the antithesis. It’s possible to go
wobbly, choosing to turn from wholehearted pursuit of Him, leaving us
with what is called in verse 12 an “evil, unbelieving” heart.
Apparently there is no middle ground we might occupy. We are either holding fast, or we have an
evil heart. That’s worth thinking about today as I make moment-by-moment
choices as to how I spend time and money.
I suspect that the process of going wobbly is a gradual thing; since my
heart is where my treasure is (see Matt. 6:19), exerting intentional focus on
things of eternal value becomes supremely important.
Prayer: Lord Jesus, I cry out for Your help today,
that what I think about, what I speak, what I spend time and money on, would
draw me closer to You. I choose, Lord, to hold fast those things You value. Give
me Your discernment, Lord, to know what those things are, and what they are
not. As
refreshing.