Hosea 13: 6- when I fed them, they were satisfied; when they were satisfied, they became proud; then they forgot me.
The paper-thin line between living in active gratitude of the reality that all of life is divine provision, and the pride swelling belief of a life committed to self-gained self-satisfaction, is one that few people walk well, if ever. We often are found to be a living contradiction of thought and action; rarely exercising in our daily lives the things that we hold to be true, in our grace-laden, gospel-sane minds.
This passage in Hosea struck me to be a beautiful example of this contradiction. It raises questions surrounding our quest for satisfaction, the realities of its lack of attainability and sustainability, and the consequent problems that result from our undeniable pursuit of it (satisfaction).
The most familiar thing to all of us in this passage is the reality of being found to be “hungry”, which is assumed from the need being stated in the passage of “being fed”. The beginning of this passage is the Lord describing what he did for Israel in brining them out of Egypt and feeding them in the dessert with manna from heaven. It is such a vivid image given to us in scripture to usher us into the reality that not only does God care about our most basic of daily needs, but he is capable of providing for those needs in the most supernatural of fashions, if it suits his will. But greater than the actual need of food for Israel in the Desert, was the need of trust and hope being experientially birthed and rooted in God as the provider of all things for His people.
To overlook this would be to miss a fundamental pattern that God has used throughout the history of the world to reveal himself to his people, namely his allowance or creation of a position of suffering for His people, to awaken them to their inability to save and provide for themselves, giving them the consequent experiential grounds to trust God more wholly. Our capacity to overlook this truth is rooted in one of two places; our societal commitment to never suffering (and the belief that if something is hard then it is wrong), and our societal commitment to self- sufficiency (pride) and the clear communication of our culture that the most “valuable” person is the one that needs nothing from anyone.
Lets look further at this issue of self-sufficiency. Most of us who are “in Christ” have been at least exposed to the idea, or have some sense of a theology, that all that we have is simply provided for us by the Lord, and is an act of his grace towards us, not a resultant of our merit, that indebts Him to us. Yet in our western American “Christiantopia” we have concocted a hybrid, compartmentalized practical theology that allows us in the recesses of our minds to cognitively believe that “all is an act of His grace” and yet live on the street as though “you reap what you sow.”
This is due to the diametrically opposed nature of the gospel to the dominant value systems of our world’s culture. The gospel is incompatible with the marketplace values that often typify most believers’ practical lives. To be in need of being “fed”, or to have your “satisfaction” being found dependant upon something outside of yourself is considered far to risky and to be avoided in today’s culture. The goal is to never need anything outside of yourself to “satisfy” your needs, to do so is far too speculative, putting yourself in the hands of another, and is considered in our conservative, self-protective climate, to simply be irresponsible. I often wonder if when we meet Christ if he will redefine our modern notion of irresponsibility with a more proper definition of perspective called “faith.”
The problem with all of this is that when I live in self-sufficiency, and even manage somehow to attain to the things that I long for that I believe will bring lasting satisfaction, they never do, and I am often off on another quest to find the next thing that I hope will fill the void. All of us can identify on some level with this cycle, but sadly few ever stop to ask this question. Is satisfaction something that is received or attained? That is to say, is the nature of satisfaction something that is fundamentally found in reception, or in achievement?
As I get older, it has become easier for me to see that all of the things that satisfy me most were things that were provided for me, ultimately as a result of factors far beyond my control, that I simply had to act to receive, rather than create for myself.
Isaiah 48: 17-18 This is what the LORD says—your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: "I am the LORD your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go. If only you had paid attention to my commands, your peace would have been like a river, your righteousness like the waves of the sea.
What is difficult about the above passage, especially as it pertains to the issue of satisfaction, is that the Lord is clearly saying that we need Him to teach us what is best for us. This is complicated because each person “feels” as though they already have some sense of what it is that is best for them, (which often times is nothing more that a learned behavior or desire that is subconsciously formed through means of some outward stimulus). That is to say that you think what’s best for you is to have great wealth, because it is shown to you though society, media, and culture that happiness and satisfaction are inexplicably tied to money. Yet if the outward stimulus that one was primarily exposed to was the teaching and kingdom ethic of Matthew 6:25-34, your sense of what is best for you would be radically different. One leads you to satisfaction in money (temporal), the other to satisfaction in the Lord’s provision (eternal).
Matthew 6: 25-34 Do Not Worry
25"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? 28"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
For lasting satisfaction to be true, it requires the object of the satisfaction to be constant, unchangeable, and eternal. Anything short of this, though good in and of itself, and made for us to enjoy not worship (Isaiah 58), is merely a temporary substitute, a reflection of an eternal longing that will ultimately only be satisfied in Christ.
Genesis 15: 1 Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.
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