“The beginning of the word of the LORD by Hosea. And the LORD said to Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms: for the land hath committed great whoredom, departing from the LORD.” (Hosea 1:2 KJV)
Have you ever done something backwards so that you might be able to do it forwards better? Some people do that with skates so that as their backwards skating improves their forward skating improves exponentially. Sometimes the video team for a movie will watch the motion of something backwards so that the forward animation is cleaner. Why would God send his prophet intentionally into an unfaithful relationship? Verse two quoted above seems to indicate that this is symbolic for the state of the whole land. Yet, why? Clearly the land already knows what unfaithfulness is. Anyone who even attempts to approach God soon finds out how dirty and unworthy they are. Is it possible that God is attempting to draw out what faithfulness is by showcasing something fundamentally unfaithful? Why? What is so key about knowing faithfulness?
Ah, but there is the primary ingredient in faithfulness; knowing! Why is this important in really knowing someone? What is it that faithfulness draws out that is more than attributes of someone? Can you know all a person’s attributes and still not really know them? How many divorcees walk out of that court room having spent years with someone, had children with that someone, shared a bank account with that someone, and resided at that same address with someone, and they walk away saying that they never really knew them? Or how many of us grew up elementary through high school with a friend, went to double date dances with them, had similar grades and interests as they did; only to hear that they’ve been arrested for something that people should be arrested for? All those years of friendship and you feel like you never really knew them. Knowing involves more than knowing about someone. Knowing is more than close proximity to someone. Knowing is closer to seeing what they believe deep inside and catching glimpses of that evidence as you are around them. You know someone is a hard worker because you catch unexpected or unrehearsed glances of what hard work looks like. You begin to know someone when you see glimpses of what they really believe and it goes deeper than any act that they could put on. Often we begin to know someone when we see that glimpse of an experience that we have had ourselves. We recognize that situation, that struggle, or that solution.
Knowing makes you more able to receive what the covenant had for you. It’s one thing to enter into a covenant, it’s another to hold faithfulness. Faithfulness is more than endurance. It reveals who you are. It allows you to be known. It empties you of a different kind of dross. The kind that inhibits your ability to reflect in addition to making you impure. The chaff really does fly away with the next breeze not just because it was not part of the grain, but because it allows the grain to be seen. If Jesus intends for us to be one, similar to how he and his father are one (see John 17:21), faithfulness becomes a key ingredient. Faithfulness allows you to know! An unfaithful people never really know.
“For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end; While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.” (Hebrews 3:14, 15 KJV)