Opinion Blog / Guest Columnist
Uncovering God’s ancient promise: 'I will be like the dew to Israel'
The Bible is replete with multitudinous promises God has made to His chosen people, Israel. And, what is more, He has a perfect record of keeping all of His promises. However, there is one ancient Bible promise tucked away in the writings of the minor prophets that is not simply forgotten, but seldom ever noticed, much less, uncovered. And yet, it holds an important key to Israel’s well being and future…and to ours as well.
God, through the pen of the prophet Hosea, offers one of the most revealing and remarkable promises in all the sacred text. He promises that He “will be like the dew to Israel” (Hosea 14:5). From this moment on, when we arise early in the morning and find the dew covering the blades of grass on our front lawns, it should be a constant reminder to us of this precious promise. But, how can this strange and ancient promise possibly be interpreted? What does it mean that God will be like the dew to his people?
To understand the truth of this promise we must ask ourselves an important question. Where does this dew, that so often greets us in the early morning hours, come from? Does dew fall…descending from above? Or, does dew rise…from the earth below? Think about it. But, before you are quick to reply, let me give you the answer. It is neither. Dew doesn’t fall, nor does it rise. When we uncover this ancient promise we find an amazing truth—Dew just appears, it shows up when certain conditions are right. Scientifically, when the temperature, humidity, and the atmospheric pressure converge together in just the right sequence it causes the unseen moisture in the air to condense on the cool surface of the grass and droplets of dew suddenly appear. These meteorological conditions have to be just right. We have a word for this phenomenon—condensation.
And so it is with our Lord in His relationship with us. He promises to be like the dew. We may call out to him, “Lord, please fall on us with your mighty power.” Or, “Lord, rise up to meet us.” But no, He is like the dew. He just shows up in power when certain spiritual conditions are made right in our lives. It is just as He promised, “I will be like the dew to Israel.”
Our Jewish friends repeatedly witnessed the reality of this promise played out in their own experience. After finally settling into the Promised Land, we find them, throughout the book of Judges, going through a continual five stage cycle of insecurity. The first stage was rebellion. They would rebel by turning their backs upon God, sliding into idolatry. Then, because of their unfaithfulness there came retribution. God would allow their enemies to oppress them. This would be followed by a time of repentance. They would cry out to God in their distress and turn back to Him. When the conditions of their relationship with Him became right again He would be like the dew. He would faithfully show up with His blessings and, through His mercy, bring about a stage of restoration. God used men and women like Deborah and Barak, Gideon and Samson, and others to bring to the land a restoration of peace. But, sadly, they would inevitably descend into a stage of relapse. And, the cycle with its five stages would be repeated over and over again. However, it is noteworthy that each and every time the people of Israel would repent and turn back to God He was always faithful to His promise to be like the dew to them—to show up in their behalf when those spiritual conditions became right once again—restoring them to fellowship with Him.
In this obscure and ancient promise found in the object lesson of the dew, Hosea is reminding us of the power of forgiveness. Hosea is writing to a people who were behaving like a prostitute by turning their back on the true God and becoming seduced by false and pagan gods (Hosea 1:2). God used Hosea and His wife, Gomer, to illustrate the truth of His own relationship with His chosen people. Gomer was repeatedly unfaithful, engaging in one illicit and sordid affair after another. Finally, she sunk so low in her immorality and social standing within the community that she was sold as a slave. God instructed Hosea to pursue his estranged wife with an unfailing and forgiving love, even though she had become a shameful adulteress. So Hosea ventured into the slave market and bought Gomer back as his own. There were no pointed fingers of accusations, no extended rants of “How could you have done this?” He quietly clothed her and took her home, intent to show her love and forgiveness and to woo her heart back to his own.
There is a deeper meaning to this whole saga. Just as Hosea came to Gomer’s rescue, God was faithful to come to Israel’s. They, too, had played the harlot themselves. They began to worship other gods. They turned their backs on the one true God who had led them through the Red Sea, through forty years of wilderness wanderings, and into the Promised Land. It was against this backdrop that we find the heart of our loving Lord along with His promise to always “be like the dew” to Israel, His chosen people and the “apple of His eye.” If you ever want to find a picture of the heart of a loving and forgiving God for His people it steps upon center stage here in the pages of the book of Hosea.
God’s desire is not simply to bless Israel, but, through them, all the nations of the earth as well. His eternal purpose extends far beyond them to a global stage. His promise to Abraham was that “in you all the families of the earth will be blessed” (Genesis 12:3). “All the families of the earth” includes you and me. We evangelicals must remember that central to the storyline of the entire Bible are the Jewish people. Mankind had made a mess of their inheritance in the first eleven chapters of Genesis. But, beginning in chapter twelve, we are introduced to a man named Abram, whose name was changed to Abraham, who became the father of the great nation of Jews whom God loves and chose to be his vehicle through whom He would bless the world.
Even as we evangelicals read the first page of our Christian Bible we find this truth in the long genealogy of the Jewish people (Matthew 1). This list of names making up this extended family tree ends in our promised Messiah who will one day set all things right and rule the earth from the throne of David in Jerusalem. It is impossible to love our Lord and cherish His word without caring deeply for these very people, the Jews, who are at the center of the entire Bible narrative and through whom we have received the oracles of God and have found our Messiah.
There is a word here for Israel and for all our Jewish friends. You are a chosen people. You are heir to many precious promises. You are “the apple of God’s eye” (Zechariah 2:8) and the object of His love (Deuteronomy 7:6-8). On a holy mountain in the wilderness God declared, “You shall be my own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is mine, and you shall be to me a kingdom of Priests and a holy nation” (Exodus 19:5-6). You belong uniquely to the Lord. You are called to be “a holy nation.” His intention for you is to show all the nations of the earth what it looks like to serve in obedience to, and under the authority of, the one true God.
At Sinai you were quick to answer, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do” (Exodus 19:8). In the midst of all the successes and amazing innovations and initiatives of your “start up nation,” not to mention the impressiveness of all your intelligence operations and military prowess, hear the words of Hosea 14:1– “Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God.” Heed the repeated words to “remember” all the things He has done for you, all the times He has brought deliverance, all the many ways He continues to make the impossible possible in your behalf today. Our God has not abdicated His throne. As the prophet Daniel declared, “The most High still rules over the affairs of men” (Daniel 4:17). And when, like your forefathers of old, you return to Him you will find His promise is real, still true and faithful—“I will be like the dew to Israel.”
It is not a matter of beseeching heaven to fall on us. Nor is it the earnest plea that He might rise up to lift us up. When we uncover God’s ancient promise to Israel we find that when certain conditions get right in our own lives through repentance and faith, He will show up and we will begin to experience His powerful presence through His ancient promise…. “I will be like the dew to Israel.”
“Whoever is wise, let him understand these things; whoever is discerning, let him know them; for the ways of the Lord are right…Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God” (Hosea 14:9,1). And when you do, you too, will uncover the reality of His ancient promise—“I will be like the dew to Israel.”
O.S. Hawkins is a graduate of TCU (BBA) and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (MDiv; PhD) and is the former Senior Pastor of the historic First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas. He is the author of over 50 books including the best selling Code Series of devotionals including the Joshua Code and the Bible Code published by HarperCollins/ThomasNelson with sales over three million copies.Visit him at oshawkins.com
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks for sharing. Blessings on your head from the Lord Jesus, Yeshua HaMashiach.
Steve Martin
Founder
Love For His People
Charlotte, NC USA