On Easter Sunday, I gave the message at the sunrise service at my home church in Clarion. I preached from Hosea 6:1-2, a beautiful prophecy of Easter. Here is the manuscript, for anyone interested:
HOSEA 6:1-2
1"Come, let us return to the LORD;
for He has torn us, that He may heal us;
He has struck us down, and He will bind us up.
2After two days He will revive us;
on the third day He will raise us up,
that we may live before Him.
This text in Hosea is a beautiful prophecy of Easter. Indeed, it foretells the One who would be revived and, after three days, rise up and live.
Before we look at these two verses more deeply, I want to begin with a little background and context of the book of Hosea. The man Hosea was a prophet to Israel about 700 years before Christ was born. Hosea, an Israelite, lived in a time when Israel was committing unthinkable sins against the LORD. In fact, God tells Hosea that Israel has been, in effect, prostituting herself out. Instead of worshipping the God who brought them miraculously out of slavery, through the Red Sea, and into the Promised Land, they were bowing before all sorts of idols and false Gods.
In this time of abounding sin, God used Hosea to warn Israel about the coming judgment. You see, the God of the Bible is not only a loving God and a compassionate God, He is a GOOD God and a HOLY God. If God is good and holy, it means that anything that is not good and not holy must be separated from Him. Because Holy and unholy do not go together. Holy and unholy do not go together.
And this is precisely what Hosea is warning about! In His goodness, God responds justly to unholiness. He responds with wrath and with punishment, which is exactly what unholiness deserves. That’s really BAD NEWS for Israel.
So, how does all of this apply to an Easter sunrise service in 2011, in a little town in Iowa? We’re pretty far removed from 700 B.C. and the Middle East, right? Right. But, this timeless Word of the LORD in Scripture directly applies to each and every one of us in a deeply profound way.
You see, you and I bow before idols every day. Idols aren’t just limited to golden statues and false gods. No, I am no better than the Israelites who Hosea warned of God’s judgment. None of us are.
We’ve all been deceived to worship something other than the One True God. The “false gods” in our lives could be work, family, money, comfort, self, the list goes on. None of these are bad things, but they often take our highest affections and attentions away from our Creator. They become our idols and we, like Israel, become idol-worshippers.
This means that the judgment of God upon sin is headed our way too, unless something changes. Left to my sinful self, I will only and always be an object of the LORD’s wrath. Remember, Holy and unholy do not go together. As sinners, this is really BAD NEWS for each and every one of us!
Right about now, you might be thinking to yourself, “Sheesh, Tim! What’s with all this talk about how bad we are? It’s depressing! Isn’t Easter supposed to be a celebration? Isn’t it about the Good News?”
To you I say, “Yes! Easter IS a celebration! It IS Good News! But you can’t see how good the Good News is until you understand how bad the bad news is. Without bad news, there is NO SUCH THING as Good News.”
And that’s where we come back to Hosea 6:1-2 where we see bad news followed by Good News::
Bad news: “He has torn us”
Good News: “that He may heal us”
Bad news: “He has struck us down”
Good News: “He will bind [bandage] us up”
Good News: “He will revive us”
Good News: “He will raise us up, that we may live before Him”
Remember that this is a prophecy of Jesus Christ. Seven hundred years before Jesus was born, Hosea said that someone would be torn – and it was Christ who was whipped until the flesh fell off his body. Hosea said that someone would be struck – and it was Christ who was twice beaten by the rods of the Roman guards until he was nearly beyond recognition. And Hosea said that someone would be revived, raised up, and LIVE – and it was Christ who was resurrected from the dead. He came forth from the tomb, ALIVE after three days). This is a prophecy of Good Friday and Easter Sunday!
This prophecy paints a picture of Jesus bearing the punishment we deserve to bear. We deserve to be whipped and beaten for our unholiness, but it was Jesus who took our unholiness upon Himself and received the blows.
What’s more, this prophecy paints a picture of US receiving the healing and holiness that Jesus earned by living a perfect life. Do you see that it is US, the new Israel, who is spoken of in Hosea’s prophecy? This is because the Cross presents us with a beautiful, but unfair trade: our unholiness in exchange for the holiness of the God-Man Jesus Christ. This means he takes EVERY BIT of our sin. That’s every thought, word, and deed that doesn’t honor the LORD. In exchange, we receive EVERY BIT of His holiness, so that we can stand before the Holy God. You see, we NEED His holiness, because holiness and unholiness do not go together.
Finally, this prophecy paints a picture of how we can have a relationship with Christ. In Christ, it is WE who are healed, it is WE who are revived, it is WE who are raised up, and it is WE who live! This is accomplished only by putting our faith in the unfair exchange, because it is only HE who does the healing, it is only HE who does the reviving, it is only HE who does the raising, and it is only HE who gives us life!
And as Jesus promised, this healing and life isn’t just physical (though He is the provider of all healing and life on Earth). The healing Jesus spoke of is something far more valuable, and far more lasting. Everything in this life is temporary, including pain, troubles, and even this life itself. Jesus bought for us a life of even greater worth than this Earthly one that has been corrupted by pain and sin. He bought each of His children an eternal life, forever before the Creator, the LORD God Almighty!
This spiritual healing and everlasting life isn’t something WE CAN EARN with good deeds and kind words. No, it is something that HAS ALREADY BEEN EARNED through the tortuous death of a sinless Savior and His resurrection on the third day. To try to earn it ourselves is to de-value Jesus Christ.
Instead, we must do as the LORD commanded through Hosea in the first line of this passage: “Come, let us return to the LORD.”
Let us leave behind all idols that grab our affections away from the Savior this Easter. Let us repent of our idol-worship and bow a knee in surrender to the King who left his throne to live among His people. And let us return to the Lord and rejoice in the Cross and the Empty Tomb, because it IS Good News!
