Grace.
I don’t understand it.
I don’t know how to explain it.
Most days I don’t even know how to receive it.
But this I know.
Jesus runs circles of grace around His bride.
It’s dizzying.
Intoxicating.
Wonderful.
Grace.
My filth.
My unfaithfulness.
Circled by His grace.
My fears.
Circled by His grace.
I am hedged in by grace.
His grace looks like thorns sometimes.
His grace looks like a desert sometimes.
It looks like a waterfall other times.
His grace is fierce.
His grace is overpowering.
His grace is tender.
His grace is kind.
His grace wars for me.
It wars for my heart.
Grace.
Hosea 2 is full of grace.
Verse 6-7a
“Therefore I will hedge up her way with thorns, and I will
build a wall against her, so that she cannot find her paths. She shall pursue
her lovers but not overtake them...”
Hedge: To hedge or fence about.
A
circle of grace.
Up her way: “Derek” (deh’ rek)
1.
Way, road, distance, journey, manner
2.
Direction
3.
Manner, habit
4.
Of course of life
5.
Moral character
God builds fences around us to protect us.
I read a blog post once from goodwomenpoject that talked
about rejection. When we think of rejection normally we instantly think something
bad, painful, or unfair. But rejection is actually God’s grace. It’s him
building a fence around us to protect us. Think about every boy who has ever
rejected you. How different would life be if you never experienced that
rejection? If God hadn’t shown you grace by allowing you to experience that
rejection where would you be today? Some of us shudder at that thought… I know
I do.
In Hosea, he is building fences around her way. Her way,
habit, direction, course of life…. All of that… Prostitution. Harlotry.
He built a fence of thorns around her to prevent her from
continuing down a hazardous, painful road.
Yes.
Thorns hurt.
Thorn fences are not comfortable.
But if the thorn fence keeps you safe in the end…
Isn’t it worth it?
Jesus would rather you be angry with him, uncomfortable for
a time, and be protected than you be comfortable and going down a destructive
path, or worse, end up separated from him eternally.
That’s grace.
Verse 14
”Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into
the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her.”
The word allure
one of its meanings is to deceive. To bring to a place by deceit.
Wilderness- uninhabited land.
This last part…
“Speak tenderly to her”
I will come back to that one.
That one wrecked me.
Verse 19-20
“And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to
me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will
betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the Lord.”
Side note: Jesus, write my love story. You write the most
beautiful ones.
Verses 19-20 are just incredible.
He is fighting to make you his bride. He is warring to make
you his bride.
That’s grace.
Even though I have played the prostitute.
He is warring for my heart.
He is fighting to make me his bride.
He is chasing me down. Fencing me in. Holding me there and
speaking tenderly (I’ll get there) to my heart, while I kick and scream and
beat my fists into his chest, squirming, cussing, begging him to let me go and
let me be. He is fighting for my heart.
Grace.
A grace that fights to win FOR me
A grace that sings and dances WITH me
Jesus fights FOR you
He rejoices OVER you
He delights IN you
And He dances WITH you
Grace is not so fierce that He cannot lift you up tenderly.
Grace is not so tender that HE can’t destroy anything that
tries to come against you.
I said that I would go back to the “Speak tenderly to her”
part.
The Hebrew word for speak used here is “Dabar” it’s
pronounced da-var’
To speak, declare, converse, command, promise, warn,
threaten, sing.
That word.
Dabar.
It so beautifully paints the picture of grace.
Grace speaks to us intimately.
Grace declares victory and freedom over us.
Grace converses with us. It empowers us.
It commands the enemy to flee.It gives us sweet promises, and keeps those promises.It warns us when we are going the wrong direction.Ha. It threatens us (in love) when we don’t listen to the
warnings the first hundred times
…
…
Grace.
Sings.
Over.
Us.
To.
Us.
Sings.
It gets better when you see what the word tenderly means. I didn’t believe this at first glance. I just knew that
there had to be a flaw in my program. I dug deeper and realized there’s no
flaw. It’s not a glitch. As I dug deeper, it just got better.
Tenderly- The Hebrew word is Leb, Pronounced lave
Leb.
LEB.
You’ll never believe it.
When Hosea 2 says that He speaks tenderly to us… It’s saying
he speaks (The full definition from above) He SPEAKS leb to us…
Leb:
Inner man, mind, will hear, understanding
1.
Inner part, midst
A.
Midst (of things)
B.
Heart (of man)
C.
Soul , heart (of man)
D.
Mind, knowledge, thinking, reflection, memory
E.
Inclination, resolution, determination (of will)
F.
Conscience
G.
Heart (of moral character)
H.
Seat of appetites, emotions, passions, and
courage.
He speaks over the most inner part of our being.
He commands the enemy off the most inner part of our being.
He declares freedom and victory over the most inner part of
our being.
He speaks his promises to our hearts.
He warns us to protect our hearts.
He converses with us in the most intimate way, in the core
of our being.
Our memories… no matter how good or bad they may be
Our reflections.
Our thinking.
Resolutions
Inclinations…
Our hearts.
He sings over them.
That is Grace like I have never known before.
Grace does that.
No matter how filthy we are.
No matter how many times we run back to the brothels.
He comes.
He buys us back.
He purchases us.
We stand there with our hands tied and heads hung.
Broken. Bruised. Scraped. Filthy.
On the slaves auction block.
The man starts the bidding.
We stand there broken.
Humiliated.
One voice from the crowd cries out.
I.
Want.
Her.
She’s mine.
I’ll pay whatever it takes.
She will have no other lover.
Grace.
Strong enough to fight for you. Gentle enough to clean your
wounds.
Remember how I said I didn’t believe it so I dug deeper?
Want to know what else I found?
Isaiah 40
Full of grace.
Speak
tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her
iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the LORD's hand double for all
her sins.
That
word speak. Same word. Dabar.
That
word tenderly. Same word. Leb.
He
sings over you.
He
declares over you that you warfare.
Your fight.
Whatever
it may be.
It’s
over.
Because
of His grace.
My
warfare is over.
Because
of His warring grace.
You don’t
have to fight any more. He fights for you.
You
don’t have to struggle to be free.
Don’t
fight the fence around you.
That
is his grace.
Jesus, I surrender to the roaring warrior, raging waterfall, and radiant lover that is your grace. I surrender to grace so glorious it's blinding. I surrender to a grace so amazing that I can't contain it.
Jesus, I surrender to your grace.
