The prophet Hosea had a very unusual assignment from the Lord. He was to marry a prostitute named Gomer. Even after making a marriage covenant with Hosea, Gomer had children by other men. This was a picture of the nation of Israel at that time. Israel, too, was in covenant with God but had pursued other lovers. She was hopelessly drawn to idols. The whole book of Hosea is about this idolatrous relationship. God had every right to divorce and banish this false lover. Israel adopted the gods of the surrounding culture yet tried to keep her own festivals and worship rituals. The result was ritual without relationship and information without transformation.

     It sounds a lot like today, doesn’t it? Some are boasting of the numbers of churches being built and the numbers of people attending, but the quality of life of the typical church-attender is no better than that of those who do not attend. There is not much evidence of people having been truly transformed by the power of the gospel. The level of joy in the typical American Christian is very low. Few pagans are attracted to a superior lifestyle enjoyed by a modern American Christian. The American dream is more popular and more motivating than the gospel of the kingdom as portrayed in our society. Individual Christians complain they cannot rid themselves of addictions and perversions.

     So, what did God do with Israel? When he had every right to destroy her, he offered her mercy.

Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity. Take with you words and return to the Lord; say to him, “Take away all iniquity; accept what is good, and we will pay with bulls the vows of our lips. Assyria shall not save us; we will not ride on horses; and we will say no more, ‘Our God’ to the work of our hands. In you the orphan finds mercy.”
(Emphasis mine.)

Hosea 14:1-3 (ESV)

     God so wants to restore his people that he invites them to return to him. He even tells them the words to say when they do. Their speech is to conclude and climax with the affirmation: “In you the orphan finds mercy.”

     He is telling them—and us—that idolatry and adultery find their roots in the orphan spirit. Israel had been called as God’s son (see Exodus 4:22). Adam was the first son who was to enjoy God and partner with him in subduing the earth. But Adam and Eve sinned and introduced the orphan perspective to humanity. Before their sin, they had unhindered access to the Father and his provisions. Since the fall, all of mankind has been trying to live from behind the bush of shame. Being cut off from the source of real life, we have sought to satisfy our longings by going after whatever and whoever offered the best deal. Orphans are inevitably god-makers. Israel had been called to represent God the Father to the world. God had given her the privileges of sonship. But because at heart she was an orphan, she could only partially trust God. The other enticements from more visible gods would be embraced as well.

     One thing is clear for Israel and for us. The quality of life we experience is dependent on the gods we trust. If we have adequate gods, we will have quality life. If we have poorly performing gods, then life goes into the tank. Of course we know that only the God of the Bible, who is fully revealed in Jesus, is truly adequate, but we still find ourselves trusting lesser gods. Theoretically, we know the right information about God, but functionally we get trapped by the idolatry produced by our orphan-perspective. When asked who our savior is, we quickly respond, “Jesus.” But functionally, is that true?

     Who saves us from sin? Is it Jesus? What about the effort we exert trying to make sure we have made up for lapses in our behavior by engaging in religious or charitable works? What about the penalty we assess ourselves when we sin? We tend to refuse to enjoy life for fear we are being presumptuous towards God’s mercy. Like college football programs facing the NCAA, we penalize ourselves hoping the larger authority will take that into consideration when judgment is meted out.

     Who saves us from meaninglessness? Is it Jesus? Isn’t it our success at our vocation or family? Don’t we spend more time and energy trying to be recognized as successful in our performance before our peers than in rejoicing in the reality that we are sons of God and have meaning in representing him on the earth?

     Who saves us from error? Is it Jesus who is the living truth? Too often we rest in the rightly spelled creeds and doctrinal statements that offer safety and identity. What about the joy of walking in relationship with the living truth and ever learning new aspects of his perspective? We get so concerned about absolutes and forget that the absolute truth is living and available to us daily.

     Who saves us from poverty? Jesus? Most of us don’t really believe this. It is our savings, or our job, or our skill that we rely on. What happened to the son’s faith that his father will never forsake him or fail to provide everything needed to accomplish his assignment?

     Idols need to be exposed! All of us orphans have them. It is God’s mercy to expose them. He wants to displace them with himself. Timothy Keller in his book, Counterfeit Gods, mentions several ways to identify idols. First, our idle thoughts can be good clues. What do we enjoy thinking about when our thoughts are not required for other duties? In an age where visionaries are championed, there are many who spend every possible moment of imagination in trying to accomplish something new, big and successful. What about seeking and savoring the beauty of Christ and his life? Second, unjustified spending can lead us to uncover hidden idols. When we continually go outside a reasonable budget to get something we “just have to have” to make us happy, we are getting close to creating a god. Third, when we are honest about uncontrollable emotions, we are getting serious about displacing false gods. When fear, or lust, or ambition, or anger regularly boil over, it is usually the result of trusting something other than God our Father to meet our needs. Then there is the clincher. When disappointment comes, do we move towards or away from intimacy with God? When we have worked hard for something and even prayed for it, only to have our hopes dashed, it is difficult to maintain a stable level of joy and hope—especially when others who have not been as diligent get the rewards. Orphans are so fragile we cannot endure much of this. We thought we could put God in debt to us by good works or moral living. We have created a false god who cannot perform what we demand for our pleasure. Only when we truly see God the Father as our source and trust him completely will our inadequate gods disappear.

     One thing we can be sure of and it is very good news: God loves orphans. Notice he was willing to come to his son, Israel, who was neck deep in idolatry and restore the relationship. (Hosea searched for Gomer and bought her back to be his wife after her adultery.)

     One of the Old Testament characters that illustrates this dynamic is Jacob. He was the second-born twin, brother of Esau. His life was about striving. He came out of the womb holding the heel of his brother. His father liked Esau better and so cemented Jacob’s orphan mind-set. He longed for the father’s blessing so much that he schemed to get it. Tricking his father and defrauding his brother he got the official blessing, but it did not satisfy. He was a son who thought and acted like the ultimate orphan. Running from Esau, he went to a new area and saw Rachel. He had to have her and spent some years scheming with her father for her. But even Rachael couldn’t satisfy Jacob’s needs. As he ran from Esau (actually Esau was coming to reconcile, but the orphan Jacob interpreted everything through fear and thought Esau was coming to kill him), he had a night to spend alone before the great encounter with Esau. That night he wrestled with God. God actually came to this pitiful orphan schemer who was full of fear and manipulation and wrestled with him. We know that God doesn’t have to wrestle with humans. He could have evaporated Jacob with his breath, but he gave the striver a chance to see the end of his striving. In the match, the angel touched his thigh and he was disabled from striving against the angel. Before dawn, as the angel was leaving, Jacob would not let him go “until you bless me.”

     What a cry! He had lived his whole life wanting to be blessed. He had striven, cheated, lied, and connived. Now when he can fight no more, he holds on for a blessing. It is mercy when God brings us to the end of our striving so we can find victory in our weakness. No longer do we have to pretend to be strong. We don’t have to defend our position or identity. We need not boast of our sonship. We can rest in it.

     One day in Jacob’s future, there would be another who demonstrated that in God’s economy you win when you are weak. He was the eternal Son, but he became a servant to mankind and to Israel. He became a sacrifice for sin. He defeated every enemy of mankind and started a new creation of people whose names and identities were changed. He made it possible for all orphans to find mercy in him. He doesn’t just change our names in the book; he changes our status with God, and he gives us the Spirit of sonship, energizing us to enjoy God as Father and live in vital fellowship with him.

     But how do we actually access this? What is our responsibility now? The New Testament doesn’t leave us in the dark. Much of the latter part of the New Testament encourages us to intentionally set our minds on the truth of what Jesus has done to reconcile us to God as Father. Here is one of the texts:

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

Colossians 3:1-3 (ESV)

     Idols are not torn down. They are displaced by the true God. When we are in relationship with him, we won’t need substitutes. Idols are evidence of an orphan mentality. When the orphan finds mercy and discovers that God is his father, he will have no need of false security and significance.