Got a call from my daughters principal the other day. I was hoping it was good news, maybe she did great on a spelling test, or something of the like. Turns out it wasn't, She had gotten into a fight on the playground. When she got home I asked her why? Apparently there was some name calling. Big question now is what to do. She got your standard, we're upset at you lecture and you will be disciplined. Truth is its easy to tell a 9 year old that she shouldn't pay attention to what other people say, but there is power in words.
Hosea 14:2 says something interesting. It says "sticks and stones my break my bones, but words will never hurt me." Actually it doesn't say that, it says something to the opposite.
Hosea 14:2
2) Take words of repentance with you and return to the Lord. Say to Him: "Forgive all our sin and accepts what is good, so that we may repay You with praise from our lips".
Hosea is to me saying something I've known since I was 9 and I was sitting in tears on the playground crying because the older kids were calling me names. There is power in words. Words can tear apart a marriage, tear apart a family, tear apart a country. Words can also have the opposite effect. I remember my wife telling me we were going to have a child. I remember the first time I told her I loved her. If words weren't important than why would political candidates, candy bars, car dealers and almost everyone with something to sell spend millions trying to pound catch phrases into our brain. The reason they do this is because words are important.
Hosea 14:2 tells us to "Take words of repentance with you and return to the Lord". The Bible is telling us to "Take words". Anyone who has ever read through the first books of Leviticus has read about sacrifice and offerings: Burnt offering, Grain offering, Sin offering, Quilt offering, Fellowship offering. Each of these early books of Leviticus are very delightful, very detailed reading; the stuff you want to snuggle up next to on a cold winters night. (NOT) The question being why would God spell out in detail these long list of sacrifice; when in Hosea he would say we are to bring "words of repentance". The reason Hosea spells this out is because Words have power.
Why is it so important that we bring words, doesn't God know everything we have done, there are no secrets with an all knowing God. If he knows then why can't we just think it; why do we have to say it. Vocalizing, or bringing to life the words of our repentance is important, important to God and important to us. When we vocally repent, we physically do something. It's not just a mere thought, it is an action. It is by this action that we show obedience and obedience is what God wants.
1 Samuel 15:22
But Samuel replied: "Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.
Isaiah 1:11-14
21 "'This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Go ahead, add your burnt offerings to your other sacrifices and eat the meat yourselves!22 For when I brought your ancestors out of Egypt and spoke to them, I did not just give them commands about burnt offerings and sacrifices,23 but I gave them this command: Obey me, and I will be your God and you will be my people. Walk in obedience to all I command you, that it may go well with you.
You have to ask why does God demand in Hosea 14:2 that we take words of repentance.
When we vocalize our repentance, we do more than just shout out to God, we also ask for his forgiveness. The biggest part of repentance is forgiveness. Google forgiveness and will come across study after study showing the power of forgiveness. These studies show that the inability to forgive can be linked to sickness, depression, and even suicide.
San Diego Tribune Article on Forgiveness
Stanford Study on Forgiveness
A whole bunch of studies
What is crazy is that each of these studies state that if we forgive, if we vocalize our forgiveness to ourselves and those whom we have wronged. Then things can change. What amazes me is that these studies show exactly what the bible talked about well over 2,700 years ago in Hosea and throughout the bible. Perhaps one could say that today's top psychologist are just a little behind the curve.
Forgiveness of sin. This is such an important concept that the early Israelis lined up at the temple, offering their unblemished sacrifices. Leviticus spells out these sacrifices in great detail. Huge effort went into these sacrifices, rivers of blood flowed into the streets; sacrifices carried out in the name of forgiveness.
The game changed when Christ stepped into the court of Pontious Pilate knowing what awaited him, knowing the price that he was going to pay. It was his blood that flowed: It flowed on the streets, it flowed down the cross. It flowed so that our sin can and will be forgiven. Christ wasn't crucified for crimes against Rome or the Jewish people, he was crucified because through that crucifixion our sins and crimes would be forgiven. What did Christ do near the moment of death, Luke 23:34 tells us that he spoke out.
Luke 23: 34
34 Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing."
All Christ ask us to do is be obedient, to take words of repentance and return to him. Words can heal, they can tear down, they can build up. Words are powerful; but how easy it is to forget, to hide behind our own pride and not speak these words. We speak hundreds of words a day. Physically it is so easy to speak, yet so hard to forgive. But speaking these words is exactly what the Bible tells us to do, its exactly what Jesus did on the cross. We are to do this because their is a true power in words. That power came with a price and our God has already paid that price. It is his blood that covers our sin and forgives. Isn't it truly amazing how awesome our God is.
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