The Backsliders

Dear class,

Today's readings are taken from Hosea 12-14 and Matthew 20:1-16

Hosea ends with a high and hopeful note about the backsliding Israelite nation.
Previously Hosea described Israel as a "back sliding heifer" (Hos 4:16) and later in Hos 11:7 as a people "bent to backsliding".
Backsliding is slippery business! Once started, it is hard to turn back. Let's take a look at the typical profile of the backslider:

1) Look toward the world for help (Hos 7:14)
And of course, since he has chosen to forsake the Lord, the only other option is the world. Even those who still profess to "know God", but in effect deny God by their disobedience, are as those who openly deny God.

2) Hard hearted will not listen to rebuke (Hos 7:15)
Even God, through diverse means, tried to bring Israel back, the sinful nation only persisted in her ways. Such is the characteristic of backsliders who would turn a deaf ear to the most earnest pleas or the sharpest rebuke. As Jesus quoted of Isaiah in Mat 13:15, such are whose " heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed"

3) Becoming worse and worse (Hos 12:1; 13:2)
And because rebuke and pleas fall on deaf ears, backsliders often get worse and worse spiritually and drift further and further away. It's all in a vicious cycle, as Isaiah wrote of Israel taking counsel of the world instead of God and "add sin to sin".

4) "I did no wrong" (Hos 12:8)
This is often the common refrain. And the backsliders back it with the fact that they are doing well and even better in life. Some even claim a greater level of "spirituality"! The fact of the matter is, when there is no adherence to God's Will, there is no acceptance from God. If the backslider continues to be recalcitrant, God will allow these "blessings" to get in the way of him getting back.

5) Final desolation (Hos 13:15,16)
He can go ahead and mock and laugh and rejoice in his "break away", his new found "freedom", but the backslider will ultimately taste his own medicine. "For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry." (1Sa 15:23a) All of whom who practice such are destined to the lake of fire. (Rev 21:8) Christians have an even more serious and grave charge. As Peter explains in  2Pe 2:20-21 "For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them." And Paul issues a stern warning "For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries." (Heb 10:26,27)

Yet there is hope for the backslider. Hosea ends on a hopeful note in the concluding chapter. God is ever merciful and ever ready to heal the backsliders, if they would repent and mend their ways. Again, we observe that prevention is always better than cure! (c.f. Hos 14:9) The backslider is often one who had stood still for too long. We need to engage in an ACTIVE walk with God, always looking and pressing forward, keeping up a steady pace, which is the best way to ensure we do not fall by the wayside and start backtracking!

Let us take heed unto the examples before us, to always remain tender and contrite hearted, that should we fall, be quick to jump back on to our feet and leap out of backsliding and continue in an ever stedfast pace forward with God.

In Him
Paul


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But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. ~ Hebrews 3:13

Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. ~ James 2:17
But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? ~ James 2:20
Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only. ~James 2:24
For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. ~ James 2:26