God's ways.…
God swipes.…
God's wipes.
In fact God has a kind of “Dad-joke” sense of humour:
‘Though Ephraim built many altars for sin offerings, these have become altars for offering sin. Hosea 8:11
‘Though Ephraim built many altars for sin offerings, these have become altars for offering sin. Hosea 8:11
God's “chosen ones”, are not those he has put on the invitation list, or called on, or invited. They are those who actually came. They are “the chosen”! Those who have chosen to respond to God's faithfulness, generosity, and celebration of goodness, by joining in with things in God's world with the same spirit, or attitude, or aim and goal that God has.
They are not subjects of the King, they are children of the King, they are now emulating his approach to life, learning from him how to behave, how to maintain, how to live, they walk in his ways, and thus are being trained by him how to live as a “god”, ruling over his world as an over-lord, gladly under our own over-lord. The community grows…
Hear the word of the Lord, you Israelites, because the Lord has a charge to bring against you who live in the land:
‘There is
no faithfulness,
no love,
no acknowledgment of God
(knowledge of
- God,
- the ways of God
- the laws of God
- the gifts/ plans/ hopes/ love of God)
in the land. …
There is only
cursing,
lying and murder,
stealing and adultery;
they break all bounds, and
bloodshed follows bloodshed.
…
my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge.
…
‘Because you have rejected
knowledge,
I also reject you
as my priests;
because you have ignored
the law of your God,
I also will ignore
your children.
...
The more priests there were,
the more they sinned against me;
they exchanged
their glorious God
for
something disgraceful.
‘They will eat but not have enough;
they will engage in prostitution but not flourish,
because they have deserted the Lord to give themselves to prostitution;
old wine and new wine take away their understanding.
My people consult a wooden idol,
and a diviner’s rod speaks to them.
A spirit of prostitution leads them astray;
they are unfaithful to their God.
Jesus’ summary of this phenomenon, of God looking for a responsive faithfulness, before doing more mighty deeds, and to dub them “the chosen”:
‘Consider carefully what you hear,’ he continued. ‘With the measure you use, it will be measured to you – and even more. Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.’ Mark 4:24-25 NIVUK
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