Latest / Reformed Thinking / Hope After Humiliation and Repentance (Hosea 2:15) | Jonathan Edwards

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Hope After Humiliation and Repentance (Hosea 2:15) | Jonathan Edwards · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to Reformed thinking. Have you ever have you ever
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found yourself in a season where your spiritual life just feels
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like an absolute desert? Yeah, that dry, empty feeling.
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Right, like you wake up, you try to go through your normal
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routines, but the peace and the joy you used to experience or
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just they're just gone. The heavens feel like brass.
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It's. Awful.
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It really is. You sit down to read the Bible
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and the words on the page are flat.
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They feel like a dead letter. You try to pray and it feels
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like your thoughts are just bouncing off the ceiling and,
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well, mocking. You, which is incredibly
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isolated. Totally isolating.
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And then you look around at other people who seem to have a
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thriving, vibrant faith, and a very quiet, terrifying thought
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starts to creep in. You start to wonder if if
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something is just broken inside of you that cannot be fixed.
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Yeah. That fear of being permanently
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flawed. Exactly that.
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So if you have ever experienced that kind of isolation, or if
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you are sitting in the middle of it right now, this deep dive is
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specifically for you. I'm really glad we're doing this
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one. Me too.
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Our mission today is to map out a very surprising pattern.
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We're going to look at how true, lasting hope is almost always
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preceded by severe trouble. And we are going to look at why
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uncovering the hidden, what the text calls the hidden AN in your
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life is the only genuine way out of that wilderness.
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That's such a crucial concept. It really is.
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So for our source material today, we are looking at a
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highly analytical sermon by the 18th century theologian Jonathan
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Edwards. He preached on the Old Testament
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book of Hosea, chapter 2, verse 15.
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Which is a heavy text. Very heavy, yeah, but he uses it
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to layout a structural blueprint for how God operates.
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He breaks down the mechanics of humiliation and hope, and it
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completely flips the conventional wisdom on how to
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handle the dark seasons of life. It really does.
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It's a remarkable piece of source material.
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Edwards looks at this massive historical event regarding the
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ancient nation of Israel and he he scales those mechanics down
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to the micro level of the individual soul.
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He analyzes the precise methods God uses to deal with human
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beings, and what is so striking about his analysis is the
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complete lack of cheap comfort. Oh, totally, no band aids here,
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right? Because we live in an era of
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quick fixes and, you know, life hacks.
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But Edwards offers a rigorous, structurally sound understanding
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of why God actively orchestrates trouble.
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He argues that this trouble is the required prerequisite for
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any genuine peace. Which is such a tough pill to
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swallow, but so necessary. Let's start right at the
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foundation of that blueprint. Looking at Hosea chapter 2.
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To understand verse 15, we need to grasp the context of the
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chapter. Yeah, setting the stage is key
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here. Right.
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So Israel is being indicted. The accusation is spiritual
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adultery, and the imagery is incredibly harsh.
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Israel is acting as an unfaithful bride, chasing after
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other lovers. And in the text, those lovers
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are her idols. Yes, she is pursuing them for
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her bread, her water, her wool, and her flax.
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When you read that, you might expect God to respond with
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either immediate destruction or immediate gentle restoration.
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There's a slap on the wrist or something.
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Yeah, but the text is something very different.
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God says he is going to strip her bear.
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He says he will turn her fruitful vineyards into a forest
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and drive her out into the wilderness.
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Sounds so severe. It really does.
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But then, right on the heels of that terrifying threat comes
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this staggering promise. God says he will allure her, He
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will speak comfortably to her, and he will turn the Valley of
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Acor, which translates to the Valley of Trouble, into a door
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of hope. That pivot is amazing.
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It's wild. Why does the process start with
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deprivation? Why does God take away the corn
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and the wine before offering hope?
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And will God remove those comforts?
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Because human beings have an almost inescapable tendency to
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credit their idols for their blessings.
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Oh, that makes sense. The text is very explicit about
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this psychological dynamic. I mean Israel was walking around
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saying I will go after my lovers that give me my bread and my
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water. Wow, giving them all the credit.
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Exactly. She looked at her agricultural
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abundance, her financial security, her National Safety,
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and she attributed all of that provision to the false gods she
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was worshipping. As long as the corn and the wine
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are flowing, the illusion remains intact.
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The idol appears to be doing its job.
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So the deprivation is it's a reality check.
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Spot on. God responds by removing the
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provision to force a confrontation with reality.
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By stripping the environment bare and turning the fruitful,
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cultivated vineyard into a wild, desolate forest, God shatters
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the illusion. Because you can't fake it in the
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forest, right? The wilderness is an environment
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of total deprivation. Out in the desert, you cannot
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rely on your own strength, and your false gods certainly cannot
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produce water from the sand. It is a forced realization of
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absolute vulnerability. God takes away the gifts so the
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people will finally look up and acknowledge the giver.
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Yes. Think about how that dynamic
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plays out in a Modern Family. Imagine a parent dealing with a
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teenager who is completely absorbed in a smartphone.
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Oh yeah, great analogy. Right, The child is ignoring
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their siblings, failing their classes, and totally
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disconnected from the real world.
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So the parent steps in and takes the phone away.
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And chaos ensues. Absolute chaos.
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But the parent does not do this out of malice or a desire to
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ruin the child's life. The goal is to get the child to
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actually look up, engage with their surroundings and have a
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real conversation. Now the teenager experiences the
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removal of that screen as a severe punishment.
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To them it is the total loss of their entire world.
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But from the parents perspective, it is a rescue
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operation. The child is being saved from a
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digital stupor. That's a really good way to look
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at it. So is that a fairway to
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understand what God is doing with Israel in Hosea?
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Is the wilderness less about punitive anger and more about a
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rescue? That framing captures the
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dynamic perfectly. The text itself uses a specific
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word that completely reframes the severe action of driving
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Israel into the desert. What word is that?
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After the threat of the wilderness, God says I will
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allure her. Yeah, that word signifies
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courting. It is the language of wooing,
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the way someone pursues the person they desire to marry.
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That's beautiful. It is.
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God is treating this unfaithful people like a bride being
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courted all over again. The paradox here is astonishing.
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God forces her into the harshest, most barren
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environment on earth, and he uses that desolate setting for
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the most intense spiritual romance.
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He brings her into distress to humble her.
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Once she is stripped of her false lovers and her
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self-sufficiency is gone, he speaks comfortably and
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pleasantly to her. The trouble is the required
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setup for the romance. And Edwards takes this macro
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level historical blueprint and applies it directly to the micro
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level. He argues this is the precise
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pattern for how God operates with every single individual at
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the moment of their initial conversion.
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Right, he shrinks it down to the individual soul.
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Yes, and he says the sequence is non negotiable.
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Before God bestows true hope on a person, He brings them into
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their own personal wilderness. Yes, the source material insists
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that God causes hope and comfort to arise in the soul only after
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trouble and humbling for sin. Let's walk through that initial
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shock. According to Edwards analysis,
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the natural state of humanity before any divine intervention
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is actually very quiet. Too quiet, really.
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Yeah, people feel secure they are asleep to their actual
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condition. The text references the Children
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of Israel when they were slaves in Egypt, telling Moses, let us
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alone that we may serve the Egyptians.
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Right. They didn't even want to leave.
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The natural Sinner does not want to be rescued.
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They are perfectly content making bricks in the mud.
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But when God begins His work, He deliberately ruins that false
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quietness. The worldly enjoyments that used
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to satisfy them suddenly stop working.
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And that's when the panic sets in.
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Exactly. The person starts wandering.
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The text describes them as having an arrow sticking fast in
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them. They are pinched and stung.
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They feel like David being hunted by King Saul from cave to
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cave, utterly unable to find a safe place to rest.
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The psychological state described in this phase is 1 of
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escalating panic. The individual tries to find
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shade from the scorching sun, but every tree is barren.
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They look for a drop of water, but every well they check is
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dry. They flee to 1 refuge, but their
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anxieties beset them there, so they run to another and that
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fails too. Exhausted.
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Really is what is happening internally is a massive
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awakening to the reality of their disease, which is sin.
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The driving affection in this initial phase is fear.
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Theologians often call this legal repentance.
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Legal repentance, not evangelical.
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Right. It is not yet a pure evangelical
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love for God. It is raw, unfiltered.
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Terror is the fear of eternal judgement.
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It is the fear of having committed the unpardonable.
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Sin, which so many people struggle with?
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Yes. It is the fear of death, the
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dread that God will never hear their prayers.
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It is a sorrow rooted entirely in self preservation.
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I can hear a modern listener pushing back on that concept
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though. Oh for sure.
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Because to modern years, intentionally using raw terror
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to wake someone up sounds overly harsh.
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Sounds manipulative to inflict that level of psychological
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distress on someone just to get their attention.
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Why would a loving God utilize fear as an introductory tool?
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It sounds harsh until you recognize the actual objective
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danger the person is in. Consider a different scenario.
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Imagine someone is fast asleep inside a burning building.
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You are standing outside on the sidewalk and you see flames
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shooting through the roof. You pick up a brick and throw it
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straight through their bedroom window.
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Which is terrifying for the person sleeping.
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Very loud. The shattering glass is
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incredibly alarming. The person wakes up in a state
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of absolute shock and confusion. But breaking the window was not
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manipulative. It was dictated by the reality
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of the fire. The false quietness of their
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sleep had to be ruined because the sleep was lethal.
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God uses fear to shatter the illusion of safety.
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That makes total sense. The goal of this legal trouble
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is to completely strip away self trust.
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The Sinner is like a person lost in a vast, dense forest.
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At first they think they know the way out.
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They rely on their own wisdom, their own sense of direction,
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their own righteousness. They think they have it under
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control. Exactly.
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They walk for miles, exhaust themselves, only to realize they
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have walked in a giant circle and are right back where they
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started. Oh man, the fear and distress
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keep them trying every possible path until they finally exhaust
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all their own resources. At that point, they stand
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completely still. They yield the case.
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They confess their utter blindness.
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They do nothing but scream for help.
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That is the necessary humbling. And that brings us to a massive
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turning point in the analysis. Just screaming for help in the
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forest is not enough to finalize the rescue.
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The source material introduces a new historical parallel to
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explain the next required step. Yes, a very intense 1.
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Something in the camp has to die before the comfort can arrive.
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We move from the Book of Hosea into the Book of Joshua,
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specifically the story of HM. This story is central to the
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entire concept of the Valley of Achor.
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It really anchors the whole idea.
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Let's lay out the narrative. Israel has just crossed the
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Jordan River into the Promised Land.
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They experience a massive, miraculous victory at Jericho.
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Then they go up against a tiny, seemingly insignificant city
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called AI, and they are humiliatingly defeated.
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Men die in the battle. Yes, men die.
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Joshua is devastated. He falls on his face before God,
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asking why they lost. God tells him there is a
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troubler in the camp. Someone violated the command and
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took a cursive things from Jericho.
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Which was strictly forbidden, right?
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So conduct a tribe by tribe search, and the lot falls on a
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man named A Chan. A Chan confesses that he saw a
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beautiful Babylonian garment, 200 shekels of silver and a
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wedge of gold. He wanted them, he took them,
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and he buried them in the earth, right in the middle of his tent.
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He hid them where no one could see.
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Exactly. And to get God's presence back.
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The response is severe. A Chan, his family and all his
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possessions are taken to a place they name the Valley of Acor,
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the Valley of Trouble. They are stoned to death and
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burned with fire. A massive heap of stones is
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piled over them. It's a brutal reality check.
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It is Edwards uses this brutal historical event to insist that
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sin cannot just be restrained or made managed, it must be
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completely eradicated. The.
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Distinction Edwards draws here is between partial reformation
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and true mortification. Explain that difference.
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Well, many people, when they are awakened by the initial fear of
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the burning building, will try to restrain their sin.
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They will give it slight wounds. They will clean up their outward
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behavior for a while to sue their conscience.
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Like putting a Band-Aid on a tumor.
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Exactly. But the text argues that natural
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men are extremely loath to actually kill their sin.
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They have treated it as a familiar friend their entire
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lives. They give it the best room in
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their hearts. But God will never grant true
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lasting comfort if the sin is kept alive.
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You can't make a pet out of it. No, you cannot do what King Saul
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did. Later in the Old Testament, God
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told Saul to completely destroy the Amalekites, but Saul spared
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A gag the king of the Amalekites and kept the best of the sheet
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and the oxen for himself. Sparing the best part?
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Right. And sparing the king costs all
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his own Kingdom. True conversion requires you to
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take the sin, even the sin that seems most precious to you, as
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choice as a can silver and gold and stone it, burn it and bury
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it under rocks so it never rises again.
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Let's bring that into a modern context.
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Think of finding a termite queen in your house.
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I hate that thought. Right, it's the worst.
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You notice some blistering on the drywall, so you get some
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spackle, patch the hole and put a fresh coat of paint over it.
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You might even buy some bug spray and hit the baseboards.
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Which feels like you're doing something.
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It feels productive. That is partial reformation.
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The wall looks clean to anyone walking by, but the colony is
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still thriving inside the wood. If you want to save the house,
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you cannot just manage the visible symptoms if it.
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Take a sledgehammer, tear open the wall, find the Queen and
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exterminate her. You have to go right to the
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source. You have to destroy the source,
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even if it means ripping apart a room you spent thousands of
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dollars decorating. You have to be ruthless.
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But the source material brings up a very specific catch.
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At this stage, we do not actually have the tools or the
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strength to exterminate the enemy ourselves.
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That is the crucial theological pivot in Edwards framework.
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We are commanded to ruthlessly renounce the sin, to turn our
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will entirely against it, but we are completely incapable of
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executing the final blow in our own strength.
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We just don't have the power. We don't.
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Edwards shifts the metaphor back to the Exodus to explain this
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mechanic. The Israelites are standing at
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the edge of the Red Sea. Pharaoh's highly trained army
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with Chariots and weapons is charging at them.
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The Israelites are a group of escaped slaves.
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They're trapped. They are completely trapped.
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They could never have fought off the Egyptians in a pitched
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battle, and they certainly could never have drowned them in the
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sea. The text points out that it was
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Christ present in the pillar of cloud and fire, who executed the
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judgement. He did the actual fighting.
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The Lord fought for them while they stood still.
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The Sinner must completely renounce their sin, treating it
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as a mortal enemy, but they must rely entirely on Christ's blood
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to act as the Red Sea that swallows the Taskmaster.
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That's a huge point. The troubler is slain by a total
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reliance on Christ as a Savior, not just from the punishment of
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sin, but from the act of power of sin itself.
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So once the troubler is slain, the Red Sea closes over the
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enemy, the door of hope opens, and the soul is flooded with
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light and comfort. It sounds like a beautiful,
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definitive one time event. You cross the sea, the enemy is
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dead and you are free. Sounds nice.
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It sounds great, but the source material takes a very sharp turn
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right here. It shifts to a startling reality
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that many listeners are going to relate to intensely.
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This pattern of trouble slaying the HN and renewed comfort does
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not just happen once. No it doesn't.
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It repeats itself in the lives of believers long after their
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initial conversion. This is where the analysis
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becomes incredibly practical for the established Christian.
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Edwards acknowledges that Christians frequently fall into
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periods of intense darkness. Their hope is greatly obscured.
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And just to clarify, he's not talking about losing salvation.
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Right. He is not talking about a
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permanent loss of salvation, but he is describing a severe
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eclipse of their spiritual joy. Let's describe what that eclipse
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actually feels like. The text paints a very vivid
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picture. The sweet influences of the
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Spirit are withdrawn, the mind is darkened.
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You open your Bible and it is a dead letter.
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You're just staring at pages. Yeah, you have absolutely no
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taste for it. Reading the scriptures becomes a
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forced mechanical task. The verses that used to bring
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you light and reassurance do nothing at all.
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Prayer is heartless. You close your eyes and your
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mind wanders to 100 different. Vanities, which is so
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frustrating. It is you look at your daily
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life and you can hardly find any evidence that you ever had grace
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to begin with. You're past experiences of God
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feel dim, distant, and almost like a dream you are forgetting.
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And it can get even darker than. That yeah, sometimes it is even
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worse than numbness. Sometimes there is an agonizing
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sense of God's anger. The text references David crying
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out about his broken bones or Heman in Psalm 88, feeling
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trapped in the lowest pit with God's wrath lying heavy upon
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him. It's real despair.
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Why does this happen to someone who has already crossed the Red
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Sea? Why does a believer end up back
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in the dark? The cause is always the same.
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According to this framework, there's a new HN in the soul.
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Sin is the occasion for this darkness.
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Edwards points out three primary ways this HN takes root in the
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life of a believer. OK, let's unpack those.
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The first way involves the clash between weak grace and strong
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constitutional sins. Let's breakdown that term
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Constitutional sins. What does that mean in everyday
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language? It.
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Refers to a person's natural temperament or personality
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flaws. When someone is converted, the
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reigning power of sin is broken, but the presence of sin remains.
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And people have different natural dispositions, right?
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We all have our own struggles. Exactly.
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Some people run hot. They have a disposition to high
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resentment and quick anger. Others are naturally prone to
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covetousness or financial anxiety.
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Some have a peevish, fretful, discontented spirit.
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Always complaining. Yeah, if the grace infused at
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conversion is comparatively weak, these constitutional sins
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take advantage. They flare up under stress and
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they dreadfully cloud the mind. So temperament is the first
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vulnerability. What are the other two ways that
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HN gets into the camp? The second way is through gross
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transgressions. This is the obvious scandalous
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failure. Edwards points to David falling
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into adultery and murder in the matter of Uriah.
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Huge catastrophic failures. Right, that kind of severe,
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deliberate thin deeply quenches the spirit, and an exceedingly
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deep darkness immediately follows.
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But the third way is perhaps the the most insidious and certainly
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the most common, which is it is a slow, almost imperceptible
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slide into corrupt frames and evil habits.
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That slow slide is terrifying because you do not notice it
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happening. How does Edwards trace that
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descent? It usually starts subtly, often
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by giving way to a slothful spirit.
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The believer is not as diligent as they once were.
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They discontinue their daily watchfulness.
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Letting their guard down. Yeah, they stopped guarding
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their thoughts. From there, I'll frames creep
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in. They might become worldly, their
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hearts desperately bent on acquiring goods or climbing the
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corporate ladder. Or their minds grow light and
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vain, fixated on entertainment, dress and outward appearances.
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Very relatable stuff today. Oh, incredibly.
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Or they become contentious, constantly arguing online,
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stirring up strife, demanding their own way, and feeling
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secretly bitter when others prosper.
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They slide from these corrupt internal frames into sinful
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outward practices. They.
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Act on it. Exactly.
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They allow themselves liberties and sensual appetites.
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This degenerate state of the affections causes God to
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withdraw his spirit and the lights go out.
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When a Christian slides into the state and the lights go out,
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does God hide his face because he has given up on them?
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Does he withdraw out of spite or frustration?
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No, not at all. Because if someone is sitting in
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that darkness right now, there are immediate, visceral fears
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that God has abandoned them forever.
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How does this withdrawal square with a theological concept of
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eternal safety for the believer? God hides his face precisely to
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keep them safe. It is an act of severe mercy.
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Severe mercy. Yes, the text explains that sin
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naturally darkens the mind. It opposes grace, just as thick
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clouds hide the sun. If sin is flourishing in a
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believer's life, grace is being suppressed.
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If God were to allow the believer to continue feeling the
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warmth of spiritual comfort while they were actively
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harboring an HN, it would be disastrous.
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They would feel a false peace while a poison was spreading
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through their system. That would be deadly.
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God withdraws the feeling of comfort, so the believer cannot
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be comfortable in their rebellion.
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The darkness is a diagnostic indicator that something is
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critically wrong in the camp. The believer in this backslidden
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state is essentially sleepwalking.
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The text references the parable of the 10 virgins.
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The Saint is slumbering, sin has a stupefying, numbing effect on
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the conscience, and God has a very specific and often very
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painful method for waking them up.
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He brings the believer back into a second wilderness.
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She is a new work of awakening to rouse them out of their
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senselessness. And this awakening is not a
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gentle tap on the shoulder. No, it's rough.
21:40
Very rough. The text points to Job chapter
21:43
33, where the awakening involves severe temporal calamities.
21:47
The person is chasing with pain on their bed.
21:49
Their bones stick out. Their soul draws near to the
21:52
grave. It is a terrifying realization
21:54
of God's anger. David is the classic example
21:57
here. Let's talk about David.
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David lived in a state of total numbness to his own gross sin
22:02
for months. He committed adultery,
22:04
orchestrated a murder, and then just went back to running the
22:07
Kingdom as if nothing happened. Just business as usual.
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Exactly. He was completely stupefied.
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It was not until the prophet Nathan confronted him with a
22:16
parable of the you lamb that the illusion shattered.
22:20
Nathan looked at him and said Thou art the man.
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And suddenly the guilt crushed David.
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But that severe awakening, that sudden, devastating crush of
22:27
guilt, is actually the first pulse of returning life.
22:31
The pain of conviction is absolute proof that the soul is
22:34
not dead. While they remain in their
22:37
corrupt frames, they feel no pain because they are
22:40
spiritually asleep. When God returns by His Spirit,
22:44
the first thing He does is wake them up to the reality of their
22:46
offense. The distress is almost
22:48
insupportable, but their condition is infinitely more
22:52
hopeful in the middle of that agony than when they were
22:54
comfortably numb. The analogy of frostbite helps
22:57
clarify this intensely painful process.
23:00
That's a brilliant way to put it.
23:01
If you are out in the freezing cold and you get frostbite in
23:04
your fingers, the initial stage is painful, but eventually the
23:08
nerves freeze and the numbness sets in.
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At that point, your fingers feel completely fine, you do not feel
23:14
the cold anymore. I think you're safe.
23:15
Right. The numbness feels peaceful, but
23:18
it is the piece of tissue death. If you stay numb, you will lose
23:21
your hand. When you finally get inside by a
23:24
fire and begin the thawing process, the blood rushes back
23:28
into the dead and vessels. That thawing process is
23:31
agonizing. It's excruciating.
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It is some of the worst physical pain a person can experience,
23:37
but the pain is a good sign. The pain means the tissue is
23:39
alive. The pain means you are not going
23:41
to lose the hand. The spiritual trouble, the
23:44
renewed fear, and the crushing weight of guilt is the blood
23:47
rushing back into a frostbitten soul.
23:50
And just like the physical thawing process, the spiritual
23:53
trouble aggressively increases right before the comfort
23:56
returns. Edwards points out that the
23:58
darkest, most distressful hour, the moment when God's wrath
24:02
feels the heaviest and the bones feel broken, is the immediate
24:05
prelude to the dawn. So once the Saint is awake to
24:09
the danger, once the frostbite is thawing and they are in the
24:12
agony of conviction, how do they actually step back into the
24:16
light? We move into the renewal of
24:19
hope. The hope is renewed in the exact
24:21
same way it was obtained the first time, by slaying the
24:24
troubler. Once again the believer must
24:26
mortify the sin, but this time they have to do it with a
24:30
renewed intensity. What does that look like
24:32
practically? Edwards breaks this down into
24:34
three requirements. First, the sin must be slain as
24:37
to its former degrees. It cannot have the prevalence it
24:40
once had in their daily routine. OK, that's one.
24:42
Second, it must be slain as to its former ways of exercise, The
24:46
heart must be fortified against those specific paths of
24:49
temptation that led to the fall. You have to block.
24:51
The road exactly Third. The sin must be totally and
24:54
perfectly slain in the will and inclination.
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The believer must act as a mortal enemy against the sin
25:00
they cannot deal mercifully or tenderly with.
25:02
It when we're making excuses. Right.
25:05
They must have the zeal and revenge against their own sin
25:08
that the Corinthians demonstrate in the New Testament.
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They must desire to completely extirpate it from their lives.
25:14
When this happens, a new light flashes out of heaven and
25:17
comfort returns to the soul. But the text draws a very sharp
25:21
line between genuine spiritual comfort and counterfeit comfort.
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Which is a really vital distinction.
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The difference between hypocritical joy and genuine
25:30
spiritual joy is fascinating. False comfort brings pride.
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The hypocrite fixates on their own holiness.
25:37
They think about how eminent a St. they are, how much better
25:40
they are than their neighbors, and they assume God must love
25:42
them because of their excellent religious experiences.
25:45
He's entirely self focused. True comfort works in the exact
25:47
opposite direction. True comfort brings poverty of
25:50
spirit. The person feels small,
25:52
helpless, and wants to line the dust to exalt God.
25:56
The text quotes Psalm 115.1. Not unto us, O Lord, not unto
26:00
us, but unto Thy name, give glory.
26:02
Gracious joy and poverty of spirit are inseparable
26:06
companions in this theological framework.
26:08
When God lifts the soul up with inward sweetness, he
26:11
simultaneously casts it down with a basement.
26:14
The believer sees the infinite gap between God's worthiness and
26:18
their own undeserving nature. So it's a very humbling joy.
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Very humbling if your religious comfort makes you feel large in
26:26
yourself. If it makes you boastful, self
26:28
confident, or judgmental toward others, it is not from the
26:31
Spirit of God. There is a very specific trap
26:34
mentioned here that we need to highlight.
26:36
When people feel disconnected from God and are trying to find
26:39
their way back out of the darkness.
26:41
The most common advice you hear today is to look backward.
26:44
Yeah, you hear that a lot. We are told to remember the days
26:47
when we felt close to God, to review our old prayer journals,
26:50
to reassure ourselves by analyzing past spiritual highs.
26:54
The text argues this is actually a terrible idea.
26:57
Why? Because pouring over past
26:59
experiences while the HN is still alive in the tent yields 0
27:02
satisfaction. You are looking for a past
27:05
trophy while a present troubler is actively killing you.
27:08
That is a stark way to put it. But it's true, the text
27:12
observes, that believers in the dark will spend months or even
27:15
years examining old evidences of their piety, trying to force
27:19
comfort out of a memory. It is entirely in vain.
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The troubler must be removed. You can't live on yesterday's
27:26
grace. Exactly once the Akon is slain,
27:29
God gives new light and new experiences, and a few moments
27:33
of fresh new light from God scatters the dark clouds far
27:36
better than years of analyzing old memories.
27:39
You do not need to excavate the past, you need to kill the sin
27:43
in the present so the light can shine today.
27:45
Looking at old spiritual journals when you are harboring
27:48
active sin is like looking at old photographs of the sun while
27:51
you were standing in a dark room with the blinds closed.
27:53
That's a really good picture of it.
27:55
The photograph does not provide any heat.
27:56
You have to open the blinds. You have to slay the troubler.
27:59
So let's step back and look at the divine logic behind all of
28:03
this. Why does God design the system
28:05
this way? There are specific reasons.
28:07
Why go through the wilderness? Why the cycle of trouble,
28:11
slaying sin and returning comfort?
28:13
Why not just offer steady, uninterrupted peace from the
28:16
moment of conversion to the end of life?
28:18
Edwards outlines 4 highly specific reasons God
28:21
orchestrates the dark. First, to prepare the soul to
28:26
trust Christ entirely. A believer wandering from God is
28:29
like Noah's dove flying over the floodwaters, finding no rest
28:33
anywhere else. The trouble ensures they find no
28:36
solid ground until he returned to the ark, which is Christ.
28:39
That makes sense. What's the second?
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2nd To make comfort prized. Health is valued after a severe
28:46
sickness. Safety is valued after a
28:48
terrifying storm. By experiencing the terror of
28:51
the wilderness, the believer learns to properly value the
28:54
spiritual rest they've been taking for granted.
28:56
We tend to forget what we have until it's gone.
28:58
We really do. 3rd To secure all glory for God.
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If humans were not humbled by their own failures, they would
29:04
inevitably ascribe their deliverance to their own
29:06
intelligence or willpower. The wilderness proves their
29:09
helplessness so that God gets the absolute glory for the
29:12
rescue. Those first three make a lot of
29:13
sense, but it is the fourth reason that really stands out.
29:16
God uses the darkness to prevent the abuse of hope.
29:19
This is perhaps the most penetrating psychological
29:22
insight in the entire sermon. If a person had full confidence
29:25
of heaven, if they felt the absolute assurance of God's
29:28
favor while they were actively sinning, they would use that
29:31
confidence as a license to sin more.
29:33
Because they feel invincible. Exactly.
29:36
When a believer is in a backslidden carnal state, their
29:40
love for God is dormant, and love is the primary internal
29:44
restraint against sin. If love is asleep, something
29:47
else must step in to restrain the believer, or they will run
29:50
headlong into total destruction. And what steps in?
29:53
That something else is fear, since love is not active to hold
29:57
them back, God withdraws the comfort, clouds their hope, and
30:01
lets the fear of hell and the sense of His anger step in as
30:04
the necessary external restraint.
30:06
That dynamic is exactly like installing a mechanical speed
30:09
limiter on a teenager's car. Oh, that's a great comparison.
30:12
Ideally, the teenager's internal sense of responsibility, their
30:15
love for their parents, their respect for the law, their value
30:18
for human life keeps them driving at a safe speed.
30:22
That is the internal restraint of love.
30:24
Which is how it should work. Right.
30:26
But teenagers are volatile. Sometimes they lose that
30:29
internal responsibility and decide to floor the gas pedal to
30:32
show off for their friends. When that happens, the
30:35
mechanical restraint kicks in. The engine simply will not go
30:38
past 65 mph. It just cuts them off.
30:41
The teenager hates the limiter. It frustrates them.
30:44
They pound the steering wheel 'cause they want to go faster,
30:47
but that mechanical restraint is keeping them from driving off a
30:49
Cliff. When the internal restraint of
30:52
love fails, the mechanical restraint of fear and the loss
30:55
of comfort kicks in. That analogy captures the
30:58
brilliance of divine wisdom perfectly.
31:01
The trouble is not a sign of God's hatred.
31:04
The withdrawal of comfort is a perfectly calibrated mechanism
31:08
to keep the Saints safe and totally dependent.
31:11
God loves the believer too much to let them feel comfortable
31:14
while driving toward a Cliff. The loss of peace is the speed
31:17
limiter. Engaging.
31:18
Understanding the theory of all this is one thing, but the text
31:21
does not leave us in the realm of theory.
31:23
It ends with highly practical, urgent directions for the
31:26
listener who is currently in the dark, wandering in that desert
31:29
we talked about at the very beginning.
31:31
It gives actionable guidance on how to dig up the tent.
31:34
The final directives are sharp and uncompromising.
31:37
First, forsake all known sin immediately.
31:41
This cannot be a temporary restraint while you wait for the
31:43
storm to pass. It must be an everlasting
31:46
renunciation. A total break.
31:47
Yes. Second, earnestly seek
31:50
conviction. Do not just wait to feel bad.
31:53
Actively ask God to show you your true condition. 3rd, and
31:57
this is the most critical directive, stop complaining
32:00
about general corruption while ignoring specific active sins.
32:04
The detail about HN and Joshua 7 is so telling here.
32:08
HN did not just toss the cursed items into his tent and leave
32:11
them sitting out on the floor. The text points out that he dug
32:14
a hole and buried them deep in the earth inside his tent.
32:16
He hid them closely so there would be no sign of them above
32:18
ground. Which is what we all do.
32:20
We do the exact same thing with our behavior.
32:23
We hide our darling sins under good names and respectable
32:26
excuses. We bury them deep.
32:28
And because we bury them so deep, finding the troubler
32:31
requires actual excavation. We have to dig up the ground,
32:35
not just glance around the tent, Edwards notes a very common
32:39
human tendency. We strain at gnats but swallow
32:43
camels. I've heard that phrase.
32:45
Unpack it for us here. We are perfectly willing to
32:47
confess general sins. We will happily sit in the
32:50
church Pew or a small group and say I have a corrupt heart, I
32:54
struggle with sinful thoughts, I fall short of the glory of God.
32:58
That's straining at a gnat. Right.
33:00
It is easy to confess what everyone else struggles with.
33:02
It costs you nothing, but we swallow camels by completely
33:05
ignoring the specific allowed sins that are actually causing
33:08
the darkness. Things like active malice court,
33:10
a family member, a proud and arrogant behavior at work, a
33:13
violent pursuit of wealth, or a daily habit of evil speaking
33:17
against our neighbors. We gloss over the specific age
33:19
hand while lamenting our general vague condition.
33:21
Yes, exactly. What does this look like today?
33:24
How do we find a hidden serpent in our own bed when we are so
33:28
incredibly good at deceiving ourselves?
33:30
We rationalize our behavior so. Quickly, we really do.
33:33
We call our bitter resentment righteous indignation.
33:37
We call our covetous greed financial prudence.
33:40
We call our destructive gossip sharing prayer requests.
33:44
How do we actually cut through our own self deception?
33:47
You have to stop generalizing your confessions.
33:50
You have to ask yourself a very hard, very specific question.
33:54
What specific outward behavior, secret habit, or bitter attitude
33:58
am I justifying right now? That is a tough question to
34:01
answer honestly. It is what is the thing I refuse
34:04
to let go of, What is the behavior I am defending when my
34:07
conscience pricks me? You must treat that specific
34:10
thing like a venomous snake hiding under your pillow.
34:13
The text uses that imagery. A Viper under the pillow.
34:16
If you found a Viper under your head that had been secretly
34:18
biting you while you slept, infecting you with poison and
34:20
making you sick, you would not negotiate with it.
34:23
You would not call it by a pleasant.
34:24
Name. You'd kill it immediately.
34:26
You would destroy it with intense indignation.
34:28
You would root it out completely.
34:30
You must bring that same ruthless, unsparing scrutiny to
34:33
your own life. Do not bribe your conscience.
34:36
Dig up the floor of the tent, find the specific A Chan, pull
34:39
it out into the light and bring it to the valley of a core.
34:43
Is a heavy charge, but it is the only way to the door of hope.
34:46
We have covered an immense amount of ground today, tracing
34:49
this blueprint from the wilderness of Hosea to the
34:52
Valley of Achor, through the Red Sea and into the dark nights of
34:55
the soul that every believer faces.
34:57
It's been quite a process to walk through.
34:59
It has. We have seen that God is not a
35:01
God of cheap comfort, but a God of severe rescuing mercies.
35:06
I wanted to leave you, the listener, with a closing
35:08
consideration that builds on everything we have discussed
35:11
today. What if the very spiritual
35:13
dryness or anxiety you were desperately trying to medicate
35:16
away with podcasts, books, or constant distraction is actually
35:21
God's customized, loving invitation to the wilderness?
35:24
That's a challenging thought. What if your current lack of
35:27
peace isn't a malfunction in the system, but the exact
35:30
prerequisite for the greatest joy you have ever known?
35:33
Waiting just on the other side of radical honesty?
35:36
Dig up the tent. Find the troubler.
35:38
Let the Valley of Achor become your door of hope.
35:41
Thank you for joining us on this deep dive.