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Heaven’s Nurse Children (Hosea 11:3) | Charles Spurgeon · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to Reformed thinking. Today we have a deep dive that I
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think it's going to really catch you off guard in the best way
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possible, being historical text by the 19th century preacher
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Charles Spurgeon. Yeah, it's a fascinating 1.
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It really is. It's a sermon titled Heaven's
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Nurse Children, and it's based on just a single short verse
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from the ancient prophets, Hosea, Chapter 11, verse 3.
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And the reason we are doing this deep dive is because it gives us
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this diagnostic landscape of the human soul that feels entirely
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counterintuitive to how we normally categorize divine
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authority. Yeah, I mean, we are pulling
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this from Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Volume 17 for
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those keeping track. But what's so striking here is
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that the text takes all our standard assumptions about how
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the creator interacts with humanity and and it just flips
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them upside down totally. And you have to remember, the
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book of Hosea itself is already a pretty shocking piece of
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literature. I mean, the process is
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instructed to marry a woman who will be unfaithful to.
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Him we Gomer. Yeah, Gomer.
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So he's living out this agonizing, breathing metaphor
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for God's relationship with a wayward people.
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But then against that backdrop of, you know, spiritual adultery
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and judgement, Chapter 11 shifts into this entirely different
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tone. It's wild.
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Because when most people imagine the creator of the universe, you
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know the imagery that comes to mind is usually massive, right?
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Distant. Intimidating.
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Oh for sure, very detached. Yeah, like a cosmic watchmaker
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completely detached from the tiny little springs and gears he
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set into motion. Or maybe we picture a judge in a
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towering courtroom, or a king leading an army.
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The metaphors are always built around sheer scale and absolute
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authority. Which is what makes Hosea Levin
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so jarring, because it brings a radically different picture
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right into the foreground. Instead of a distant deity or
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this towering judge, the text presents the creator of the
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cosmos acting as a tender nurse. A nurse, Yeah.
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We're talking about a very domestic, intimate scene here, a
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nurse holding a wobbly, stumbling toddler by the arms,
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patiently teaching them how to walk.
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Which is such a crazy visual. I taught Ephraim also to go
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taking them by their arms. That is the phrase Spurgeon
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locks onto here. Ephraim being, you know, poetic
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name for the nation of Israel, right?
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And it is this vivid image of divine condescension, but not
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not in a patronizing way. Like sneering down at them.
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No, no, it's stooping down to the level of the week.
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It's like getting down on your knees on the living room rug so
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you were right at eye level with the child.
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It's so personal. So the progression of our
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discussion today, we're going to follow Spurgeon's thematic
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outline here. Which is brilliant, by the way.
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It is. We will start way back in the
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ancient cosmic decrees of electing grace.
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Then we will move through the historical exodus of Israel out
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of Egypt, kind of watching how this divine nursing played out
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on a national scale. Yeah.
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And finally, we will look at the intensely personal day-to-day
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stumbles of the individual believer.
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So bring it right down to you, the listener.
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So to start, Spurgeon calls the opening of Hosea 11A casket
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unspeakably precious. Like a jewelry box?
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Like a jewelry box. Yeah.
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He argues that every single line in the chapter is a rare jewel,
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and they're all linked together in this chain of mercies.
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But the very first jewel he pulls out of this box is ancient
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Sovereign electing love. The text says when Israel was a
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child then I loved him. Yes, and he calls this electing
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love, the mother of mercies. He compares it to the golden
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sanded river that had its rise in Eden, right?
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Branching off into many streams to water the entire garden.
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Because before you can even discuss the daily care of the
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nurse, you have to establish the origin of the relationship
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itself. Right.
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Where did it come? From exactly.
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God chose Israel not because there were some massive
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impressive empire. I mean he chose them when they
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were a little despised and literally enslaved in Egypt.
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Makes me think about an underground spring.
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Oh, sure. Like you might be walking
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through a really dry, arid valley and suddenly you come
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across a pool of crystal Clearwater bubbling up to the
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surface. And that visible water is the
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adoption, the sunship, the daily provision we actually experience
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and feel. But the the only reason that
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pool exists on the surface at all is because of the hidden
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underground spring. It's a source.
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Yeah, the massive aquifer of water beneath the rock that has
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been there for centuries, completely out of sight.
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That is a great way to look at it.
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That underlying aquifer is electing grace.
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It's this differentiating free grace that wrote the name of
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Israel upon Jehovah's heart long before they ever took a single
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step, and that changes the entire dynamic of the
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relationship. Well, let me ask you this then.
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How does grasping that ancient electing love change the way you
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view your current standing? Like for the listener right now,
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does knowing about that underground aquifer eliminate
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the anxiety of having to constantly earn that affection?
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I mean, it has to, right? Think about it.
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If the affection was based on performance.
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If God only loved Israel, once they proved they could walk
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perfectly without stumbling, the relationship would be incredibly
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fragile. You'd be terrified all the time.
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You would wake up every single day terrified that one misstep
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would sever the bond completely. But if the love predates the
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performance, if it was established when you were
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helpless, the foundation is completely secure.
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Because the choice was made when the child was entirely
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incapable. Yes, the affection does not
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fluctuate based on the daily success or failure of a toddler
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who's just learning to walk. And Spurgeon uses this wild
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contrast to explain the dignity of this adoption.
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I love this part, he says. Becoming a child of God is a
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dignity to which the descent of an imperial Prince bears no more
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comparison than a spark in the Tinder to the sun and the
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heavens. The scale of that comparison is
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just massive. Right, a spark in the Tinder.
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Because a spark in the Tinder is entirely dependent on external
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friction. Right, you strike a Flint.
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Yeah, and it glows for a fraction of a second, consumes
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its tiny little fuel source and vanishes.
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So human royalty, earthly status, the most magnificent
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emperor you can think of, They are momentary.
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They're sparks. But the sun.
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The sun in the heavens is a massive, self-sustaining
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inferno, burning for millennia. The gap between the greatest
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human king and the poorest, most stumbling child of God is wider
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than the gap between that tiny spark and the budding sun.
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That is so encouraging. It elevates human dust and ashes
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above the angels. I mean, the angels are described
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as servants, as messengers, but humans who were actually
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enslaved to sin are brought in as sons and heirs.
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And because we are adopted, you know, because that underground
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spring of love is there, we are not left in bondage.
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The decree of love leads directly into action.
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Right, the next phrase. Yeah, the text in Hosea says I
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called my son out of Egypt. Now, Spurgeon is careful to
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point out that this is not a universal generic invitation.
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It's not a flyer on a bulletin board, no.
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It is not God standing at the border of Egypt with a
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megaphone, just hoping some of the slaves decide to wander out
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on their own. He calls it a persuasive,
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convincing, conquering call. Which is where people usually
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start to push back. Right, because conquering sounds
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hostile. It sounds like a violation of
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the human will. Like divine kidnapping?
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Yeah, divine kidnapping are humans dragged out of their sin,
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kicking and screaming against their own desires.
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And Spurgeon uses very precise language here to address that
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exact pushback. He says there is no violence
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done to the will. So no kidnapping.
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No kidnapping. The will is not broken or
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bypassed. The will is set free, and then
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it is acted upon by a graciously enlightened understanding.
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OK, consider a rescue operation on a freezing mountain.
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Let's say you're suffering from severe hypothermia, which which
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causes confusion. Right, you get delirious.
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Yeah, you actually think you were warm, so you were taking
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off your coat and burrowing into the snow.
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You're actively choosing to freeze to death.
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Your will is dictating that you stay in the snow.
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You want to be there. So rescue helicopter lands.
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Now if the medics just shout out the door, hey, we're leaving,
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come on in, you will ignore them.
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Because your will is corrupted by the cold.
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Right. They have to come out, wrap you
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in a thermal blanket, and administer warm oxygen.
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As that warmth hits your brain, the confusion clear.
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The Enlightenment. Yes, you realize you are
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freezing. You realize the helicopter is
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safety. So they performed a medical
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intervention that enlightened your understanding, and as a
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result, you willingly and eagerly climbed into the
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helicopter. You weren't dragged.
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That's a perfect analogy. Spurgeon actually uses the story
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of Joseph in the Book of Genesis for this.
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Oh, right, with Jacob. Yeah, Joseph is the Prime
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Minister of Egypt and he wants his elderly father Jacob to come
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down from the land of Canaan to survive the famine.
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So he sends a call. He sends a call, but Jacob is an
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old man. He cannot physically make that
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brutal desert journey on his own.
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The call alone would be frustrating.
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It would just make him sad. But Joseph sends wagons.
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The call is accompanied by the means to obey the call.
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Oh, I love that. The wagons.
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Spurgeon notes it was not only an entreating call, but an
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enabling call. When Jacob saw the wagons, his
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spirit revived. He wanted to go and now he
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actually had the strength to go. Because God does not drive his
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people out of Egypt with a whip, He leads them out like sheep.
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Spurgeon points out that God supplied the grace to eat the
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Paschal lamb, the strength to strike the blood on the
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doorposts, and the resolve to leave the land of leeks, garlic
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and onions. Which was a miracle in itself,
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honestly. The Israelites were brutalized
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slaves. They were making bricks without
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straw, getting whipped daily, but their natural inclination
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was to cling to the familiar misery of Egypt because the food
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was recognizable. Instead of stepping out into the
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freedom of the unknown. Yeah, and don't we do that?
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We constantly prefer a familiar dysfunction over a terrifying
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freedom. So this enabling call these
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wagons of grace. They provide the enlightened
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understanding to finally let go of the leeks and onions and just
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walk out. But then once they're out of
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Egypt, the rescue people need to be sustained like they are free,
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but they are damaged. Deeply damaged.
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So God's care expands beyond just holding a child's arms.
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He becomes Jehovah Rophi, the Lord who heals.
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Spurgeon points out that we do not just have weakness that
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needs support or, you know, ignorance that needs tutoring.
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We have deep seated dangerous diseases that need actual
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medicine. He calls it a heavenly pharmacy,
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right? He does.
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He says we have a sickness for every day of the year.
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But the beloved physician has a remedy for every complaint.
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He is addressing the reality of ongoing spiritual infirmity
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here. We aren't brought out of Egypt
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in a state of sudden, flawless perfection.
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We wish we were. Oh, definitely, But we carry the
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injuries of our slavery with us right into the wilderness.
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And Spurgeon also uses this imagery of removing a heavy
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yoke. He says God is to them as they
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that take off the yolk on their jaws like oxen who are finally
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allowed to rest. Right with the bearing rain
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loosen so they can stand at ease and eat substantial meat.
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A bearing rain forces an animal's head up, preventing it
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from lowering its neck to rest or eat comfortably.
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It's terrible, and God removes that artificial strain.
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But this brings up an interesting critique Spurgeon
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makes about his own day. Oh, the pastoral critique.
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Yeah, he notes that some under shepherds, pastors and teachers
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are afraid of laying too much doctrinal food before the
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people. They want to keep the diet
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light. There is a massive fear of over
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feeding believers with robust heavy theology.
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Why do you think that is? Why the reluctance to teach the
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deep stuff? I think the assumption is that
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people are tired, you know they had a hard week at work, they
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just need a quick motivational thought, maybe 5 practical tips
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for a better life and an uplifting song.
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Right? The fear is that if you give
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them heavy doctrine, you will overwhelm them or drive them
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away. But Spurgeon pushes back on that
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hard. He does.
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He says that fear comes from a fundamental misunderstanding of
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what truth actually does to the soul.
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Spurgeon says truth never surfeits, though it always
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satisfies. Surfeits meaning.
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To surfeit means to make someone sick from overindulgence.
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So you can eat too much physical meat and feel nauseous,
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obviously, but you cannot consume too much divine truth
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and become spiritually sick. So treating people like they can
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only handle superficial motivation is actually treating
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them like they are fragile. Yes, rather than treating them
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like starving adults who need genuine sustenance.
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And to illustrate the sheer volume of grace God provides,
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Spurgeon references this classical myth, the Greek myth
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of the giants stacking Mount Pelion upon Mount ASA in an
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attempt to reach heaven. But he flips it.
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He flips it. He says God piles blessing
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mountain upon mountain, Palean upon ASA, so that believers can
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climb out of the depths of their distress.
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It's a super abundance of fine wheat, marrow and fatness.
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The doctrines of the Word are substantial meat for hungry
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souls. So the very thing some leaders
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withhold this deep complex theological truth, is the exact
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medicine the beloved physician prescribed to heal those deep
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seated diseases. It is but, and this is a crucial
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but, while there is a super abundance of truth available,
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God administers it with incredible pastoral wisdom.
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What do you mean? Well when Israel walked out of
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Egypt they were not a well regulated state.
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Spurgeon calls them a mob of slaves unfit for self
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government. A mob of slaves?
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That's blunt. But true, they had been
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institutionalized for generations.
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They did not know how to manage freedom, how to organize
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society, or how to trust an unseen God.
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So God chooses Moses as their leader.
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Not a military dictator, not a fiery revolutionary with an axe,
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but Moses, who the text calls the meekest man on the face of
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the earth. Because dealing with children of
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60 requires immense patience. Children of 60, I love that
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phrase. You can teach a six year old
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child because their ignorance is natural, right?
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It's innocent, but teaching a 60 year old adult who acts like a
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toddler, someone who is set in their ways, prone to
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complaining, demanding and fearful, that requires a
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completely different level of forbearance.
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God knows this mob is utterly terrified of their old
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taskmasters. Like they hear the rattling of
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the war Chariots at the Red Sea and they just panic.
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They taught her like babes ready to fall, Spurgeon says.
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But God doesn't just tell them to be brave.
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He doesn't just say buck up. He physically slays their old
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fears. He uses the plagues to break
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Pharaoh's power, and he uses the Red Sea to drown the Egyptian
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army right in front of their eyes.
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It is a decisive, visible destruction of the stumbling
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block. And later, before they enter
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Canaan, God sends Hornets and pestilence ahead of them to
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weaken their enemies. Right, because he knows their
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faith is in its infancy. He knows if they face the full
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strength of the Canaanites immediately they will break.
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He is gently persuading them to trust him.
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It's like think of the Wilderness Years as a massive
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kindergarten classroom full of tangible visual aids.
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Visual. AIDS, Yeah.
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When you walk into a kindergarten, you see bright
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colors, massive blocks, felt boards, physical objects you can
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touch. You do not hand a kindergartener
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A dense textbook on string theory.
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You give them an apple and an advocate to teach the math.
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That's a great analogy. The symbolic worship of the
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Angel Israelites was a religious childhood.
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I mean, they saw the morning and evening lamb sacrifice.
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They ate the physical mana. They drank water that literally
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leaped from a rock. Sensory, Entirely sensory.
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They saw the pillar of fire at night.
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They saw the hibachist with the glistening Urim and Thummim on
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his chest. It was entirely A sensory
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religion because they were not capable of reading the plain
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sense of spiritual truth yet. They needed the pictures in
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their books. Exactly.
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Spurgeon calls these symbols the Horn books of infancy.
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What's a horn book? A horn book was this wooden
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paddle used back in the day with the alphabet and basic prayers
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written on it, covered by a thin layer of transparent animal horn
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to protect it from sticky fingers.
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Oh, like a toddler's board book today?
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Yes. It was the absolute basic primer
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for a child learning to read. So Spurgeon levels this massive
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critique at the religious impulses of his day, which
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honestly applies to ours as well.
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Oh, absolutely. He points out that some
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believers constantly crave these physical signs.
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They want the ornate robes, the burning incense, the physical
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manifestations, the guaranteed visible miracles.
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He says they are like big babies crying to get their horn books
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back when they have already been given the clear, open
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manifestation of the Holy Spirit Spirit in the person of Christ.
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We aren't in the religious childhood of the wilderness
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anymore. No, we are called to spiritual
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worship. We walk by faith, not by sight.
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It's like someone graduating with a literature degree but
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demanding their parents read the Blue Them board book with a
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fuzzy Bunny on the cover because it feels safer.
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That's spot on. It's a regression.
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God provided the sensory kindergarten because it was
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necessary for a mob of slaves learning to walk, but the goal
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was always to grow them up. The shift from sensory religion
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to spiritual worship is the mark of maturity.
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And just as God physically held up the nation of Israel with
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those visual aids and protective miracles, He intimately manages
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the spiritual physical therapy of every individual believer
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today. The physical therapy of faith.
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Yes, Spurgeon takes the nurse metaphor and applies it directly
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to the individual here. And he breaks it down into
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specific steps, right? Right.
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First, the nurse puts her hands out and lifts the child from the
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dust before the child even thinks of walking.
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That's the initial uplifting We were groveling in the dust,
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completely passive, and the divine power of the Holy Spirit
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exerted itself upon us to stand us upright.
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Then second, the nurse allows slips and bruises to teach the
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child weakness. A baby has to tumble a few times
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to learn balance. Makes sense?
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3rd She regulates exertion by giving only small promises to
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grasp. At 1st and 4th she uses pleasant
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things to tempt the child to walk further.
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I really want to look at that Third Point, regulating
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exertion. Spurgeon points out that a wise
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nurse doesn't let the child put too much weight on his legs at
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first because the bones and ligaments are tender.
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If you force a toddler to walk a mile, you will cause lasting
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injury. But this kind of connects back
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to the fear of overfeeding we discussed earlier, doesn't it?
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Albeit with a nuanced difference.
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Before we said truth satisfies and does not sicken.
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But here a Spurgeon issues a strong warning against
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overloading young converts with deep doctrines.
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He mentions predestination or union with Christ specifically.
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Right. So if God has all truth, and all
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truth is good, why does he hide some of it from young believers?
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Think about it like this, if you find someone who has been
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famished in a desert for weeks and you bring them to a massive
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banquet buffet, you do not let them eat 5 plates of heavy meats
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and rich desserts immediately. Right, they get violently I'll.
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The food is entirely good, but their stomach will reject it.
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The shock to their system could literally kill them.
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You give them broth, you give them easily digestible nutrients
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slowly. More like if someone has been
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trapped in a pitch black cave, you do not pull them out and
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stare them directly into the midday sun.
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They'd be blinded. Yeah, you cover their eyes, you
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let the ambient light filter in slowly, or their optic nerves
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will be agonizingly overwhelmed. That's it, Spurgeon says.
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Did we know at the 1st? All we shall know hereafter.
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We should be so overwhelmed with the abundance of the revelation
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that we should not be able to endure it.
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God lets the light in by degrees.
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He only gives a trembling new believer a a few simple promises
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to hold onto. Something like Whosoever calls
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upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
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Which is a small, sturdy chair for a toddler to pull themselves
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up on. You don't hand the toddler a
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complex theological treatise on the mechanics of the hypostatic
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union. No, you give them the clear,
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solid truth of a Savior who welcomes sinners, Spurgeon says.
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God tempers the wind to the shorn lamb.
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Well, he holds the believer under the arms so they aren't
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strained by trials meant for mature Knights of the cross.
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A toddler. Is not sent onto a desperate
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battlefield. They are kept in the nursery
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until they build strength. But a crucial part of building
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that strength involves the necessity of weakness, right The
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slips and bruises. Yes, Spurgeon makes this really
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sharp observation about human nature.
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He says we are never wise until we discover that we are fools.
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We are never strong until we confess that we are weak.
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It's the paradox of the Gospel. Those broken resolutions, those
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moments where we try to walk in our own natural self reliant
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strength and fail miserably, those are the necessary tumbles
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the Heavenly Father allows them because they cure us of our
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pride. But the metaphor of the human
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nurse and the toddler starts to break down a bit here, because
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the human nurse has a relatively straightforward task with a
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willing toddler. God faces unique, stubborn
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disadvantages when teaching us to walk.
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And this brings us to what Sperdin calls the hereditary
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disease of trusting the flesh. Because when you watch a human
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toddler, their primary motivation is a desperate desire
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to walk. Yeah, they want to be like the
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big kids. They watch the adults and they
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want to mimic them. They pull up on the coffee
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table, they let go, they fall, they cry, and then they
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immediately try again. They are eager participants in
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the process. But believers have a double task
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to overcome. We don't just have to learn to
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walk, we have to unlearn terrible walking habits.
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Yes, we already have an established way of navigating
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the world based on our own strength, our own pride, and our
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own resources. So the task of infinite mercy
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isn't just planting a new tree, but cutting down the old one and
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rooting it up. We are completely blown out with
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self-sufficiency. A toddler never asks the nurse
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for a pair of stilts, right? The toddler trusts the nurse's
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arms. We, on the other hand, are
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constantly seeking crutches. Resting on an arm of flesh is
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what Spudgeon calls the hereditary disease of God's
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people. We are terrified of the simple
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walk of faith, leaning alone upon the invisible.
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It goes against our nature. Think about learning to swim.
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The text explicitly mentions people going into the sea to
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learn to swim, but refusing to take their feet off the bottom
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of the ocean floor. I've seen people do this.
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Right. You can paddle your arms all you
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want. You can put your face in the
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water and blow bubbles, but as long as your toes are gripping
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the sand, you are not swimming. You are standing in the water
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pretending you cannot stand and swim at the same time.
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Because the buoyancy of the water will only hold you up if
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you actually surrender your weight to it.
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As long as you are keeping 1 foot on the bottom as a backup
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plan, you aren't trusting the water, you are trusting the
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sand. So for you listening, what are
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your golden calves? What are the crutches that
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prevent you from the pure walk of faith?
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Spurgeon lists common ones. He says we want a favorite child
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to lean on, a husband, a wife, a friend.
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We lean on our own abilities, our bank accounts, our social
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status, anything we can see and handle.
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And he actually takes it to an institutional level, which is
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fascinating. He points out how entire masses
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of the Christian Church prefer an adulterous alliance with the
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state rather than relying on the faithfulness of God.
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Wow, adulterous alliance. Yeah, they are afraid to trust
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God with the maintenance of their ministers and the support
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of their worship, so they look to political power or government
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funding as their crutch. Because they want the visible
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security of earthly authority, trusting the invisible stream of
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God's abundant faithfulness just feels too risky to them.
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We want signs. We want evidences.
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We want guaranteed outcomes. We want political leverage.
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We want anything other than resting on the covenant promise
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of a faithful God. We demand our stilts.
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You do, but. If we are the stubborn, if we
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constantly reach for crutches, if we insist on keeping our feet
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on the sand, and if we continually tumble back into our
23:54
old self reliant habits, why doesn't the divine nerve simply
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give up? That's the big question.
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Because a human nurse gets paid by the hour if the patient is
24:04
entirely uncooperative, Eventually the physical
24:06
therapist discharges them. They're right in the chart.
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Patient refuses to comply and they move on to someone who
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actually wants to heal. Why does God keep holding our
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arms? Because the reason for God's
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endless patience is relational. We aren't just patients in a
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divine clinic. We are still His children.
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And Spurgeon tells a story that captures this dynamic perfectly.
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The mother of the criminal. Yes, he talks about sitting at a
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table and listening to a mother expatiating about her son.
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She is praising him, seeing all these wonderful qualities in him
24:37
and someone leans over to Spurgeon and whispers Wish that
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woman would be quiet. Her son was transported.
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He was a terrible. Criminal transported, meaning he
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was convicted of a severe crime and shipped off to a penal
24:48
colony, right? So he was, by society standards,
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a complete failure. But when Spurgeon brings this up
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to the mother later, her response is striking.
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She says if there's nobody else to speak up for him, his mother
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always will. She loved him so much that she
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focused entirely on whatever was hopeful in him.
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And Spurgeon applies this stubborn parental defense to
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God. He says our blessed God does not
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bring into the foreground what we are so much as what He means
25:16
to make us. God says their sins and their
25:19
iniquities will I remember no more forever.
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God actively hides our flaws. Which reminds me of that
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historical reference Spurgeon uses about a Pels painting
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Alexander the Great. Oh, the portrait, right?
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Alexander had a massive, ugly scar on his face from a battle.
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When the artist painted his portrait.
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He didn't want to paint the scar, but he couldn't lie and
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paint a perfectly smooth face. So Apelli's painted Alexander,
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resting his head on his hand with his fingers suddenly
25:47
covering the scar. Spurgeon says the Holy Spirit
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does this with our flawed attempts at righteousness.
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He points to the story of Sarah in the book of Genesis.
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What did she? Do again.
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Well, Sarah laughs and disbelief at God's promise and then
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literally lies about it. But when the New Testament looks
26:03
back at Sarah, the Holy Spirit does not highlight the lie.
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The Spirit highlights the fact that she respectfully called her
26:09
husband Abraham Lord. So God accepts her poor
26:13
faltering service by placing his finger over the scar of her
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disbelief. Yes, God focuses on the hopeful
26:19
elements. He accepts our limping,
26:21
stumbling walk because He is looking at us through the lens
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of Christ. He sees us as we shall be when
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we bear the image of the heavenly.
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And this realization of God's fatherhood is an intensely
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practical anger in times of suffering.
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Spurgeon actually shares a deeply personal anecdote right
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at the end of his sermon. About his gout.
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Yeah, he talks about a time when he was suffering from extreme
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physical agony. Spurgeon suffered terribly from
26:44
gout throughout his life, causing pain so severe he could
26:47
not bear it without crying out. The racking pain is so intense
26:51
that he asks everyone to leave his room.
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He just wants to be alone. And he prays, but he doesn't
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pray a polished formal theological prayer.
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He peeds with God based purely on his character as a father.
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He says Thou art my father and I am thy child, and thou as a
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father are tender and full of mercy.
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I could not bear to see my child suffer as thou makest me suffer,
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and if I saw him tormented as I am now, I would do what I could
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to help him. Wilt thou hide thy face from me,
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my father? He calls it a Luther like
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prayer, holding God to his revealed character.
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If you are a father, show yourself a father.
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He's essentially telling God my own human parental instincts
27:28
would not let my child suffer like this without offering
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comfort. You are infinitely more merciful
27:33
than I am, so please help me. And Spurgeon testifies that
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faith mastered the pain by laying hold of God in his
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revealed character. The pain subsided, the childlike
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appeal father help me rising up from the darkest, weakest moment
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was heard because the relationship is firm.
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A mother cannot forget her nursing child, and God will not
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forget His people. He has their names engraved on
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the palms of his hands. It reframes the entire process.
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Every stumble, every removed crutch, every piece of divine
28:04
physical therapy is administered by hands that are permanently
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scarred with your name. Which brings us right back to
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that opening image from Hosea Chapter 11.
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The arms of God holding the stumbling believer.
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We started at the ancient Riverhead, the underground
28:17
aquifer of sovereign electing grace that guarantees the love
28:20
was there before we ever took a single step.
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We watched those enabling wagons of salvation roll into Egypt,
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providing the enlightened understanding to willingly leave
28:29
our bondage behind. We saw the beloved physician
28:32
applying heavenly pharmacy to our deep seated diseases and the
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meek tutor guiding a mob of 60 year old children through a
28:38
sensory kindergarten in the wilderness.
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And we examine the gentle, regulated physical therapy of
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our daily faith, where God continually works to wean us off
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our worldly stilts and our hereditary reliance on the
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flesh. Covering our scars with his
28:52
finger, just as a stubborn parent defends their child.
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I want to leave you, the listener, with a final thought
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to Mull over on your own. This week we spent a lot of time
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discussing how God regulates every single stumble to teach us
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our own weakness, and how we stubbornly cling to our
29:07
crutches. That what if the ultimate goal
29:10
of the universe isn't a flawless, independent
29:12
performance on our part, but the highest demonstration of Divine
29:15
Mercy? What if?
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If God's glory is most vividly seen in his stooping, in his
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nursing, and in His constant upholding of the week, perhaps
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our eternal state won't be one of absolute, self-sustaining
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perfection. What if eternity involves a
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perpetual joyful dependence on the Father who never stops
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holding our arms?