def –An intervening space that comes between two parts. A short dramatic piece, especially of a light or farcical character, formerly introduced between the parts or acts of a play.
Not too long ago I found myself upset, frustrated, and out of sorts. I’m not much of one for excessive verbal expression of myself, but the emotion inside wanted release and so I heard a verbiage of ranting and raving, coming from the inside of me to the outside. The unfortunate receiver defended and fought back with their frustration at me, but I didn’t intend for it to be an attack on them, I just needed someone to listen to my heart. I think this is what much of the book of Hosea is about, and I am glad God, that You had a prophet who heard and wrote down what You needed to say because Your heart needed to find expression too.
Either side of what I have come to know as the interludes I find in Hosea is chapter after chapter of the Israelites stumbling in their sin – their many sins are obstacles, tripping them up, hindering them from a relationship with You. It mostly reads like they don’t want to turn to You. They are arrogant and willful in their disobedience (Hosea 5:5, NIV). They have voluntarily hardened their hearts to You. They have known You but have made the choice to turn away. And when I read that “they couldn’t return to You” (Hosea 5:4, MSG). “Their sinful deeds would not permit them” (Hosea 5:4, NIV), and I consider the ruin and lostness of humanity, I sense the tension between our free will and our inability to return to You. Perhaps our inability makes us arrogant. Perhaps it makes us more willfully disobedient. I can’t help it so I’ll just do it anyway. Perhaps our rebellious attitude is just further evidence that we cannot turn from our sin without Your enabling. That it is so great and so thorough, that only a Lover with Perfect Love, and a radical Salvation from it – in order to destroy its power over us – is what can enable us to have a change in free-will, desire, and ability to turn to You. But this is all burdensome to the reader. It’s hard to hear.
In Hosea, I hear the tensions of justice and love. How painful must it be to live with an equal balance of these. You are both just and love. Justice wants to make wrongs right. For the victim to be acknowledged and compensated. For the falsely accused to have retribution and their reputation and name cleared. For evil to be punished. For justice! Love separates the crime and the sinfulness from the offender – and sees the person. Love sees through the exterior to the heart that has been ruined by sin, and love longs to heal and restore, to forgive, to bring close and to show intimacy. How do you balance these two, God? Is it part of the pain You feel towards humanity?
Yet throughout the book of Hosea, come the intervening spaces of a gracious God. You speak of heartache, You reveal our ruin, You talk of Your anger and judgment, and in between all of these, You stop –
An interlude is generally light in nature, according to its definition. The book of Hosea would’ve been heavy and somber for the people of Israel to hear. If they had the heart to hear it, the moments of interlude which were light in comparison, leaked of Your love and faithfulness to this people, and would’ve provided them a sense of relief, alleviating the distress of Your charge against them, abruptly changing the mood, reducing the intensity of it all.
Traditionally in a play, the word interlude was not only light, but it was also farcical in nature, meaning ludicrous or absurd. I can’t help but think how ludicrous and absurd Your love is for humanity. It is clearly shown in the story of Hosea, just how beyond reason and contrary to all common sense it is that You keep on loving despite the vile acts, the prostitution with other lovers over You, the rejection of Yourself, the complete ruin that we are. Your love just keeps on loving. The interludes here should’ve caused Israel, should cause us, to shake our heads in wonder at the marvel of it, and our hearts to turn in acknowledgment and gratitude to You.
We see these interludes –
In Hosea 1:9-10 “…In the place where it was said to them, “You are not my people”, they will be called ‘sons of the living God’”.
In Hosea 2, we see a change in the play-like script of a heart-hurt God where though You are angry, Your love and grace for this people is abruptly changed to desire for her again.
In Hosea 6:1-3, is the interlude where Hosea who calls Your people to return, reminds them of Your graciousness. He will heal…He will bind up our wounds…He will revive us…He will restore us…He will invite us to live in His presence…He will appear…He will come to us…He will refresh and fill and satisfy.
In Hosea 11:8, following several chapters of You speaking of Israel’s utter ruin, Your heart leaks with longing for them “How can I give you up…? How can I hand you over…? …all My compassion is aroused”.
In Hosea 11:4, Your final words to this people, “I will heal their waywardness and love them freely”.
How sweet are Your amazing interludes? It is almost as if You can hardly bear to speak of anger and judgment without feeling compelled to inject often Your “yet” (this is how it was, but this is how it will be) to humanity – the grace, the love, the desire, the longing for us.
One reply on “Interlude…”
I like the way God’s interlude for me is ‘ludicrous’. I need that.