Hosea 7:2 And they consider not in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness: now their own doings have beset them about: they are before my face
Do you have any problems today? What is his name? Maybe you have a problem that is a person. Maybe you have a problem that is a circumstance. What is the cause and cure for that problem? Throughout history the cures for problems have sometimes been worse than the problems themselves. Famously, I think about George Washington who was cured to death. Literally, the cure helped kill him. He was bled and that was obviously not the answer to his illness.
Where do your problems come from and where do your problems turn you? Where are they from in the first place? In Hosea 7:2 God is speaking through Hosea to His rebellious people, “And they consider not in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness: now their own doings have beset them about: they are before my face.” So, they had problems, but their problems were of themselves. Their sin was their problem. Now, there were obvious problems that were to come, economic, political, and so on, but those weren’t the real problems. Those were simply the pain that came because of the problem. You see, we don’t solve problems until we acknowledge the cause and the cure.
There is a difference between relief and resolution. Often, when we have a problem, we just want relief. We don’t want to resolve the problem; we just want relief. In Israel’s case, the relief for their problem was Egypt. They thought, “Hey, Egypt can take care of us. They can provide for us and protect us.” Resolving the problem would have been going to God Himself.
Hosea 8:13 says, “They shall return to Egypt,” meaning they were going to return to captivity. They had literally been freed from Egypt historically, but now they were going back to slavery again because they did not recognize that the problem was not economic, but their relationship with God. Hosea 8:14 continues, “For Israel hath forgotten his Maker.”
So, there is a difference between relief and resolution, between merely getting relief from your pain and having a cure for your problem. Pain is not the problem. Here is a guy who has a toothache. That toothache belies something much more significant, and that is the tooth may have a cavity. He is not thinking about the cavity; he is thinking about the pain. So, he takes a pain reliever to make the pain go away, but the cavity continues to gnaw at his tooth.
So many times, pain is not the problem, but it points to the problem. Israel’s problem was not economic; it was their relationship to God. We want answers, but God wants us. Sometimes we want things that can make problems go away, but they can’t solve them. I think about money. Money is a wonderful servant but an awful tyrant. Yesterday, I saw [although I didn’t read it] an article of two stars who had been married and are now divorced. There is quite a contentious thing going on, and they are trying to punish each other financially. Their money can make problems, but it can’t solve the problem they have.
Now, money may not be your thing right now. It might be security or something else. We all want a life that is not full of pain, but it is good to remember that we cannot solve our problems until we acknowledge their cause and their cure. Many times, sin is the cause of our problems, and a return to God is certainly the cure.